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

Advantages: Fun plotlines, with a deeper edge.
Disadvantages: Not for teenage readers, slightly childish style

...18 years older, and so beyond the age of "child" kept me gripped and after I had finished I went out immedietely to buy the next books in the Twig saga. The story was fun and exciting, with brilliant illustrations to add to the reading experience. That is what reading this book was like. It opens up a whole new world of fantasy for the reader, and whilst the book is rich with description and information, it leaves just enough tantalising space for ...
...fulfilling journey. The main character and hero of the story, Twig, brought up by the woodtroll Spelda, is a young boy in the first book of the Edge Chronicles. He goes on an exciting adventure when sent away by his woodtroll "Mother" (he does not realise he isadopted) to stay with his cousin Snetterbark, because he is in danger. On the way, he strays from the path and meets many weird magical creatures, both his friends and foes, such as the bloodoak ... Read review

Advantages: lots of ideas
Disadvantages: none

Picture the Past These publications seem to be around forever, and in fact, this one was published in 1992, so they have been going strong for quite some time. Whilst involved on a recent topic of Ancient Greece with some Upper Key Stage 2 children, I raked this out, and found it had some really useful ideas; no need for me to actually have to think about displays, just open the book, and hey presto. The pictures are of actual displays completed ...
...by full instructions and a picture of the finished make. The instructions are such that older children will be able to follow then, and because the pictures are usually quite self explanatory, younger children could have a go with minimal explanation, as long as they were given the appropriate materials. At the back of the book there are a series of line drawings, mainly relating to making Victorian decorations, and these can be photocopied, without ... 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: 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: Hard to put down
Disadvantages: None

...moving as Phil Gillam's Here comes the sun was sometime in the mid-1970s. Here Comes the Sun is a novel in the true sense of the word. It contains material that is indeed novel. It is imbued with a sort of dreamlike, otherworldly quality and contains scenes that can amaze and shock the reader. But it always delights. It is set in the county town of Shropshire, Shrewsbury, and it follows the life of the proponent, Patrick Grant as he moves through ...
...definitely not the case with Here Comes the Sun. Without exception all of the characters, even the minor ones, are well-drawn, vibrant, warm and alive. So well-drawn that it comes as a something of a surprise to find out that you could not have stood next to Patrick Grant's dad, Cecil, drinking a pint of bitter in the Hole in the Wall, as Cecil Grant is a fictional character. There can be a risk of book reviews of a novel descending into cliché ... Read review