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Andrea Beaty

Ivy’s Guest Book: Kate Phipps, Founder, Kate Phipps Writes

Kate Phipps WritesTell us a little bit about yourself and your family

I’m Kate, founder of Kate Phipps Writes. I write bespoke poetry and poetry prints for people, places and events from my studio in East Sussex. I have two children a daughter of 7 and a son of 6.

What are your children’s favourite books?

My children are starting to extend their reading range now that they can read on their own, but two books we always return to, which we have been reading since they were small are “Rosie Revere, Engineer” by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts and “Marshall Armstrong is new to our school” by David Mackintosh.

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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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Ivy’s Guest Book: Ceci De Benedictis, Director, Toy Box Tots

Toy Box TotsTell us a little bit about yourself and your family

My name is Ceci, short for Cecilia and I am half of Toy Box Tots, renting out boxes of super fun toys to preschoolers across the UK. I have boy girl twins who will turn 3 in the summer and a wild and crazy kitten called Harry. We live in East Dulwich with my husband Marco, having relocated from the UAE 18 months ago.

What are your children’s favourite books?

This changes on a monthly basis! At the moment it’s ‘Lottie Potter wants an Otter’ by Jeanne Willis and Leonie Lord . Every couple of weeks we go up to the local library and chose about 10 books to take home and there is always 1 that gets singled out and has to be read at least 10 times a day until we all know it from memory!  They always love books where someone or something is naughty or there is some drama or scandal that we can talk about.  It’s brilliant for me as I’m always looking for new books to base our toy boxes around so constantly having new books on the scene is great research.

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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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