Category

Science & Technology

One Button Benny by Alan Windram & Chloe Holwill-Hunter

Benny the robot is a little bit different. All of his robot friends have lots of shiny buttons which do fun things, like flash lights, blow bubbles and play music. But poor Benny only has one button. It’s bright red and says ‘Only Press In An Emergency’.

The other robots make fun of him and call him ‘One Button Benny’ and this makes him sad. He doesn’t really know what an emergency is but he secretly hopes one will happen so that he gets to press his button and find out what it does.

One morning Benny wakes up, eats his breakfast and brushes his teeth, unaware that outside his house an actual emergency is unfolding. The evil Collectors have landed on his planet and they are planning to gather up all of the robots, crunch them up and turn them in to teapots! The Collectors are small hairy aliens with green bums and they mean business!

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Rosie Revere, Engineer By Andrea Beaty & David Roberts

Rosie Revere EngineerWe love this series of books by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts. Ada Twist is the best of the bunch in our opinion but this one comes a close second!

Shy little Rosie Revere dreams of becoming a great engineer. Like a magpie she collects gizmos and gadgets that other people have thrown away and in her bedroom at night she turns them in to amazing inventions – including a hot dog dispenser and some helium pants!

Her favourite uncle is a zookeeper so she makes him a special hat (made of  parts of a fan and some squirty cheese) to keep the snakes off his head. She proudly hands it over but her uncle laughs! He says he likes it but poor Rosie is mortified and vows never to invent anything again.

But then one day she discovers that her very clever aunt (who used to build aeroplanes) dreams of being able to fly and she begins to wonder if she could make this happen. Can she use all of her ingenuity and help her aunt take to the skies?

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Ten Little Robots by Mike Brownlow & Simon Rickerty

Ten Little RobotsIvy and I both love the ‘Ten Little…’ books by Mike Brownlow and Simon Rickerty so we were super excited to discover this brand new addition. I believe there are now 7 titles in the series and this one is definitely in our top 3 (our absolute favourites are Ten Little Dinosaurs and Ten Little Superheroes!).

The story starts with ten shiny new robots who have just been switched on at the robot factory. They are very excited by their surroundings so they decide to explore –  with catastrophic results! We slowly count the robots down from ten to one as they encounter lasers, crushers, cogs, drones and explosions.

Can the last remaining robot restore order to the factory and bring all of his robot friends safely back together? Of course he can!

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The Queen Engineer By Suzanne Hemming & Jacquie Hughes

The Queen EngineerIf you’re a fan of books with strong female characters then this new one from Suzanne Hemming (author of ‘She’s Not Good For A Girl, She’s Just Good‘) is definitely for you.

The story is about a young princess called Florence who has her heart set on becoming a great engineer. She has the brain and the ambition but she has one problem – her father, the King, says that instead of pursuing her dream career she has to marry a Prince and have babies.

Young Flo is devastated. She has no problem with Princes and babies but she also wants to be a great engineer and the King says she can’t do both. She flees the palace and bumps in to her old babysitter, who sits and listens to her woes. The lady tells her that you always have to be who you are, not who other people think you should be. She shows Flo a picture of her wedding day (where she married a Princess) and says that when you follow your heart, some people will accept who you are and some won’t but what matters most is that you are always true to yourself.

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Ten Little Superheroes By Mike Brownlow & Simon Rickerty

Ten Little SuperheroesWe are big fans of the ‘Ten Little …” series by Mike Brownlow and Simon Rickerty and this one is our second favourite (Nothing beats Ten Little Dinosaurs!).

The story sees our ten tiny heroes take on the League of Bad Guys who have an evil plan to take over the city. They do their best to battle the hilarious baddies (which include Hippo Man, Glue Girl, Crab Man and Hypno Girl) but on each page we see one superhero disappear. The book counts backwards from ten until eventually there’s only one hero left. The bad guys think they’ve won and start to celebrate but the Super Kids have one last trick up their sleeve. Can all ten of them reassemble and save the day?

Ivy gets really excited when we read this as the rhyme is really bouncy, the illustrations are a riot of colour and there are lots of big superhero words to shout as you read –  POW! ZAP! SPLAT!

Buy it now: https://amzn.to/2Jybh5x

Praxx And the Ringing Robot By Paul Ian Cross & Andy Green

Praxx & The Ringing RobotPraxx is a little alien who lives on a planet called Ekkadora with his mum and his best friend Zobott the robot. Praxx has lots of chores to do but he’s not a big fan of doing them himself so he sometimes enlists Zobott’s help.

One morning Praxx is rudely awoken by Zobott who is making lots of strange, really loud noises – RING! BLEEP! CROAK! It transpires that Praxx had asked him to help out with tidying up – but he has put everything in the wrong place. The alarm clock, phone and the family pet are all inside Zobott’s tummy storage box, there’s a worm in mum’s handbag and their rocket has been parked in the house!

Praxx learns an important lesson – always do your chores yourself else they might end up taking three times as long to fix!

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Izzy Gizmo By Pip Jones & Sara Ogilvie

Izzy GizmoLittle Izabelle loves to invent things. Her house is full of things she has made – from the Beardtastic grooming machine to the Swirly Spagsonic mealtime helper – but the problem is that they’re all in states of disrepair. Izzy loves to make things but when they break down she is too frustrated to try and fix them. She just gives up and moves on to the next project.

One day an injured crow falls in to her path. The local vet tells her that he has a broken wing which can’t be fixed so Izzy takes him home to look after him. She tries lots of ways to keep him entertained on the ground but the poor little crow just wants to be airborne again.

Spotting an opportunity to invent something new, Izzy sets about making a pair of wings but they’re too heavy and don’t work. Disillusioned, she immediately wants to give up but her grandpa and the crow won’t let her! They gently encourage her to have another go so she tries again. And again. And again.

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Ada Twist, Scientist
by Andrea Beaty & David Roberts

Ada Twist, ScientistLittle Ada drives her parents to distraction because she refuses to talk. Whilst all the children around her are starting to spout their first words, Ada just silently observes the world around her. Then she turns 3 and suddenly everything changes. She starts to talk and she just can’t stop. She wants to know why? when? where? how? and she needs the answers right now!

Ada’s endless need to question everything means that she is a perfect mini scientist. She devises experiments and builds hypotheses, trying to work out how everything she encounters works. This causes new problems for her parents however, as Ada pushes them to their limits with her constant questioning and tinkering.

One days she smells something horrible whilst playing in the garden and vows to track down the source. Can she puzzle it out? And how will her parents react when she starts experimenting on the cat and scribbling equations on the walls?

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Unplugged By Steve Antony

UnpluggedThis fantastic book will be a useful tool for any parent whose child loves screen time a little bit too much.

Blip is a little robot who loves to play on her computer all day long. She uses it to learn new things, to see faraway lands, to listen to music and to challenge herself with puzzles and games. But then one day there’s a power cut and she trips over her wire, tumbles out of her house and down a hill and ends up drifting down a river in to a forest.

This is unknown territory for Blip – she is outside and unplugged! What will happen to her and what will she learn in the great outdoors?

The imagery in this book is beautiful and I love the way the pictures move from monochrome and ‘blocky’ when Blip is on her computer to bright colours and soft lines when she is outside. Blip herself is adorable and Ivy thinks she’s super cute!

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The Earth Book By Todd Parr

The Earth BookThis fantastic book by Todd Parr is all about the little things that we can do to make a big difference to the earth. The concepts are explained in a really simple way so that your child can see a tangible reason for being environmentally friendly.

Tell a child that they have to colour on both sides of the paper or that mummy has to take her own bags to the supermarket and they probably won’t understand why. This book connects those actions to preserving trees and shows you that without trees then owls won’t have anywhere to live.

We love Todd Parr’s bold illustrations and Ivy loves naming all of the colours as we move from page to page. A gorgeous introduction to the wonders of the earth and why we should preserve it. This book is a New York Times Bestseller and we can see why!

Buy it now: https://amzn.to/2GxHb5h