No catches, no fine print just unconditional book loving for your children with their favourites saved to their own digital bookshelf.
New members get entered into our monthly draw to win £100 to spend in your local bookshop plus lots lots more...
Find out moreActivity books are a great way to keep kids entertained. Pack one of these activity or puzzle books for your next long journey. To help you choose, download an extract and you can order the book too!
April 2021 Non-Fiction Book of the Month | Designed to support the KS2 National Curriculum, this rich resource will help young writers get to grips with grammar in clear and meaningful ways that will enhance their writing. It’s also a handy time-saver for teachers, providing as it does excellent examples that demonstrate grammar in action. The book really stands out for the author’s ability to explain tricky-to-grasp points of grammar through the lens of their purpose. Let’s take fronted adverbials as an example. After explaining what they are (words “used for beginning sentences by focussing on location, time, frequency, manner or the degree in which something is happening”), he provides a handy list of examples (nearby, here, in the woods, later, eventually, sadly, full of joy, close to tears) in the context of why they’re used: “for helping the reader visualise or sequence what is occurring.” Alongside lucid explanations of key terms, this golden grammar nugget also gleams with great tips on how to make sentences more exciting, with the “Awesome alternatives” chapter serving as a succinct thesaurus. The sections covering themes in more detail are sure to enhance students’ vocabulary on specific topics, from the seasons and school, to space and suspense, while the character chapter will be especially helpful for creative writing, with vocabulary lists for the likes of hair, skin, eyes and personal quirks. The layout is top-notch too, with key information clearly boxed, and lively illustrations peppered throughout - full marks for a concise toolkit that will boost writing skills. Kids interested in exploring their creativity through writing will find inspiration in Joanne Owen's new series, Get Creative.
Take one box – a cereal box for example – and this craft ideas book, and get creating! Thanks to a set of recycled plastic corners just right for joining up card (and neatly contained in a storage compartment) with clear, easy to follow instructions, kids will be able to transform the box into any one of 20 different toys. Once they have got to grips with the easier creations including a dinosaur, a rocket and a fabulous looking car they can challenge themselves with the trickier space helmet or unicorn mask. Like all the best ideas it’s really simple, really effective and likely to be just the start of more creative activity. The JUNKO ethos is all about reuse and being eco-friendly. The Epic Cereal Box Creations is a brilliantly clever concept, turning household waste and packaging into toys: even those plastic corners are made from recycled plastic! Not only is it fun, it’s a great way to build those all-important STEAM skills too. Who needs plastic toys when you can have fun and make your own out of cardboard? Purchase Epic Cereal Box Creations directly from the Junko website here!
Who knew you could do so much with – and learn so much from – an ordinary glass jar? Created by scientist and educator Dr Sai Pathmanathan, this book contains 50 accessible, low-cost, hands-on science activities that will educate and inspire young minds about everything from magnets to matter, and light to evolution. And the most amazing thing is, pretty much all you need to set them up, is a jar. Dr Pathmanathan believes that science can be most awe-inspiring when we work things out for ourselves, and that’s definitely borne out here, where children are inspired to think about science, and use what they observe themselves to come to conclusions. The instructions for each experiment are easy to follow and accompanied by clear explanations of the science behind it, as well as suggestions for additional activities. Designed for use at home or at school, this will definitely appeal to enquiring minds and open up a world of wonder. One word of warning though – there are some groan-inducing puns as chapter titles!
A charming interactive Easter egg hunt book from the National Trust - perfect for sharing at springtime! Follow Rabbit as she sets off on an exciting lift-the-flap egg hunt adventure. But all is not quite as it seems . . . Will Rabbit ever find any eggs to put in her basket? Or will she find something even better along the way? With lots of sturdy flaps to lift on every page and a simple story introducing cute animal characters, this delightful springtime board book is full of surprises and perfect for Easter.
A delightful touchy-feely book with simple, repetitive text. Bright, colourful illustrations with textures to touch and feel on every page. Helps very young children develop language and sensory skills.
Part of a brand-new series of board books Let's Look At... and with beautiful artwork from bestselling author and illustrator Marion Deuchars, this book is the perfect introduction to counting.
Written by a top comic for kids and the author of The Funny Life of Pets, James Campbell’s Write Your Own Funny Stories is a stimulating how-to guide to writing your own “sizzlingly stupendous stories”. Packed with dozens of fun suggestions for generating ideas, from drawing on the Inspiration Elf, to acting out characters, this is an interactive feast of inspiration and encouragement, with guided activities and space to write alongside longer accounts of the likes of boredom (and how to banish it), the shape of stories, and the “story rainbow”, a fun, fresh way to frame the interplay between plot, characters, setting and style. The summaries of things that are funny and how to make them funnier are both (ahem) funny and useful, and Rob Jones’s illustrations bring plenty to the party too - cool, comic, and cleverly integrated with the animated text.
Martha Mumford’s charming little bunnies are becoming familiar figures in children’s books and this is the third book in which they star. Here they skip out together on the hunt for Easter eggs – yum, yum! Young readers can help the bunnies find the eggs which are hidden under flaps, but the book is full of treats. The nursery-rhyme-style text will have everyone joining in and counting along as the eggs are discovered, but every page is a lively delight. The bunnies cross streams and fields, visit the fun fair and make Easter garlands. There is so much to spot in the illustrations, look closely and you’ll find a little frog hiding on every spread. As delicious as an Easter egg, and it will last a lot longer.
Martha Mumford’s charming little bunnies are becoming familiar figures in children’s books and this is the third book in which they star. Here they skip out together on the hunt for Easter eggs – yum, yum! Young readers can help the bunnies find the eggs which are hidden under flaps, but the book is full of treats. The nursery-rhyme-style text will have everyone joining in and counting along as the eggs are discovered, but every page is a lively delight. The bunnies cross streams and fields, visit the fun fair and make Easter garlands. There is so much to spot in the illustrations, look closely and you’ll find a little frog hiding on every spread. As delicious as an Easter egg, and it will last a lot longer.
Push, pull and slide the tabs to celebrate Mother's Day in I Love My Mummy! Play together in the park, bake delicious cookies and snuggle up for a story, then thank Mummy for everything she does for you! Children will love playing with this bright and colourful board book with gentle rhyming text and wonderful illustrations by Louise Forshaw. Part of the popular Busy Book series, I Love My Mummy is the perfect gift to share on Mother's Day. Discover more Busy Books with titles such as Busy Friends, Busy Baking, Busy Storytime and Busy Park.
'Dancing Shapes-Ballet and Body Awareness for Young Dancers' was created by Once Upon a Dance, a group formed during the Covid-19 lockdown by Konora and her mother to encourage youngsters stuck at home to join ballerina Konora on a journey of movement and dance for exercise and meditation. All profits from the sale of this book help support beleaguered ballet companies hit by the pandemic. The book is divided into four parts. The first is about Konora, her early interest in ballet through to her present status as a Professional Division student in the Pacific Northwest Ballet Company and is accompanied by many wonderfully colourful action photos. The ballerina reveals here that lockdown has freed her imagination, allowing her to appreciate that dance can take place anywhere and everywhere, not just in a formal performance space but that warming up is vitally important wherever you choose to dance. We are next taken through the five basic ballet positions in the second section, then in the third, entitled 'Thinking about Details', the reader is encouraged to think about what each part of the body is doing from the head to the toes, whilst copying the many shapes shown in silhouette in the following pages. Konora encourages the use of mirrors or a camera so the shapes can be compared to those in the book because 'self-observation and feedback are valuable parts of practice'. The final part,'Saying Thanks', is not only about the obvious thanks due to all those who support those involved in the arts but also the importance of thanking our bodies, through diet, sleep and safe choices, if we expect it to work hard for us...and believe me, ballet dancing is very hard work! I enjoyed this book very much, having had a lifelong interest in dance. I found it informative, practical and inspiring. Hopefully it will help to keep the spark alive in all our future performers until the world returns to some kind of normality. Drena Irish, A LoveReading Ambassador
January 2021 Book of the Month | Everyone struggles to cope with their emotions, but it’s especially difficult for young children who often lack the vocabulary to express how they are feeling, even to themselves. Fearne Cotton is both a mum and a champion of mental health and wellbeing and her book cleverly provides children with practical ways to learn about their feelings and through that to understand why they feel the way they do, and to deal with emotions such as anger, sadness and anxiety. It does this through fun and engaging interactive exercises, which allow children to be creative and to play even as they work out what’s going on in their heads. It’s a book that very many parents will welcome and it will be a real boost for lots of children. Congratulations to Fearne Cotton for the lightness of touch she brings, and for keeping it all so friendly and accessible. Other useful books in this area include the new Happy Healthy Minds series edited by Alain de Botton for The School of Life, and for children even younger, we recommend Eva Eland’s award winning When Sadness Comes to Call and the follow up Where Happiness Begins. And you can also find a selection of books, to help build confidence and self-esteem, here.
The magical world of J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts meets the real-world experts of the world-famous Natural History Museum, in an awe-inspiring exhibition devoted to the wonders of nature, science and adventure - and their fictional counterparts from Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts.
This book is a treat for anyone who dreams of spending a Christmas at Hogwarts. Using images and scenes from the films, it reminds us of all the magical things that are part of a Hogwarts Christmas – the decorations, the special presents, the ghosts, the gorgeous snowy scenes and, of course, the Yule Ball. There are all sorts of unexpected extras too including stickers, bookmarks and pull-outs, not to mention fascinating insights into the making of the films (I love the fact that the costume department kept a dedicated knitter busy producing Molly Weasley’s jumpers and scarves). It’s just the thing to transport you into Harry’s world at the most magical time of year, no matter what real life has to offer.
Check out the latest activities in our KidsZone.
CHECK OUT OUR INDIE AND SELF PUBLISHED BOOK REVIEW AND PROMOTION SERVICE