Zeraffa Giraffa

In Longleat safari park there is a tall wooden platform where you can stand eye to eye with giraffes and feed them lettuce leaves. It is an experience I will never forget. They are such graceful creatures with wise mournful eyes and incredible eyelashes. They look kind and curious and wise, and are full of...

Encountering dementia

More and more children are encountering dementia in their families and are learning to adapt their relationships to account for dementia's effects on their loved ones. Grandma by Jessica Shepherd (Child's Play) and Really and Truly by Emile Rivard and Anne-Claire Deslisle (Franklin Watts) explore a child's changing relationship with a grandparent who has developed...

Usborne Reading Programme

Mollie can read! She can select a book and read words by sight, mostly fluently. When she gets stuck she has the strategies to break words up, sound them out, read ahead and use the pictures as clues. Last week she fell asleep with a book that she had been reading to herself! (So proud!)...

Lift the Flap books with a difference

I love quirky lift the flap books. I love it when they are smart and innovative and have beautiful design. When the flaps are really incorporated into the concept of the book and stretch the minds of the readers. Three of my recent favourites are Who is in the Tree that Shouldn't be? by Craig...

The Yes

I love it when a picture book catches me out. When it taps me on the shoulder and stares me straight in the eye. The Yes by Sarah Bee and Satoshi Kitamura did just that, with a raised eyebrow, saying "you think you know picture books? Do ya? Do ya? You don't know nothin'!" And...

Mum’s the Word

Mothers' day is doubly special in this house because, well, there are two of us! So when these books popped through the letterbox I was very smiley indeed! Mum's the Word by Timothy Knapman and Jamie Littler is delicious! It celebrates the relationship between mother and child through the play of a puppy trying to...

Inclusion in How to Catch a Dragon

Following on from my Inclusive Minds call to action, I want to share something with you all. I want to tell you that I love the Albie books by Caryl Hart and Ed Eaves! In fact my whole family loves the series - for differing reasons. My daughter, Mollie, loves the concept, the adventure, the...