The Girls by Lauren Ace and Jenny Lovelie

I bought this for my six year old's birthday and it's been a real hit. I think I spied it on Twitter and thought it looked just the sort of thing she would like. Particularly since the requested theme for her birthday party was 'friendship'. Unfortunately I didn't quite manage to deliver on that and just hired an entertainer and booked a hall - her friends were all there though! Just think of the instagramable/pinterest moments I could have captured if I'd properly gone to town on the friendship theme though. Hey ho - time is precious and crammed full of people needing attention so that didn't come to fruition.
Anyway, I've totally digressed from the subject in hand...

The Girls is a wonderful depiction of friendship starting from a young age and going through to adulthood. There isn't a narrative as such but it's captivating reading through and seeing the characters grow and change and the main message is that through it all they stick together and are there for one another. It also shows how everyone is different and has many strengths and that we can all be good at different things and support each other when times are good and bad. This book in particular is lovely because it shows how valuable and deep friendship can be if you nurture it and keep it going. 

I particularly like this book for my six year old who's just gone into Year 1 since I feel that she's at precisely the age where they really start to work out relationships with friends and it can be a huge struggle. It targets the issue is a very soft and likeable way.

The hardback format is very nice, cloth effect and feels very gifty. I love the illustrations too, the colours are slightly muted and I think the palette really works in this context. There is loads of detail to spot and talk about in the illustrations, in particular as the girls grow up and other people are added to their lives. Gorgeous!

Look I'm a scientist - DK Books

I've looked at a few young science experiment books over the last few years and I think this is one that will get used again and again. It's packed full of great experiments and activities to do with children aged three to six years - although I've earmarked a few for my two year old, the freezing of polar animals in a big tub of water and then finding out what works best to get them out seems right up his street! And I've no doubt my eight year old will get involved so the age reach is definitely going to be stretched.

From making playdough, slime and snow (using baking soda and shaving foam - genius!) it's full of lots of gooey, messy fun which is always going to be a hit with this age group. There's also some lovely activities to do with senses, including making windchimes and a rainbow wind catcher. The bubbles using a hula hoop and a paddling pool is definitely down for a summer activity later this year, too.

I actually got the ebook version out from the library via the Overdrive app on my ipad. I haven't got kids books out this way before and for something like this it works really well.

I love the design and the clear instructions too. All in all a big hit, with lots of fun planned from this!

the lost words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris

I'm kicking off this year with 'the lost words' by writer Robert Macfarlane and artist Jackie Morris. It was one of my Christmas presents from my husband and I have to say (alongside my microplane grater!) it's one of my favourites.

This is a sublimely beautiful and thoughtful book and I love the story behind the creation of it. You can read about it on Jackie Morris's blog here. In a nutshell the discovery that the Oxford Junior Dictionary was removing words such as otter, kingfisher and willow sparked an outcry and a petition was started by writers and naturalists. The reason behind the removal of these words was that they were slipping out of common usage, hence the title 'the lost words'.

I have to admit that when I first looked at this book in a bookshop I thumbed through it and didn't understand the whole concept behind it. But when I settled down on the sofa and properly looked at it, I completely fell in love. And later on when I read it with my children (five and eight) we had a lovely time together reading and sharing it. My eight year old really enjoyed reading the poems out to us both.

It's a big book and sumptuously made, with gold lettering. Because it's so large, it really allows space for the artwork to shine. It picks out a word on a double page, these are the 'spell' pages (it's called 'A spell book' in the sub-title). The following page has a poem about the word and the next page features a full magnificent double page illustration. So each word has six pages in total dedicated to it. The lost words are: acorn, adder, bluebell, bramble, conker, dandelion, fern, heather, heron, ivy, kingfisher, lark, magpie, newt, otter, raven, starling, weasel, willow and wren.

The poems are little works of art in their own right, each one unique and evocative of the word they are describing. The magpie one which ends 'Every Magpie for Every Magpie against Every Other Walking Flying Swimming Creeping Creature on the Earth!' makes me chuckle every time. And the 'Rooftop riprap street-smart hip-hop of starling song' is just wonderful to read aloud.

There is a great interview from Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris on the Penguin blog which delves into a little more detail about making the book and how the cover was designed. There is also a current exhibition displaying the artwork and poems at the Foundling Museum in London.

There is a campaign being organised to get this book into every school in Scotland and I heartily hope that it gathers momentum and becomes the whole of the UK because this is an important book which deserves to be shared. Go and buy it! Preferably from a real life bookshop.