Posted By Laura in #New!, Bookshelf, Childrens, Toddler, Toys | 1 comment

If there’s one thing all my children have loved, it’s sets of things. Children love to collect, don’t they?

And I love it when what they’re collecting is not only fun for them, but also helps them learn a little more too. So I was really happy to see this fabulous new Disney Animal World series of books – all of our favourite Disney heroes, and a cool series of books packed full of interesting and fun safari animal facts.

Each book has a theme, and comes with two play figurines – a Disney character, plus an animal. They’re the perfect size and shape for some rough toddler play, will be great in the bath – but are detailed enough to please an older, more discerning audience too.

The books themselves are a neat hardback A5 size, and they build into fab library set if you manage to collect them all. They’re broken down into six distinct chapters, which provides a really nice, rounded content when taken together.

They start with the Safari Adventure – an illustrated story based around the playset characters, and the perfect way to get small imaginations firing off for more role play. Next up is the All About… which focuses on the animal included in the play set. It’s creatively laid out – lots of bubbles, great images and bite size facts, packed with information but not so much text that it becomes overwhelming.
Then you move on through to Animal Planet, which looks at another wild animal, and includes fun quiz questions. Nature Watch looks at the environment in which the animals live, and careful open questions lead children into expanding their critical thinking skills.

Search & Find is a fun segment which encourages observational skills to solve puzzles, and it leads into the final segment which is Bedtime Story – exactly as it says, this is a gentle and beautifully illustrated story for you to share together at bedtime. In all they’re great for sharing with a toddler, and my 9yr old (once she had loudly declared they were a ‘bot young for her’) has read them from cover-to-cover too.

We’re huge fans of these books – the quality is as good as you’d expect from Disney, the safari playsets are less a gimmick and more a genuinely cool, fun and sturdily built toy that has loads of play value.

You can order the books direct from here – part 1 is £1.99, and then the rest are priced at £5.99 a set. You get four sets a month, and when you subscribe you also receive £50-worth of free gifts…