Under the ocean – Pop-up book

This gorgeous Pop-up book lives in the highest shelf of the bookcase in the kids room so my 2 year-old one doesn’t get his hands on it. I couldn’t see it broken, it is precious.

Under the ocean, by Anouck Boisrobert and Louis Rigaud is a wonderful, stunning pop-up book. The images says it all. Every page is a little world to discover. I’m very jealous that I’m not the designer of this book. The dream, to do a book like this one.

I bought it on the Tate Britain which it is WAY cheaper than Amazon. Check the price difference in those websites! Worthy the money though! A very very special present for the kids (or for you!)

The heart and the bottle

Yesterday my 5 year-old son came home from school with a lot of questions about a very difficult subject. A girl from his class lost his sister and they talked about death at school. He was very concerned (and so was I) as this is the first time that the subject comes along. We talked very seriously and I think he understood the importance of the subject.

After dinner we read this book, The heart and the bottle by Oliver Jeffers. Perfect for cases like this one.

The story is about this little girl who lost his grandfather and she turned herself into grief. She put her heart into a bottle to protect it from anything else. What I love from this book it that, without a fuss, Jeffers conveys huge emotions trough his stories. He already talked about loss in his other books and how to gently overcome it with the help of friends. It is a nice, moving story and, as always, the illustrations are fantastic.

I was glad we had this book at home.

Wild by Emily Hughes

A couple of days ago, it was the birthday of my little son. For me, having a child like him was a SHOCK. Son N1 was an angel, the perfect child.
This one is something else, he breaks everything he touches, he always finds a different use for things, he screams, tantrums for 30 minutes, we are always living in A& E, he never agrees with what I say, and he is only 2 and driving me crazy.

So when I heard about this book, I thought it was perfect for him. It is called WILD.

The story goes that this feral girl was raised in the jungle by animals and then some humans tried to take her to the civilisation. It didn’t go very well. The story is a wonderful, heart warming one, specially if you love animals.

But I want to put special attention to the illustrations, they are marvellous. Emily Hughes’s scenes depict some very sweet moments between the animals and the girl. You can buy it from the Flying Eye website.

We read this book again and again with my 2 sons and we love it. I treasure it and I keep it safe from the wild creature in my house, and to be honest (shh don’t tell him) I bought more for me that for him.

Images by Flying Eye Books

The day the crayons quit

Of course it was Christmas and I have many many new books to recommend, these kids are so lucky, they had a lot of new books as presents.

The one we read yesterday was “The day the crayons quit” which is a very original story.
The crayons don’t want to work anymore so they each wrote a complain letter to their owner Duncan. It is brilliant, extremely funny story by Drew Daywalt.

Illustrated by Oliver Jeffers, the creator of Lost and Found.

Mr Tiger goes wild

I can’t recommend enough this book. The illustrations are stunning and it is a story to think about what it means to be different. Glorious book of Peter Brown to enjoy with or without little ones, if you are a fan of illustrated books, just buy it.

The Hole

So in my never ending search for new book for my children, I found this one. It is called THE HOLE by Øyvind-Torseter. It is a very simple but funny story, the character finds a hole in his flat, as you can see all the book has a hole in the middle, so the story evolves with the character and the hole. You have to buy it, I’m not giving away the story, it’s too good!

You can find it Amazon

Meg on the moon/ at sea/ many other stories

I recently discovered these gorgeous books by Helen Nicoll and Jan Pienkowski. The stories are about a witch and her cat. They are colourful, fun, crazy story lines and even weird I can say. That is why I like them so much. I thought they were new, because of their modern, simply and bright illustrations, and then I discovered that they were written more than 30 years ago. If you don’t know about them, go to the local library and get a copy, I’m sure they will have them there. Extremely enjoyable.

If your child likes story tales, there is an amazing theatre play showing now of Little Red Riding Hood in the Polka Theatre. We went 2 weeks ago and my 4 year-old loved it.
It is the traditional story with a nice twist and no scary wolf! Super recommendable!

Reasons my kid is crying

I got this amazing book Reasons my kid is crying as a Christmas present, one of the best books I’ve ever read. So you think that your child is making unreasonable demands that you can’t even begin to comprehend? You are not alone my dear, welcome to the bonkers world of being a parent. This book, compiled by Greg Pembroke, shows us the ridiculous reasons why your son or daughter cry as if the world is ending. There is a blog as well where parents send funny pictures, or you can get the book on Amazon. Worth every cent.

Button Owl Boutique

Button Own Boutique creates unique and beautiful room decor and accessories for childhood and beyond.
Presents, toys and decorations for the children’s room. They are all made with felt and the designs are super cool. You can personalised them. My kids had presents from this shop on Christmas and they love it. They sell on Etsy.