Open Very Carefully by Nicola O'Byrne, words by Nick Bromley - book review

This book is a sure fire way to create craziness before bed!

It starts off as the Hans Christian Andersen story of the Ugly Duckling.

But then the ugly duckling realises that a crocodile has snuck in to the book!

Chaos ensues as the crocodile tries to eat all the letters (he especially loves the Os and the Ss).

The duckling asks the reader to rock the book to put the crocodile to sleep. While he's sleeping the duck gets a crayon and draws a tutu on him.

That persuades the crocodile to find another book to live in but how can he get out of this one?

Getting the reader to shake the book doesn't work so the crocodile decides to eat a hole in the back cover (obviously).

This book is so clever and definitely designed to be read out loud.

I particularly love the way it directly addresses the kids reading it, and how it plays with the words and structure of books.

The amazing thing about Nosy Crow books is the unbelievably high production values - the paper is always lovely and thick, and any embellishments (such as a hole in the back cover so a crocodile can escape) are incredibly well done.

Who'll love this: Kids, particularly boys, age 3-5 who are looking for more than just a story.
Cost: $22.99
Publisher: Nosy Crow, distributed by Allen and Unwin. 

The Princess and the Peas by Caryl Hart and Sarah Warburton - book review

A funny tale for royally fussy eaters everywhere ...

This book is BEYOND cute.

It is divine.

The story is so clever and the pictures have so much character and life.

Honestly, it is brilliant and all four-year-old girls should have a copy.

"Lilly-Rose May was a sweet little girlie,
Her eyes were bright blue and her hair was so curly."

Everything is wonderful is Lily-Rose May's world until one day her Daddy tries to feed her peas. Lily-Rose May won't eat them so her Daddy calls the doctor who, using the story of The Princess and the Pea as evidence, announces that any girl who is pretty, polite and allergic to peas must be a princess.

So Lily-Rose May gets packed off to the castle to learn to be a princess. She loves the jewels and dresses but it turns out that there is something worse to eat than peas...

The book is hilarious and has a brilliant message about eating food you don't like.

And the best thing ... the rhyme actually rhymes and the rhythm is perfect for reading out loud.

Love it!!!

Who'll love it: Little girls aged 3-5, plus me and my husband!
Cost: $22.99
Publisher: Nosy Crow, distributed by Allen and Unwin. 

Stories for Five, Six, Seven and Eight Year Olds, edited by Linsay Knight - book review

Let me start by clarifying - this isn't a review of one book, it is a review of four books all called Stories for Five, Six, Seven or Eight Year Olds and all edited by long time children's book publisher Linsay Knight.

I personally don't really like short stories - I find them frustrating and want to know the rest. Except there isn't any 'rest'.

Books of short stories are however brilliant for kids because they are manageable, satisfying and if the child likes one story in the book it encourages them to sample the others.

And these books are particularly good examples of short stories for kids.

Carefully selected, the stories are written by some of Australians best-loved children's authors including Paul Jennings, Andy Griffith and Morris Gleitzman.

Some of the stories are funny and some are thoughtful, some are written in first person and some are written in third but the best thing about them is that, because each book is specifically written for a certain age group, they are age appropriate in content, font size and reading ability so they are an easy and safe choice for parents.

The illustrations are by Tom Jellett, and the number of them varies with the reading age group, for example Stories for Five Year Olds has lots of pictures but Stories for Eight Year Olds only has one or two per story.

Aiming a book at a single year in a child's life is a risk for publishers, by being so specific they limit the readership. BUT it does mean that the book can be tailored to the needs and interests of that age, rather than trying to be all things to all people.

Who'll love this: Kids struggle to get through a 'whole book', and parents who are trying to introduce new genres to their children.
Cost: $14.95
Publisher: Random House Australia

Run Like a Rabbit by Alison Lester - book review

Alison Lester is amazing. Her classic picture book The Magic Beach is my favourite kid's book EVER and so I always get a bit excited when she produces a new offering.

Run Like a Rabbit is a first board book. It is for very little people to read, play with and chew as they see fit.

The pictures are very cute and quite plain. They illustrate exactly what the text says without lots of background illustration to distract little eyes (eg. the run like a rabbit page has a picture of a rabbit running and that's all).

The text is full of rhymes and is great for reading out loud.

Each page describes an animal and an action, such as wriggle like an octopus, so as the babies get a little older you can encourage them to try out the actions themselves.

Who'll love it: This one is for ages 6 months to about 2 years.
Cost: $9.99
Publisher: Allen and Unwin

Eerie by S.Carey - book review

I don't like horror books.

And generally my policy is to only review kids books that I liked - there's only time for so many reviews and why waste them.

But rules were made to be broken, right?

So here is my review of Eerie, a new series published by Penguin Books Australia and written by S.Carey (so, given that when you read out the authors name it sounds like scary I'm guessing it is a pseudonym).

Eerie is a series of very short, reasonably scary novellas. I read Game Over and Hunter and Collector. They're not my kind of thing but they are a clever series and there are definitely kids out there who would love them.

The Eerie books (which have the tag line 'because Goosebumps are for chickens') are only 60ish pages long and are a super quick and easy read. They're definitely on the scary end of creepy, and kids who love things that are a bit dark will lap them up!

Thirteen books will be published this year (yep, somewhere out there a publisher has an amusing sense of humour) and more are on their way.

Who'll love them: kids aged 9-13 who like to be scared
Cost: $9.99
Publisher: Penguin Books Australia
   

The Floods: Bewitched by Colin Thompson - book review

Colin Thompson is a very funny guy!

Bewitched is the 12th book in his series, The Floods, and it is no less hilarious than the first one.

Full of pop culture puns and jokes that would be worthy of any 'Dad', I honestly found myself giggling out loud.

The Floods are a family of witches and wizards who just happen to be the royal family of Transylvania Waters (and completely mental). They're a little bit reminiscent of the Adams Family but a bit more crazy if that is possible.

In Bewitched Nerlin Flood (the King) is getting older and his family is very concerned that he is slipping into Doolallyness ... he has even stopped eating broccoli in case it gives him global warming!

The family decide to take him to see the Old Crones in the hope that they can save Nerlin from spending the rest of his life in incompetence pants.

My favourite part of the book are the first person footnotes from Colin Thompson - they explain some of the back story to The Floods and increase the feeling that this is a story being told to you by a favourite, hilarious and crazy uncle!

Interspersed with the story are small black and white drawings by Colin Thompson which help break the text up for younger readers.

Frankly the Floods are all a bit mental but they are very, very fun.

Who'll love this: 9 - 13 year olds who love a good giggle.

Cost: $14.95

Publisher: Random House Australia