preschool books

Wakey Wakey Big Brown Bear!

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wakey wakey big brown bearWakey Wakey Big Brown Bear by Tracey Corderoy is an ideal book for little ones in Autumn. The story is all about a Big Brown Bear who, like all brown bears, must hibernate at the start of Autumn and not wake up until Spring. This brown bear is a little bit worried that he might miss out on all the fun that the Autumn and Winter seasons have to offer, so he is not so keen to go off and hibernate. To cheer him up all his friends promise to wake him up when anything exciting happens so he won’t miss out!

I found Wakey Wakey Big Brown Bear a really sweet book and the boys and I enjoyed reading it together, especially as they could relate many the things that the animals mentioned back to what they have been doing recently in Autumn too – like crunching leaves and splashing in puddles.

The language used in this book is really descriptive and lovely. That struck me straight away when reading it to the children. It starts:

Autumn was coming. Bright berries shone like jewels, leaves danced to the ground, and it was time for Big Brown Bear’s long sleep.

The moral and sentiment of the book is great too, all about going the extra distance for your friends. The animals weren’t able to wake up Big Brown Bear, so rather than shrug to themselves and say “oh well” they decided to save all the best bits of Autumn and winter for him to enjoy when he finally woke up in the Spring!
wakey wakey big brown bear

It’s a tale of friendship, and of appreciating and enjoying nature and the world around you – both things I would like my children to learn as they grow up!

The illustrations by Rachel Swirles are also very appealing, with all the gorgeous Autumn colours.

I have to say, as soon as I saw this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert it reminded me of Wakey Wakey Big Brown Bear – so anyone who has enjoyed that advert, should give this book a try with their children!

We were sent a copy of Wakey Wakey Big Brown Bear to review through the Parragon Book Buddies scheme.
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Nanny Fox

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Orion Books recently sent us a lovely picture book: Nanny Fox by Georgie Adams and Selina Young.

nanny fox book coverNanny Fox is all about Arnold the Fox who unlike the rest of his community, loved chickens as friends not as food!

It’s a lovely book about friendship and how Arnold and the chicks forged a great relationship despite foxes and chicks normally being foes! It’s a positive message for children about not judging people by first impressions and giving them a chance. The chickens could very well have sent Arnold packing but instead they gave him a chance and they ended up forming a great bond! It also shows how Arnold was not afraid to stand up and be different from the rest of his family, by sticking to what he believed in rather than just following the pack and munching down all the chicks.

The illustrations are colourful with lots of character and expression and are very appealing and the way the text is written is also really good with lots of humour. It kept my 3 and 5 year olds entertained throughout. My 5 year old really enjoyed the bit where all of Arnold’s family start talking about how delicious they find eating all the chicks, and all the different comments his family members made.

page spread from nanny fox

This is a great story book to add to any young child’s collection and I could see it being really popular with most preschoolers

Little Tiger Press – Follow Me on the Farm

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As members of the Little Tiger Press parents panel, we are sometimes sent books to review. My children love reading new books, so they are always excited to see what we get.

The first book we got this month was:

Follow Me on the Farm (count with me)

follow me on the farm

This is an A4 size book with pull out sections on each page. It is all about counting, while exploring the farm and all the animals on it. It is really bright and colourful and the illustrations all have a cute and friendly style to them.

The book is written in rhyme throughout, so it flows easily when reading aloud. The buzzy bee character is shown on each flap, encouraging the child to recognise where to lift and pull each flap, which is a good idea as sometimes with other books mine have tried lifting from the wrong side and ended up ripping things if its not clear!

Because each page is so thick, due to having the large flaps folded up inside each page, the book only covers numbers up to 5, so I would say it is most suited to the preschool age. It is a little young for my 4 year old although he did still enjoy it, but ideal for my 3 year old and 21 month old.

As mentioned, the flaps are really big – they are almost full page size – this makes it easy for younger ones to handle them and lift them up by themselves. The flaps are fully illustrated on both sides, and when you pull them out it gives the impression of the animal turning to follow the bee in the opposite direction, which is a good effect.

The pages are slightly glossy and thicker than normal paper, again to make it more difficult for little ones to accidently rip it. So you would be quite safe letting a younger toddler explore this book by themselves for a few minutes, without the risk that when you come back the whole book will be shredded!

Throughout the book, the buzzy bee is encouraging all the animals to follow him and come along, and on the last page we find out what it is he wanted to show them all – 5 newborn puppies! Which is quite sweet.

It’s a very nice book if you are encouraging your child to pick up counting and numbers, or if they have an interest in farm animals. It is very nicely done and kept my children’s attention.

Little Tiger Press also have another book in the same range which is Follow Me in the Jungle (what can I see) which covers learning about different actions, rather than counting.