Ivy’s Guest Book: Niki Chapman, Owner, Little Smarts

little smartsTell us a little bit about yourself and your family

Hi everyone, my name is Niki and I am a mum of three to Archie 8, Baxter 5 and Luna 3. I am married to Chris and we all live in South London. We love going to the local parks, woods, museums and of course, reading!

What are your children’s favourite books?

Luna’s favourite book changes all the time, but this week it’s ‘Oi Dog’ by Kes and Claire Gray. It’s a funny book that we enjoy reading together and Luna likes to shout out the rhyming words and loves the illustrations by Jim Field. It was great to see that this year the World Book Day chose the ‘Oi Goat’ book from the same series. I can’t wait to see which animals they are going to use in the next instalment.

Continue Reading…

Little People Big Dreams: Frida Kahlo By Isabel Sánchez Vegara & Gee Fan Eng

Frida KahloWe have a number of books from this fantastic Little People Big Dreams series. I bought them with the intention of putting them away until Ivy was a little bit older but she’s really drawn to the pictures and often asks for them to be read to her.

I recently visited the Frida Kahlo exhibition at the V&A museum as I am hugely fascinated by her story and her art. In the gift shop I bought Ivy a flowered headband in a similar style to the one you can see on the front cover. She loved it and squealed with delight when I showed her that she looked like the lady on the book. As a result we’ve read this one lots of times over the last few weeks!

This beautifully illustrated title gives a brief overview of Frida Kahlo’s short and troubled life but deals with it in an age-appropriate way. We see that she suffers a childhood illness which affects her leg and is later involved in an accident which means she must spend much of her time in bed.

Continue Reading…

Strictly No Elephants
by Lisa Mantchev & Taeeun Yoo

Strictly No ElephantsThe little boy in this story has a pet elephant which he loves very much. They go everywhere together and help each other when things get hard, because that’s what friends do. However sometimes having an unusual pet can be tough.

One day the little boy takes his elephant to Pet Club but when he arrives there is a big sign on the door saying ‘Strictly No Elephants’. He watches all of the other children head in to the club with their dogs and cats and he feels very sad. He hasn’t done anything wrong but he is being excluded.

The boy and his elephant walk the grey and rainy streets until they bump in to a girl with a pet skunk. She’s also sad because she was excluded from Pet Club too. They quickly form a bond over their unusual choice of animals and decide that the best course of action would be to set up their own club!

Continue Reading…

Competition Time: Win A Set of 5 Picture Books With An Adventure Theme!

Ivy turned 3 earlier this week so to celebrate I thought we would run a little competition!

Our prize bundle contains 5 of our favourite picture books, all with an adventure theme. We have 2 bundles available – one for Facebook followers and one for Instagram followers.

Click here to enter on Facebook

Click here to enter on Instagram

Contest is open internationally and will run until the end of this month. The winner will be selected at random at 8.30pm GMT on Friday, November 30th 2018

Continue Reading…

Flip Flap Pets By Axel Scheffler

Flip Flap PetsThere are lots of books on the market which allow you to mix and match animals to comic effect but this one is our outright favourite.

Each double page features a familiar pet such as a cat, a dog, a guinea pig or a bunny. On the right hand side we see a picture of the animal and on the left is the name of the animal and a cute poem which describes what it looks like and what it’s like as a pet.

The pages are split in the middle, allowing you to flip over the top or bottom sections to different pages – thus creating new names, poems and creatures. There are 121 combinations in total so there’s lots to keep your little one entertained.

Continue Reading…

The Grumpy Hamster By Sophie Johnson-Hill

The Grumpy HamsterThe hamster in this book is not a happy chap. In fact, he’s very grumpy INDEED! But why? Perhaps it’s because his mummy is very cross. But why is she cross? Maybe it’s because her teacher was mean to her. But why was the teacher mean? Well her manager was always moaning so maybe that has something to do with it…

The story shows how bad moods and the grumps can spread from person to person – but how can you make this cycle of grouchiness stop? The little hamster doesn’t know the answer, but one day he meets a wise old pigeon who lets him in to a little secret. You don’t have to hold on to all the grumps! You can take that energy and turn it in to something good.

Can the hamster overcome his grumpiness and learn how to be happy?

Continue Reading…

Ivy’s Guest Book: Nadine Bannister & Sarah Cooper, Managing Directors, My 1st Photos

My 1st PhotosTell us a little bit about yourself 

My name is Sarah Cooper and I’m a Director at My 1st Photos in Guildford. I live in Godalming, Surrey with my husband and 2 year old daughter. I set up My 1st Photos with my partner Nadine in April of this year. We make fabric photo albums for babies.

What is your daughter’s favourite book?

Brown Bear, Brown Bear’ by Eric Carle has been a favourite since she was very little. It’s really helped her learn colours and animals. She’s now a bit cheeky and mixes up the colours and animals to try and catch me out!

Continue Reading…

The Cook And The King By Julia Donaldson & David Roberts

The Cook And The KingAt the start of this lovely book the King is sat at his royal table eating takeaway pizza from a box. He needs a new cook and he needs one now. There’s a problem though – he’s really, really fussy! He auditions lots of impressive chefs but none of the meals they create for him is quite right. Then in walks Wobbly Bob – a self-confessed wimp who really wants the job!

The King agrees to give Bob a trial and sets him to work making fish and chips, but Bob is scared of every single step of the process. He’s scared of catching fish. He’s scared of digging for potatoes. He’s scared of slicing up chips. And he’s very scared of using the frying pan on the cooker. Fortunately the brave King is there to help and every time Bob is nervous about a task he steps in and shows him it’s okay.

Continue Reading…

Hedgehogs Don’t Live In The City! By Lucy Reynolds & Jenna Herman

Hedgehogs Don't Live In The City!We loved ‘Parrots Don’t Live In The City’ by Lucy Reynolds & Jenna Herman so we were very excited to discover that they have a new book out – this time with a hedgehog in the starring role!

The story follows Grace and Archie, two children who are scooting through the city at dusk. Grace spots something in the leaves which she thinks looks like a hedgehog but Archie disagrees. He tells her that hedgehogs don’t live in the city so it must have been something else. Grace doubts herself but as they continue their journey she thinks she spots another. Could it really be a hedgehog on the busy city streets?

The lovely rhyme makes this a pleasure to read and the words bring the bustling city to life. You can feel the hum of the traffic and the leaves being swirled in the autumn wind. The words are elevated by the crisp and leafy illustrations which encourage you to seek out the hidden wildlife.

Continue Reading…

Ivy’s Guest Book: Dr. Pragya Agarwal, CEO, The Art Tiffin

The Art TiffinTell us a little bit about yourself and your family

I am Pragya, CEO of The Art Tiffin and Organiser of TEDxFPWomen events. I live in the north-west near the sea with my two-year-old twin girls, my eldest daughter who has just graduated from Cambridge, my Scottish husband, and our cat, Belle and dog, Taylor.

I did my PhD from Nottingham and was a Senior Academic in the US and UK Universities, and now run a social enterprise and think-tank about gender diversity, creativity and mental health. I am a TEDx speaker and I write about parenting, feminism, art and mental health for Huffington Post and Forbes. I run an active facebook group for parents ‘Raising Creative Kids’ and an art subscription which is a comprehensive learning programme to introduce children (ages 4-10) to various artists.

Continue Reading…