Wonder Goal

Age range: 6 - 9 yrs

"This book is about a young boys dream of being a professional footballer and starts off with him playing for his school team, but by the end of the story he's scored a Wonder Goal for England in the World Cup.

Michael Foreman is both the author and illustrator of Wonder Goal; the story is very cleverly put together with full page illustrations showing a boy (we never learn his name) in various poses. The pictures aren't wonderfully detailed but they're nice and basic for a child to enjoy, one of Charlottes favourites being when the school team are running onto the pitch before the game. If you look up the clouds are in the shape of men running with a ball, very clever.

At the beginning and end of the book there are various illustrations showing football being played in different places and times; New York 1997, Berlin Wall 1970, Monastery at Singhik (Tibetan border) 1974 to name but a few. These illustrations show the international language of football and are gorgeous to look through, Alice (who's 5) actually preferred these pictures to those which were there to illustrate the story and the one showing a team of small Chinese boys playing football in front of a traditional Chinese house amused her.

This book has been quite a triumph in our house. At seven, Charlotte is big enough to read the story herself and she loved the clever time warp between the boy playing for school and playing for England. The first time she read the book she commented on how it had surprised her and on subsequent reads she still enjoys the twist. To be honest I'd say this book is more suited to boys than girls but as Charlotte does have an interest in football, she enjoyed it. It also scored points in her eyes because the cover shows an illustration of the team in blue kits, causing her to draw a comparison to 'her' team - Birmingham City, much to her Aston Villa loving fathers disgust!

Wonder Goal is primarily a picture book although there are quite a lot of words for your child to read. It's a proper story, just illustrated with large pictures and Charlotte liked this because even though she's a competent reader she still likes to follow the story through the illustrations.

Alice found the book frustrating because the story isn't told through the pictures and she's not yet reading well enough to catch the longer words. For this reason I'd probably say Wonder Goal is best for children in the 6 - 9 years bracket, younger children will enjoy the story if it's read to them. It's actually marketed as a book suitable from 0 - 5 and that just shows how much to listen to age recommendations! Can you imagine reading a 2 year old a story about playing for England? By page three she'd be confused and bored and that isn't the way you want your children to feel about books.

Christina

www.amazon.co.uk

Mummy Never Told Me

Age range: 6 - 8yrs

"When I was asked to review this book my first thought was 'oh no'! as I've read some none too complimentary reviews of this book in the press & on other websites.

Not to be deterred I sat and looked at the book with my two eldest girls aged 6 and 8.

This is a book that raises lots of questions (why do Mummies & Daddies lock the bedroom door & have naked hugs, why do some ladies like kissing other ladies etc) but the book doesn't give any answers - that's up to you.

To be honest we had a good giggle about it all and I tried to answer their questions as fully as I thought they needed to know at this age. The cartoon like pictures that accompany each question could be seen as quite 'graphic' but again they made my girls giggle (naked cartoon men & women being in a lot better shape than the real Mummy & Daddy they see every morning!!)

Some of the questions in the book led to other related questions from my girls and hopefully now they know that they can come to me & ask me anything without embarrassment.

This book is not a guide to growing up as it only raises questions and older children could possibly be embarrassed by some of the pictures if sat reading it with an adult but I will certainly leave it on the book-shelf and read it with my youngest child in a few years time."

Julie

www.amazon.co.uk

Avenger

Age range: 9yrs+

"The book ‘Avenger’ is about a ten-year-old regular boy called Gareth and a mask that used to belong to his granddad.

In this book a new boy, called Jake, from London, arrives at Gareth’s school, and everyone is excited to meet him. Very soon he is very popular and he makes Gareth his best friend. Jake helps Gareth cope with the death of his granddad, who was his best friend and adviser for many years.

Then one day Gareth is caught doing impersonations of Jake to his classmates and that’s when the trouble begins.

Sounds good? Read the book to find out for yourself.

I loved the story. It was thrilling, with a few unexpected twists here and there. Aimed at 9+ year olds (girls or boys), it is a story you shouldn’t miss out on."

Alexander

www.amazon.co.uk

Best Friends

Age range: 8yrs plus

"Being a mum of four, we have lots of Jacqueline Wilson books in the house, so we were all eagerly awaiting the arrival of her latest release - Best Friends. When the book arrived, its bright blue colour and cutesy cartoon drawings certainly made it an appealing read - so much so that it got whisked away from me for a few days, while my ten year old and thirteen year old daughters both tried to read it simultaneously!

Best Friends is about a little girl called Gemma. She's a tomboy, always getting into trouble and annoying adults - but she's essentially a lovely, real, believable child you can't help warming to. Her best friend is Alice, even though they are completely the opposite in many ways. Alice is very girly with her jewellery, dolls, ballet classes and pretty party dresses.

They have been friends all their lives as they were born in the same hospital on the same day. They have celebrated all their birthdays together and always been best friends, promising to stay so forever, in the way only little girls can. But then Alice's father gets a new job and they have to move house. The girls are distraught. They can't bear the idea of being separated and concoct a plan to run away together. But what happens then? Of course, I'm not telling you. You'll have to read it for yourself.

My thirteen-year-old found it "a bit boring" but admitted it was "quite a nice story." She felt it was too young for her, which I agree with. She has moved on to the older Wilson books now, such as Girls In Love and I was rather surprised she wanted to read this one at all. Her score for Best Friends was 5 out of 10.

I had expected my ten-year-old daughter to be exactly in the target group for this book and her reaction to it was much more positive. She said it was "really good" and it reminded her of the relationship between her and her best friend, also called Alice. She said it was a "really nice" story, but she found some of the words hard to read and commented that it was occasionally a bit predictable. She felt it was most suitable for kids aged 9-13 and gave it 8 out of 10.

I would say it was more of a girly book than one for the boys, but my son (aged twelve) read it and enjoyed it, but did mention he only read it at home and didn't take it to school for fear of being teased!

Overall, it is an enchanting book, beautiful to look at and a really good read. It would probably be most suitable for pre-teen girls, but I can truthfully say that this 34-year-old woman loved it too.

Karen

Click here to read Karen's full review of 'Best Friends'

www.amazon.co.uk

Play, Laugh & Learn

Age range: 3 - 10yrs

"What a great activity book for 3 to 10 year olds! It is packed full of activities to help your child to explore spring, summer, autumn and winter it also covers some ethnic festivals throughout the year.

The activities range from glueing, baking, modelling, painting and making fun games to play together with your child. It also provides templates and step by step instruction and each page holds a rating to show how difficult each activity is, although they can easily be adapted to make it harder or simpler to suit your child. Each activity uses equipment that can be found in everyone's household and in the environment.

My two daughters aged 7 and 8 have had hours upon hours enjoyment out of this book. We have had so much fun, laughter just sheer enjoyment and the look on their faces when they have finished making something is magical. We have made quite a few things out of this book e.g. the woodland mirror, carnival mask and seashore wreath.

This book I would highly recommend to any parent with young children and for school holidays ideal entertainment some of the activities you do need to watch the children e.g. glueing and cutting out but going out collecting the leaves and seashells we had a great day out.

The whole family enjoyed this book."

Christine

"When I first picked this book up, I thought "This is going to be interesting, an easy to follow stand-up guide to dozens of fun and stimulating projects'. I opened it with my four year old who wanted to stand it up, and look at all the pages, she was immediately smitten with the ice-cream glasses on the front cover and wanted to find them inside the book, so we could commence our project. I, on the other hand, wanted to read what it was all about.

The age range is great, four to ten year olds, which means I can involve my niece who is nine years and loves to be creative. I turned to the contents page, ahh horror, yes it goes through the seasons, 'spring, summer, fall, winter' - I was horrified at the Americanism, why could it not say 'Autumn'. Anyway I continued to read on.

Fantastic ideas for every season, which help to develop our little ones aesthetic appreciation, artistic abilities, mathematical skills and fine motor skills (as well as mum's)! I also liked the difficulty level, diamonds ranging from 1 - 6 for level of difficulty, and the clearly stated, 'You will need', so we could easily prepare before launching into making our creations, such as carnival mask and shaker, pots, candle holders, games, indoor rock pool, funky summer specs, raksha bandan bracelet...to name but a few.

I also found the introduction very interesting, which details the development milestones for children; this helps to know which project to attempt, or to what level of success we should have!

I would recommend this book if you enjoy being creative with your children, if you have arts and crafts in the house, if you want to spend time with them developing their skills in this way...if not for you, I would recommend it as a present for someone within the 4-10 age range, with an apology for the word 'fall'! Enjoy."

Gail

www.amazon.co.uk

A Redwall Winter's Tale

Age range: 7 - 9yrs

"This book is just one in a series of books featuring the animals of Redwall. This book tells the story of the inhabitants of Redwall on autumn's final day. It features a winter feast, mole clowns, juggling otters, flying squirrels and a hedgehog magician.

It is a truly magical story packed with songs and rhymes and spectacular colour illustrations at the turn of every page which help to bring the story alive.

This was my 7 year old daughter's first introduction to the work of Brian Jacques. She was mesmerized by this book and did not put it down until she had read it all.

I would certainly highly recommend this book to others and can safely say that more books by this author will be adorning my daughter's bookcase."

Sharon

www.amazon.co.uk

The Beak Speaks

Age range: 8yrs plus

"Dinah the Minah bird has escaped from the cruel environment of the "Dark House" and now lives with Peter, a vet, and single parent dad of Mark and Tamsin.

Dinah and Mark take turns in telling the story of the chaos created when Mark places an ad in a newspaper to help his dad find a girlfriend.

This results in Dinah returning to the "Dark House" after Peter and his family are tricked and kidnapped by evil Divine and her thug-friend, Jaundice.

This book was very entertaining, very funny and a welcome change to Harry Potter! My 7 year old daughter loved it and she will be getting some more Jeremy Strong books for Christmas!"

Clare

www.puffin.co.uk

The Three Grumpies

Age range: 5 - 8yrs

"The Three Grumpies is a book about a little girl. who is having a very bad day indeed. To those of us who have bad days like this, (and who hasn't), from the moment you get out of bed to the time when you collapse back into bed at the end of the day, everything goes wrong, you can relate to this.

In fact as adults I think we can also learn a lesson from this book.

From cover to cover this book is a joy to read and look at. The illustrations are colourful throughout and the different expressions on the little girls face are quite amusing.

After a day when everything she did went wrong and after initially reacting by getting crosser and crosser. The crosser she got the more the "Grumpies" smiled. She told them to go away, that didn't work. Then she tried ignoring them, that didn't work. Eventually she decided that the best way to behave towards the "Grumpies" was to smile at them and even laugh. By behaving in this way, the "Grumpies" stopped smiling quite so much and started to look quite worried. Success at last she saw them off and cheerfully waved them goodbye.

So just remember if the "Grumpies" land for a day with you, just a smile and a few laughs will see you waving them goodbye.

My son who is four thoroughly enjoyed it and after the third time of reading, each time the grumpies were there, even before I said it he joined in by saying Grumpy, Grumpier and Grumpiest.

I believe this will become one of my son's favourites, as when I was coming down after the last reading, my son was saying. "Can we have the "Grumpies" again please mum?" I am glad that he meant the book and not the condition."

Helen

www.amazon.co.uk

Magical Tales of Ireland

Age range: 6 - 9yrs

"Magic comes in many forms as the stories in this book explain. Ten stories, each by a different Irish author and each illustrated by a different artist. This means that there is something in this book for everyone.

If you like your magic in the form of a classic fairy tale, you will find it in 'The Princess and the Rooster', if you like your magic a little more mysterious, try 'The Seal that did not Forget.

If you want a story that really touches the heart and brings out the magic in all of us, read my personal favourite, 'Her Mother's Face' and boys will find there is more to their favourite sport in 'Famous Seamus and the Ghosts of Football'.

Each story is just the right length to read to the younger child, although older children should have little trouble reading the tales themselves. But you may find much of your time is spent looking at the wonderful illustrations found throughout the book. Like the stories, they are all different, from the comic and cartoon like pictures in 'Reverse Flannery' to the oil paintings used in 'Jacinta's Seaside'.

An impressive looking book, with its bright green (Irish) cover, it was a joy to read quietly or aloud. It is not moralistic, nor does it teach, but it does lead to thoughts of the power of magic in its many guises. I am sure each person's favourite story will be read over and over again."

Sue

www.amazon.co.uk

The Dot

Age Range: 4 - 8yrs

"'The Dot' is the story of Vashti, a little girl who sits in art class with a blank paper claiming "I just can't draw!" Her teacher offers words of encouragement, but Vashti just jabs a felt tip pen, onto the paper, leaving a dot.

The following week Vashti's dot picture is framed on the wall. Feeling annoyed, knowing she can do better, she sets to work creating more dots of all colours and sizes, experimenting with bigger brushes and paper. Soon her work is displayed at the school art show and proud Vashti finally "makes her mark".

The book is beautifully illustrated, with wonderful colours emerging as the story unfolds. Hopefully it will encourage children, that everyone can create art of all kinds, with a little help and imagination.

Viv

www.amazon.co.uk

The Shape Game

Age range: 5 - 9yrs

"This book is based on work done by Anthony Browne as writer and illustrator in residence at the Tate Gallery. The story of a family visit to the art gallery is told with his usual quirky humour and attention to detail.

The illustrations are full of hidden visual tricks and children will spend hours looking for humorous details on most pages and indeed return to them again and again.

Actual works of art in the Tate are used and I appreciated that each was labelled with title and artist! New ways of looking at art are suggested through the family visit and it would certainly be helpful for adults planning such a trip with children.

The book could be used with children from about 5 to 9, although the rather strange jokes would only be appreciated by the top end of the age range. The shape game itself comes almost as an afterthought and would probably appeal more to the younger child.

A good book to share and provide ideas for a gallery visit, but a bit difficult to target to a specific age group."

Tina

www.amazon.co.uk

Ramion Series

Age range: 8 - 10yrs

"The Ramion series are the beautifully illustrated adventures of Snuggles the cat whose job is to protect a family of brothers from the evil Witch Griselda. Together they share innocent bedtime stories of adventure with the reader, such as a witch’s spell that goes wrong and leaves the family with no hair.

The children then have to travel to the Land of Lost Hair. There is a magical air of excitement and a rapid pace of action in the words: the narrative is almost free of description and is instead full of dialogue and drama.

The colourful gouache pictures that accompany each page allow children and their parents to let their imagination drift into the stories. Together they will explore worlds, which involve cannibals, dwarfs, dragons and knights: all the things that make a real adventure.

My two children (ages 7 and 8) loved reading this for themselves as the text and narration was easy to handle. If they were any younger, these would make great bedtime stories for parents and toddlers to share."

Chris

www.amazon.co.uk

Grandad's Tree - Poems about Families

Age Range: 6-10 yrs

"A very unusual book in which the poems deal very well with the sensitive areas for a young child like losing a parent, the arrival of a new baby, father leaving and the importance of grandparents.

My two girls, 6 and 8, loved the book and each have their favourite poem which they read out to me. The poems are easy to understand.

The book is very brightly coloured and well illustrated with lots of little pictures. Although £9.99 the book is on quality paper and is hard backed. I would happily recommend this book to other parents."

Christine

www.barefootbooks.co.uk

Molly Moon Stops the World

Age range: 9yrs plus

"This is the second Molly Moon story written by Georgia Byng. When we looked at the cover of the book, we thought that Molly Moon was the pug but obviously she isn`t. (She is an orphan with hypnotic powers).

After the first two chapters, which we found quite hard going, a compelling story starts to unfold.

Following the kidnapping of a celebrity, Molly Moon is sent on a quest to investigate the influence a rich tycoon, Primo cell, has over famous people. Molly is assisted by some unusual characters, our favourite being, of course, Petula the Pug (could this be the start of Petula the Pug Fan Club?) Just about everyone gets hypnotised at some point in the story and, apart from that, Molly discovers she has a new power - stopping time itself.

All in all an interesting book with an unusual story line. This would make a great children`s television serial or film. (Can we please choose the pug?)."

Bethany, age 9 and Maxine, who looks 30 ish!

www.amazon.co.uk

Blue John

Age Range: 5-9 yrs

"A most unusual story book. It has a magical and mystical look to it, and it is written in a beautiful poetic and descriptive style.

It is the haunting story of how the Queen of Darkness gives life to a beautiful child, Blue John, made from the purple-blue heart of the glacier and the gold of the sun.

The Queen keeps Blue John safe in the magical caverns deep underneath the mountains, until one day he hears the children's laughter, and longs to follow them outside...

The illustrations are beautifully painted in rich colours of blue, gold and green, which mirror the rich of the text.

It is a beautiful book, written very descriptively, but I was unsure whether it was the sort of book that would appeal to my son (aged 8), but I was quickly proved wrong as he curled himself up quietly for a good read!. He pronounced it very good indeed and was able to retell the body of the story back to me easily. He said he had thought that the cover made the story look 'spooky' but it was okay and he enjoyed it."

Melanie

www.puffin.co.uk

Stanley Yelnats Survival Guide To Camp Green Lake

Age Range: 9yrs plus

"The title of this book seems a strange one, and yet it compels you to open its pages and start to read. It is written in the first person, allowing Stanly Yelnats, aged about 12 to fifteen, to give tips about surviving the camp named in its title.

This story has a refreshing slant, and explains what one should do should you find yourself unfortunate enough to be digging holes at Camp Green Lake.

We never find out just why he was sent to the camp, but that makes it all the more intriguing.

Camp Green Lake is a correctional institution, where the inmates are obliged to dig holes; not just any holes, but holes of a specific size, width and depth. What we are told in this book is what the title says: how to survive the camp. At the end of the story, we are given a glimpse of what happens to some of the characters in the story.

Having read this book, and noting that it is a sequel to 'Holes', I am now going to buy the first book so that I can discover the background to the story. However, the 'Survival Guide' is a book which can stand alone; it will just be more interesting to find out more about the Camp.

This book is aimed at the 9-12 age range, but is pleasing enough for an adult to peruse. My son (who was almost ten when he read it) thought that it was a fascinating story, and a 'really good read'. He kept recounting parts of the story, saying, "What did you think of ....?" and "Wasn't that bit good!" He looks forward to reading 'Holes' as well. Praise indeed!

Would I be able to survive 'Camp Green Lake'? Having read this guide, all I can say is, "Possibly!"

Charmaine

www.amazon.co.uk