No catches, no fine print just unconditional book love and reading recommendations for your students and children.
You can create your own school's page, develop tailored reading lists to share with peers and parents...all helping encourage reading for pleasure in your children.
Find out moreA new selection of books especially chosen to introduce toddlers and young children to the world, through colours, shapes, numbers, letters and more.
April 2020 Book of the Month | Homes illustrated by Hector Dexet and published by Laurence King in April 2020 is a board book featuring all kinds of houses for all kinds of different creatures.
From boats and trucks to trains, limousines and hot air balloons, explore a huge range of different ways to travel in this charming board book. With peep-through holes throughout, there's a fun surprise on every page. Part of an original and exciting new series of board books with bright and bold illustrations.
Clive Gifford is renowned for the quality and accuracy of his non-fiction books and has been nominated for, and won, many awards for his books. The illustrations are bright and child friendly making this a great book to dip into or to pore over. The point is made in the book that comparing things is a great way to learn about them, as well as being useful it’s also fun. It’s not often you can see the biggest, tallest and longest creatures on the earth in one double page spread, or how fast different creatures run. It’s no wonder you can never catch your pet cat – they run faster than humans! Still on cats, I had no idea they contained less water in their bodies than dogs! Subjects covered range from changing seasons, to flying high, mighty machines and tiny creatures plus many more. A book I am sure many youngsters will get a great deal of pleasure from, as well as learning lots along the way.
This witty, stylish counting book will catch the attention of adults as well as the imagination of the very young. A rhythmic, rhyming text and eye-catching illustrations present us with one fox in socks, then two gorillas looking in mirrors, followed by three jolly llamas in pyjamas, right up to the twenty birds who have the last words. Along the way we also meet five goats wearing coats, the goats labelled and clearly identifiable under their coats (Nubian, mountain, angora…). Other favourite spreads include the one featuring sixteen chickens reading (and clearly enjoying) Dickens! A wonderfully original counting book that is as handsome as it is effective.
February 2020 Book of the Month | Small person in the family with a fondness for vehicles? They will love this book! Though there’s no real story as such, it’s action-packed, every page crammed with brightly coloured vehicles going about their business on equally bright backgrounds, a friendly animal character at the wheel. ‘Which bus would you catch?’ asks the first spread, which presents us with ten different buses to admire; ‘which truck would you drive?’ comes a bit further on. Trains, trucks, tractors, bicycles, boats, diggers, rockets, cars and emergency vehicles all get their moment in the spotlight, with questions and challenges on each page as well as speech bubbles, jokes and descriptions to read out. Bright, busy and so much fun, this will keep littles ones absorbed for hours. Fans of this will also enjoy William Bee’s equally bright and distinctive Wonderful World of series.
April 2019 Book of the Month | Bounce like a bunny, spring like a lamb, leap like a frog, hop like a chick – pre-schoolers will have a ball guessing what animal adorable, active Ted is about to imitate before lifting the flaps for the big reveals. Bright, bold and with plenty for little ones to giggle over as they get involved, this is the very best kind of board book – the kind that toddlers will request over-and-over (and over!) again.
This absolutely stunning book turns the alphabet into a wild exploration of the animal world as readers are presented with 26 different creatures across colourful pages, all featuring pop ups or peep through cut outs to make this unforgettable. Questions to readers, as well as its ingenious layout, make it a superb interactive reading experience – ‘Who is prettier than an ant?’ asks the text: ‘A butterfly’ is the answer. ‘Who has more legs than a butterfly?’ a caterpillar, and so on. Some of the questions are delightfully quirky: ‘Who is more wobbly than an iguana?’ (Can you guess?), but each one, combined with the striking artwork will draw the reader into the wonderful world of the Animalphabet.
Take the very young on a trip into the high mountains in this excellent first information book. Each page features a stunning pop-up depicting one of the animals native to the mountains, from wolf to bear, from Bald Eagle to a Rainbow Trout, particularly beautiful and dramatic in rich reds and greens. The animals are introduced via lines of verse while elsewhere on the page short lines of text convey interesting and intriguing facts. The pop-ups are not only beautiful but sturdy enough to stand repeated readings, and this is a book to inspire the very young.
Playful and kind, Elmer is the perfect companion for the very young and they’ll find a delightful echo of their own day in his. From waking up through lunchtime, playtime, bath and bedtime, Elmer is a happy presence and each page is full of life, and things to talk about. Specially shaped sturdy tabs are lovely to look at and useful too for little fingers as they turn the pages. David McKee’s artwork always dazzles and suits the board book format very well.
Shortlisted for the UKLA Book Awards 2019 | A beautiful picture book about friendship and art. Bob and Bat are best friends. They do everything together (look out for the wonderful illustration of them dancing to the radio!) but best of all they love painting. Then one day Bat leaves a note for Bob explaining that he has to go away for a while. Bob is bereft, indeed just how sad is clear not just in his attitude, but in his paintings: whatever he paints is blue, representative of the big blue hole where Bat used to be. Fortunately his other friends come to his help, opening his eyes to the colourful beauty and hope of a sun rise, and shortly after that, Bat returns too. This is simply gorgeous to look at, and opens up all sorts of discussions about friendship, resilience, art and expression.
Counting from one to ten is great fun with this jolly, carefully thought-out board book. There’s just one line of text on each page, short but interesting with some nicely onomatopoeic language (tractors chugging, fire trucks rumbling). This describes the scene and numbers the vehicles. Readers are also asked questions and given extra things to count and find, a good way to keep and hold their attention. The illustrations are bright and attractive, lots of fun to look at, and the machines each carry smiling animal characters – stories in waiting there. A round tab on each page reinforces number recognition and makes it easy for little hands to turn the pages. ~ Andrea Reece There's a companion title, Amazing Machines First Words too!
This robust, beautifully illustrated board book is a great way to teach young children about nature, and will also boost their vocabulary. Themed under headings such as gardens and parks; feathers, eggs and nests; and rocks and gems, the pages feature an array of birds, animals, insects and plants, all clearly illustrated and labelled. Many will be familiar to UK children, the little wren for example, branch of ivy, or dandelion clock, while others are more exotic – the Baobab tree, or Arctic fox. Each page, each object is lovely to look at and provides so much to spot and discuss. ~ Andrea Reece
It's never to early to read to children and this selection of picture books are a great introduction to first concepts, perfect for even the youngest babies.
Through colour, touch, sound and shapes young children start to make sense of the world around them.
ABC See and say all the letters of the alphabet by Aino-Maija Metsola
Alone Together by Clayton Junior
My First 123 by Shirley Hughes
...........................................
