A few days on holiday at home means stories at breakfast, lunch, dinner & bedtime, luckily we currently have a good stash from the library which we are really enjoying

Zoe and Beans, The Magic Hoop by Chloe & Mick – this is the first story we’ve read featuring Zoe & Beans and we love it. A fun tale of a girl, her dog & a magic hula hoop which when she finally persuades her dog to jump through transforms him into different animals. The dog ends up as an elephant who get stuck so is put on a diet, reminding me of a Winnie the pooh story. Bryn liked hearing the list of things not allowed to be eaten & pretending to eat them all, probably as so many contain chocolate. While I liked the typography in the book with the emphasis on some words either in size or in bold

Egg by Alex T. Smith – a stylish book and a tale with a twist at the end. A fox entertains an egg for an evening with plans to eat it for breakfast but is in for a nasty shock. Bryn loves the climax of the story probably as one of his favourite games for the last few months is pretending to crack out of an egg to be a range of animals including ferocious dragons, sweet kitten etc. I chose the book owing to the front page as I was intrigued to meet ‘Foxy DuBois’. I enjoyed the illustration with humour filled little touches such as the pattern on the wallpaper, pictures on the wall, ornate bed stand etc.

I Am The King written & illustrated by Leo Timmers– this is a story of a group of animals who on finding a crown wear it & proclaim themselves king. Each animal puts on the crown to explain why they would make the perfect king until it is finally returned to the original King of the Animals, who unlike the others is silent. The story has an eclectic mix of animals which includes a goat & flamingo each with their very own voice & character. The illustrations are bold in colour and are solely of the animals, every double spread has a different background colour. It provides a really intense colour hit, with the consistency of the shining gold crown on each page.

Dexter Bexley and the Big Blue Beastie on the Road by Joel Stewart – a delightful adventure of a boy and his beastie who rescue a princess, meet up with a dragon, become a band of wandering minstrels while tooting their horns. The illustrations are charming & subtle, perfectly suiting this modern fairy tale. We’ve visited a few castles this summer hence tales including dragons & knights have been very popular. I was therefore particulary thankful to read this non typical knights tale where friendships are made as well as lot & lots of tooting.