I put a spell on you! (or my son at least) (Meg and Mog: Spin-A-Spell Book)

Member Name: kaitlinsmummy

Product:	Meg and Mog: Spin-A-Spell Book
Date:	07/07/08 (241 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap and educational.

Disadvantages: None!

As it is getting dangerously close to my daughters 7th birthday party, I decided to go to my local pound land for the final "bits" needed for party bags.

Whenever we visit this shop, my kids go stir crazy and end up fleecing me for various things, usually the activity sets they sell there, on this occasion my son headed straight to the book section.

I was gob smacked to find that he had found a high quality book, nestled amongst the tat that usually resides there, there is always a high number of z list celebrity biographies in there!

My son was very excited to find a book featuring "Meg and Mog", which he has just started reading, so immediately picked it up and popped it into my basket.

The book I will now review is "Meg and Mog - spin-a-spell book"

~~~~~~ THE BRAND ~~~~~~

The "Meg and Mog" brand has been around for many years now, with this particular book being available in print since 2003.

The stories are written by Jan Pienkowski and illustrated by Helen Nicholl, the book is released under the Ladybird brand, so you know you are getting a quality book.

The books are all colourful, bright and extremely eye catching and are all about learning and interaction with the child reader.

The books are centred around Meg the witch, who no matter how much she practises, never seems to get her spells right, with her is her long suffering cat Mog and pet owl called....... Yes you've guessed it Owl!

~~~~~~ THE BOOK ~~~~~~

First I would like to point out that this book is a board book, perfect for my 3 year old son to read without destroying, (too much!).

The front of the book is very bright, the spine of the book is purple with yellow stars going down it, with the rest of the front cover in bright red, extremely garish but eye catching none the less!

The most noticeable thing on the cover is the fact there is great whacking hole in the centre with a moving spell wheel, again purple in colour with a large yellow arrow on it, the reason for the wheel will become apparent soon.

Around the wheel are pictures of the afore mentioned characters, Meg stirring her cauldron with Mog and Owl watching on rather tentatively!

~~~~~~ THE STORY ~~~~~~~

This is an interactive book, over a double page there is a spell being cast, on the right hand page there is a small amount of text describing what spell is being cast, for example page 1 says -

"Meg is making a zappy spell.

Jess, Bess, Tess and Cress, (witch friends of Meg), are helping.

Do you want to help too?

Spin the spinner and see which creature you get!"

On the opposite page around the spell wheel, are five pictures of animals, all again brightly coloured, with each animal having an instruction underneath, for example there is a picture of a beetle with the instructions of "do a beetle scuttle, click your pincers".

My son adores this page, he finds it highly amusing that he has to join in with the book and do a silly movement!

Page 2 shows Meg casting a movement spell and on the opposite page five pictures of Mog the cat in different positions, each position has instructions under it telling the child how to copy the cats moves, "swing your arms and kick your legs" and "curl up tight in a neat little ball", two of the five choices.

Page 3 shows Meg casting a story spell, on the opposite page around the spell wheel are five pictures of Meg, Mog and Owl, all involved in different storylines, on of them is Meg in hospital and another is the three of them in a canon waiting to be shot out, you have to spin the wheel and then make up a story off your own to go along with the picture.

Page 4 shows Meg casting a special adventure spell, on the around the spell wheel are again pictures of the characters, all doing a specific thing, Mog is fishing on a beautiful deserted beach, the question asked is "your fishing, what will you catch?", again the child has to use their imagination to make up there own personalised answer.

Page 6 shows Meg, Mog and Owl surrounded with flying numbers, with the wheel opposite being surrounded by groups of brightly coloured animals and vegetables, the game is to sit and count the matching animals, there are nine groups of things on this page ranging from the beginners number counting (3), up to a more advanced level, (11), or at least it's advanced for my son.

The last page shows the gang playing a question game, each question around the spell wheel is something that has been previously mentioned in the book, a mixture if you like, of activities off each page.

~~~~~~ PRICE AND AVAILABILITY ~~~~~~

As mentioned previously this was purchased for £1.00 from my local pound land, it is also available from amazon.co.uk for the price of £2.77, which for the quality of the book is amazing, I wouldn't have quibbled at paying £5 - £6 for it!

~~~~~~ CONCLUSION ~~~~~~

You may have gathered that I thought this was a complete bargain, not only did I get it for a bargain price, but on getting it home I realised what fun it is.

The entire book is educational, without my son ever knowing that I am actually making him think, perfect!

For more information on this and other Meg and Mog titles, and trust me there are loads!, visit -


www.ladybird.co.uk

Thanks for reading x

Summary: An absolute bargain hidden among the z listers!