Tag: childrens books

St Grizzle’s School For Girls, Geeks And Tag-Along Zombies

Book Reviews / 6 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

Eva’s been reading St Grizzle’s School For Girls, Geeks And Tag-Along Zombies. Written by Karen McCombie and Illustrated by Becka Moor, this is the 3rd book in the St Grizzle’s Series. Available in paperback for £5.99 this fab book is published by Stripes, an imprint of Little Tiger.

St Grizzle's school for girls, geeks and tag-along zombies

St Grizzle’s School For Girls, Geeks And Tag-Along Zombies

We join Dani back at St Grizzle’s School for a third time as she discovers mixing her new and old life isn’t as easy as she thought. A shy new student suddenly disappears at St Grizzle’s, making life harder for Dani. Along with her friends, Dani has to unravel a truth about this shy tag-along zombie! As always with St Grizzle’s it sounds like a wacky story just from the title.

Previous Books

Having read St Grizzles School For Girls, Goat and Random Boys & St Grizzle’s School For Girls, Ghosts and runaway Grannies, Eva though this sounded fantastic. As a fan of boarding school series such as Malory Towers as a child myself, I can totally see the appeal.

Karen McCombie has written yet another fantastically funny storyline for Dani and her friends and had Eva absorbed from the first page. With its humour and references to YouTube Bloggers, zombies and chaos it kept her entertained until the very last page.

St Grizzle's School

Eva managed to read St Grizzle’s School For Girls, Geeks and Tag-Along Zombies in one day. She sat there giggling her head off turning page after page. I love seeing Eva unable to put a book down, truly engrossed the storyline and characters. We will definitely be waiting impatiently for the next book in the series. I am sure Izzy will eventually come to love the St Grizzle’s series too.

Has your child read any of the St Grizzle’s School series yet? Do you think it may be a series they could enjoy?

 

Fang-Tastic Friends – Vlad The Worlds Worst Vampire

Book Reviews / 6 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

Eva received Fang-Tastic Friends, the second in the Vlad The World’s Worst Vampire series this week. Written by Anna Wilson, Illustrated by Kathryn Durst and published by Little Tiger, Fang-Tastic Friends is a great sequel which Eva loved. This hilarious and charmingly illustrated paperback for kids is just £5.99.

Fang-Tastic Friends - Vlad The World's Worst Vampire

Fang-Tastic Friends

Vlad is back on another Fang-tastic journey full of hysterical yet relatable moments giving a comical twist to common issues children face. Vlad’s main focus is making friends and fitting in at human school. Vlad’s parents take a trip to Transylvania, leaving him with Grandpa Gory giving Vlad a chance to sneak off to human school. There’s a catch though, whilst Vlad stays with Grandpa Gory he has to complete, and master a list of vampire challenges to impress his parents with or there’ll be trouble!

Engrossed

Eva couldn’t wait to sink her teeth into this Fang-tastic sequel and join Vlad and his Fang-Tastic Friends. In fact, she was so excited she ended up reading the book in one sitting, sneakily staying awake until gone 9 pm! Having really enjoyed Vlad The Worlds Worst Vampire, which she regularly re-reads I wasn’t too surprised Eva had become so engrossed in the story. I was very much the same at her age.

Worried

Vlad is worried he won’t make any Fang-Tastic friends at human school but he soon makes friends with Minxie. Minxie quickly finds out Vlad is a vampire but she keeps his secret. Continuing to practice his vampire challenges, Vlad feels stressed that he can’t get the hang of mind-control.

 Mind-Control

Vlad feels like he can’t master mind-control, even trying to call Flit his pet bat, doesn’t work. That is, until Boz a school bully keeps bothering Vlad & Minxie. Wishing the class tadpoles would leap out of their tank and on to Boz the bullies head seems to work at least! Eva found this hilarious! She found it even funnier when Vlad pictures Boz tripping, flying into the bike shed & Boz being covered in spiders, works too. Vlad is worried though as his mind-control only seems to work on Boz!!

Fang-Tastic Friends Back Cover

What Happens Next

Eva says she can’t wait to see what happens next and is totally hooked on this series. She hopes it isn’t too long until Fang-tastic Friends is followed by a third book in the series. Fang-Tastic Friends is fantastic, even I got a bit engrossed flicking through the book. This is definitely a series full of humour and issues children and young vampires face. We can’t wait to read more about Vlad and his Fang-tastic Friends.

Do you love the sound of Fang-tastic Friends too? Have you read the first book yet?

 

 

 

The night before Christmas – Mustard’s Christmas Wish

Book Reviews / 6 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

We received a copy of The night before Christmas – Mustard’s Christmas Wish available exclusively on Amazon. Written and Illustrated by Sophie Scribble this book is a perfect Christmas eve gift. You can buy a copy of the eBook for £2.99 and a paperback copy for £6.99.

The night before Christmas - Mustard's Christmas Wish

The night before Christmas – Mustard’s Christmas Wish

The story reimagines the classic ‘Twas the night before Christmas’ with Mustard, the lovable dachshund, embarking on a Christmas Eve adventure he’ll never forget. Mustard has cards to deliver before Christmas day, but with such little legs it seems a long way! Mustard bravely goes off to deliver his cards to all his friends.

Mustard deliving letters

This lovely rhyming tale of friendship and hope is a heart warming story. Mustard the sausage dog is an ambitious little underdog who transforms into a super sausage dog! The night before Christmas – Mustard’s Christmas Wish would be great for reading on Christmas eve snuggled up together. The girls loved this book as they think Mustard is really cute and cool too!

Holly's letter

We love books that rhyme and have lovely storylines and this book is definitely one we will be reading and enjoying again. Mustard delivers cards to all his friends on a cold Christmas eve.

Mustard curled up asleep in front of the fire with his friend Daniel

Looking for Robins throughout the book, counting them as we went made reading The night before Christmas – Mustard’s Christmas Wish even more fun. Children love getting involved in reading and even little ones Izzy’s age (3) can enjoy counting the robins.

We have quite a selection of Christmas books we have discovered, old & new and as always enjoy sharing them with our readers. The night before Christmas – Mustard’s Christmas Wish is definitely a lovely festive book to read at Christmas and a perfect gift too.

Have you read The night before Christmas – Mustard’s Christmas Wish? Does it sound like a book your little ones would enjoy too?

The Storm Dog – Christmas Books

Book Reviews / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

We received a copy of The Storm Dog by Holly Webb to review, published by Stripes, an imprint of the Little Tiger group. Holly Webb has written over ninety books for Stripes including Animal Stories, My Naughty Little Puppy & Maisie Hitchins Series. This book is an unforgettable tale of courage and adventure just in time for Christmas. Available in hardback for £8.99 The Storm Dog is a great gift for children Eva’s age (7).

The Storm Dog

The Storm Dog

The Storm Dog is about a girl called Tilly who is excited to spend Christmas in wales with her gran and great-gran. Gran promised to help Tilly on a big school project about the second world war. Her gran had been evacuated herself during the war. At least that was the plan!

Tilly falls asleep on the train and time-travels back to world war 2 instead! Upon waking Tilly finds herself being evacuated along with her two younger brothers. She comes across a stern old Mr Thomas who reluctantly agrees to give her a home on his farm.

Mr Thomas lives alone with his beautiful sheepdog Tarran. As Christmas approaches the farmhouse gets cut off by the snow. Tilly has to be braver than ever when Tarran comes to her for help one stormy night.

Eva started reading as soon as the book arrived and was glued to it for 2 days until she finished it. She thought The Storm Dog was a great book because it has lots going on. Tilly was so brave at the end of the story that Eva thinks she is super cool. The Storm Dog is a fantastic action packed, courageous adventure!

I would recommend The Storm Dog if you are looking for Christmas books having seen Eva become so absorbed in the storyline. Eva retold the story so well where she was captured by the magic of this beautifully heart-warming story. It is definitely a book I can see her re-reading too.

 Do you know a child that would love The Storm Dog to add to their bookshelf this Christmas?

 

 

 

 

Personalised Alphabet Book: Find My Name In The Alphabet Train

Book Reviews / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

Dr Niamh recently launched her first fully personalised Alphabet book: Find My Name in the Alphabet Train , Illustrated by Valeria Leonova. I received a lovely copy for Izzy in exchange for an honest review.

Personalised Alphabet Book

Personalised books are always a lovely gift idea for children. A gift children can both learn from and cherish for years to come. Children benefit greatly from being read to and reading, personalised children’s books are read on average 9 times more than traditional books. Children love being centre of attention and books like this encourage early learning and a passion for books.

Izzy

Personalised Alphabet Book

The Find my name in the alphabet train book is available in soft or hardback. The story can be personalised with your child’s name, gender, skin & hair colour. The personalisation includes adding a personalised message, printed on the last page which makes this alphabet book extra special. I love that you can personalise the book, Izzy’s personalisation turned out great!

The personalised Alphabet book contains great animal characters who take your child on a journey through the entire alphabet to find special letters in your child’s name. This gorgeous personalised alphabet book written in rhyme and uses phonics throughout the story. Learning phonics help’s young children learn the sounds and personalities of each letter. Perfect for Izzy’s age group!

Find your name in the alphabet train

The Storyline

The storyline and animals throughout the book make it colourful and lively. I found the book fantastic fun to read out loud with the phonic sounds and rhymes making the story sing. Books like this are a fantastic gift for Birthdays and Christmas which is just around the corner.

Izzy

The end of the story is laid out with the last page containing your personalised message & their name on the train. Dr Niamh’s Personalised alphabet train children’s book really is a gorgeous gift for any little girl or boy.

What do you think? Would your little one love this too?

 

 

Burnished Chaos

 

St Grizzles School For Girls, Ghosts And Runaway Grannies

Book Reviews / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

St Grizzles School For Girls, Ghosts And Runaway Grannies is the second book in this hilariously quirky series written by Karen McCombie. With fantastic illustrations by Becka Moor this sure to have children aged 7-9 years giggling away! Eva recently read and reviewed the first book in the series, St Grizzles School For Girls, Goats and Random Boys which she loved. Eva couldn’t wait to get stuck in to the second book having read the first in the series.

St Grizzles School For Girls, Ghosts And Runaway Grannies

St grizzles school for girls, ghosts and runaway grannies

With Karen McCombie’s fantastic storylines accompanied by Becka Moor’s hilarious illustrations this book draws in young readers who are looking for something with a bit of humour. Eva loves anything a bit quirky and funny and this series really fits the bill. Who couldn’t love a book where the head teacher wears a unicorn onesie!? How funny!

St Grizzles School enters a short-film competition between the local schools and Dani is made director. Dani struggles to concetrate, whilst she has a ton of ideas there is too much weirdness going on!

Whilst students at St Grizzles work hard on the short-film but village school boys, Spencer and his mates are determined to sabotage their work. Granny Viv secretly takes up residence in the schools treehouse with Down boy the dog. Granny Viv has come to help Dani, much to her surprise! Can they finish their short film & win the competition? With ghost’s and runaway grannies accompanied by funny illustrations this book is sure to give you a laugh.

Granny Viv

St Grizzles School definitely has a great amount of appeal to young readers, think Mallory Towers & St Trinians. Covering friendships and video blogging, St Grizzles will appeal to the younger YouTube generation.  Eva would love to Vlog herself but there’s always something getting in the way (usually a noisy sister!). It definitely appeals to children aged 7-9 especially those with a quirky sense of humour.

St Grizzle’s School For Girls, Goats And Random Boys – Book Review

Book Reviews / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

St Grizzle’s school for girl, goats and random boys is written by Karen McCombie and Illustrated by Becka Moor. Published earlier this year by Stripes (An Imprint of Little Tiger Group) is available in paperback for £5.99. Perfect for children aged 7-9 years St Grizzle’s is a hilariously quirky book.

St Grizzle’s Series

St Grizzle's

Eva loves to read books that are funny and a bit quirky and she is currently loving books based around schools. I remember enjoying similar books at her age. We’ve been hunting out new series for her and we were sent St Grizzle’s school for girls, goats and random boys. The title caught Eva’s eye because it had such a silly name.

As soon as Eva had started reading she was giggling away. The main character, Dani is packed off to a strict girls boarding school while her mum heads off to the Antarctic to study penguins bums! St Grizelda’s school for girls turns out to have had a drastic change of teaching style. Dani and her mum realise the school is in chaos with no rules, craziness and a goat!?

Dani feels homesick but has to wait for her mum to make alternative arrangements. Whilst she waits the madness begins to warm Dani’s heart. The quirky characters throughout the story kept giggling throughout the story. She loved Dani and after reading the teaser for the second book in the series she couldn’t wait to read more! She loved the illustrations throughout the book making sure to show me each one. Luckily I have a copy of the second book St Grizzle’s school for girls, ghosts and runaway grannies for her to review next week. Check back to see what Eva thinks of the next book and to find out more yourself!

Do you know a child that would love this book too?

Vlad The World’s Worst Vampire – Book Review

Book Reviews / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

Eva has been reading Vlad The World’s Worst Vampire this week. Written by Anna Wilson and illustrated by Kathryn Durst, Vlad The World’s Worst Vampire is available in paperback for (RRP) £5.99 and perfect for 7-9 year olds. The first book of a brand-new illustrated series, featuring fangtastic characters & batty humour, Vlad tries to find where he belongs.

Vlad World's Worst Vampire

Vlad The World’s Worst Vampire

We recently discovered books published by Stripes in the library, Stripes is an imprint of Little Tiger Group, our favourite publisher! Eva decided she wants to work her way through books published by Stripes. I have to admit they seem rather funny and quirky, perfect for her. Seeing Eva so excited about reading is fantastic and she was ecstatic to receive Vlad The World’s Worst Vampire.

Vlad is the youngest member of the Impaler family, the bravest vampires ever! Vlad isn’t that brave though, he’s even scared of the dark, much to his parents disappointment.  Wanting to make friends Vlad decides Human school is the best place to make friends. With his pet bat Flit Vlad heads off to Human school in search of friendships, trying his best to keep his true identity a secret!

From the very first page you can tell this will be a hilarious book to sink your teeth into. Anna Wilsons fantastic humour makes this book the perfect read! We will definitely be keeping an eye out for the rest of the series as they are published.

 

Eva’s Thoughts

I liked Vlad the worlds worst vampire because he pretended to be a human but was actually a vampire! He pretended to be a human because he wanted to go to human school. After reading about Jollywood academy – The best school in the world, Vlad decides he prefers the sound human school. His family isn’t too happy about it though! It is such a funny book to read.

 

 

 

Burnished Chaos

Facts! One For Every Day Of The Year!

Book Reviews / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple
Facts! One for every day of the year

We received* a fab book of Facts! One for every day of the year, written by Tracey Turner and illustrated by Fatti Burke and published by Bloomsbury Children’s publishing. Available to buy from Amazon at £12.99 this book would make a great addition to any child’s bookshelf.

Facts! One for every day of the year

Facts! One for every day of the year

The Book comes with postcards, one for each month with a fun fact and illustration. From animal facts to how to say ‘Happy Christmas’ in 20 different languages! We love postcards and have started collecting them when we visit somewhere new so Eva loved adding these fun postcards to her collection.

Postcard Facts!

Postcards

Facts! One for every day of the year is a fantastic book for children is a beautifully illustrated fact book for children aged 4-8 years. This book would be a fantastic educational Birthday or Christmas gift to be treasured and read daily. Children enjoy learning fun facts and this book is absolutely bursting with them! Everyone can learn something with this book.

Introduction

Introduction

It’s amazing reading through the facts, they are so interesting and accompanied by such fun, colourful illustrations that will draw in any child! Eva (7) loved flicking through and finding facts for certain days such as our birthdays. Interestingly Izzy shares her birthday with Alexander Fleming who discovered Penicillin, which both girls & I are allergic to.

6th August - On this date

We’ve had lots of fun checking the daily facts and Eva has learnt plenty of interesting facts to go back to school and share with her friends & teachers. I can see this book being pulled out daily to read and show to visitors too. Children are knowledge hungry at this age and I love to feed that hunger with books like this.

 

Facts

This book contains amusing animal facts, amazing space stats, scientific discoveries, fantastic achievements, and so much more! There really is something for everyone is this fantastic book for children. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for an interesting and educational gift.

*This is a sponsored #Ad

Nibbles: The Dinosaur Guide

Book Reviews / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

Nibbles: The Dinosaur Guide by Emma Yarlett is another fabulous book published by Little Tiger. A fantastic book for children aged 3-6 years. Nibbles: The Dinosaur Guide is a gorgeous hardback for £12.99. We received a copy from Little Tiger to review and I knew from the second I opened it we would thoroughly enjoy it! Who doesn’t love Monsters and Dinosaurs?? (We’re still a little unsure about the Dino Doo-Doo Nibbles though!)

Nibbles: The Dinosaur Guide

Nibbles: The Dinosaur Guide

Nibbles the book monster managed to escape from his first book back in 2016 and now he’s back munching his way through The Dinosaur Guide! Fantastically written and illustrated by award winning author and illustrator Emma Yarlett this excellent book is full of excitement.

Nibbles: The Dinosaur Guide

Nibbles, a wild book monster finds his way into The Dinosaur Guide! A book munching, mischief making monster, Nibbles needs to be returned to his cage. The Dinosaur Guide is full of fantastic information about different species of dangerous dinosaurs.

Somehow Nibbles keeps escaping whilst causing havoc, munching his way through dangerous dinosaurs throughout the book. He just about manages to nibble his way away from the terrible Triceratops, Diplodocuses and Velociraptors! Nibbles then faces the most dangerous of all, the terrifying Tyrannosaurus Rex!!

This book is hilarious and so much fun to read! We loved the nibbles on the corners of the pages and holes through the pages. The book is full of fun flaps to lift too. This is such an interactive story which kept Izzy’s attention throughout. Nibbles destroys chunks of the pages but there are still plenty of dinosaur facts to learn too!

I would definitely recommend this book, it is such a cheeky, funny, colourful picture book. It is bound to capture the attention of any child. Even older children will enjoy it, Eva(7) loved it as there are several amusing jokes throughout the story.