It’s children’s book review time! And this month, instead of heading off to the library, I’m raiding the new stash of books that Ashleigh and Mitchell received for Christmas.
I’d review them all, but the post would be longer than my family favourites post! So here are the first four I grabbed.
And, of course, what we all thought of them.
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The Worst Princess / Anna Kemp and Sara Ogilvie
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The Worst Princess is a lovely book. Princess Sue is waiting for her knight in shining armour to rescue her, but soon discovers that life as a rescued princess is not to her liking. Reminiscent of Shrek’s Princess Fiona (but without the evening ogre metamorphosis), she takes matters into her own hands.
The rhymes are clever, although rhyme pedants will find the not-quite-rhymes jarring (rules/school, spied/eyes, rascal/castle). But I’d usually fit the rhyme pedant category, and still give this book a big fat tick. As does Ashleigh, who has already decided she’d rather like to have a dragon for a friend.
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Monkey Puzzle / Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
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What a divine book. Monkey Puzzle is clever from go to whoa – the rhymes, the animals of the jungle, and the funny little lesson about different species and assumptions. Monkey has lost his mum, and enlists the help of a butterfly to find her. But monkey’s descriptions lead butterfly to a lot of other animals first!
Being a Donaldson/Scheffler book, I’m not surprised we love it, but I am surprised that we may have found one to knock Room on the Broom from the top spot!
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Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site / Sherri Duskey Rinker and Tom Lichtenheld
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Much as I love the plethora of bedtime tales about creatures big and small tucking their little’uns into bed, they do get a bit same-same after a while.
Enter Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site. It’s a great book if you’re looking for a bedtime-oriented story without a rabbit, bear or puppy dog in site. (See what I did there?) And construction manager hubby assures me that all vehicles are correctly labelled. My favourite? The crane truck clinching his teddy tightly as he drifts off to sleep. Nawwww.
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The Owl and the Pussycat (and other nonsense) / Edward Lear and Robert Ingpen
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The Owl and The Pussycat was a favourite tale of mine growing up, so naturally Santa couldn’t resist slipping it into Ashleigh’s stocking. I don’t think he did this on purpose, but Santa very cleverly managed to order a book that includes other tales and rhymes too! Well done Santa.
From the classic Calico Pie to new-to-me The Jumblies and Bong-tree Land, the writing is (unsurprisingly) perfect and the illustrations beautiful.
Edward Lear, I love your work. Thank you for another instant favourite to sit beside our favourite A.A. Milne collection.
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What books did your children receive for Christmas? Any standout titles?
This is the fifth in a series of children’s book review posts. Check out the others here:
Children’s book review (December)
Children’s book review – family favourites (November)
Children’s book review (October)
Once upon a book review (September)
Some great suggestions there thanks. We haven’t read any of those. My mum bought my daughter two Fancy Nancy books for Christmas. I wasn’t sure what to think at first, but we love them now. I’d definitely recommend them.
Thanks for that! Haven’t heard of them so will look them up.
Looks like you got some great books for Christmas, thanks for sharing
Thanks Rhianna. We did – and many more, too!
We have Monkey Puzzle – I like that and the Snail and the Whale…
The Snail and the Whale arrived for Christmas too. It’s so cute!
Not that we got the books for Christmas but we are big Julia Donaldson fans here in this house and we had Monkey Puzzle before Room on the Broom. I love the surprise ending and the message about assumptions but I don’t think I could say I prefer it to Room on the Broom. Which is already neck-and-neck with The Gruffalo! (both are also short animated dvds now too 🙂 ) #teamIBOT
It is a tough call. I think the preference comes from my kids’ ages. Ashleigh likes Room on the Broom better, but Monkey Puzzle is better to read to both of them.
We did the book advent calendar so Mr 4 has gotten quite a few new books lately. They were all $4 ones from Kmart and there was some great ones in there.
I’ll have to raid the $4 section at Kmart!
I used to LOVE the Owl and the PussyCat and Julia Donaldson and Axel are one of my FAVOURITE duos. xx
They’re hard to beat!
How I need to check out monkey puzzle. We had Tiddler the story telling fish (by the same people) on such high rotation here a few years ago, that I can still tell you the story from memory.
Haven’t come across Tiddler. Thanks for the recommendation!
Looks like your little ones really scored this Christmas! Ours got a few Christmas themed ones that were popular, like Katie the Candy Cane Fairy. Not exactly deep, but great for rhyming language and bright colourful illustrations. My son got one called We’re Off To Look For Aliens which is cool too – a book within a book. Thanks for sharing your reviews 🙂
Clever rhymes and illustrations that the kids love make a winner in my book. (In my book. Teehee.) Thanks for the suggestions!
I too love Edward Lear…and Ogden Nash.
YES YES YES.
I used to love The Owl & the Pussycat. We got a couple of Peppa Pig books (one is a clock/time book so not that bad!) and some sweet ones from Great-Nan. But the fave is Rudie Nudie, I think we’ve read it every night since Christmas!
Ah, Peppa Pig. The smiles on Punky’s face would have been worth it! Glad you like Rudie Nudie!! I was wondering if you went back to buy it!
I love Julia Donaldson too. Just awesome.
Yep. I’ve been discovering other ones too – with other illustrators. Just as good!
You’ve knocked Room on the Broom from the top spot?? I DON’T believe it. I’m going to have to check that Monkey Puzzle out.
I have, but again, I think it’s to do with my kids’ ages. Your older ones would probably prefer Room on the Broom.
I loved The Worst Princess and The Monkey Puzzle – and more importantly (well, equally importantly) Ms 3 did too. We might need to have them from the library again soon I think 🙂
Thanks for the other recommendations.
A pleasure! I’m glad you agree with the reviews – it’s always nice to hear that others have similar experiences.