One thing that I never thought that I would describe myself as is a 'Yummy Mummy'. However Top That Publishing have decided differently because they have selected us to join their elite bunch of book reviewers. Oo-er! That makes me rather chuffed. Not just the 'Yummy Mummy' bit, but because we adore books in this household. The wonder of turning over a fresh new page, inhaling the aroma and discovering new words is sacrosanct in this abode. If anyone in my vicinity even contemplates creasing a page the gasp is audible. Hubby winces if I crack the spine of a book; I'm serious, I can see him stiffen with disdain at me.
It's only natural that a love of books is handed down to The Boy, and so being sent copies of new books for review on a regular basis is like elixir to the gods for him. For our first selection we were sent the following two books:
'When I Dream of ABC' by Mr. Henry Fisher
This beautiful paperback book is visually stunning and excellent quality. When I Dream of ABC is a book about the alphabet, but not just any book. The illustrations and characters used to depict each letter are inhabitants in an enchanted dreamworld. From the dragons who 'are very polite, but are best avoided on account of having smelly breath' to the Queen who 'eats too much chocolate and have lots of shoes', this book is captivating and very funny. There is a page per letter, with a facing illustration in beautiful muted pastels. I am very impressed with this book, as both a primary school teacher and as someone who did Art as my minor during my teaching degree. The Boy likes to look through the pictures and has certain favourites, he likes the O is for Octopus page.
I'm not the only one who likes this book, it has been nominated for a People's Book Prize in the Children's category, which is pretty impressive! If you fancied popping over and voting using that linky then I'm sure that would be most appreciated.
'The Wide-Mouthed Frog' retold by Graham Oakley
The Boy has progressed recently from the normal board books, past lift the flap books to pop-up books. To be honest, there are an awful lot of badly made pop-up books out there. The Wide-Mouthed Frog is not one of them; it is excellent and he loves it! There are two pop-up books that he wants read again and again at bedtime each night, this is now the third! Don't be fooled by his reaction with the toucan; he's laughing really!
We are the same here, obviously Leo knows how to look after books now and looks suitably devastated if he accidentally damages one, we are still working on Louka though and its' the cause of one of my biggest headaches – trying to keep all our lovely books away from him whilst still keeping them accessible to Leo. Louka has been so much harder to 'train' as it were than Leo was and it pains me to see a book damaged 🙁