Shimmer And Shine Book- The Genies Meet Isobella

Izzy received a Shimmer and Shine personalised book – The Genies Meet Isobella. We also received a 10% discount for our readers!

Shimmer and Shine Personalised Book

Penwizard makes your child the star of every story, Izzy loves Shimmer and Shine and was really excited to receive her book. Penwizard creates personalised books featuring well-loved children’s characters. A perfect gift idea for birthdays, Christmas & more!

Shimmer and Shine Personalised Book

The Shimmer and Shine personalised books are created using details provided by you about your child. These details include first & surname, birthday, town/city, gender, skin colour, eye colour, hair style & colour, clothing colour & glasses.

This personalisation ensures your child recognises themselves in the book. Books like this can really encourage children to read and enjoy books by being the main character. Izzy has several personalised books and really enjoys reading them and seeing herself featured!

The Genies Meet Isobella

The Genies Meet Isobella

Izzy instantly recognised the curly blonde girl in between her favourite genies when she received her book. As her birthday wasn’t too long ago she was really excited to read Shimmer and Shine were planning for her birthday!

Shimmer and shine personalised book review

Izzy listened in awe as I read the book to her, she loves a personalised book as all children do. There’s something special about being in a story with your favourite characters! She really enjoyed the funny, magical storyline.

Personalised Book From Penwizard

Isobella gets the best birthday gift ever when Shimmer and Shine surprise her with three wishes of her very own! But when the wishes don’t go quite as planned Isobella has to help the genies fix their mistakes and save the day. 

The genies meet Isobella

Discount For Our Readers

Fancy ordering a Shimmer and Shine personalised – The Genies Meets your child book? Enter Shimmer10 for 10% off your order! Softback books cost £14.99 and hardback books are £19.99. Postage is just £2.50 or free on orders over £40. Any child will love being the star of the story with their genie friends. 

The Secrets Tree – The Hounds Of Penhallow Hall

The Secrets Tree is the fourth book from The Hounds of Penhallow Hall series. Written by Holly Webb, illustrated by Jason Cockcroft & published by Stripes/ Little Tiger, this mysterious series is aimed at 8-10-year-olds. Eva was kindly sent a copy to review. You can buy paperback copies from Amazon for £5.99.

The Secrets Tree

The Secrets Tree

The Secrets Tree series is perfect for dog-lovers and anyone who desires some mystery and magic! Set in the atmospheric Cornish coastal setting, rich in history an legend…

Polly & rex are in search of a new ghost dog whilst celebrations are in full swing at the stately home. They come across a dog’s head carved in a door down the old stable block. They also wake a terrier called patch, only for him to run away. Polly & rex find him hiding in a hollow tree and find themselves on the trail of an even greater mystery. Inside the tree is a coded message! Can Polly & Rex unravel the mystery of the dog’s young master and his brother?

Eva’s Thoughts

Eva enjoyed reading The Secrets Tree but found it a rather quick read as she has become quite a bookworm! She really loved the story being based around dogs. As Eva has moved on to books such as the Harry Potter series recently, she likes a little more mystery. She thinks children who love mysteries will really enjoy the  Secrets Tree and it will encourage them to love reading mystery series like The Hounds of Penhallow Hall. Having read several books by Holly Webb now, Eva thinks she is a fantastic author and loves discovering some of the 100+ books HollWebb has written.

If you have a mystery-loving reader who also loves dogs then this book is definitely perfect. They will be sure to love the Hounds of Penahllow Hall series. 

Have you heard of the Hounds of Penhallow Hall series before?

New Series! – Our Favourite Books This Week

We decided to start a new series of Our favourite books this week back up for summer! The girls are always discovering new books at the library as well as books we are sent to review and those we discover in shops.

New Series! Our Favourite Books This Week

New Series!

Things got a little busy over the last year so we haven’t had much time to cover our favourite books each week. Everything has finally calmed down and we have plenty of time for a new series again. We love to discuss and share our thoughts on the books we find again! We decided it was the perfect time to start a new series of ‘Our Favourite Books This Week’.

 

Eva’s Favourite Books This Week

With the library holding the summer reading challenge it has inspired Eva to look for a new series after reading all of the Harry Potter books. We came across the Araminta Spook series which Eva was instantly drawn to. She is very much like me and enjoys anything with magic, vampires, ghouls etc.

Araminta Spook Book Series

Eva picked up 3 books she had spotted from the Araminta Spook series to try. When we got home she quickly read them all, one after the other! She managed 2 in one night and the 3rd the next morning. Eva’s favourite book from this series was Skeleton Island because they find jewels and trick Nosey Nora!

You might also be interested in St Grizzle’s School for Girls, Gremlins and Pesky Guests

Eva was also sent a few books to review from Little Tiger this month and she has already read St Grizzles School For Girls, Gremlins And Pesky Guests which you can read a full review here. Eva absolutely loves the St Grizzles Series and eagerly awaits the next book!

Izzy’s Favourite Books This Week

Izzy’s favourite book this week is Let’s Dance by Ann Bryant and Jakki Moore. Izzy finds it funny that Dolly’s dancing makes Harry excited which annoys Meg, his owner. Eventually, Dolly convinces Meg that dancing is fun and she joins in!

Let's Dance

 

Our Favourite Books This Week

Cock-a-doodle-poo! is by far our favourite book this week. Eva has taken to reading the story exactly how Steve Smallman read it on stage! This has Izzy in hysterics every single time and it even has adults giggling away. I honestly never thought I’d find a book that talks about poo the whole way through so amusing but it is written fantastically.

Cock-a-doodle-poo! by Steve Smallman

Octopants is our second favourite book this week, it’s another funny book about an octopus hunting pants! Have you ever seen octopants in shops before? This book is so colourful and well illustrated as well as fun to read which the girls have been reading together repeatedly!


Octopants written by Suzy Senior & Illustrated by Claire Powell

What are your children’s favourite books this week? Have you read any of these?

 

Little Tiger Party At Kidzania London

We attended the Little Tiger Party at Kidzania London on Saturday and it was fantastic! Having attended Little Tigers Birthday party last year we were really excited to be invited this year too. The girls love Little Tiger books & they couldn’t wait to find out about new books & meet the authors and illustrators. Surprisingly Izzy remembered last year’s Little Tiger Party, the books & activities we took part in. When I told her we had been invited she was so excited!

Little Tiger Party at Kidzania

 

Little Tiger Party

The Little Tiger Party (#TigerPBParty) was held at Kidzania in London where they recently teamed up to create a Little Tiger Library. The library is within Kidzania, giving children a chance to discovers new authors and role play as a librarian too. We arrived a little after 9.30am and greeted by a lovely breakfast buffet. We soon moved into the Kidzania Theatre where several authors & illustrators were ready to tell us about their books.

Kidzania globe

Blue Monster Wants It All

Blue Monster Wants It All! By Jeanne Willis

First up was Jeanne Willis who Izzy mistook for the queen! Jeanne read her book ‘Blue Monster wants it all’ a fantastic story that leaves children with a positive message. Blue monster isn’t happy with anything and thinks he needs a new everything. Even as a baby he wanted everything new from a new pram to a new cuddly toy. I got so absorbed into the storyline that I accidentally forgot to get a picture of Jeanne Willis reading to us, oops!

Blue monster throws away anything old and demands a new replacement. He even get’s rid of all his old toys, family and even the sun! All in search of something newer, shinier & better only to find you can’t buy new friends and family. When Blue monster realises this he quickly repairs his old broken plane and flies back home to his old family! It’s so easy to get caught up with having to have everything new, especially for children these days. I love that there is a story like to help remind children of what is actually important! Such a lovely way to start the Little Tiger Party.

Octopants

Suzie Senior & Claire Powell talking about their new book - Octopants!

We then learnt the origin of the second book, Octopants written by Suzy Senior & illustrated by Claire Powell. Poor Octopus has no underpants and can’t find any, no matter how hard he tries! Luckily he eventually comes across a solution! This is a fun, colourful book for kids and both girls really enjoyed both the book & the presentation.

Octopants written by Suzy Senior & Illustrated by Claire Powell

We learnt the Octopants song which was pretty funny! We helped to come up with some new pant ideas for the octopus, from chicken pants & dinosaur pants to unicorn pants. There were several amusing suggestions leaving Claire to figure out how to turn the idea into pants.

Look Out! It’s A Dragon!

Look out, it's a dragon! By Jonny Lambert
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Next up, Jonny Lambert author of ‘Only Lonely Panda’ came on to the stage. He told us about Saffy the dragon in his new book ‘Look out! It’s a dragon!’ and how he created her. Jonny uses a process called scratch & tickle where he adds paint to his image and scrapes & dabs it with various items until he is happy with it. When he created Saffy he then tore a piece of card to create her belly & finishing the process. This gives Saffy a lovely texture & depth throughout the book.

Jonny Lambert explaining the 'Scratch & tickle' process.

Jonny also showed us how to make a 3D cardboard dragon, this led to Izzy having a slight hissy fit. Izzy thought the dragon story was written because of her Cardboard box dragon. Of course, this meant she wanted to be a helper on stage! She was quite upset at not being chosen but she was very pleased to catch up later on with Jonny. She found him in the Little Tiger library helping children colour & cut out their own dragon & they sat drawing for a while!

Jonny Lambery & Izzy colouring & drawing together.

Saffy isn’t like the other dragons & wants to find a lovely new home. She comes across one and tries to make friends. Everyone is scared of Saffy though as dragons have quite a reputation though & they tell her to go away. When the other dragons come along and ruin their lovely home, Saffy rescues everyone and takes them to a lovely new home.

Cock-A-Doodle-Poo!

Cock-a-doodle-poo! book - Little Tiger Books

The last book, Cock-A-Doodle-Poo was read out by author Steve Smallman who had all of us giggling! Who knew there was so much poo on a farmyard or just how funny a book about poo can actually be!? Rooster is causing a lot of mess & havoc on the farmyard, especially for farmer Jill, but apparently, poo can even be life-saving!

Cock-a-doodle-poo! being read by author Steve Smallman at the #TigerPBParty

Kidzania London

After the party, we were kindly gifted tickets to explore Kidzania London, a huge indoor roleplay place for kids. There are so many jobs for children to try out, they earn Kidzo’s for each job.

Emergency Ambulance - Kidzania

Children can spend their well-earnt Kidzos on activities such as abseiling or riding around in various emergency vehicles or spend them in the final gift shop before leaving. You can even save your Kizos for your next trip and save up for something special!

Renault Formula E

Eva changing a Renault Formula E tyre- Kidzania

Eva was happy to go off and try out a few jobs starting with changing a Renault Formula E wheel. Unfortunately I’m not too sure what else she learnt in the Renault garage, I did ask a member of staff and explained I was there as a blogger and hoped to write about it before we went in but as Izzy discovered at the same time I couldn’t go in with her, I didn’t get a chance to find anything out.

Surgery

Eva performing surgery - Kidzania

Eva really enjoyed performing surgery too & overall she really enjoyed Kidzania, other than the music being a little too loud for her liking. We will look into seeing if they hold quieter days so she can try out a few more activities. I think if we had known how big Kidzania was we would have organised a friend to pick us up so we could do a full day and try everything!

Water Aid science laboratory - Kidzania

Parents aren’t allowed in the activities & the doors are closed which is great for children’s independence but unfortunately, Izzy was put off immediately. She was eventually persuaded by the open water aid centre where she learnt about using clean water and how to make bubbles which she loved! Izzy is really interested in germs & washing her hands regularly so it’s not surprising she enjoyed this activity.

Lovabella Baby Centre

Izzy caring for Lovabella dolls in the baby centre - Kidzania

Thankfully we lost her again when she spotted the Lovabella baby centre! This was the only activity she was happy to do alone. She really enjoyed herself and was happy to go in alone which was a huge relief!

Lovabella Baby Centre - Kidzania

Izzy also considered surgery but seeing the dummy & apron she had to wear put her off, seeing Eva perform the surgery even more so. By next year I’m sure she will love it though and happuly go into each activity alone. I can see us investing in annual passes as a gift for the girls in the future. I imagine once they are used to the venue I will be able to happily sneak off to the parents garden and leave them to it!

Saffy the dragon signed by Jonny Lambet to Eva & Izzy

Overall we had a fantastic day at the Little Tiger Party and can’t thank Little Tiger & Kidzania enough for having us. To really top the day we came home with a signed copy of each book & one of Jonny’s Saffy artworks he used on stage to explain scratch & tickle, which we absolutely love! I love that the girls both told everyone to sign Izzy/Isobella as Issobella, it became a little joke, Izzy Issobella! An amusing memory for the girls to look back on. Little Tiger parties are the best, we really enjoy these events and hope to get invited to the next one too!

Our Favourite Books This Week – Week 5

Our favourite books this week is back again. Although the girls have spent a bit of time on their tablets this week they have also picked up a few books too. Eva has been curling up in a corner on the sofa with a book in her hand, absorbing herself in new stories this week.

We missed the library this weekend, instead heading out for the park to enjoy some sunshine, so the girls have mostly chosen books from their bookshelf. It was tough to get Izzy not to pick the same books as last time but we got there eventually!

Izzy’s favourite books this week

Izzy picked 2 Disney books this week. Her first choice is the Lion King. Her favourite part of the book is when Simba meets Timone & Pumba. She thinks it is funny when they eat bugs and loves them singing ‘Hakuna Matata’. I think she finds is funnier as I randomly say ‘Hakuna Matata’ for absolutely no reason haha!

hakuna matata

The other Disney book Izzy has chosen is 101 Dalmations. She loves it when Purdita and Pongo get all their pups back from Cruella De Vil! She likes seeing them all back together as a family with the pups safe as she thinks the pups are all ‘soooooo cute!’.

101 dalmations

 

Eva’s favourite books this week

Eva also picked a Disney book this week. Aladdin and the White Baby Camel has been one of Eva’s favourites. Her favourite part is when the White Baby Camel is returned after being stolen by thieves! She does love a happy ending bless her. Both girls love Disney books as most kids do & they have read most of theirs so I think I need to get back on the hunt for more.

The second book Eva has chosen this weekend is Mr. Forgetful from The Mr Men series. Another series the girls really enjoy which I remember reading as a child. Eva loves it when Mr. Forgetful passed on the wrong message because he was so forgetful. I can see why Eva likes that part as she regularly passes on messages wrong by either not listening in the first place or just forgetting lol!

What do you think of this weeks books? What books are your kids obsessed with at the moment? Do you have any books you could recommend the girls based on their favourite books so far?

Our Favourite Books This Week – Week 4

We are back this week with our favourite books after missing out last week after an unexpected incident last weekend.

The girls have picked out their favourite books which are mostly Library books this week.

Eva chose What Happens to Broken Bones, an Inside my body book.

She loves learning about the body and said she loved all of this book because it was so interesting. We have quite a few body books at home but none specifically on bones so it’s no surprise she was glued to this book for a few days. She really enjoyed learning about what is inside bones & how they are made up.

our favourite books this week

The second book Eva as chosen this week is The Tiger Who Was Angry.

Eva’s favourite part of the story is when the Tiger cries as he realises losing his temper loses him friends and begins to be friendly. This book is a story about dealing with anger which is probably a good book for her to be reading this week as she has lost her temper quite quickly herself this week. She has been much calmer this weekend thank goodness!

Izzy has chosen I Love My Mummy as one of her favourite books this week.

She says she loves the first page because she loves her mummy very much and I’m soft & cuddly too like the mummy in the book. (Aww!) She giggled when the child had their feet their tickled and aww’d a lot when the book was read to her. She ‘read’ the book to me a few times too which was quite cute!

 

The other book Izzy chose this week is the Gruffalo!

This time the full but miniature version I bought them for taking out and about with us. Izzy finds the Gruffalo hilarious she loves how big he is and thinks it’s funny that the animals are scared of him. She finds it even funnier when the mouse pretends everyone is scared of him so the Gruffalo doesn’t eat him when really it’s the Gruffalo behind him they are scared of.

The girls haven’t chosen a book together this week and I’m not surprised as it has been a rather eventful week all round.

What books have been read in your home this week? Do you have a personal favourite?

Our Favourite Books This Week – Week 3

The girls have picked out their favourite books this week again and have had lots of fun reading different books to pick from.

We missed the library last weekend so we went yesterday to return the books the girls previously borrowed and pick out a few more. After almost an hour the girls #LoveGrays tote bag was loaded up with quite a few books! Along with the other books we’ve picked up this week in town we’ve been quite busy reading through new & old books.

 

Izzy’s favourite books this week:

Izzy has been loving discovering a range of books at the library & this week chose a few lift the flap books & chose 2 of them as her favourites!

Busy building site is one of Izzy’s choices this week as she loves anything to do with building! She loves watching the digger’s & cranes when we go out so it was no surprise this was a favourite! Izzy loved the fact they build a school and you can see the classroom at the end. There were a ton of flaps to lift so it kept her quite busy especially pointing out all the things she recognised!

 

Izzy also chose Who lives a here? A lift the flap Gruffalo book discovering where each animal lives. Izzy loves lifting the flaps and telling me who she had found. We had to read this quite a few times! Her favourite part was finding the Gruffalo who is apparently her favourite out of all the animals in the book.

 

Eva’s favourite books this week:

Eva chose Abracazebra this week as her favourite book. She picked it up at the library at the last minute but seemed to enjoy it the most. Her favourite part was when Abracazebra came back on the boat. Eva loves reading stories like this to Izzy, they enjoy looking at the pictures together too.

 

Eva also chose The  Rabbit Who Want’s to fall asleep.. although she didn’t fall asleep haha! She loved it when Roger Rabbit met Uncle Yawn & loved that the picture from that page matched the front cover too! This one is off of our bookshelf and she’s read it quite a few times over the last month or so.

Our Favourite Book This week:

“Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,” Said the Sloth by Eric Carle was the girls favourite book & I had to read it to them  a few times although Izzy does get rather impatient at the end and likes to skip back to see what the Sloth does “Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,”. Eva likes that the Sloth is slow and doesn’t mind being slow.

What have your kids being reading this week? Have you picked up any new books?

Our Favourite Books This Week – Week 2

Carrying on with our favourite books this week the girls have again picked 2 books they have individually enjoyed and one I have read them which they have enjoyed too.

Izzy’s Favourite books this week:

Izzy got 2 new books this week from one of the pound shops, both are Little Miss books by Roger Hargreaves. She has Little Miss Helpful and Little Miss Trouble.. Izzy is definitely both haha!

I wasn’t surprised by Izzy’s favourite page in Little Miss Trouble. She giggled loads at this haha!

She thought it was funny when Little Miss helpful mistook the flower’s for weed’s.. not sure why but she was clearly amused!

Eva’s favourite books this week:

Eva chose Disney’s Toy Story and Disney’s The Little Mermaid and Spot from her bookshelf this week. It’s amazing to see her reading so quickly now. She will read several Disney books in a row now!

Eva’s favourite part of The Little Mermaid and Spot was when Ariel said ‘You’re a big hero’. She like that Spot had done so well.

Andy’s birthday party was Eva’s favourite part of Toy Story. She liked the toy’s using binoculars to watch the gifts being opened.

Our favourite book overall to read together this week:

They chose Disney’s Cinderella as their favourite book we have read together this week. Both girls have always loved me reading them Cinderella for some reason.

Izzy loves the blue dress at the end and the mice, Jaq & Gus! Eva loved the ending where the Prince married Cinderella and they lived happily ever after.

What are your children’s favourite books this week?

Our Favourite Books This Week – Week 1 

I love reading a fun book to the girls. Although we don’t read every night before bed we read most days. Eva now reads independantly quite a lot of the time but still likes to read out loud to anyone willing to listen. Izzy loves to be read to and is able to ‘read’ a book to us looking at the pictures.

The girls having such a passion for reading is something I’m extremely proud of to be honest. I think it’s brilliant for children to fall in love with reading and get lost in the magic of a good book. I try to keep their bookshelf filled with a variety of books and try to take the girls to the library too when I’m feeling up to it so we decided to start sharing some of our favourite books each week starting with this post!

So here are Eva’s favourite books this week:

Eva chose 2 books from ber bookshelf this week. She really enjoyed reading Disney’s The Aristocats and Bambi Grows up.

Eva says she loves the end of The Aristocats when Duchess & O’Malley get to live together, she really likes the pictures throughout the book too especially all the cute kittens! What’s your favourite part of The Aristocats?

 

Bambi being born was Eva’s favourite part of Bambi Grows up. She thinks he looks cute all curled up when all the animals come to see him.

Izzy’s Favourite books this week:

Izzy chose 2 books she borrowed from the Library. Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom – Magic School and Mr Men & Little Miss – Shapes

Izzy loves the Jelly flood in Magic school and giggles her head off! She asked Eva to read it several times this week. The girls have loved sitting up at the table reading this together and it’s lovely to watch and listen to.

 

Her absolute favourite was the Shapes book though as she learnt all the names of the Mr Men & Little Miss aswell as learning to recognise shapes well enough to ‘read’ the book to someone herself. She also gets up at the end to dance and sings the ‘I am a shape’ song from Mister Maker haha!

Our favourite book overall to read together this week:

Tinga Tinga Tales Why Monkeys Swing in The Trees is a bo0ok .y girls absolutely love! The Tinga Tinga Tales books are always fun and colourful and both girls love to read along shouting excitedly when the crocodile goes ‘SNAP!’. I will definitely be looking for more in the series to read to the girls as we all enjoy them.

Reading can be so much fun for kids with such a huge variety of books available. What are your kids favourite books to read? Do you like any of the books the girls have chosen this week?