Book review: Nosy Crow children’s books

Do you want to help your little ones let their imaginations take flight? Well, head for the skies with the sparkling children’s books on offer from Nosy Crow.

Take Hubble Bubble, Granny Trouble by Tracey Corderoy and Joe Berger (hardback, £10.99), a truly ‘bewitching’ story about the strangest granny on the planet.

If your granny was a little bit, well, different from other grannies, would you want to change her, or would you end up thinking you love her just the way she is?

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In this entertaining rhyming text, a little girl whose granny is (whisper it) a witch, gets fed up with dealing with the problems she creates so she tries to reform her.

But a reformed granny is bored and boring, and maybe it’s more fun to cook up a big pot of gloop with granny’s witchy friends after all.

A bubbling cauldron of fun for all the family!

For babies and toddlers, there are Marion Billet’s colourful tales of lovable panda bear Noodle whose adventures help the very youngest to identify with the world around them.

This series of bright, robust touch-and-feel board books with simple rhyming texts provides plenty of details for parent and child to talk about and explore.

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Busy, inquisitive and oh so cute, Noodle just loves to have fun. In Noodle Loves to Eat (board book, £5.99), Noodle enjoys eating all sorts of things! With spongy bread, squidgy cheese and a shiny mirror ending, this gorgeous little book is sure to encourage even the fussiest of eaters.

And in Noodle Loves Bedtime (board book, £5.99), we follow Noodle through his bedtime routine – splashing in the bath, drinking milk and cuddling up with fluffy lamb.

Familiar, reassuring and with lots of detail to point out and name, your little ones will fall in love with Noodle.

There are more lessons to be learned in the heart-warming story of animal friends Pip and Posy: The Little Puddle by Axel Scheffler (hardback, £7.99).

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Pip and Posy are typical toddlers. They are best friends and they have fun but sometimes, just like any other toddler, they get cross and sad. But friendship, sharing, understanding and a cuddle help to make things better.

In The Little Puddle, Pip comes to play at Posy’s house. They have such a lovely time after their mid-afternoon snack and drink that Pip forgets he needs to go to the loo and soon there’s a little puddle on the floor.

But everyone has accidents sometimes and best friend Posy is there to help!

Beautifully illustrated and thoughtfully written, this is the perfect book to encourage toddlers through potty training.

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Dinosaur Dig! by Penny Dale (hardback, £10.99) has everything that gets small boys excited – diggers, dinosaurs and dirt plus a bit of counting thrown in for good measure.

Children can count from one to ten with a group of colourful and friendly dinosaurs as they dig a big hole... but just what is the hole for?

There’s a fun and swishy surprise at the end as readers finally discover what it’s all in aid of....

Packed with challenges, bright and busy pictures full of fascinating detail and bursting with energy and noise, Dinosaur Dig! is a raucous riot!

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Newly-formed author and illustrator team Nikalas Catlow and Tim Wesson are the burgeoning talents behind the brilliantly funny Mega Mash-Up series.

With a background combining design, illustration and animation, Catlow and Wesson are developing their own brand of anarchic, boy-friendly humour

In Mega Mash-Up: Gorillas v Robots in the Desert (paperback, £4.99) we travel deep into the desert where gorillas trade the oil under their city for bananas grown by hi-tech Robots.

But after Gadget the Great accidentally sends 10,000 volts of electricity up King Well-Hairy’s nose, the robots and gorillas decide to sort things out once and for all.

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Whoever wins will have all the oil and all the bananas but which side will manage to avoid the garlic burp-breath sand slugs and who will be deceived by the banana sundae mirages?

A rollicking read for adventurous young boys...

The first book in an exciting new series, Olivia’s First Term by Lyn Gardner (paperback, £5.99) takes us behind the scenes of a London theatre where there is as much drama off stage as on it.

Olivia Marvell, aged 12, and her seven year old sister Eel have spent their lives travelling around Europe with their father’s famous circus and are angry when they are dumped at their grandmother’s stage school, The Swan Academy of Theatre and Dance in London.

Their father is recovering from an accident and plans a career comeback but Olivia is sad and lonely, and angry that there’s no encouragement for her to do what she loves best... practise her circus skills.

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But in the course of a turbulent first term, Olivia finds out much more than she bargained for about the theatre, about friendship, about enemies, about her family and about herself.

With plenty of twists and turns and great cast of characters, Olivia’s First Term is a thought-provoking tale with wise life lessons in every chapter.