Knight School by Jane Clarke and Jane Massey

Knight School has been a very handy book for us recently. It tells the story of two friends Little Knight and Little Dragon who are starting school.
But... they go to different schools! Little Knight goes to school in the daytime and Little Dragon goes to school in the nighttime.

Little Knight and Little Dragon love going to school but they get a bit fed up that they never see each other anymore - until they concoct a plan to have a mini adventure out of school time! They disappear off and find a brand new friend to watch some stars with. Their daddies eventually catch up with them and after the initial worry realise that the friends just want to spend some time with each other again. 

This is a particularly good story for us right now because Rosie has just started school but she is going to a different school from her best friend. They have gone from spending at least two days a week together to virtually not seeing each other. So reading a picture book which helps to explain this, and also points out that you need to make time to see your friends, is very helpful. We just have to hope she won't plan to meet her friend after dark for an adventure!

The illustrations are very sweet and there are lots of gentle funny moments. My two year old has been enjoying reading this with us as well so it bridges the age gap from two to five pretty well. I particularly like the scene at the end where they hold a big fete/summer party. I'm hoping to emulate it for my daughter's birthday party!

Toys in Space by Mini Grey

We invariably love Mini Grey's fabulous picture books and Toys in Space is no exception. It's conceptually brilliant and we've been enjoying it a lot recently. It's similar in style to her Traction Man series (which is also completely wonderful) but the story is more rounded and less wacky (I do love both though, the 'wacky' is not a criticism!).

It's essentially the story of some toys left out in the garden overnight and the adventure they find themselves on, or the story they tell themselves - does it really happen?!. They get beamed up into a space rocket and meet Hoctopize, the very sad alien. He looks like a glove wearing pyjamas(!) and has lost his toy, Cuddles. He shows them all the thousands of toys he has collected in his quest to find Cuddles and they are slightly horrified by all the children that have lost their toys and must be feeling bereft. So they help him to send them back to their homes (handily Hoctopize labelled them by their addresses as soon as they were beamed up!) and then to cheer him up they throw him a party. All too soon they have to go and they float gently back to the garden leaving Hoctopize to continue his sad search. But as Hoctopize prepares his spaceship to leave he spies a little someone. Can you guess who?!

The artwork is amazing and as I mentioned at the beginning the whole concept of this book works really well. It almost has a filmic quality to it which draws you in, I think it's partly the way it is laid out.

The funny thing is that since reading this story Rosie has not liked to leave her toys out in the garden. So she's tidying up a bit more. It can only be a good thing!

What can you see Spot? by Eric Hill

My (just) two year old is loving What Can You See, Spot? at the moment. It's perfectly pitched for her and is working really well at giving her new vocabulary and also has a lovely repetition. It's quite a simple concept, placing Spot the dog in different places (countryside, beach, farm, home) and then asking the question 'what can you see?' The thing about it is that all the objects to spot are fun to look at, interesting to say and help to expand my toddlers vocabulary. I really think it's a pretty perfect example of a book of this kind!

Spot the dog is well known and we have enjoyed many of his books but this one is a real stand-out for us. Sadly the author Eric Hill died earlier this year but because he produced such a huge variety and quantity of books with Penguin, I'm sure we haven't seen the last of Spot. And of course so many of them are great backlisters which will stick around for many moons to come.

Jampires by Sarah McIntyre and David O'Connell

This one is a bit personal because I have been a tiny bit involved in the publication of it. But have no fear, I wouldn't blog about it unless I thought it was BRILLIANT! And it's also been road-tested by Rosie and pronounced as 'Yummy!' and a few seconds later 'Can we get some doughnuts? Will there be any jam in them?' (Rosie loves jam doughnuts - who doesn't?!)

Anyway it's a great picture book about some loveable characters called 'jampires'! These naughty little creatures are stealing the jam out of everything and one day a little boy, Sam, decides he's had enough and sets out to discover what is happening. He catches the jampires and they take him to their land (note - make sure you're not hungry at this bit, it will have you reaching for the cake tin!) and introduce him to their mummies. After making such great friends the jampires take great care never to leave Sam jamless again and even make sure they provide him with extra. But the thing is they have to get their jam from somewhere so make sure YOU check your doughnuts carefully!

I think this will really come into its own over halloween, I think we might download the masks and do some kind of jam doughnut bobbing (instead of apples). But let's not run away with autumn too quickly, it's great to read now as well!

There is a lovely website with a few activities on it and a guide to making your own comic-jam which is how the authors came up with the whole concept. And Sarah McIntyre has a wonderful blog which has a great post on it at the moment about how the book was created.