We have received some lovely items for review from Parragon recently, starting with two picture books which the children have really enjoyed.

The Fish with the Deep Sea Smile, written by award winning author Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Henry Fisher, is the story of a family’s quest to find the fish with the deep sea smile.  They find all kinds of fish with different attributes – one with “blue-green eyes and whiskers three”, another “With electric lights up and down its tail” and even “a fish with a laughing eye.”  But can they find the fish with the deep sea smile?  With its poetic text and colourful illustrations, this is a great story to read aloud.

Away in my Aeroplane, also by Margaret Wise Brown and Henry Fisher, is another story which was very popular with the children.  We liked the pictures of the little boy flying in his aeroplane, and enjoyed seeing everything he sees as he goes on an adventure through the skies.  The text is very satisfying to read aloud as you get carried along by the rhythm and rhyme: “Down below the people go, very small and very slow.  They look like bugs and ants and flies – I wonder if they realize what they look like to my eyes.”

We have also taken up the Parragon #summerwithgoldstars challenge and Owl has worked his way steadily through the age 9-11 Maths workbook.  His confidence in Maths has improved so much this summer and I could not be more proud of him.

And finally, something for me I think, though I haven’t yet come up with a suitable use for this pretty notebook with matching post-it notes.  Far too good for the to-do list, so I will have to think of something more interesting to use them for before the children get their hands on them.  We are very grateful for all the lovely things we have been sent – we love being a Parragon family!

It’s always a good sign for me if a book leads to an outbreak of creativity and that has certainly happened with our latest book from Parragon.

Bunny Loves to Learn, by Peter Bently, is an appealing story about bunny and friends who are learning about various topics from knights to Ancient Egypt.  The younger children in particular enjoyed the story, but all four of them had fun using some of the ideas in the book to do some learning and creating of their own.

Monkey made a pyramid out of chairs and blankets, while the other three made shields (I don’t seem to have a picture of Owl’s for some reason.)

The next day some of our home educated friends came round and we had a history morning together.  We read some books about Ancient Egypt, and the children mummified soft toys and made death masks for them.

Thank you Parragon for sending us this book which gave us the inspiration for a lot of creative fun.

We have been sent a free copy of the book for the purpose of this review.

Bunny Loves to Learn, written by Peter Bently, illustrated by Emma Foster and Deborah Melmon, Parragon, £5.99, paperback.

Hold That Thought Milton! is a humorous picture book written by award winning author Linda Ravin Lodding.

It is fun to read aloud to children of all ages, and the enjoyment of the comical story is enhanced by Ross Collins’ quirky illustrations.

Milton is a young boy who has many things on his mind and a lot to say.  But everyone in his family is too busy to listen to him, and they just keep telling him to “Hold that thought!”  So he tries, but it’s not easy, and his thoughts begin to have a strange effect on him.  The story reaches a hilarious climax on his Aunt Lulu’s wedding day.

All the children liked the story and Tiddler asked for it again straight away.  Rabbit wanted to pose with the book, while Monkey had fun taking pictures of the illustrations – I am sure he and Owl will have their own blogs before too long!

We have been sent a free copy of the book for the purpose of this review.

Hold That Thought Milton!, Linda Raven Lodding and Ross Collins, Parragon, £5.99, paperback.

Rabbit loved this book from Parragon so much that she wanted to write the review herself!

Muddypaws’ New Friends, written by Steve Smallman and illustrated by Simon Mendez, Parragon Books, paperback, £5.99

I love the Muddypaws book because I like little puppies.  In the story, Ben and his puppy Muddypaws go to Puppy School.  Muddypaws makes some new friends and plays with them.  I like the bit where Muddypaws gets all wet in the puddle.  I like the boy because he is called Ben and I know someone else called Ben.  I like Muddypaws because he is a nice dog and he is fluffy.

Thank you to the lovely people at Parragon for sending us this book, we really enjoyed it!

We were sent the book free of charge for the purpose of this review.

We have enjoyed reading The Carrot Cake Catastrophe! by Elizabeth Dale and Gemma Raynor, which was kindly sent to us (rather a long time ago) for review by Parragon Books.

It’s mum’s birthday, and Jenny and Grandad try to make her a carrot cake.  Unfortunately, they make a few mistakes, and it turns into a catastrophe!  Jenny is very sad, until her mum comes along and makes everything alright again.

At the end of the book, there is a recipe for carrot cake and Rabbit was keen to try it, so she wrote a shopping list for the ingredients we needed.

When it came to making the cake, Tiddler wanted to join in, and they worked very well together taking turns.

After a while, Tiddler had had enough, and Rabbit was left to finish the job.  Though I helped her, she really did a lot of the work herself.

Rabbit was very pleased with the results, and I am very proud of her.  She is planning to make it again for my birthday, which is good because it was actually the most delicious carrot cake I have ever tasted!

We were sent the book free of charge for the purpose of this review.