Children's Books > 10 GBP to 14 GBP Children's Books

Advantages: Brilliant end to a brilliant trilogy. Short chapters: ideal stopping places
Disadvantages: Much longer than the others. Very descriptive in the middle.

A little short of amonth ago, I woke up on Christmas morning and opened my presents. One of these was Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy. I had eagerly awaited these (guessing I would get them for Christmas) and tucked into them immediately. The first two in the trilogy, namely 'Northern Lights' and 'The Subtle Knife', leave you thristy for more. Pullman creates a fantastic tale over the course of the trilogy, leaving the reader needing ...
...first two books, over 500 pages long, and at points in the middle, it seems to drag slightly.I found myself pushing through long descriptive paragraphs without incidences of conversation to break up the monotony. These descriptions were integral to the plot, as is everything, but I felt Pullman was close to going off at a tangent in these parts. Pullman touches heavily on the religious nature of the books in this third and final installment. I had ... Read review

Advantages: Beautiful drawings
Disadvantages: No disadvantages

...It is an autobiography of a woman who many people will have heard of, and also have access to her many drawings and paintings on their children’s bookshelf. I am writing about Shirley Hughes, my all time favourite illustrator, and latterly, children's author. The autobiography is cleverly entitled ‘A Life Drawing’ and Shirley has drawn the front illustration showing an older woman, sitting on a low stool, with a satchel by her side. She has a floppy ...
...to my own children at a time when I was living in a modern box-like house. The Shirley Hughes illustrations showed me where it was that I preferred to live. I wanted to live in an Edwardian or Victorian house, with mantelpieces and rickety kitchen tables. I wanted rugs on floors, and knobbly banister rails up the stairs. I wanted a home where the kids could pull everything out of the saucepan cupboard, and play on the floor with them, and which would ... Read review

Advantages: very funny, a good introduction to poetry
Disadvantages: you need to read it first, to save you looking like you can't read infront of your kids!

...the world as the beloved Dr. Seuss, was born in 1904 on Howard Street in Springfield, Massachusetts. Ted's father, Theodor Robert, and grandfather were brewmasters in the city. His mother, Henrietta Seuss Geisel, often soothed her children to sleep by "chanting" rhymes remembered from her youth. Ted credited his mother with both his ability and desire to create the rhymes for which he became so well known. ... Read review

Advantages: Funny and entertaining
Disadvantages: ?

...irritating marketing devices, there was Bug Muldoon - and Bug could teach Hollywood a few things about wit and character development. Bug Muldoon, logically enough, is a 'Bug' living in the mad, bad world of minibeasts that inhabits the garden of a human house. Bug makes his living as private detective in the style of 30s and 40s movies - or perhaps more recently, Who Framed Roger Rabbit. With a surly manner and a taste for puns, Bug is just about ... Read review

Advantages: The eggs are still green! The ham is still green!
Disadvantages: Latin, alas, is obscure...

...Non mi placent, O Pincerna, Virent ova! Viret perna! ‘Ova’ is a recognisable word even to those who have not studied Latin – the ovum means ‘egg’, the ovaries of course being the place eggs are produced. ‘Perna’ is the word for ham. (Ironically, the word ‘ovum’ is a neuter term in Latin, rather than female; the word ‘perna’ is a feminine word.) The word ‘Pincerna’ means waiter or server (it can even mean butler). Virent/viret is actually a verb, ...
...roughly translate into They do not please me, O waiter, Eggs that are green! Ham that is green! Yes, I know, it suffers a bit in translation; imagine the power of poetry and how sometime this can be lost in translation. Thus, it is important to understand the literary license with which Jennifer Tunberg and Terence Tunberg have translated the text. They have made an effort to make sure the meter, rhyme, and story fit the text as a Latin text, ... Read review