Pete's Magic Pants: The Lost Dinosaur

Pete's Magic Pants: The Lost Dinosaur

By Paddy Kempshall (Author) & Chris Chatterton (Illustrator)

Published by Egmont

This is the first of a new hilarious series from duo Paddy Kempshall and Chris Chatterton. Pete discovers a very special suitcase and it's filled to the brim with amazing magic pants! Each pair holding the power to transport Pete on wonderful adventures.

This thrilling first tale has Pete being transported back to prehistoric times. He quickly makes friends with a baby dino and a chicken called Ted. Together they encounter a very hungry T-Rex. Can Pete and his magic pants save the day and escape the T-Rex and reunite the baby Dino with his Dada?

Chris' illustrations are as wonderful as ever, bringing lovable characters together with eye popping colour. The story is funny throughout and the idea of a magic pair of pants will have any child giggling. The book series also comes with an array of stickers featuring the characters (including those magic pants!) from the story - a sure fire hit with any young reader.

Pete's Magic Pants: The Lost Dinosaur is available to buy now from all good bookshops and from the Egmont website. Look out for Pete's next adventure where he ends up with pirates, due out in Spring 2017!

Pattern Play

Pattern Play

By Nghiem Ta & Danielle Kroll

Published by Wide Eyed Editions

With the summer holidays soon approaching, are you looking for activity books to keep the children busy? For children over 5, and even animal loving adults, Pattern Play could be the answer. There's lots of cutting, folding and 3D animals to be made. 

There's 19 pages of beautiful patterns, easy instructions to follow, little quirky animal facts and stickers to decorate your beautiful models.

Learn about animal patterns; for warning, camouflage and showing off (those show off peacocks!). On the back of each pattern is a clear and simplified animal outline for children to cut out. Fold the animal in half and ta-dah, it can stand up. There's a mix of wild animals, birds and reptiles. 

There's even suggestions for the left over paper with instructions given for papier mâché, collage and decoupage.

The beautiful patterns have been designed by Anthropology textile designer, Danielle Kroll. The pages are vibrant and lovely, they're so lovely that I think I'll find it very hard to actually cut the pages up! The book is a large square shape, with notepad binding, making the pages easy to pull out.

Pattern Play would make a lovely gift for any animal loving child  or young crafter, a beautiful and stylish book that will keep little ones and adults entertained for hours.

Available in all good bookshops or online here.

PABLO & JANE and the Hot Air Contraption

PABLO & JANE 
and the Hot Air Contraption

By José Domingo
Published by Flying Eye Books

Halloween is nearly upon us so what better way to get in the spirit of things and start reading the odd spooky tale or two. Pablo & Jane is a beast of a book, it's a large format book with a padded cover - it really is something quite special to hold. It comes with 4 pages of stickers, so older children can get involved in the interactive story. 

Pablo & Jane find themselves trapped in the Monster Dimension by the evil Dr. Felinibus. The only hope for returning home is using their broken Hot Air Time Machine, with their dangerous journey taking them through places such as Lopsided London, Terrifying Transylvania and Horrid Hawaii. Will they find all the missing parts of their machine and avoid the terrors that await them in the Monster Dimension? Intrigued? Check out the great trailer for the book below...

At first I thought this was a comic/graphic novel until I started to explore the book further. It's a hard title to pigeon hole, my best attempt would be to say that it's a comic book style story that has a 'Where's Wally' look and find element to it. José's wacky and playful illustration style wouldn't go a miss on a TV channel like Cartoon Network, so children that are fans of those kinds of shows will definitely find something here.

Incredibly immersive, with lots to do and a great spooky story to boot, this is possibly the wackiest children's book I've ever glanced at!  If you're looking for a different kind of present for the older child this Halloween this is definitely it. Pablo & Jane and the Hot Air Contraption is available to buy now from all good bookshops and from Flying Eye Books.

My Favourite Fairytales

My Favourite Fairytales

by Nina Filipek and illustrated by Bruno Merz
 Published by Milly & Flynn

 

Aoife and I were extremely lucky to receive the series of book, My Favourite Fairytales, from new childrens publishers Milly & Flynn.

 

The fairytale series includes; The Gingerbread Man, Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs, The Ugly Duckling, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Cinderella, Puss in Boots, The Emperor’s New Clothes, Rapunzel, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Hansel and Gretel.

 

 

All are retold by Nina Filipek and illustrated by Bruno Merz. The books are recommended for children over three years due to the suggested activities and stickers that can be found at the back of each book. Please note that the books will be available from early July and will each be sold with 2 sticker sheets for a limited period of time.

These classic stories have traditional illustrated illustrations in watercolour and pencil, which makes a lovely continuity throughout the series.

 

 

For each book the story flows well and at the end includes activities to encourage the child to think about what has happened and to flick back into the book to help answer the questions. From a layout point of view, the use of type and for some books, the different fonts, all enhance the telling of the stories bringing these classics up to date.

With the lovely surprise of stickers at the end of each book, if you don’t want your little one sticking them to walls or furniture, they would be great to use for creative activities - such as encouraging your child to create artwork about the story using the stickers or making up their own stories about the characters.

…And even though Aoife is too young for these books, after reading this article on the Guardian; about US paediatricians now urging parents to read to children from their earliest days, it never really is too early to start reading to your little ones!

No bookshelf should be out these classic tales as they are stories that shape all of our childhoods and are true treasures to for future generations to enjoy.

For more information on the books visit the Milly & Flynn site.