Grolier.com > Reviews (31)

It all started with a MC Donald's happy meal. There was a number on the children's happy meal box to phone to claim your free book on the new film called cars, so when we got back I rang the number and they took my details and joined me to a book club called Grolier. I thought it would just be a free book sent to me but when I received the package It contained seven books from Disney and a free gift witch was a light blue plastic book shelf with Mickey mouse on. I shall add a picture of this because I found it rather useless, it may be ok once filled with books, but at the moment it keeps falling apart.

The letter in the box full of books says, welcome to the Disney book club! These delightful books are full of timeless tales and bright illustrations they will bring the magic of Disney into your home.

It also says, here are five books and a gift to start you on this superb series, all yours to keep free whatever you decide. For a start there were seven books in total and the statement didn't tell me which ones were ours to keep free of charge. As you already know I am a bit of a bargain hunter, and I only wanted the free cars book for my daughter Jazmin so I had to get on the phone and ask what the free ones were. It turned out that I could keep five books and the free gift. The five books stand 9 inches tall and 6 inches across and I would say no thicker than half a centimetre. The books I got are;

The jungle book
Cars
Tarzan
Toy story
101 Dalmatians

The other two books would be £8.98 to buy and they are:

Chicken little
The wild

As I had no intention of joining this book club I will be sending them back and have to pay nothing, from what I can work out at the moment it is not free to send them back.

You have a seven day trial for the books you need to pay for but I have put them up because you know what children are like. If I had gave them to Jazmin they would probably get ruined in some way or another.

I got a little booklet in with the books, a guide to customer benefits. This tries to explain what the book club is all about. They have a unique range of exclusive Disney products for children of all ages.

Disney babies
Disney first readers
My first winnie the pooh
Disney princess
Out and about with Pooh
Wonderful world of knowledge
DVD and video
Disney collectable ornaments.

Some tips from Grolier for reading with your child__

Make reading fun.
Read with plenty of enthusiasm.
Invent voices for the different characters and encourage your child to repeat catchy phrases or fill in words with you.
Let your child hold the book, touch the pictures or turn the pages.

Read in different places.
As well as at bedtime, try reading during bath time.
Maybe you can find a secret reading place but remember, there is no better place for your child than in your own lap to provide security and confidence.

Praise your child's effort to read.
Even the youngest children like to pretend they are reading. Encourage and praise them while you are reading together.

Have a regular time for read.
Whatever time suits you best, it is important that reading becomes part of you child's daily routine.

Have a special place for books in your child's room.
Children love choosing and browsing through favourite books from their own shelves in their own room.

Special offers__

As a Grolier club member I will have the opportunity to receive special year books, calendars and supplements, as additions to selected series, or other occasional special offers, also I will find other super offers on line at www.grolier.co.uk

What do I make of Grolier__

So far not a lot, it is not explanatory enough for my liking, I had to call them again to find out which books I would be charged for, I didn't really want to become a member of a book club and be sent new titles every four weeks and I cant seem to find out if I am under any obligation to buy a certain amount of books. I did not receive any kind of catalogue to see what else they had on offer, just a few books in the welcome booklet. I do remember that when I rang them up the first time they said I could cancel my membership at any time so we shall see in the very near future what happens. I think that £8.98 was quite expensive for two books. They are hard back and have lovely colourful pictures in them, not too much writing and have 45 pages in. Jazmin has attempted to read a couple of books on her own and has come across a few words she didn't know but I think they are a good read for 8- 10 year olds. She has been copying pictures out of the books rather than reading all morning. I think if I had joined this book club because I had wanted to I would think more of it but because it was a con in my mind, all I wanted was the free book I didn't expect to be joined to a book club, I now don't think much to it at all and will be cancelling my membership before they send me any more books. Lets hope I have no obligation to buy a certain amount and that will be the end of Grolier book club for me. I would recommend it to anyone who is actually looking to join a book club but not if you just want a free gift its too much hassle just for a few books.

Ways to contact Grolier__

Online www.grolier.co.uk
e-mail customerservice@grolier.co.uk
Telephone 0870 240 4385.