We are huge fans of Julia Donaldson in our house and I’m often on the look out for more of her books to share with my daughter. As it was my youngest daughter’s sixth birthday last week, I spotted a couple of this lovely author’s books that we had not yet read and gave them as little birthday extras. One book was a charming looking one called The Princess and the Wizard which Natalie has really enjoyed reading especially because there is lots of glitter on every page!

Julia Donaldson, Lydia Monks, picture book

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The story of “The Grump” begins early one morning; it is still dark and a little boy is asleep; his dog is at the foot of the bed. As a scary monster creeps into the room, they both hide under the covers with a torch. Bravely, they follow the monster along the landing, but it disappears. It has left an awful mess in the bathroom. They follow its trail of enormous footprints down the stairs and into the kitchen. It has eaten almost all the food.

Shadows appear at the kitchen door, but the boy is relieved to see that it is just his Mum and baby brother coming to see what all the noise is about.

picture book, Sarah Garson

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The trouble with dragons is that there are far too many of them. They consume too much, are too noisy and make a terrible mess. When they breathe fire, ice and snow melts, sea levels rise and deserts get bigger. When all the other creatures start to leave, the dragons implore them to stay. They promise to look after the planet, and the other animals give them advice on how to do this. They have to stop chopping down trees and breathing fire; they must eat food grown close to home, start recycling and look after the land.

Debi Gliori, picture book

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When Daisy’s family move house, she can’t sleep in her big bed in a strange room. She doesn’t notice when the Beasties, Floot, Weevil and Ferdinand, creep into her room. After they spread their treasures under her bed, however, Daisy hears a growling noise. It’s Ferdinand, and he tells Daisy the story of how he prevented robbers from stealing a king’s treasure. As a reward, the king gave Ferdinand a ring; Daisy keeps thinking about the ring and eventually drifts off to sleep.

Gwen Millward, Jenny Nimmo, picture book

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A baby blue egg comes out to play: its two legs have emerged, but that is all. All the other creatures nearby, however, hear a shout from inside the egg calling, ‘I want my mother!’ First there’s a red pterodactyl in a ginko tree, who implores the egg not to make a noise that will wake up the ‘scary thing’. The egg runs off in fear with the red creature and hides under a yellow creature that is not unlike a stegosaurus. They realise that the scary thing is already awake, so they all run off again and hide under a huge green dinosaur. They hear frightening sounds of trees and rocks being thrown around by the scary creature, so the red creature, the green dinosaur, the yellow dinosaur and the blue egg all run away together. Oh dear: they run into something blue, and it’s the scary thing itself!

Mij Kelly, picture book

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Max, a puppy, is off to the shops with his Mummy to buy a birthday present for Max’s Daddy. Max is full of bright ideas, but Mummy just wants to buy boring old flea powder. She won’t listen when he asks to go to the toy department. Max creates havoc at the beautician’s, then gets so bored while Mummy is looking at men’s jackets that he sneaks off to find the toys. There he has a whale of a time.

Having played with all the toys, Max decides that Daddy would like a skateboard best. Suddenly, however, he realises he is lost; fortunately Mummy is looking everywhere for him. She eventually finds him amongst the toys and is so relieved that she agrees to buy the skateboard.

picture book, Sharon Rentta

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My daughters and I have read quite a few of Debi Gliori’s books together and I always like the way that each one is a bit different. We have just read ‘Where did that baby come from?’ and really enjoyed it as it is both funny and thought provoking.

The story features a family of black and white striped cats and this family has just had a baby. Obviously the baby gets a lot of attention much to the consternation of its older brother or sister (not sure which!).

Debi Gliori, picture book

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It might seem a strange combination, but a bagpiping Cat, a Squirrel with a banjo and a small singing Duck live together, seemingly in harmony, in a little house in a wood. We first see them through the window, have great fun together.

Their diet consists mainly of pumpkin soup – homemade, of course. Each has a particular task in the process: Cat slices the pumpkin, Squirrel stirs in the water and Duck tips in just enough salt. This never changes.

Helen Cooper, picture book

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Winston the Book Wolf is a fabulous book for any small book loving children out there. It is written by Marni McGee and illustrated by Ian Beck and tells the tale of a much misunderstood wolf who truly loves books. The only problem is that rather than reading them he tends to want to eat them – that is until one little girl shows him the error of his ways!

The wolf in question is called Winston and at the start of the story we see him attempting to enter the local library past the ‘No Wolves Allowed’ sign that he actually eats in the process.

Ian Beck, Marni McGee, picture book

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Jill Murphy’s ‘Five Minutes’ Peace’ is a charming picture book for very young children. The story centres around a family of elephants (Mum and three children) and begins as they are having breakfast. This is not a pleasant sight. The baby elephant has a cereal bowl upturned on his head, and there is a mess all over the floor. Mum, who charmingly has curlers in the few wisps of hair on her head, sets a tray and puts the newspaper in her pocket. She tells her offspring that she is going to the bathroom to get five minutes’ peace from ‘you lot’. The children immediately ask to come along, but she firmly tells them to stay downstairs.

Jill Murphy, picture book

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My daughters have always loved their books and are really starting to become avid readers – just like their mummy! They do vary sometimes about what they want to read but having recently seen the film ‘How to tame your Dragon’ they are quite keen to read books about dragons. This is why, on a recent visit to our local library, they absolutely pounced on Jan Fearnley’s wonderful book – The Baby Dragon Tamer.

This wonderful book tells the delectable tale of a big bad tempered dragon who is looking for treasure.

Jan Fearnley, picture book

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