Children's Books > P Children's Books > D

Advantages: Fun packed pictures
Disadvantages: None that I have found

Ten out of Bed is written by Penny Dale, published by Walker Books and retails at £4.99. This book was given to my son as part of a pack of 10 for his birthday. It is a delightful story book there reads along to the tune of "There were ten in the bed", the rhythm aids to the story telling, and makes it a fun read for the children and parents. After a while my son got to know the story and can read it along with me. This delights his younger brother, ...
...as "little one" and his ten cuddly animals that have a life of their own. The book starts with "There were ten in the bed and little said "Lets Play!", and so the story begins. Over the next 20 or so pages, the story continues with each cuddly animal coming up with an idea of what to play. They begin to play that game and eventually the cuddly animal gets sleepy and falls asleep in the bed. This continues until the only one left awake is Little One, ... Read review

Advantages: Fun and enjoyable to read!
Disadvantages: none!

...start to discover it. Revolting Rhymes is a series of longish poems which are based on six of the most well known fairy tales, such as 'Cinderella' and 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'. However, these are poems with a difference as they give an entirely different slant on all of the stories we know and love so well! There are a lot of comments in the poems poking fun at the characters and saying how silly they were to carry out some of their actions, ...
...in the original tales - although not too much because after all this is a children's book! One of my favourites in the book is 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' which points out that rather than being a delightful little blonde heroine, Goldilocks was actually a brazen little crook who should have been punished and put in jail! It makes out that the three bears were a very lovely family who's treatment by Goldilocks was quite appalling. I like the ... Read review

Advantages: Original idea for a story, well told, with identifiable with characters
Disadvantages: None

...the last chapter. Different tenses can be used for stylistic effects, but I believe Danziger uses them simply because she wants to. The story would work just as well in the past, but there’s nothing wrong with it the way it is. I dislike people who moan. I mean *really* despise them. Most of them don’t have reason to, you see – those who deserve to be able to moan are generally out there getting on with things, rather than sitting ...
...doesn’t expect a perfect life, she just wants things to be fair. And there’s nowt wrong with that, she says, lapsing into northerness momentarily (the exact opposite of what happened on BA flight 1708 two days ago when I became alarmingly posh all of a sudden). She’s a lively character without being what is affectionately termed a “personality”. She’s smart without being a genius. Well liked without being the most ... Read review

Advantages: Lovely illustrations, catchy story
Disadvantages: Maybe a bit too long for a younger child

The Princess and The Wizard - another wonderful book by Julia Donaldson. This is another one of my daughter's faves although perhaps the story is a little bit long for her at the moment but she loves the pictures, especially the glittery ones. It's the story of Princess Eliza, who gets captured & whisked away (on her 7th birthday of all days!) by a wicked wizard who likes turning people to stone. Luckily before she is taken away, her fairy godmother ...
...colour and changing her shape'. The wizard isn't impressed and replies 'changing her colour and changing her shape will never help Princess Eliza escape'. So Princess Eliza gets seven chances to escape and each day she changes herself into something new, such as a blue fish, yellow chick, green grasshopper... But the wizard always finds her and takes her back to his castle to do some horrible work for him. On her final chance to escape, Eliza realises ... Read review

Advantages: magical, easy to read
Disadvantages: none

This is the touching story of a young boy called Bertie told by his widowed wife after his death to another young boy called Jack after he finds himself in her garden after running away from boarding school (the same school Bertie went to) Bertie grew up in Africa where met his "Butterfly lion" but had to leave him when he got sent to England to go to boarding school. I don't want to give too much of the story away but i think any children (or ...
...which would be easy as the print is large and there are only 127 pages which contain some non-coloured pictures(by Christian Birmingham), which help illustrate and capture the magic of the story wonderfully. I got made to read it for my Uni course, but i am so glad it was this book as its such a beautiful story and had me actually crying in parts! This is the first Michael Morpurgo book i have read, but i will certainly be reading a few others ... Read review