Polly Price’s Totally Secret Diary : On Stage in America by Dee Shulman. Published in paperback, by Red Fox, February 02, 2012, priced £4.99

Polly Price is SO embarrassed by her actor mother, who loves to draw attention to herself and hog the limelight. Now Polly’s worst nightmare has come true as her mother heads to America to appear in a stage show and Polly has to go with her! Not only that, but she’s forced to hang around with the young stars of the show, who aren’t exactly lining up to be her friends. Read Polly’s wonderfully funny diary as she records the mishaps and mayhem backstage, before all of a sudden the spotlight is on her!

The 7 year old loved reading this “funny and exciting” book, she really enjoyed the cartoon format illustrations. Each page is set out like a diary with illustrations and handwritten notes. She found it difficult to put down, reading it in two evenings, before bed.  Since finishing the book the 7 year old has picked it up several times to read again and is now pestering me for the other books in the series … Polly Price’s Totally Secret Diary: Reality TV Nightmare … and then we’ll have to wait until August for the next one … Polly Price’s Totally Secret Diary: Mum In Love.

We would definitely recommend this book for anyone aged 7 upwards and we look forward to more books in the series.

The first Alfie book which was published in 1981, Alfie Gets in First, has been a firm favourite of ours along with Dogger and still gets brought out for a bedtime story. What appeals to us is that the stories are just about everyday life which the children can relate to.

The book has lovely two poems and two new stories in it.  One of the stories is about Alfie’s Great Grandma’s 90th birthday and the affection between Alfie and his Great Grandma.  This is something close to our hearts, having just celebrated my children’s Great Grandma’s 90th birthday.

For Alfie activities and downloads visit www.alfiebooks.co.uk

Reviewed by My Sister, Mrs Worthington, from 2 Teens a Dog & Me

Home Made Christmas by Tessa Evelegh

Price £ 14.99

CICO Books

Home-made Christmas contains 35 easy-to-make projects, from tree decorations to table settings, advent calendars to wreaths for the door. Making Christmas decorations is hugely popular and adds a wonderfully personal touch to the holiday period. You will find most of the projects in this book require only the most basic skills, so everyone can have a go with guaranteed success! All projects come with full-colour step-by-step instructions and helpful techniques. Use them, adapt them, develop your own. Because when it comes down to it, the best of home-made is that it is an expression of yourself.

Oh the excitement!

My sister had been given a Christmas book to review. Given that I am already planning and in midst of making Christmas decorations as part of Betty’s Christmas swap she felt I would be a much better person to review said book. I truly was excited.

I love the DIY aspect of Christmas, the annual addition to the tree of one well thought of decoration, the annual gathering of the wreath making society (now in its 15th year), the aromas as you make your dried oranges or Christmas cake, planning the colour scheme for Christmas. I’m guessing you are now getting the drift: I truly love the whole creative part.

The book cover looked promising but there the promise ended. I would say that I am probably advanced in the art of making stuff for Christmas but I was truly baffled by whom was the target audience for this book? Novices or master crafts folk? The introduction was brief and repetitive of the sleeve. There was no basic information on why to use such and such thickness of wire or so and so type of leaf, and no instruction on the number of different types of pliers available either.

Fundamentally for me it missed out even the simplest of things like how to dry your own oranges preferring instead for to you purchase a packet of dried ones instead. In fact much of the book seemed to be an assembly line of pulling things together from various shops with very little in the way of doing it yourself.

Then there were the colour schemes in the book. Since when did pastels, pale blue and pink become the colours of Christmas?

Then there were the 35 easy to make projects themselves. Messy and spiky, commented one friend. Irrelevant and ill thought out said another, guess she was referring to the Christmas bunting of blue and pink. Poor was the general consensus.

I think the project that took the biscuit (Christmas shaped of course) was the dog. Since when was a knitted poodle a symbol of Christmas? Sorry did I miss something here? Was baby Jesus in his stable surrounded by three wise men (in pastels) a number of sheep, lowing cattle and a bleedin yappy poodle?

Don’t get me started on the Coke can decorations. The food gifts of chocolate truffles and pepper mint creams are standard fare in any cookery book so I can’t event give it brownie points here either.

Before I had read the blurb about the author I had proclaimed the book the self-indulgent-have-friends-in-publishing type. Lo and behold on the back cover my suspicions were confirmed.

Seriously if you wanted to do some Christmas projects then you would be better spending your time googling or join me for a united wreathe making night.

Published by Inside Pocket in September 2010, priced £5.99

A Little Book of Alliterations is a new and entertaining journey through the alphabet, which is fun for both parents and young children alike.

Jenny Capon’s marvellous interpretation of Felix Arthur’s alphabetical and phonetic tongue-twisters represents a leap in visual literacy and offers something totally unique.

The 6 year old has enjoyed this book.  She picks it up and reads several of the pages out, whilst trying not to get her tongue in a twist. We’ve had lots of fun making up our own alliterations based on our names including ‘lovely Laura likes licking luscious lemons’.

It’s an educational, funny and attractive little book that will travel all over with us for entertainment.

We recently visited Harewood House in North Yorkshire where they’ve just opened a little fish and chip shop. The 6 year old was the first to tell us that the words on the frontage were alliterated!

There is a great website, supporting the book, where you can leave your own alliterations, colour in your favourite character from the book, and find out more about the book.

Three By The Sea By Mini Grey

Publisher – Jonathan Cape Ltd (30 September 2010)

In a house by the sea there happily live a dog, a cat and a mouse. Well, happily enough until a stranger knocks on the door one night, offering them each a special free gift. Who is this mysterious salesman blowing into their little world and turning it upside-down? And can their happy home survive his trouble-making gifts?

A couple of weeks ago we were sent Three By The Sea by Mini Grey.

Three By The Sea tells the tale of three friends (a dog, a cat and a mouse) who live together quite happily until a stranger arrives.  He disrupts the happy household but also teaches a lesson about compromise and friendship.

The children enjoyed the story and the illustrations, I found the humour and the finer details in the illustrations really distinctive and thoroughly entertaining.

Mini Grey’s books are a refreshing change in a sea of princesses, dinosaurs and happy go lucky, smiley endings.  Not that there are no happy endings, they just aren’t sugar coated and I like that.

Author Fact : Mini Grey was given her name after being born in a Mini in a car park in Newport, Wales.

Along with Three By The Sea we would heartily recommend Biscuit Bear by Mini Grey.  It is a regular in our bedtime reading rota!  We love it, I had to buy it because the library only ever got it back for a day or two in-between borrowings. Did you know you can renew your books three times?  That’s three months of Biscuit Bear at a time!

Over to the lovely Emily Vest from Pants With Names

Zoe Williams: Bring It On, Baby.

I’m pregnant at the moment. I have to keep reminding myself because I spend so much time and energy running after my 2 small boys that I quite often forget. If it carries on in this vein we are going to get to October and a baby will appear and I will be thinking ‘goodness me, a baby! Where on earth did that come from?’

In an attempt to keep the 3^rd small boy in my mind, I’ve taken to reading pregnancy and baby books again, but it hasn’t been successful. I’m finding the traditional week by week pregnancy guides irritating as I can’t remember how pregnant I am (more than 20 weeks because I’ve had that scan, but the midwife doesn’t want to see me until September so it must be less than 30). As for the baby books, experience has taught me that they are mainly wishful thinking. We followed the books and had a text book baby that slept through the night at 12 weeks and congratulated ourselves on how good we were at this parenting lark. Then we had a baby that didn’t sleep through until he was 3 years despite exactly the same parenting and techniques. Turns out that really it depends on the baby, whatever the books say.

So it was such a joy to read Zoe Williams book ‘Bring it on Baby!’. She doesn’t try to tell you what to do or how to do it, recognising that everyone does it differently and there isn’t a right or wrong way. As she says when talking about the old hugging vs scheduling chestnut (aka the child led vs routine dilemma): “My point is, it doesn’t matter what you do: this could be the most contested area in all mothering, to hug or to schedule, and I’m afraid the true answer is that it doesn’t make any sodding difference. There are easy babies and difficult babies, and different ones respond to different things and then, before you know it, they are no longer babies. If only there were some way to get all the time that all the people who’ve ever had this argument had spent on it; recover it, like with a hard drive; use it for something else, like world peace…”

She asks some questions, which 3 pregnancies in, I still don’t know the answer to, like how much alcohol is safe to drink whilst pregnant. This has become increasingly important to me because as the balmy summer has kicked in, so has my desire to delicately sip a chilled glass of Sauvignon Blanc, but the Government advice, which used to be 1 or 2 units once or twice a week when I was in my first pregnancy seems to be don’t think about touching the stuff now. Zoe moves in, asking not just how much can you drink, but why has the government advice changed and is that advice actually based upon proper scientific research? Suffice to say I’ve sampled my glass of wine since reading that chapter.

With a large dollop of common sense she also covers labour and birth, a mother’s weight gain/loss, feeding the baby and motherhood itself. It’s not the book for a first time mother hoping for a week by week how to guide, it’s the book for the mother that hasn’t got time but wants someone to talk to her like she still has a brain. The book is also funny, very readable and I finished it over a weekend which hasn’t happened in years. I’d recommend it.

(big thank you to Laura both for sending me the book to read and letting me use her blog to sing its praises.)

Review by Emily Vest who writes the Pants With Names blog, www.pantswithnames.com.

One Smart Fish by Chris Wormell

Publisher – Jonathan Cape Ltd (7 Jan 2010)

Long ago in the deep ocean, there lived … one smart fish! He wasn’t the biggest and he wasn’t the boldest, but he was the cleverest.

What this smart fish wanted more than anything else was to walk upon the land. But everyone knows that fish can’t walk …can they?

Chris Wormell is a self-taught artist.  We’ve read his books before, George and the Dragon being one of our favourites, and I think his illustrations are amazing.

The book is bright, funny and kept the children’s interest throughout.  It brought up lots of questions about the differences between the varieties of fish and is a great introduction to the subject of evolution. In fact the second to last page has pretty much every type of animal on it which kept us amused way longer than our usual bedtime reads!

Publisher: Red Fox (7 Jan 2010)

An endearing story about honesty, sharing and giving.

One fine day Little Croc finds a lonely lost purse … and it’s FULL of money!

Does he keep it and use the money for himself? Will he succumb to the temptation of some new shoes, a cool lemonade or the teasing of his friends? NO! honourable Little Croc is off to find the owner. And when the owner of the purse lets him keep it and the money inside, he soon realises that being honest is its own best reward

The story starts when Little Croc finds a purse. His friends try to persuade him to keep it. Murdoch, the local bully tries to get Little Croc to give the purse to him and at one point little Croc wonders if he should spend the money on himself.

He does hand the purse in and, the aptly named, Mrs Doolally reveals that there is a very special locket in the secret inside pocket. The children particularly liked this part of the story especially as it was unexpected and they saw how happy Mrs Doolally was. In the end she lets him keep the purse and the money as his reward for being honest. He shares some, spends some and saves some

I really enjoyed reading this book to the children and they enjoyed listening. The illustrations are lovely and we spotted something new each time we read it. Although a moral tale, it’s not over the top.At each twist and turn they asked questions and we discussed the dilemma faced by Little Croc.

I couldn’t NOT get it reviewed though.

Luckily Kevin Campell-Wright who lives in the next valley with his lovely wife and baby daughter Amy offered to help out.

Here is his review;

The Philosophical Baby by Alison Gopnik

Published by Bodley Head

As a new parent I pick up lots of books that tell me the definitive way to look after my new daughter.  Much like the rules for what to avoid eating and drinking during pregnancy, the theories seems to change all the time.  Maybe that’s the reason I’ve tended to mistrust parenting books.  So, I picked up Alison Gopnik’s “The Philosophical Baby” with some trepidation.

Opening it, I was put off further – chapters with titles like “Babies and the meaning of life” sounded all a bit too new-age for me and I was expecting a bit of a ultra-hippy read.  That’s why I was delighted to find that the book is anything but an airy-fairy parenting guide – instead its an amazing and articulate insight into those thoughts you know your baby is having but are never quite sure about.

It started well, setting out it’s mission clearly – this isn’t a book that going to tell you how to bring up your child; it’s not a parenting guide.  What it is is a journey through the thought process and psychologies of a baby, answering the question every new parent asks: “What do you think she’s thinking about?”

While the book is seriously academic in content, it’s seriously readable in writing style, which is refreshing for the subject matter.  I can’t pretend I didn’t struggle on occasion to read it over Amy’s crying, but I did find it was a book I could pick and and put down, something such books don’t often offer.

The book is a journey on what children are capable of thinking, how we know this and conclusions we can draw.  There are lots of startling revelations, as well as some comforting ones (such as a sound explanation of imaginary friends and their purpose in a child’s development).  Finally the theme of a child and parent’s love is brought up and the book takes its time looking at this bond, its evolutionary purpose and how it might be interpreted by a child.

I’d recommend this book for anyone – even if they’ve not got children. However, if you’re a parent a child under 2, this book is a treasure as you can examine what’s going on in that cute little head right now….your child loves you more than you would know!

Kevin Campbell-Wright’s blog Wesenwille is a personal blog about professional interests which, while reflecting on professional practice, is additional to ADCOLOG, his blog around his employment.

You can buy The Philosophical Baby by Alison Gopnik at Amazon.

Can I Give Them Back Now? : Joanna Simmons and Jay Curtis.

Published by Square Peg.

Described as ‘A must have for all new mums and dads – at last, a laugh-out-loud book about the darker moments of parenthood’

A is for Anxiety, Alcohol and awful Activities. B is for Bedtime, Baking and Boredom. C is for Childcare and Cooking With Your Coat on. N is for Not Swearing (bloody frustrating) and S is for Soft Play Places, Sniffing Babies’ Arses (to see if they’ve filled their nappies – are there not easier ways of finding out and Sex (see also L, for lack thereof).

I found it wry, down-to-earth and highly entertaining.

I would recommend this book to ANYONE with a child and defy them not to emit a titter and, on occasion, nearly wee themselves. I think the fact that my children were older made the book even more amusing as I could relate to every single word.

I read it during the first week of moving into our new house when I spent several leisurely evenings soaking in our new proper person sized bath. My cackles echoed around the house and I irritated the husband by quoting whole paragraphs to him as he tried to read his own book.

I was sad to finish it, but, because it is written like a dictionary I will be dipping in to share with friends. I’ll start with you lot …

C is for Cheese Strings - On the packet it says they are 100 percent natural. But what other cheese do you know that can be fashioned into a palm tree?

D is for Dad Comparisons – There’s always a Dad out there who’s more slack, more hopeless, more late in more often than the one who fathered your kids, which somehow means you’re not supposed to complain.

E is for Expressing – One mother’s Electric Breast Pump is another’s Foghorn of Sausage-Nippled Misery. Discuss.

F is for Future – Before kids your future was up for grabs. You might live abroad, write that novel or have a rude affair with a saucy young man. Anything could happen even though it probably wouldn’t. After kids it’s set in stone. It’s what you’re doing now, times eighteen more years. The End.

F is also for Folding – A crisis manoeuvre that theoretically allows you to insert a rigid, frothing child into a buggy. Really requires the extra leverage of a well-placed parental knee to pull it off successfully. complicating factor : buggy on hill. Potential hazards : public humiliation, arrest.

O is for Organic – It may be organic, but if they’re not going to eat it anyway that’s some very expensive carrots you’ve just tossed in the bin.

S is for Snot – The taps turn on in late September and stay flowing until mid April. get some tissues in.

Y is for Yelling – In parents : any instruction to your kids will have a far more effective response if your neighbours can hear it too. In kids : well, wouldn’t you if you were given carrot batons instead of discs?

I am giving this book a whopping 5/5.

I couldn’t find anything wrong with it. In fact I think it should be given to new mothers in hospital, shortly after giving birth. It cheered me up no end and at £5.99 it’s a steal and I’ll be stealing purchasing some to give to friends as birthday presents.

You can buy the book on Amazon … there’s a little button on my sidebar which links to it if you want more info …