Newest For Sharing Reviews

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My Circus by Xavier Deneux

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An utterly gorgeous board book that everyone will love to pore over, from the very youngest right on up. Full review...

Bedtime (Slip-and-Slide Books) by Maureen Roffey

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Bedtime is a pull-the-tabs book about - unsurprisingly - bedtime. Page by page reveals child after child rubbing their eyes, changing into their pyjamas, kissing mummy goodnight, and cuddling up with teddy. Each pulled tab changes that picture, much like a before and after shot. Full review...

Hold On Tight, Stripy Horse! by Jim Helmore and Karen Wall

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Stripy Horse and his friends live in a bric-a-brac shop. One day, they discover that it's raining inside. Ella, the pink flamingo umbrella, keeps them dry for a bit, but then she's caught by a gust of wind and Stripy Horse is pulled up into the air. Will they discover the source of the rain? Will the shop ever get dry again? And what's the deal with that weathervane parrot that keeps spouting proverbs? Full review...

Baby Baby Blah Blah Blah! by Jonathan Shipton and Francesca Chessa

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Emily loves making lists. When her mummy gets pregnant, Emily makes a list of all the good things about a new baby, and another list of all the bad things. Emily's worried that she's going to have to wear babygros to school and eat left-over squish. Her daddy decides to set her straight about what a new baby will mean. Full review...

Don't Let Aliens Get My Marvellous Mum! by Gillian Shields and Liz Pichon

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A young girl imagines how awful life would be if aliens got her marvellous mum. She pictures all manner of ooky space monsters tucking her up in bed, giving her green eggs for breakfast, and scaring all the other parents at school. She (and the readers too) realise just how lucky she is to have such a lovely mum. Aww, bless! Full review...

The Alphabet Family by Eva Montanari

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Mummy A wants to write a story, but she can't think what to write. She sees what her children (b, c, d and so on) are up to. Some are playing musical instruments, some are running races, and some are playing in the garden. With plenty of ideas to hand, Mummy A writes her story, and then tells it to all her children and Daddy Z. Full review...

When Night Didn't Come by Poly Bernatene

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One night, after the sun has gone to bed, the night doesn't come. There's no darkness, no moon and no stars. Someone's going to have to do something about it, so the man in charge rouses a group of children and they do what they can to bring the night. Full review...

Cloud Tea Monkeys by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham

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Tashi and her mother live below a tea plantation in India. Usually Tashi goes along with her mum, and whilst mum picks tea leaves with the other women, Tashi sits under a tree and plays with a group of monkeys, sharing her fruit with them, allowing them to groom her and playing with the little baby monkeys. One morning, Tashi's mum is too poorly to go to work, so Tashi struggles with the big tea basket herself. The plantation owner derides her, saying she is too little to pick the tea, and Tashi is worried about how she and her mother will cope with no money to get her mum a doctor, or to buy food. She shares her worries with her monkey friends and somehow, at the end of the day, Tashi's basket is full of beautiful, fresh, fragrant tea leaves that are a very rare type of tea called 'Cloud Tea'. Full review...

The Secret To Teddy's Happiness by David Conway and Dubravka Kolanovic

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When the toys discover an old, bedraggled teddy bear, they rack their brains to find a way to mend his broken heart, to make him smile again. The velvet rabbit who knows everything offers to tell them the secret of Teddy's happiness, but he wants them to do him a favour first. Full review...

Crash Bang Donkey! by Jill Newton

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Farmer Gruff spends all his time chasing the crows from his corn. Eventually he needs to sleep, so all the animals tiptoe around, making no noise whatsoever. What's this coming over the hill with a crash and a bang? Oh no! It's a donkey with a drum. How's Farmer Gruff going to get his sleep? If he can't sleep, how's he ever going to be able to keep the crows from his corn? Full review...

Green by Mark Sperring and Leo Timmers

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Clive loves wearing green. It's all he ever wears. He thinks he looks mighty snazzy, but his big sister (boo! hiss!) takes every opportunity to call him a cabbage, moss, a sprout or a toad. Clive keeps wearing his green clothes, certain that he'll have the last laugh and get one over on his sister. Full review...

Stinky! Or How The Beautiful Smelly Warthog Found A Friend by Ian Whybrow and Lynne Chapman

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Stinky the warthog lives in a neighbourhood with the Crocodile family, the Monkey family and the Littlebird family. One by one they invite Stinky round to play with their children, but his foul odour and the flies buzzing around him cause all manner of problems. Will he be able to find a friend? ...Well, yes, it says so in the title. Full review...

Tortoise vs. Hare - The Rematch! by Preston Rutt and Ben Redlich

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Harry 'The Hurricane' Hare has been licking his wounds since 'Steady' Eddie Tortoise beat him in the famous race. It's time for a rematch, and Harry's been training hard. Eddie couldn't possibly win again, could he? Full review...

The Giant Carrot by Allan Manham and Penny Dann

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Jack is quite the gardener. All his hard work means his vegetable patch is awash with lucious veggies. One day, he decides to pull up some carrots and make soup, but the biggest carrot just wouldn't budge. He's going to have to get some chums to help him. Full review...

Commotion In The Ocean by Giles Andreae and David Wojtowycz

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There's a commotion in the ocean: the dolphins are squeaking, the jellyfish are jiggling, and the lobsters are clippetty-clapping snippety-snapping. Animal by animal, Giles Andreae (best-known for Giraffes Can't Dance) takes us through the underwater adventures, with short, snappy poems. Full review...

Mr Nobody (Mr Men and Little Misses) by Roger Hargreaves

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Mr Nobody is... well, he's somebody who sort of is and sort of isn't. Mr Happy comes across him one day, and does his best to cheer him up. Who could possibly help a person who's sort of there and sort of isn't? Ah, the Wizard! Full review...

Jolly Olly Octopus by Tony Mitton and Guy Parker-Rees

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Jolly Olly Octopus is giggling underneath the sea. He's soon joined by two tickly turtles, three smiley seahorses, and so on through the numbers. The large cast of underwater animals are having a jolly ol' time, until a shark appears... Full review...

Birdsong by Ellie Sandall

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One by one the birds land on the branch. Each is a different species, each has different plumage, and most importantly each has a different call. The chorus of birdsong builds up and up and up until the biggest bird of all lands on the branch, with his loud shriek. Ah, but who's this about to land on the branch with him? Full review...

Charlotte and the Wolves by Anu Stohner and Henrike Wilson

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Hot on the heels of her adventure in Brave Charlotte, the brave little sheep is back. She's as bold as ever, and the older sheep have stopped worrying about her wild ways. Added into the mix are a gang of teenage sheep who call themselves The Wolves and worry the lambs. When real wolf howls can be heard, but not by the shepherd or Jack the old sheepdog, it's down to Charlotte to save the day again. Full review...

Rumblewick and the Dinner Dragons (The Rumblewick Letters) by Hiawyn Oram and Sarah Warburton

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Haggy Aggy is an unscary witch and decides she wants to make friends with dragons. Her cat, Rumblewick Spellwacker Mortimer B, is a little unsure of this, so writes to his friend Grimey for advice. Their correspondence fills this latest book in the Rumblewick Letters series, following on from My Unwilling Witch. Full review...

The Great Nursery Rhyme Disaster by David Conway and Melanie Williamson

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Little Miss Muffet is fed up of being constantly scared by a spider, so she ups sticks and heads for a different page of the book, to see if the characters of another nursery rhyme will let her join in. She tries one rhyme after another, but things never quite work to plan. Will she find a nursery rhyme that suits her to a T? Full review...

Blue Chameleon by Emily Gravett

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The chameleon is feeling blue because he's lonely, so he goes and visits a yellow banana, pink cockatoo, swirly snail, brown boot, and so on. Each time, not only does he change his colour to match the object or animal, but he also contorts himself into a shape that matches them. Full review...

Six Dinner Sid - A Highland Adventure by Inga Moore

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Sid the cat has six owners in six different houses, and he munches his way through six dinners a day. This big ol' greedyguts has a great life, but then one day his owners all decide they want to go on holiday. They consider putting him in a cattery, but they have strange rules like one meal per cat, not six. They give it some thought, and eventually decide to all go on holiday together, taking Sid with them. Full review...

Why The Animals Came To Town by Michael Foreman

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A young boy looks out of his bedroom window and sees a parade of animals walking up his street. They've come to show him the deserts and ice caps, to warn him of the importance of taking care of Earth. Without the animals, he realises the world would be a much more desolate place. Full review...

One Smart Fish by Chris Wormell

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Many, many, many years ago, the ocean was full of amazing fish. The most amazing fish was a boring-looking silver fish, who was smarter than all the others. He played chess (against himself), drew pictures and performed plays. One day, he decided to see what life was like on land, so he invented feet and went for a walk. Yep, you've guessed it: it's a picture book about evolution. Full review...

Too Purply! by Jean Reidy and Genevieve Leloup

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It's time for school, but the young girl and her tortoise don't want to wear any of their clothes. They're too purply, too tickly, too puckery, too prickly, and so on. You get the idea. Adjectives abound in this fun getting dressed book. Full review...

The Twelve Dancing Princesses by Rachel Isadora

For Sharing

Bookbag recently loved Rachel Isadora's take on The Night Before Christmas, which put the classic Christmas poem in an African setting. This time round, she has turned her eye to the Grimms' The Twelve Dancing Princesses. Full review...

My Mum Has X-Ray Vision by Angela McAllister and Alex T Smith

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Milo suspects his mum has x-ray vision. She can see through the ceiling downstairs when he's jumping on her bed. She can see through the outside wall when he's making potions in the garden in her saucepans. Is she really a superhero? Milo puts her to the test... Full review...

How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague

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How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? was a witty and visually creative tale of Very Bad Bedtime Behaviour for modern children enamoured of dinosaurs. 'How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food?' continues the formula, this time with table manners. Full review...

Princesses Are Not Perfect by Kate Lum and Sue Hellard

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Princesses Allie, Mellie and Libby love baking, gardening and building respectively. The day before the big summer party, they suddenly fancy a change and all swap jobs. With a hundred punnets of blueberries to pick, a hundred cupcakes to make, and a hundred chairs to build, the children are going to be awfully disappointed if the princesses' new-found interests aren't successful. Full review...

The Terrible Plop by Ursula Dubosarsky and Andrew Joyner

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The rabbits are sitting by the lake, munching on cake and carrots. An apple falls in, with a terrible plop, and they scamper off scared. All the other animals join in the stampede and get as far away as they can from the terrible plop. Bear is far too big and grumpy to be scared, so he gets the littlest rabbit to show him just where the scariness lies... Full review...

Emily and the Big Bad Bunyip by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley

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The author-illustrator partnership that created the 'Diary of a Wombat', Pete the Sheep and 'Josephine Wants to Dance' bring all their Aussie characters together in a Christmas book with a Antipodean twist. Full review...

The Church Mouse by Graham Oakley

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Arthur the church mouse lives in peace with Sampson the meek church cat, but he gets lonely from time to time. He hits on a great idea: he'll invite all the other mice of the town to come and live with them. The parson agrees, as long as they agree to do a few odd jobs around the place. Then one day, a burglar breaks in and there's no-one around to stop him but Arthur, Sampson and the mice... Full review...

The General by Janet Charters and Michael Foreman

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General Jodhpur keeps his soldiers busy, polishing their boots and practising shooting. He wants to become the most famous general in the whole world. One day, he's thrown off his horse, and discovers the joys of lying in the grass. On his walk home, he gets a chance to smell the flowers, and soon sets about putting his soldiers to more peaceful activities. Full review...

Desert Rose by Alison Jackson and Keith Graves

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Desert Rose is mucking out the pig stalls, when she stumbles across a giant gold nugget. She decides to buy the fattest hog in Texas, so she can win first prize at the state fair - a gal's gotta have a dream. However, she gets one highfalutin hog who won't do as it's told, so she ropes in all the other inhabitants of Laredo to help her out, and win the prize. Full review...

Snow White by Jane Ray

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Jane Ray has taken the classic fairy tale of Snow White, the dwarves and the wicked queen, and created beautiful three-dimensional tableaux. It's a much-loved story that everyone is familiar with, and this is a great opportunity to rediscover a classic in an interesting new way. Full review...

The Circus Ship by Chris Van Dusen

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When a circus ship sinks off the coast of Maine, the animals escape and make their home in a nearby town. They soon enchant the locals, who in turn decide to protect the animals from the greedy circus-owner. Very loosely based on the sinking of the Royal Tar in 1836, The Circus Ship is a fun picture book that animal-lovers will enjoy. Full review...

The Night Before Christmas by Rachel Isadora and Clement Clarke Moore

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Everyone knows and loves Clement Clarke Moore's poem A Visit From St Nicholas. Even if you don't go the whole hog, gathering the family round by the log fire, and reading it together, its opening line of 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse... fills you with a warm glow. You can practically smell the mulled wine and hear the snores of Auntie Gertrude during the Queen's Speech. It's an absolute classic. Full review...

Christmas Is... by Karen Sapp

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Christmas is looming and thus the market for picture books featuring santas, presents and Christmas trees. It's hard to come up with anything new here, and it's rather not the point - is it? Christmas is, after all, about annually repeated celebration of traditional rituals that add delight and nourishment to the spiritual, emotional and social fabric of life. Full review...

The Penguin Who Wanted To Find Out by Jill Tomlinson and Paul Howard

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Otto the penguin lives on his father's feet at the bottom of the world. He's an inquisitive little thing and wants to know why they haven't fallen off the world. His dad explains that they won't Because I say so. Otto and his friend Leo gradually expand their horizons from their fathers' feet - they meet other penguin chicks, get to know their aunts who watch them when their fathers are away, and eventually grow feathers so they're big enough to toboggan on their bellies and swim in the sea. Full review...

You Are The First Kid On Mars by Patrick O'Brien

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It is a sci-fi future of no danger whatsoever, with no technological breakdown, and no fatal meteor strike, but that of course is only to be expected for this market. I say it more to highlight how well the book has been illustrated. Digital airbrush techniques and more have taken the antiseptic sheen off the whole experience, but have still allowed for a great detail in the machinery, and also a lovely warmth in the face of the lad we're empathising with. Full review...

Cromwell Dixon's Sky-Cycle by John Abbott Nez

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Meet Cromwell Dixon. He's a real tinkerer, forever in a barn or somewhere building something manically unusual. Luckily - although his long-suffering mother may disagree with that word - he's around at the birth of powered flight. Will his plans for a pedalled air machine work? Full review...

Oh No, Monster Tomato! by Jim Helmore and Karen Wall

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Marvin is entering the Great Grislygust Grow-Off, but just like him, his tomatoes aren't growing very big. He takes the only sensible course of action: he sings his tomatoes a song. The results are spectacular. Victory is surely within his grasp. Full review...

The Wide-Mouthed Frog by Iain Smyth and Michael Terry

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Do you know the joke about the wide-mouthed frog? You must have heard it. It's a classic. It's one that you really need to tell in person, with your fingers pulling your mouth wide open, but to hopefully spark your memory, the wide-mouthed frog introduces himself to a number of animals until he finally comes across a crocodile who eats wide-mouthed frogs, and the frog does his best to disguise who he is whilst saying Ooh, you don't see many of those round here, do you? I'm hardly doing it justice, but it's very cheesy and funny. Anyway, this is a book of that joke. Full review...

The Princess Who Had No Kingdom by Ursula Jones and Sarah Gibb

Confident Readers

The princess who has no kingdom wanders around in a cart pulled by her horse Pretty. She's very polite, friendly, and kind-hearted, but she feels like something is lacking because she doesn't have a kingdom of her own. The other royals she meets treat her nicely enough, but there's always a feeling that she's not quite as good as them because she isn't the princess of anywhere. Full review...