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The Princess and the Wizard - Julia Donaldson
by Whizz11
Julia Donadson, the author of The Gruffalo is one of our favourite children's writers and we have a number of her books, including this lovely book entitled The Princess and the Wizard. It was given to my little girl as a present and although it is geared more towards girls, it is something my little boy enjoys hearing at bedtime too ... because their is an evil wizard as one of the main characters.
It follows the same sort of storyline as most princess stories do, there is an evil wizard who locks up the princess who must then use her special powers to escape back to her loving family. The synopsis on the back of the book goes as such, "The Princess must try seven times to escape, By changing her colour and changing her shape. Can Princess Eliza find a way to outwit the wicked Wizard before it's too late?"
This reminds me a bit like a Cinderella/Rupunzel story because Princess Eliza is trapped in a tall dark castle and the wizard makes her do lots of chores around the place when she disobeys him and tries to run away. What I like about this story is that it introduces colours in a fun way as Eliza changes into different animals that are different colours to try and disguise herself. Its a good way of hearing about colours in a story but also seeing them in print and in their true colour too and also what animals to associate with those colours.
For example, one time Eliza turns herself into a yellow chick to hide in some straw. Its here that Donaldson includes some of her wonderful rhyming poems which she does so well. The wizard has a magic book and this book gives him powers to be able to see exactly what Eliza has done. So, for example the wizard reads in his book:
The straw in the farmyard
is yellow and thick
Princess Eliza's
disguised as a chick.
Eliza also turns herself into a green grasshopper, an orange fox and a purple butterfly to name but a few.
Another nice touch to this book is that it contains glitter and sparkly sections on each page which I think goes really well with the princess theme and also makes the pages stand out and seem quite exciting and magical to a little three year old.
We have this book in paperback version. It has an ISBN 978-1-4050-9076-6 and costs £6.99.
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Say Goodnight to the Sleepy Animals! - Ian Whybrow
by kat1234
I bought my son several books for his second birthday and one of the real successes was 'say Boo to the animals'. Knowing how much he enjoyed this book, I decided that I would order him one of the other books from the series that were shown on the inside of the back cover of the book. I opted for this 'Say Goodnight to the sleepy ... animals' which was £4.49 for the hardcover version from Amazon.
What I love about this book (and others from the series) is that they have aspects that appeal to both babies and toddlers. On each page, there is a picture of an animal that it furry and textured to the touch - so appealing to babies (and toddlers too!). There is also a simple story throughout the book as we follow a ginger cat as she says goodnight to all her animal friends before returning home to her kittens. We meet animals that are likely to be familiar to toddlers - dog, rabbits, birds as well as some they may be less familiar with - barn owl. The story is told in rhyming sentences that are appealing to children - for example 'Out in the garden all alone, who's that guarding a juicy bone? Goodnight Dog, woof, woof, woof!'. It makes a lovely story to enjoy together during the day as 'quiet time' together or as a bedtime story.
My son loves this story. He loves that it is simple and the rhythm of the text. He also enjoys stroking the textured animals on each page. What he loves the most is that he can join in with the story and therefore it becomes a bit more interactive for him. He says 'night night' to the animals on each page and, as his language skills improve, he is beginning to name the animals on each page.
I love sharing this book with my son. It is one of the best books in our collection for enjoying together. It is beautifully illustrated and is engaging and fun. It is easy to read too and not too longwinded - just right for the attention span of a two year old! It is definitely a book that I would recommend to parents with toddlers.
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Say Goodnight to the Sleepy Animals! - Ian Whybrow
by Whizz11
This is such a cute little kids book and one we really enjoy reading at bedtime as it gets the kids thinking about saying goodnight and hopefully getting into that sleepy mode.
On the back of the book the synopsis is as such, "the moon is up, the stars shine bright, off goes cat to say goodnight. Stroke the soft, furry ... animals on every page and join in saying goodnight. Woof, hip, tweet!"
The cat we meet on the first page is a cute little ginger tabby cat and she meets lots of different animals on her nighttime adventure. She meets a dog, a fox, birds, a barn owl, a field mouse, rabbits and her own little kittens, three that look just like her and one that obviously takes after Daddy. I like that there are so many different animals included in this book as it means children learn about different animals and where they sleep and also what they say.
For example, when the cat says goodnight to the dog she firstly asks us, "out in the garden all alone, who's that guarding a juicy bone?" Then she says, "goodnight dog, woof woof woof."
So, not only do we learn that dogs like bones but we also learn that they bark when they talk. We also learn that a fox likes to yip, birds tweet, the barn owl says whit-to-whoo, the field mouse squeaks, rabbits hop and kittens mew.
What I also like about this book is that it is a touch and feel book. All the animals are covered with that soft felt material that you find on touch and feel books so my son and daughter love to stroke them and are always reaching out and touching the pictures which I think is great as it makes the book more interactive and they get more involved in it and like reading this book.
We have this book in paperback form and its nice and big and colourful. The ISBN number is 978-1-4472-0202-8 and costs £6.99.
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