'The best books, reviewed with insight and charm, but without compromise.'
- author Jackie French
Showing posts with label Board Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Board Books. Show all posts

Thursday, 5 June 2025

Review: Animal Opposites At The Zoo

Taronga zoo presents books for wild little learners and explorers!

Spots and strips, fur and spikes! Big and small, short and tall. Every animal is different at the zoo. 

Another in the series of Taronga board books for small hands and big hearts, this joy-filled romp through a variety of animals offers both delight and surprise to the reader. 

Thursday, 29 May 2025

Review: We're Going To The Zoo

Taronga zoo presents books for wild little learners and explorers!

Through the gates there’s a chatter and a squeak! What amazing animals will you meet? 

This lovely board book takes us on an exciting trip to the Taronga zoo, with a family who are all very eager to visit the animals and see the sights.

Friday, 23 May 2025

Review: Fly, Mama, Fly!

This divine board book celebrates award-winning author/illustrator Anna McGregors’ fresh and fun style.

It offers captivating characters, a tiny voice with big eyes that you want to just reach into the book and cuddle, and a very, very special and different presentation: 

This book sits on a shelf like all other books, but when you open it up, the world tilts sideways.  

Thursday, 5 December 2024

Junior Review: Pine Marten Cuties

Pine Marten Cuties introduces young readers to the life of a pine marten. 

The book uses simple, rhyming lines to explain the pine marten's behavior, its forest home, and what it eats. The text is direct and easy to follow. 

Each page focuses on a different aspect of the animal’s life, making it a useful educational tool.

The pine marten is the only character and is portrayed as active and curious. The writing emphasizes its agility, strength, and love for trees. 

Friday, 15 November 2024

Review: Party Rhyme

This fold out board-book from the author of Rhyme Cordial and Rhyme Hungry is delightfully surprising and surprisingly funny.

It’s PARTY RHYME!
Put on your PARTY BAT,

enjoy the LIZZIE DRINKS,

but don’t eat too much HAIRY BREAD!

As the name suggests, this book contains delightful jokes and puns, witty rhymes and playful language.

Tuesday, 16 July 2024

Review: Emma Memma Little Library

Emma Memma Little Library is a tiny box set of four board books in a cardboard slipcase. The books are: Colours, Animals, Numbers, and Auslan.

Concept books suited to the very youngest of readers, they have a single picture focus on each page, accompanied by text naming the picture.

For example, in Colours a picture of an apple has the words apple and red. Being a board book, there are not too many colours explored – there's a brown wombat and a green plane amongst others.

Animals has pictures of animals along with their name and a noise or movement they make. For example a butterfly flapping, and a quokka squeaking.

Tuesday, 14 May 2024

Review: Little Angler

I live in the water, deep down in the sea.

Check out my light, it’s as bright as can be.

Take a deep, deep underwater adventure with Little Angler in this gorgeous lift-the-flap board book by Zoe Gaetjens and Heidi McKinnon.

Something looks tickly, what could it be?

I’ll turn on my light, then we can see.

Monday, 4 September 2023

Winner: Roobee Roo Board Book Prize Pack!

Our lucky winner is ...

Lily Polujan, NSW 

Congratulations!

You have won all four books in the adorable Roobee Roo series including: Roobee Roo: That's Me, Roobee Roo: Sunny Day Treat,s Roobee Roo: Fun in the Sun, Roobee Roo: Under the Stars. 

Thank you to ALL who entered.


Saturday, 26 August 2023

Giveaway: Roobee Roo Board Book Prize Pack!


Roobee Roo is an adorable and curious little kangaroo with a magical pouch full of surprises. After waking up to find something new in her pouch each day, Roobee loves playing with her friends and family as she explores the exciting world around her.

Every day is an adventure with Roobee Roo! Join Roobee and her friends in this adorable and uniquely Australian lift-the-flap board book series for fans of Miffy, Spot and Maisy. Thanks to our playful friends at Hachette Australia, we have a copy of each of Roobee Roo: That's Me, Roobee Roo: Sunny Day Treat,s Roobee Roo: Fun in the Sun, Roobee Roo: Under the Stars to giveaway!

For the chance to win this four book prize pack simply tell us in 25 words or less what your favourite childhood activity was and why?

Friday, 14 July 2023

Review: Mr McGee And The Biting Flea

Those of us who’ve been stuck in a small space with a persistent mosquito for any length of time, will know what it’s like to be dive-bombed both physically and aurally by an unwanted assailant. 

The childlike, delightful and a-little-bit-naughty Mr McGee seems to know this too, when he is attacked by a flea that simply will not give up in the opening stages of this romp of a picture book.

Master children’s storyteller Pamela Allen creates works that are fresh, vibrant and dynamic. Her beloved Mr McGee and The Biting Flea is celebrating it’s 25th anniversary this year, and yet it feels absolutely sparkly and new and appropriate for today’s readers, in this gorgeous board book presentation.

Monday, 6 February 2023

Sunday, 9 October 2022

Review: You are Loved

You are Loved is a fabulous celebration of the true essence of love — the very heart of it.

You are loved when you win the race.

You are loved when you don’t.

You are loved when you brush your teeth.

You are loved when you won’t.

Thursday, 4 August 2022

Review: Lionel Poops

Lionel Poops is a funny board book with quirky humour that reads perfectly for a young audience who may be in need of some toilet training tips.

Lionel is bouncing on the trampoline when all the sudden, he feels the urge to poop.

But, Lionel does not know exactly where to do his business, so ends up traipsing all over the world from cows to Paris to the sun itself to do his ‘doo’. ‘No, Lionel No!’ Will
he ever make it to the toilet?

Tuesday, 26 April 2022

Review: Cat's First Baby

Cat is agile. Cat is proud. Cat is independent and clever and delicate.

What cat is not is ready for the family to expand.

It starts with a ‘hello’, and the new bundle is small, so who cares. 

But the bundle grows, and moves, and makes noise. And… it doesn’t seem to be another cat.

Wednesday, 1 December 2021

Guest Post: Monsters R Us: Adapting Gothic Classics For Children

Allison Hill, the editor of two new board books in Starry Forest's, Baby’s Classics series, explores the process behind adapting textually-rich gothic classics like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Bram Stoker’s Dracula into board books. 

In this post, she highlights examples of how she and Greg Paprocki (illustrator of the popular BabyLit alphabet series, including B is for Boo, and our Baby’s Classics series) collaborated to incorporate nods to the original works in his illustrations, from dramatic gothic landscape imagery to deeply-engrossing symbolism.

Tuesday, 5 October 2021

12 Curly Questions with author/illustrator Jo Dabrowski

1. Tell us something hardly anyone knows about you.
My dream job is to be a Play School presenter.

2. What is your nickname?
Some of my girlfriends call me Joey, but my husband calls me Weasel.

3. What is your greatest fear?
That the world will stop making denim overalls in my size.

4. Describe your writing style in 10 words.
I like to write stories that will make children laugh.

5. Tell us five positive words that describe you as a writer.
I will try again tomorrow.

Thursday, 15 July 2021

Review: Have You Seen My Friend?

Rabbit has a friend. But she keeps disappearing. Like magic.

They’re playing cards, they’re playing table tennis, they’re playing chess, and then poof! Rabbit’s friend is just gone.

But Rabbit has a trick up her sleeve to stop her friend from magically disappearing, and it’s kind of genius.

Have You Seen My Friend? by author/illustrator Jo Dabrowski is a gorgeous lift-the-flap board book with both humour and heart.

Sunday, 4 July 2021

Review: Dinosaur Whack! / Dinosaur Whizz!

Dinosaurs and rhyme are a special combination in Dinosaur Whack! and Dinosaur Whizz! 

These books are part of a new eight-book series called The World of Dinosaur Roar! which is inspired by the popular picture book by Paul Stickland and Henrietta Stickland, in association with the UK's Natural History Museum.

Dinosaur Whack! and Dinosaur Whizz! are created by Jeanne Willis and Peter Curtis, and feature Stegosaurus and Coelophysis, along with other dinosaur friends including Iguanodon, Deinonychus, and Diplodocus.

Monday, 18 January 2021

Review: Let's Go!: On a Digger

Lots of kids love diggers! They are fascinated by their size, ability, and that their movement is close to robotic.

In the brilliant Let’s Go! series of board books for toddlers, the latest one is On a Digger. With vivid colours and rhyming verse, little ones learn the names of each part of this huge piece of machinery and how the parts function.  

Operated by a girl driver, the giant yellow digger scoops up mud. She sits in a high seat that allows her a clear and safe view of everything around her.

Wednesday, 13 January 2021

Review: Love from Giraffes Can't Dance

Reflecting the same joy that was contained in the picture book, Giraffes Can’t Dance, these two popular and talented creators have collaborated again in Love from Giraffes Can’t Dance.

Gerald the giraffe and his friends surface again in a board book full of love spread through poetry. The stunning images by Guy Parker-Rees reinforce the text, making it twinkle like spitting sparklers.

The rhyming verse reminds us that music can be found everywhere if your heart is open to love. In the trees, in the breeze, in the sounds of life moving about, the chirp of birds and crickets; of grasshoppers and the noises of the night.