Being fans of the Hubble Bubble picture books we were really pleased to get the chance to review these new longer stories in Hubble Bubble, The Glorious Granny Bake Off. This book has 3 stories involving Pandora and her Granny all filled with mishap, mayhem & magic.

Its bright sunny cover was a great indication of the fun stories to come.

They are good stories to read aloud with stage whispers about Granny being a “witch” & scope for plenty of sound effects. I was really pleased that Bryn could read me one of the stories himself & it was great to see him focus on the pictures to help understand the story. I was worried that the language would be difficult but it proved to have just enough tricky words to make it a fun challenge.

For me the camaraderie of Pandora & her granny is what makes these stories charming. Bryn liked them because they made him laugh, his favourite was the last story involving a gardening competition, pink potion, hint of a dragon and a giant rabbit.

It was a 4 star hit

Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I was not asked to write this post, nor was I given any money for doing so, and the review represents my own honest opinion.

This year Bryn took part in a Readthon as part of the World Book Day celebrations. On the actual day his school had great fun with a Charlie & the Chocolate Factory themed day of activities which involved making peppermint creams, designing a chocolate factory, drama, dancing to the Oompa Loompa song & singing ‘Pure Imagination’, I was pretty envious of his day.

As for the Readathon Bryn worked his way through a good number of books over the 3 weeks

I’ve always loved picture books, as a kid I remember visiting the library & piling up lots of chapter books to take home and using the rest of the time to read through the boxes of picture books. As I got older I used my nieces & nephews birthday as an excuse to shop for picture books & now I have my own kids to indulge my obsession. On twitter I found a community of folk passionate about children’s literature which led me to discover this amazing sounding conference organised by The Federation of Children’s Book Group, Books and Beyond 11-13 April

Talks from amazing authors & illustrators such as Cressida Cowell, Meg Rosoff, Anthony Browne, Helen Oxenbury, Ruta Sepetys and Lauren Child to enthuse and inspire.

Check out The Federation of Children’s Book Group for all the details.

We are having another phase of Julia Donaldson books for bedtime at the moment, the current 3 regular requests are Stick Man, Jack & the Flumflum Tree and The Princess and the Wizard.

The rhyming nature of Stick Man means we rattle through it although as usual there’s is lots of detail in Axel Schefflers illustration to make us pause & study the pages. When the girl uses Stick Man as a Pooh stick Freya is keen to know where Winnie the Pooh is.

My favourite however is Jack & the Flumflum Tree, owing to the exquisite illustrations & the fun adventurous tale. Its great that the characters are a mix of gender & race making this a more accessible tale. Jack & his friend set off a mission to get a Flumflum luckily equipped with “granny’s bag” for the adventures they encounter, which include meeting sharks & a cheeky monkey.

The Princess & the Wizard is different to the other two in not following the familiar rhyming pattern & is also being a longer story. The princess, captured by the wizard is given the chance to escape by “changing her colour & changing her shape”. Her determination & quick thinking lead to her getting back to her party for a slice of cake. The two highlights of the book are the feisty heroine & the focus on colour, which Freya is currently enjoying learning about.

The book even inspired to make our own puppets, letting Freya take centre stage as Princess & casting her brother as the wicked wizard.

It’s National Library day tomorrow and I have blogged previously here & here exactly how important libraries are to me and my family.

Highlights of this year include:

Rhyme time & story events where the children show us how well behaved they can be, chat nicely to the library staff & get the chance to sing, listen to stories, dance, do sticking, colouring, making and generally have fun.

Reading the fantastic Fever Crumb & Mortal Engines series by Phillip Reeve. These were published a while ago so was nice the charge through the series over a couple of months.

Reading the dark but beautifully illustrated Tinder by Sally Gardner illustrated by David Roberts. This is a must have for my shelves.

Downloading emagazines & ebooks onto my iPad. I discovered this service at the start of our summer holiday which was perfect timing, it felt a real treat getting to browse through lots of glossy magazines that I normally feel guilty spending lots of money on.

The summer reading challenge was a great success for Bryn again. This time he was reading the books himself. He really enjoyed browsing the early reader shelves & fishing out new books to try, the Twisted Fairytale series was a huge hit.

Owen appreciated the Dr Who display of books & has rediscovered his fondness for Dr Who stories. We also borrowed ‘Dr Who: The Vault’ a book full of photos & information from the BBC archive which provided hours of entertainment for Bryn, Freya & Owen discussing ‘goodies & baddies’.

Drawing more inspiration from craft & art books leading to some actually finished projects including my first holiday comic.

We continue to use the libraries weekly & love the opportunities they provide.

After much screaming, bouncing & shouting the kids settled down to some reading before breakfast.

We looked at a book over breakfast & then after breakfast, guess what….

Now it’s coffee & snack time