Childrens Books

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Review: Etta and the Octopus – Zana Fraillon & Andrew Joyner

Etta and the Octopus

Zana Fraillon

Andrew Joyner – Illustrator

Hachette Aus

Lothain Chidren’s Books

ISBN:9780734421685

RRP $14.99

Description:

A hilarious, fully illustrated tale about an unlikely friendship between a girl and an octopus that is perfect for newly independent readers, from one of Australia’s most respected writers for children and an award-winning illustrator.

FOUND!

One octopus!

Likes to eat tuna sandwiches.

Goes by the name of ‘Oswald’.

It all began when Etta decided to take a bath . . . And realised she wasn’t alone. In the bath sat Oswald. Etta had never had an octopus in her bath before.

At first, Etta thinks it might be fun to have Oswald around. But she soon learns that octopuses are not very good at being tidy . . . or cooking . . . or sharing . . . or even playing nicely.

Just as Etta has almost had enough, someone comes to claim Oswald. Oswald isn’t perfect, but does Etta
really want to send him away?

My View:

A delightful, smelly, fishy, read for you to share with your new reader – and don’t all 5 year + enjoy a bit of smelly, fishy, type jokes? A narrative about friendship, kindness and fishy odours:) I think this is the prefect story, characters and design for animation.

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Review: What To Say When You Dont Know What To Say – Davina Bell & Hilary Jean Tapper

What to Say When You Don’t Know What To Say

Davina Bell and Hilary Jean Tapper

Lothian Children’s Books

Hachette Australian

ISBN: 9780734421142

RRP $24.99

Description:

From the award-winning author of All the Ways to Be Smart, comes a warm and whimsical guide to negotiating new experiences and big emotions with empathy, kindness and words from the heart.

I’m not brave enough today. Maybe next time.
You’re hurting my feelings right now.
Want to join in?

A warm and whimsical guide to negotiating life’s little moments and big emotions with empathy, kindness and words from the heart.

From award-winning and much-loved author Davina Bell and exciting new illustrator, Hilary Jean Tapper.

My View:

Contemporary children’s books are delightful, whimsical and in this so helpful too. I don’t think this is a book for children. This is a book for adults and children. This is a book of prompts for when you are lost for words, when you have big feelings…when you aren’t feeling brave, or you are feeling sorry…happens to adults too…and sometimes just saying or hearing these words will help us out the next time we are in a situation when words escape us, when we don’t have previous experience to call upon.

A beautiful book. Put this one on your Christmas or any other occasion list. Actually, don’t wait for an “occasion” – gift this to yourself now. Or to your children’s classroom or library.

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Review: Off to the Market – Alice Oehr

Off to the Market

Alice Oehr

Scribble Kids Books

ISBN:9781925849790

Description:

Sunday is market day. We are looking for pumpkin, apples, eggs, and bread. What else will we find? Where did it come from? And what will we make with it?

Learn all about produce in this delightful child’s tour of a food market, full of fun facts, delicious new discoveries, and charming characters.

A loving ode to the people who bring food to our table and connection to our community, from acclaimed artist Alice Oehr.

My View:

A prefect first reader! This book of bold bright colours with eye catching stylised images is the prefect book for your first readers
(or bubs who sit on your laps as you read and point out) and talk about the markets, fruits and vegetables, shopping. Great for discussions about colours, shapes, counting, and general language development.

I do love the colour pop and the stylised images! Your little one will love it too.

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Christmas Gift Ideas for Early Readers

How We Came to Be: Surprising Sea Creatures

Sami Bayley

Lothian Children’s Books

Hachette Australia

ISBN: 9780734421364 

RRP $32.99

Description:

Take a deep dive into the evolution stories behind some of the most surprising creatures from the sea with award-winning author and illustrator, Sami Bayly.

Come with us on a deep dive through the ocean zones. Meet some of the most unusual creatures from the sea and hear their stories about how they have changed over millions of years to survive in the inky ocean depths.

Discover why the deepsea flounder is as flat as a pancake, learn all about the 500-million-year-old comb jelly and find out why yeti crabs are so hairy. From the barreleye fish to the tripod spiderfish, prepare to be amazed by the incredible creatures that inhabit our seas.

From the award-winning creator of The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Ugly Animals, The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Dangerous Animals and The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Peculiar Pairs in Nature.

My View:
Giving the gift of books to children, any time of the year, is always my number one option for present giving. Start early, read to your baby, ready to your toddlers, read with your early reader. Read, read, read.

This book is beautifully illustrated, with engaging, hand drawn images and sprinkled with fun facts.

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#FridayFreebie: WhoDunnit, Eddie Woo?- Eddie Woo

Team Trouble

Eddie Woo & Dave Hartley

Illustrated by Mitch Vane

Pan Macmillan Australia

ISBN: 9781760983000

Time Out

Eddie Woo & Jess Black

Illustrated by Mitch Vane

Pan Macmillan Australia

ISBN: 9781760982997

Descriptions:

Team Trouble –

Eddie Woo Super Sleuth: a mind for maths and a nose for adventure

A cryptic message, a coded menu, ciphers, skateboard spills …

Eddie Woo and his best friends Rusty and DT are on a mission to save a friend’s home, thwart the plans of evil smugglers and come first in the Triple Threat Quest.

Time Out – A treasure hunt, a piano key, ciphers, a puzzle from the past .

Eddie Woo and his best friends Rusty and DT must find clues, crack a musical mystery, scale a lighthouse, discover a secret cave and find long-forgotten gold. But they are not the only ones searching for it .

Eddie Woo is Australia’s favourite maths teacher and the presenter of Teenage Boss on ABC TV. He is also the author of Woo’s Wonderful World of Maths and the activity books Eddie Woo’s Magical Maths 1 and 2.

It’s #Friday Freebie time once again. Thanks to the generous people at Pan Macmillan Australia I have a set of these two fun filled early readers to give away to an Australian resident, it’s simple all you have to do is, in the comments, tell me who Australia’s favourite (and my favourite) maths teacher is. Easy 🙂 Giveaway closes midnight 7th July 2022

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Lego Building Site/Lego Fire Station – Lego Books

Macmillan Children’s Books

RRP $9.99 each

Description: Lego Building Site

The LEGO® City builders need your help! Little LEGO® fans can bring the building site to life as they push, pull and slide the tabs in this cool board book.

Make the LEGO® bricks move – tip your bricks out of the dumper trucks, lift them up and put them down with your crane and then slide the scene-changing mechanism to see what you have built – all in a day’s work!

Helps budding builders to:
– enhance motor skills
– develop hand-eye coordination
– play as they read
– be imaginative and creative

LEGO® City. Building Site is a great gift for toddlers with inquisitive fingers and minds. Add to the collection and bring more of the LEGO City to life with LEGO® City. Fire Station.

Description: Fire Station

The Fire Chief and her crew need your help! Young LEGO® fans can bring the fire station to life as they push, pull and slide the tabs in this cool board book.

Open the fire station doors, make the helicopter take off and then slide the scene-changing mechanism to drive off in the fire engine – all in a day’s work for brave little heroes!

Helps budding firefighters to:
– enhance motor skills
– develop hand-eye coordination
– play as they read
– be imaginative and creative

LEGO® City Fire Station is a great gift for toddlers with inquisitive fingers and minds. Add to the collection and bring more of the LEGO City to life with LEGO® City Building Site.

My View:

I love board books, they are great for little hands ( and mouths 🙂 ) to hold, to touch and these with the push, pull, slide features make for reads that will grow with your young child. Read to them, let them play with, let them push, pull, slide….these are a great tactile and learning experience for growing minds.

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Review: The Bumper Treehouse of Fun Book – Andy Griffiths, Jill Griffiths, Terry Denton

The Bumper Treehouse of Fun

Andy Griffiths, Jill Griffiths & Terry Denton

Pan Australia

ISBN:9781760988890

RRP $19.99

Description:

The Bumper Treehouse Fun Book is packed with over 300 pages of treehouse-inspired fun!

With the FUNNEST activities from the Treehouse Fun Books and a whole heap of brand new ones, there are pictures to draw, stories to write, codes to crack, sudokus to solve, colour-ins, dot-to-dots, mazes, crosswords, word searches, spot-the-differences and some activities that we don’t even have a name for!

So, what are you waiting for?

Grab a pen, pencil, crayon or spooncil and come on in!

My View:

The perfect gift for a child you know – word searches, colouring in, spot the differences, decode the message, dot to dots – this makes a great gift to take on holidays or for school holiday entertainment – its bound to keep any child happily engaged for hours.

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Review: Kangaroo Beach Kids Series: Cheeky Little Media.

Description:

Four young animal friends, Pounce, Gemma, Neville and Frizzy, spend an action-packed summer at a spectacular beach, training as junior cadets with their lifeguard heroes. The first board books in the Kangaroo Beach series are based off two of the most popular show episodes of the kid/s tv series . Readers can also enjoy creative hands on fun too, with the sticker activity book and the colouring book.

The Kangaroo Beach board books are ideal for kids aged 3-6.

My View:

Perfect board and activity books for first readers (ages 3-6 years) that introduce kids to the topics of water safety, water rescue equipment and protecting the beach environment. These colourful, sturdy board books make prefect Christmas gifts ( and the colouring and sticker books are great stocking fillers too) Watch as the characters come to life on the screen at ABC Kids.

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Review: Lucy and Copper

Lucy and Copper

Mandy Foot

Lothian Children’s Book

Hachette

ISBN: 9780734420282

RRP $16.99

Description:

Smudge has been Lucy’s best friend since she was little. But these days, Lucy is too big to ride her beloved pony.

Lucy is sure no one can replace Smudge, even when Pa brings home a new horse called Copper. Can Lucy grow to love Copper just as much?

A story that will warm the heart of every animal lover, from the bestselling author-illustrator of Joey & Riley and The Wheels on the Bus.

My View:

This is the perfect book to transition your pre-schooler from the first easy read/picture books type of beginnings to following along with an actual narrative, a great read!  

A perfect bedtime read, engaging, not too long and the illustrations are gorgeous.

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Review: The Book Of Australian Trees – Inga Simpson

https://www.hachette.com.au/inga-simpson-alicia-rogerson/the-book-of-australian-trees

The Book of Australian Trees

Inga Simpson

Illustrations Alicia Rogerson

Lothian Children’s Books

Hachette Australia

ISBN: 9780734418531

RRP $29.99

Description:

Trees tell stories about places. Australia has some of the tallest, oldest, fattest and most unusual trees in the world. They have changed over thousands of years, adapting to this continent’s deserts, mountains, and coasts. Many have found clever ways of dealing with drought and fire.

Their leaves, flowers and seeds are food for birds, insects and mammals. Old trees have lots of hollows, which make good homes for possums, sugar gliders, birds and bees. But trees aren’t just important for other animals, we need them too. What trees breathe out, we breathe in. They are a vital part of the Earth’s ecosystems.

When you first stand in a forest, the trees all seem the same. But if you look more closely, they are each a little different, like people. This book is a love song to Australian trees, from the red ironbark to the grey gum, the Moreton Bay fig to the Queensland bottle tree.

My View:

This is such a beautifully illustrated book! Inga Simpson is a writer and tree lover – her passion for the natural world is evident in all she writes, fiction and non-fiction. Although this book is touted as a children’s read, I think this book is more than that; it is amazingly illustrated and any art lover will enjoy flicking though the pages, it is a great read for anyone interested in the natural world of Australian flora (although I would like to see this expanded to cover more varieties and more regions), this book would make a great gift to send to a relative overseas.  

A delightful book.