The astonishingly lovely ‘Imaginary Fred’ from Eoin Colfer & Oliver Jeffers
Oct05

The astonishingly lovely ‘Imaginary Fred’ from Eoin Colfer & Oliver Jeffers

Any conversation about children’s books is going to feature a couple of names at some point. Oliver Jeffers. One of the very best picture book authors/Illustrators in the whole widest world. We have a complete library, and my book-absorbing 8yr old STILL regularly revisits the astonishingly beautiful ‘Stuck’ and ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’ on a regular basis. And Eoin Colfer – the man who gave the...

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World Atlas with Collins #BackToSchoolBooks
Sep05

World Atlas with Collins #BackToSchoolBooks

  I know it’s a ‘School Atlas’ but this is the baby you want on your shelf as your child moves on into secondary school. I LOVE an Atlas – who doesn’t? In fact, I’ve written about my love of a big Atlas as a child before. But this one is no picture atlas to capture a small mind. This is the big sister to a picture atlas – and it means business. Recently revised and extended, it features...

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Book Sunday – The Childrens Picture Atlas
May10

Book Sunday – The Childrens Picture Atlas

As a child I LOVED a big atlas. It was a frequent rainy afternoon thing for me – haul the enormous atlas off the bookshelf (I’m not sure anyone else ever looked at it, to be honest), and spread out on the floor with it. Gently turning the fragile and super-huge pages, gazing at the weird places in the world. Following the meandering tracks of a river until it got so big it straightened out and tipped itself into an ocean....

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The Family Cookbook – Mother’s Day Gift Guide
Mar03

The Family Cookbook – Mother’s Day Gift Guide

I know, I know – it doesn’t sound terribly exciting. But actually, I LOVE this book. Really very much a lot. Like most people I have a collection of recipe books (and like most people I always seem to fall back on the same three), but my most-used recipe collection is  a lever arch folder. In it I have loosely-organised sections (dinners, baking & Christmas pretty much covers it), and I keep in there the recipes I cut...

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Meet Keris Stainton – it’s the Blog Tour for Starring Kitty
Jul23

Meet Keris Stainton – it’s the Blog Tour for Starring Kitty

I ‘met’ Keris around 8 or 9 years ago in an online forum – we’ve not made it to ‘real life’ meeting yet, mostly because we’re at the opposite ends of the country. But Keris is properly  really lovely. And in those intervening 8 or 9 years has happened (with the help of a huge amount of talent, dedication and hard work. And Twitter.) to go from aspiring-author to a successful published author...

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‘An evening with Michelle Magorian’ – Discover the story behind the story…
Jul11

‘An evening with Michelle Magorian’ – Discover the story behind the story…

Secrets of treasured children’s books revealed in summer exhibition of A Puffin Book   Oh, I loved ALL of these books! I’m a bit excited that this summer there’s a unique opportunity to see first editions, original letters and artwork from authors such as Mary Norton and Michelle Magorian, and to find out how The Borrowers and Goodnight Mister Tom became the stories we know and love.  This summer, Puffin is bringing a...

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