Found by Salina Yooon

Bryn, Freya & I wrote this for the Guardian Childrens Books Family Reviews

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Freya gave this book 2 thumbs up and a smile, well deserved praise for this lovely book, which had us both feeling happy, a little worried & finally happy again.

A bear finds a lost toy bunny & sets out to find its owner covering the forest in ‘Found’ posters. As they become friends Bear soon discovers what he will lose once the bunny is found.

I really liked the black bold outlines of the illustrations & we were both swept away with the mood of the story depending on the expression on the bears face. The double page spread of ‘Lost’ posters provided plenty of humour for an older reader, Bryn especially liked the one with Peter Pan’s shadow.

This is a book we are very happy to have found.

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My Pop-Up City Atlas by Jonathan Litton and Stephen Waterhouse

Bryn & I wrote this for the Guardian Children’s Family Reviews

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My Pop Up City Atlas is a treasure trove of information focusing on cities across the world. Each double page spread looks at a themed group of cities such as coastal cities & religious cities. Aside from a pop-ups there are also flaps to lift & wheels to turn.

Our first reading of the books was to race through admiring the pop ups & to uncover all the flaps. We then moved onto the text which is full of bite sized interesting facts, like the city with the most bridges or the city with the most billionaires, accompanied with bright colourful illustration. ‘A fun way to learn’ Bryn declared.

We all enjoyed this introduction to some marvellous cities.

Barbapapa’s New House by Annette Tison & Talus Taylor

Bryn, Freya & I wrote this for Guardian children’s books family reviewers

This was a favourite from my childhood so I was excited to share it with Bryn & Freya.

The Barbapapas are a fantastical surreal family each with they own special characteristics & the ability to change into any shape. In Barbapapa’s New House we get to see them build a family home together which they then have to defend against developers.

Bryn & Freya were fascinated with the Barbapapas especially spotting what they had changed into, from snails to catapults. We had lots of fun reading this story & can’t wait to see what other adventures the Barbapapas get up too

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Warwick Arts Centre Family Fun Day

We’ve had another great day at Warwick Arts Centre family days.

A fabulously fun jam packed day, arriving in the morning Bryn was keen to try out the free craft tables making a mask & the very popular ‘ribbons on a stick’. They provided great entertainment for the whole day & all eyes still in tact.

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We then saw our first show of the day the charming & inspiring ‘Boy and his Box’ by Re:Play Theatre I enjoyed watching Bryn constantly twisting his head trying to watch both the actor on the stage & the man doing the live drawing on the projector. Both Bryn & I also had the chance to go on stage & get in the box on stage while behind us the scene was being drawn out, I chose a submarine & Bryn a bike.

Over lunch time we ventured outside where there was music, circus skills, a steampunk flying cycle, a big metal whale and more.

Next was a circus skill workshop where we tried juggling, hula hoops and devil sticks. We all found things to enjoy whether it was Freya derailing Owens juggling by throwing a ball at him, Bryn inventing his own ball balancing tricks or my poor attempts at twirling the devil sticks. Owen excelled at the juggling & hula hooping and with some (lots & lots & lots) practice the Patel-Stephens circus might soon be on the road.

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We ended our day watching the fabulous production by Bamboozle Theatre of Jack & the FlumFlum Tree. The story was already a favourite in our house & this production added a new level of enjoyment of the story.

The show was in the studio so the children were able to sit close to the stage & actors. Before the show started the actors (in character) chatted to the children explaining who they are. It was lovely to see how relaxed and engaged Freya was, joining in with the singing, laughing at the puppets completely absorbed in the show. A fantastically fun & thoughtful production.

An entertaining day for the whole family.

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Dirty Bertie Sticker and Activity Book By David Roberts, Alan MacDonald (author) and Amanda Li (author)

Bryn & I wrote this for the Guardian Family Reviews

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We put this activity book to the test during a recent two hour car journey. For about an hour we barely heard a peep from Bryn aside from the odd chuckle & ‘that’s disgusting’.

The book has a good range of activities with word searches, spot the difference, mazes, codes to crack, drawings to finish off and more. There are also pages & pages of stickers which I suspect will be popping up all around the house.

The activities revolve around Dirty Bertie’s favourite things so fans of the series will know what typically gross things to expect.

Entertaining puzzles & Dirty Bertie in glorious technicolor this book is a winning combination.

Aunt Amelia by Rebecca Cob

Bryn, Freya & I wrote this review for the Guardian Family Review

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A little girl & boy are less than impressed when they find out they are getting a babysitter, the titular Aunt Amelia. They begin the story in a ‘bad mood’ but by the end they are all smiles. The parents leave Aunt Amelia with a long list of instructions,lucky for them she’s a firm believer that rules are made to be broken leading to a fantastically fun time.

Bryn, feeling uncomfortable at all the rule breaking, described it as “too naughty”. Freya on the other hand giggled her way through the story, approving of such behaviour. Bryn and Freya’s reactions accurately reflect their different characters! For me, Aunt Amelia was the type of aunt I always wanted to be.

Freya and I have read this book many times and she gleefully uses the pictures to tell me the instructions which aren’t being followed. This is a book about the joys of being a child & the pure fun to be found in abandoning the rules

To Market, To Market by Anushka Ravishankar illustrated by Emanuele Scanziani

This is a review Bryn, Freya & I write for the Guardian Family Review

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This is a glorious little book full of vibrancy, rhythm & colour. It’s a story about a girl exploring a market with a pocketful of change to spend and a head full of ideas of what to buy. Set in India she darts around the market from bangle stall to flower stall to a stall selling livestock & another selling spices having lots of fun.

I love the vivid detailed illustrations and how the text on the page mirrors the quirky rhyming narrative. The kids were equally intrigued and had plenty of questions about what they could see in the pictures & some of the words that were used.

A perfect glimpse into another country & culture.

Doodling childrens classics

This week I have been following @Daily__Doodle & the theme has been classic picture books & here are my attempts.

I was a little late to the party so ended up combining The Very Hungry Caterpilar & The Cat in the Hat to create this

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Next was Room in the Broom, I used daughter dressed for World Book Day as inspiration.

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For the Tale of Peter Rabbit I attempted a little bit of painting & decided it was time for Farmer McGregor to end up in a pie

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The week ended with one of my favourites The Tiger Who Came to Tea but for my version the tiger ended up as a teapot, Sophie as tea cups, Sophie’s mum as a sugar bowl and her dad as the milk jug

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