Over the past couple of months Little Mr A has been sent some great new books from Orion. As it is World Book Day I thought it was the perfect time to tell you all about them!
First up is The Dragon's Dentist by John McLay. This is another in their Early Reader series and is the author's debut story. The book is brilliantly illustrated by Horrible Histories illustrator, Martin Brown and the images compliment the story really well.
The story sees Harry dreaming of knights and desperately wishing he could be a knight too. However, Harry isn't a knight, his job is to clean shields. One day he sets off on an adventure with his horse, Oats, to try and prove that he can be a knight too by capturing Eric the Dragon. Can he do it? Well you will have to read the story to find out!
As with all of the other Early Reader books we have received, Little Mr A thoroughly enjoyed reading this story and it made a welcome change from his school books.
Next is Horrid Henry's Animals by Francesca Simon and illustrated by Tony Ross. This is the seventh Horrid Henry Factbook and answers those all important questions children want to know such as 'How do dolphins breathe underwater?' and 'Is it really true that elephants never forget?'.
As with the other Horrid Henry factbooks we have, this is set out really well with easy to read facts and great illustrations to accompany them. Little Mr A loves learning new facts that he can tell us about and, as this is Horrid Henry, there are lots of disgusting facts too which appeal to his boyish sense of humour!
The next book to tell you about is Horrid Henry's Sleepover by Francesca Simon and illustrated by Tony Ross. This is another Early Reader and is the perfect book for Little Mr A to sit and read either by himself or to Big Mr A and myself. Since receiving the books from Orion, Little Mr A has become a big fan of Horrid Henry and really enjoys the humour in the stories.
In this story, Horrid Henry is going to New Nick's house for a sleepover and he can't wait! However, the evening doesn't turn out quite the way Henry is expecting.
Continuing the Horrid Henry theme we also received Horrid Henry's Biggest and Best Ever Joke Book.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Horrid Henry, this book combines the first three joke books (Horrid Henry's Joke Book, Horrid Henry's Mighty Joke Book and Horrid Henry's Jolly Joke Book) into one. In true Horrid Henry style some of the jokes are quite revolting as well as being very funny!
Little Mr A loves jokes, however, doesn't always quite understand them and often makes up jokes that don't make any sense whatsoever! It is great that he now has his own joke book so that he can tell us proper jokes that we can all laugh along with together!
Moving away from the Horrid Henry books but sticking with the Early Readers, we also received Chocolate Porridge by Margaret Mahy and illustrated by Terry Milne.
This story sees Timothy trying to prove his sisters wrong (as they think all boys are rubbish at cooking) by making the most delicious chocolate porridge ever!
As with all of the Early Readers, Little Mr A really loves reading them and really gets engaged with the stories. They are the perfect length to read together before bed.
One of Little Mr A's favourite new books we received was Mr Monkey and the Birthday Party written by Linda Chapman and illustrated by Sam Hearn.
The story is about Mr Monkey, the toy monkey who belongs to Class 2. One weekend it is Anya's turn to take Mr Monkey home and she finds out there is more to him than meets the eye!
Little Mr A enjoyed this story so much that he decided to use it for last weeks homework task which was to write about a book of his choice and draw a picture from that book! It is really nice to see him getting so excited and interested in a book that he can read by himself and for him to actually take in and understand what is happening. With the books he brings home from school he tends to rush through them and not really pick up on the story as he has no interest in what is going on.
This story follows the Longears family as they get in and out of scrapes, meet new friends and perform daring rescues. Along the way they have to be on the lookout for Burdock the Buzzard and the terrifying Red Dragon who are always keeping an eye out for naughty rabbits far away from home.
I really enjoyed reading this story with Little Mr A. The illustrations and the story itself reminded me of books I used to read when I was a little girl and made me feel quite nostalgic!
I am sure you will agree there are some great books there and I hope it has given you some inspiration of new stories to try with your children!
Stay at Home Mum to two children - Little Mr A born in 2008 and Little Miss A born in 2012. Blogging my way through dirty nappies and school runs!
