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Interactive Books

We’re Going On An Elf Chase By Martha Mumford & Laura Hughes

We're Going On An Elf CHaseWe love this festive lift-the-flap book which will appeal to fans of the 80’s classic ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’.

Join a group of bunnies, wrapped up warm in their winter woollies, as they head off on an adventure to find Santa’s elves. On the way they encounter sliding penguins, chirping robins, snoring polar bears and clippy cloppy reindeer.

The bunnies do an excellent job of manoeuvring around the obstacles in their path but they will need your child’s help to find all the elves, who are sneakily hidden away behind flaps on the pages.

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Doctor Molly’s Medicine Case By Miriam Moss & Deborah Allwright

Doctor Molly's Medicine CaseLittle Molly loves to dress up and today she has decided to be a doctor. She pops on a white coat and grabs her magical medicine case, which is guaranteed to contain everything she needs to make her patients feel better.

Very soon her little surgery becomes busy. She treats a polar bear with a cold, a crocodile with a broken tail and a pelican who has a sore throat from eating too many bony fish. Each time she opens her bag, the items she needs magically appear – a thermometer and hot water bottle for the bear, some soothing cream and plasters for the croc and some honey and a spoon for the greedy bird.

Soon they all feel better and are off on their way – but Molly is confused when they all come back complaining of rumbling tummies. Can her magical medicine case deliver the goods and help them feel better this time?

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Who’s On The Farm? By Julia Donaldson & Lydia Monks

Who's On The Farm?We’re big fans of ‘What The Ladybird Heard‘ by Julia Donaldson & Lydia Monks. In fact we went through a stage towards the end of last year where we read it at bedtime every night for about 2 months! The illustrations, in particular, are fantastic so we love this little spin off board book with a ‘peekaboo’ theme.

The book starts by asking you who you can see on the farm. It shows you pictures from the original title and identifies the characters, but there are also lift-the-flap sections which encourage you to guess who is hiding. Little fingers can open the chicken coop to find the fat red hen, move a haystack to spot the hairy hog and find the cats behind the hedge. Look carefully and you might even spot Hefty Hugh and Lanky Len in a pile of manure!

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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.

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Who’s Hiding? By Satoru Onishi

Who's Hiding?Ivy spotted this on the shelf of our local bookshop last week and was instantly fascinated. She sat on the floor looking at it for so long that I definitely had to buy it!

The simple format shows 18 animals per double page spread. Their size, shape and position on the page doesn’t change so Ivy quickly learned to identify what each one was and its rough location.

Each page then asks you a question and you have to find the correct animals in order to answer it. The questions are things like ‘Who’s hiding?’, ‘Who’s backwards?’ and ‘Who’s sleeping?’.

I particularly like the questions around emotions (Crying, Angry etc) as your child has to identify the emotion by looking at the expressions on the animal’s faces. Ivy likes to mimic the faces – particularly the angry bear!

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When I Grow Up… By Patrick George

When I Grow Up...When I Grow Up… by Patrick George is a very visual, interactive book so it’s quite difficult to do it justice with just words!

The book encourages your child to think about what job they might like to do when they are an adult and the fab transparent pages add an extra layer of fun.

First we see a picture of a girl who wants to be a pilot. On the opposite page is an aeroplane with big shiny windows. The windows are printed on a transparent page and when you flip this over they become a pair of an aviator sunglasses on the young girl, instantly transforming her in to a pilot.

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Shark In The Park! By Nick Sharratt

Shark In The Park!Timothy Pope has a new telescope and he’s taken it to the park to play. The park is nice and tranquil – there are birds in the trees, ducks on the pond and children playing happily. Yet, each time Timothy takes a peek down his telescope he shrieks in surprise as he can see a shark!

The clever paper cut outs let you see the ‘shark fin’ each time and then when you turn the page you can see what it really is.  A cat’s ear, a birds wing and even a hair quiff can all look like a shark down the lens of Timothy’s telescope. It’s definitely Timothy’s eyes playing tricks on him because there can’t really be a shark in the park. Can there?

The repetitive nature of this book – and the little visual surprises – make it perfect for reading aloud to toddlers. We’ve now read it so many times that Ivy can anticipate what’s coming next and can recite part of the rhyme!

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The Book With No Pictures

The Book With No PicturesThis book was recommended to me multiple times before I bought it and I have to admit I was sceptical. I genuinely didn’t think that Ivy would be able to sit through (let alone enjoy) a book without any pictures. I was very, very wrong!

I don’t want to give too much away as I think that would spoil it a little, but the basic premise is that the person reading the book has to read every single word out loud, whether they want to or not. So be prepared to say some very silly things and to put your voice acting abilities to good use!

Ivy loves this book and we both giggle from start to finish. It’s one of those books that she can’t get enough of so as soon as we get to the last page she directs me straight back to the beginning so we can start again and the voices and sounds get more and more ridiculous each time!

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Princess Polly: I’m Starting Nursery By Amanda Li & Melanie Williamson

Priness Polly: I'm Starting NurseryIvy loves Princess Polly so we have most of this series either on our shelf or stashed ready for her to read when the time is appropriate. This title is about starting nursery (which she will be doing early next year) so we’ve recently introduced it to our rotation.

The book starts with an apprehensive Princess Polly. She’s not sure about starting nursery because she doesn’t know what it will be like and she’s worried she’ll miss her parents. She visits with her Mummy and sees lots of children having fun which sets her mind at ease.

After some settling in sessions she has her first full day and the book shows all the things your child can expect to experience at nursery – from the activities they’ll do,  like painting, playing and singing to the format of the day, like snacks, naps and story time.

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No More Nappies by Campbell Books & Marion Cocklico

No More NappiesOperation potty training is due to start shortly so we are currently reading lots of books on the topic to help her understand what’s coming. This one, from the Big Steps series, has quickly become her favourite and we’re currently reading it 3-4 times a day at her request.

The book shows two toddlers, Millie and Mo, as they start their potty training journey. At the beginning of the books they are both wearing nappies. You can lift up Millie’s skirt to see her nappy and you can also use a slider to pull Mo’s nappy down and reveal his bottom which Ivy thinks is hilarious.

They don’t want to wear nappies any more, so we see them visit the shop with their Daddy to buy potties and grown up pants.  They learn how to use them and the book reinforces the point that everyone has little accidents and they are nothing to worry about. By the end of the book Millie is using her potty like a pro and Mo has even advanced to the loo.

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