Tag: children’s books

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Festive favourites for young readers

Debbie at Bonnybridge Library LOVES Bookbug sessions, storytimes and welcoming classes from nearby primary schools. That makes her the perfect person to give us some festive reading recommendations for young folk.

You can borrow these from libraries, or maybe treat a wee person this Christmas.

Younger children

Nick Sharratt – Fancy Dress Christmas

A lift the flap book with colourful Christmas character illustrations.  Perfect for getting your little ones to interact and see who is hiding in their dress up outfits. Can you guess who?

Alex Scheffler – Pip and Posy The Snowy Day

Two of our favourite characters have a disagreement but they are such good friends they soon make up and have lots of fun building a snowman amongst other snowy adventures!

Helen Stephens – How to Hide a Lion at Christmas

Iris doesn’t want to leave her lion behind when the family go away for Christmas. So he decides to sneak along…How hard can it be to hide a lion? Guess who the very special person he meets along the way!

Caroline Crowe and Jess Pauwels – Santa’s New Beard

Santa accidently shaves off his beard! The elves have to come to the rescue to save the day.  Great fun to read and the rhyming text will have everyone laughing out loud!

Jan Fearnley – Little Robin’s Christmas

A heart-warming story about a kind little robin who gives away his colourful vests to all his friends so they won’t be cold. When he huddles up on an icy Christmas Eve someone special comes to his rescue.

Mark Sperring and Sophie Corrigan – Mince Spies

Can the mince spies save Christmas? Hilarious secret agent capers in this rollicking rhyming story with a difference!

Paula Metcalf and Cally Johnson-Isaacs – Charlie Crow in the Snow

A brightly coloured story about Charlie and his discovery of the changing seasons and his first snowflakes! Meet his friends and see how they can keep warm this winter.

6-8 Years

Paul Moran – Where’s Santa’s Reindeer

Ready for some festive fun? See if you can spot the reindeer hidden in Christmas scenes from all around the world.  Santa has to find them in time to load up for Christmas Eve. Fingers crossed!

Francesca Simon – Horrid Henry’s Christmas Lunch

Who doesn’t love a spot of Horrid Henry?  Guess what? He’s having a horrid Christmas so his family better watch out when it’s time to eat Christmas lunch…

Michael Rosen – Hampstead the Hamster

Leo has always wanted a pet hamster and he has the best surprise ever on Christmas morning. But his hamster is sad, what can Leo do to cheer him up? Perfect story for the countdown to Christmas.

Bella Swift – The Pug Who Wanted to be a Reindeer

Sweet story about a brave little pug who asks Santa to help her family find their lost festive spirit.  Can she save Christmas? I really hope so!

9-12 Years

Michael Morpurgo – Toto The Dog-Gone Amazing Story of The Wizard of OZ

Christmas is not complete without the Wizard of Oz! Read all about the adventures in Oz from Toto’s perspective.  Beautifully illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark.  There’s no place like home!

Susanna Bailey – Snow Foal

A beautiful story about love and hope to make you  feel warm and cosy.  Addie rescues a wild foal and discovers she is not alone on a remote farm after all.

Steven Butler and James Patterson – Happy Howlidays!

A laugh out loud tale from the Dog Diaries series with a fun festive twist! Cartoon illustrations on every page it will fill your diary with cheer in the build-up to Christmas!

Philip Pullman – Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp

No panto this year? Don’t worry! This is a magical retelling of the story of Aladdin.  Illustrated throughout to bring this classic tale alive.

Tom Fletcher – The Christmasaurus

A brilliant story of a young boy, a dinosaur, a Christmas wish, and an unforgettable adventure. You really can believe in the impossible!

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Sunday Storytime

We’ve had a lot of fun tracking down some amazing stories read for you online.  Authors and celebs are getting in on the act of sharing the joy of children’s books and we are here to make sure you know about them. Books shared are for a wide range of ages, from the tiddliest tot, to teens (and older!)

Giraffes can’t dance by Giles Andrae, illustrated by Guy Parker-Rees is an absolute classic that we all love.  Share the jiggling, giggling, dancing fun with your little person, read by Brie Larsen on Facebook

When I grow up by Al Yankovic, illustrated by Wes Hargis was a new book for me, but watching ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic read this beautiful book certainly put a smile on my face

Arnie the doughnut by  Laurie Keller by is a very silly and very funny book.  Enjoy Chris O’ Dowd reading this delicious treat

Story Time From Space is exactly as brilliant as it sounds.  Astronauts on board the International Space Station read fabulous story books to children.   A fantastic selection of books and astronauts, including Tim Peake, are involved.  Most are in English, but there’s one reading in Spanish and another in Japanese.  One of my favourite websites

Benji Davies reading his own books, The storm whale, and The Grotlyn is really lovely. Especially with a little help from Esther

J K Rowling reading from her books is a bit of a treat. Here she is reading from Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone (Harry Potter and the sorcerer’s stone in the US)

We all love the How to train your dragon series. Here is author and illustrator Cressida Cowell reading the Prologue and Chapter 1 of How to train your dragon, the first book in the brilliant series

And finally, the very talented David Walliams is sharing himself reading from several of his short stories on his website

David Walliams shares some fantastic stories each week
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Picture books we love – podcast 31

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This episode was made with our colleague, Karyn, who died in November.  Karyn was a wonderful friend and colleague who did so much for us at Falkirk Libraries – we all miss her.

Hello and welcome to the Falkirk Libraries podcast with Tanya and Karyn.
Today’s episode is all about picture books that we love.  All the books we talk about today can be found at our library catalogue.

What we have been reading and listening to

Tanya has been reading:
• Thirty-one Kings by Robert J Harris

Karyn has been reading:
• Fireproof by Alex Kava

New and forthcoming adult books:
• Heads you Win by Jeffrey Archer
• Master of his Fate by Barbara Taylor Bradford
• The Sewing Room Girl by Susanna Bavin
• Points of Danger by Edward Marston
• House of Glass by Susan Fletcher

New and forthcoming children’s titles:
• Ten Minutes to Bed: Little Monster by Chris Chatterton (illustrator), Rhiannon Fielding (author) (0 – 5 years)
• The First Christmas Jumper and the Sheep Who Changed Everything by Ryan Tubridy and Chris Judge (Illustrator) (5 – 7 yrs)
• The Ice Monster by David Walliams and Tony Ross (illustrator) (7 – 10 yrs)
• Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow Book 2 – Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend (9 – 13 yrs)
• The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm: Tales from Alagaesia Volume 1: Eragon – The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini (Teen)

DVD recommendations:
• Mission: Impossible – Fallout (12)

Our Reading Agony this week: ‘I’m so bored by reading the same books over and over to my 3 yr old – any ideas?’
Get into your local library and choose some different ones with them, so you can mix the well loved and the new. Know that at this age, hearing the same book is a normal part of development and it gives them a feeling of comfort. They’ll feel a sense of control and knowledge and it helps them develop as a future reader. And, finally, know that it will pass, there will be different books, but your child will always have lovely memories of sitting with you sharing a beloved book.

Staff quote of the day: ‘I’m off to butcher this’

Our discussion was all about picture books that we love to read.
• My Humongous Hamster by Lorna Freytag
• Burger Boy by Alan Durant
• Winnie’s Haunted House by Valerie Thomas Illustrated by Valerie Thomas
• Spells-a-popping Granny’s shopping by Tracey Corderoy and illustrated by Joe Berger
• Daddy, I can’t sleep by Alan Durant
• Dave’s breakfast blast off! by Sue Hendra and illustrated by Lee Wildish
• Max and Zap at the museum by Natasha Rimmington
• Worries go away by Kes Gray and illustrated by Lee Wildish
• Odd socks by Michelle Robinson and illustrated by Rebecca Ashdown
• Pete the cat and his four groovy buttons by Eric Litwin and illustrated by James Dean

Did you know? E Offer – Adults and children
Some of you who may use our e-books, eaudiobooks and emags service will have noticed that we now have all our books, magazines and audiobooks in the same place. On Thursday 01/11/18, we moved our E-Books onto the RB Digital site so if you haven’t had a look go onto our website and download the RBDigital app onto your smartphone or tablet and you will have something to read or listen to on the go. They’re all free so you can save money when downloading our magazines. We have a wide range of titles to suit all tastes and if you’re looking for some Xmas inspiration then download BBC Good Food for recipes, Molly Makes for Xmas crafts and Homes and Gardens for Xmas decorations. You’ll never be stuck for ideas again. You can download as many magazines as you want and keep the mag as long as you want or need.
Our E-Books range is so easy to download onto your tablet using the RB app. All you need to do is register on the RB website with your details and your library card and you can start downloading straight away.
If you have a commuter journey or travelling by car then download one of our EAudiobooks and you can listen to the story while you’re travelling.
You can download up to 10 EBooks and EAudiobooks and you have the flexibility to whether you want to download from 1 day up to 21 days, it’s really up to you.
Go on, give it a try.

Thank you for listening to the Library Love podcast, we hope you’ve enjoyed yourself and if you did, then please go to your podcast app and rate and review us so that other people find out about us and more people get to have their bit of Library Love. We love to hear from you and if you’d like to get in touch with us, go to www.librarylovefalkirk.com, Falkirk Libraries on fb or @LibFalkirk on twitter