Tag: Parragon

My Giant Fairy Tale Activity Book – Book Review

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by Luschka

If there’s one thing that was going to be an indisputable winner in this house, it was always going to be My Giant Fairy Tale Activity Book*, which we received as part of our Parragon Book Buddies mail this week.My Giant Fairy Tale Activity Book

What we love about My Giant Fairy Tale Activity Book

Well, where to start! My Giant Fairy Tale Activity Book gives you 128 pages of fairy tale themed activities. The book is shaped (rather than just a square book) which always adds a fun element, for whatever reason, and is as you would expect, full of colourful illustrations. while it’s clearly a fairy tale book, it doesn’t feel overly girlified, meaning it’s not sickly pink. It stood out to me that the background of the cover is blue, which I really liked, subtle though it is.

The book is divided into four chapters – The Three Little Pigs, The Princess and the Pea, Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood. Essentially this means that the activities, games, searches, mazes, colouring, counting games, drawing activities and more are all themed along the story. Each page contains a line of the story, and there’s an activity for each page. Each story has similar activities, but they are themed on the different stories, so it doesn’t feel terribly repetitive. Added to which you’re unlikely to do the whole book in one sitting, so that’s not a problem at all. Noticeable in this book was the absence of stickers, which seem to be a staple of all activity books, but the children didn’t miss them and I didn’t miss peeling them off the living room floor.

This book would be great for cold and rainy evenings, or great if you’re headed somewhere on a road trip this half term. Or in fact just as a screen break during what promises to be a rainy half term! It’s sure to be a winner with fans of fairy tales, and will provide a good few hours of entertainment.

My Giant Fairy Tale Activity BookWhat we don’t love about My Giant Fairy Tale Activity Book

Honestly, looking for something to dislike in this activity book would be being pedantic. There’s nothing in it that was offensive or not to like. Except maybe Hansel and Gretel’s candy house. It made me want to lick the icing off a cupcake. Bad Hansel and Gretel.

Where can I find My Giant Fairy Tale Activity Book?

Published in December 2015 by Pavilion books, My Giant Fairy Tale Activity Book has an RRP of £9.99, and is available at that price from Amazon. The Book Depository has it for £4.71 delivered.

{Literature To Crafts} Wakey Wakey Big Brown Bear

Home / 1 - 2 / {Literature To Crafts} Wakey Wakey Big Brown Bear
by Luschka

Every few weeks a package arrives in the mail for that sends my girls squealing around in delight. It’s the Parragon Book Buddies mail, with the latest book for us to read. My girls know that means story time, curled up on the sofa, followed by crafts, art or play acting. Oh, how I wish we had animal fancy dress for this book. It was so lovely and Wakey Wakey Big Brown Bear is without doubt our favourite book so far.

Written by Tracey Corderoy, Wakey Wakey Big Brown Bear has two major themes, useful for learning: season changes (autumn to winter) and friendship.

In this beautiful story, Big Brown Bear decides he wants to stay awake in the winter as he misses out on all the fun: rolling around in the leaves, jumping in puddles, and building snow bears. He tries to stay awake, but his friends convince him to sleep and they’ll wake him for the fun.

Try as they might, once Big Brown Bear is sleeping, they can’t wake him, so they decide to save a bit of each season for him. They save leaves, rain and, in stead of snow, empty out the contents of a cushion for him. Big Brown Bear wakes disappointed to find that he missed all the fun again, until he sees the efforts his friends have gone to for him, and has lots of fun with them.

I tried to draw a few pictures of Big Brown Bear, but he ended up looking more fish-like, so I photocopied two pages from the book (I’m not sure if that’s actually legal, but hey ho. I’m not profiting from it!) in black and white, and Ameli and Aviya coloured him in the different seasonal activities.

Then I took an A4 page and drew a line two thirds of the way down, and marked the two columns Autumn and Winter. Ameli then glued the appropriate activities under the seasons.

Big Brown Bear

Later in the day we went for a walk and the girls jumped in puddles and rolled in leaves, just like Big Brown Bear, and of course, we don’t have snow yet, and I wasn’t about to start tearing apart a pillow. Instead I blew touchable bubbles all over the room and the girls ran and jumped and grabbed them like snow flakes.

A beautiful story, fun activities, and a definite favourite in our bookshelf.

Little Learners Books Review

Home / 1 - 2 / Little Learners Books Review
by Luschka

It’s a great joy to myself and my husband that Ameli enjoys reading. She loves paging through books, and always asks us to ‘read the words to me Mama, read the words’.  I remember when she was a baby my lovely friend Kesia said that she never said no to her little boy when he wanted her to read to him. It didn’t matter what she was doing, she’d read, even if it was just for a minute. I can’t pretend to be that good, but I think it’s awesome, and I do wonder whether Ameli’s advanced language skills are down to having been read to and with from a very early age. Read more: Little Learners Books Review