Top Tips from the Baby Whisperer: Sleep
By Tracy Hogg, with Melinda Blau
Vermillion, £6.99

How to get babies to sleep is a key concern for many parents and it doesn’t always seem easy to get a baby to sleep throughout the night. This helpful little book, from Baby Whisperer, Tracy Hogg, is packed with ideas for all parents struggling with baby sleep issues. There are answers to common questions, trouble-shooting suggestions and useful timetables indicating what a typical day for a four-week old baby might be. There’s also a section dealing with sleep problems in children over one year old. It’s a handy size to dip into and provides useful ideas for times when you, and your baby, aren’t getting enough sleep.
BUY NOW

Funny Felt Animal Faces
By Hannah Wilson
Templar Publishing, £7.99

This chunky board book provides four lines of rhyming text on one page and a picture of a matching animal on the other side. But unlike other books, the faces of the animals are represented by a blank area of felt. The book comes with an envelope full of felt shapes and it’s up to children to find the right felt shapes to complete the animal faces. You’re given a hint by small images of what the animal looks like, but once you’ve completed it, you can also have a lot of fun creating crazy mis-matched animal faces too.
BUY NOW

The Little Knight
By Nettie Stather, illustrated by Suze Dennis
http://www.thelittleknight.com £4.99

This children’s story book focuses on the tale of the Little Knight, who’s off on a journey of adventure. He’s accompanied by George the Jester and, as is traditional for a gallant knight, the quest involves rescuing a damsel in distress. The whole book is written in rhyming text, which is nice for reading aloud to children, and features bold illustrations. If you prefer traditional stories, rather than modern takes, then this is the book for your child.
BUY NOW

The Dirty Great Dinosaur
By Martin Waddell, illustrated by Leonie Ward
Orchard Books, £5.99

One day, Hal and his dog Billy were out playing in the garden, when a dirty great dinosaur appeared. The hungry dinosaur wanted to eat them, but Hal and Billy aren’t having any of it. Together they stand up to the dinosaur and get him to apologise. There are lots of quirky illustrations of the action in the story, which illustrate it really well. Getting into the spirit of things, and reading this with actions and emphasis on what’s going on helps boost the enjoyment factor – if you love the idea of shouting, ‘Oh no, you won’t!’ and ‘Oh yes, I will!’ then this is the book for you!
BUY NOW

You…
By Emma Dodd
Templar Publishing, £7.99

This delightful book by Emma Dodd celebrates the daily love given to a little monkey. It talks of loving their tumbles and bumps, their smile and frown, their kisses and cuddles, when they’re good and bad and many other instances. The pictures on each page illustrate the various antics of the monkey, which children will love, and many of the pictures are enhanced by the use of gold foiling. The cover has nice glittery foiled areas too and it’s also padded, which makes it nice for little hands to hold. It’s a lovely book to read together and share the joys of life.

Oliver Who Travelled Far and Wide
By Mara Bergman, illustrated by Nick Maland
Hodder Children’s Books, £5.99

Oliver Donnington Rimington-Sneep wakes one night to discover that his beloved Ted is no longer in his bed. He gets up and begins hunting, then ends up going on a journey that takes him far and wide, in search of Ted. This is a great book to read with children, as it uses fun rhyming text, and the accompanying illustrations are full of detail and interest. If your children like the character, then this is in fact that the third in the series, so there are other Oliver adventures to read.
BUY NOW

Too Purply!
By Jean Rediy, illustrated by Genevieve Leloup
Bloomsbury, £5.99

This is a book for toddlers who are fussy about clothes. The title is a bit misleading, as only one tiny element is about clothes being too purply – in fact, it goes through a whole host of reasons why the clothes are wrong, including too stripy, too tickly, too prickly, too itchy and too baggy. The illustrations work wonderfully well with the text, colourfully highlighting why each of the clothing choices are wrong and there are some great expressions used on the characters for the items that are too tickly, too slippery and too scratchy. It’s a fun read-out-loud book for toddlers and will, no doubt, ring bells for any parents who’ve been faced with a child that won’t wear certain clothes!
BUY NOW

I Like Fruit
By Lorena Siminovich
Templar Publishing, £6.99

This chunky board book is dedicated to exploring fruit and does so in a fun and imaginative way. Each double spread of pages looks at fruits of specific colours, with the page on the left naming the colour and three fruits that are that colour (e.g. the green page has apple, kiwi fruit and grapes). The opposite page has a large collage picture of one of the fruits, with lots of different textures for children to look at and feel. As there’s such an emphasis on getting children to know, like and enjoy fresh fruit, this would be an ideal book for introducing the idea of different fruits. Plus, it will of course help with learning colours too.
BUY NOW

The Gluten-Free Cookbook for Kids
By Adriana Rabinovich
Vermillion, £12

One in 100 people in the UK are affected by coeliac disease, an autoimmune disease caused by a reaction to gluten. For parents of children affected by coeliac disease, as well as gluten intolerance, cooking meals can be a bit of a nightmare, as all foods that contain gluten – a protein found in cereal grains - can no longer be consumed. As well as the obvious foods, like bread, biscuits and pasta, this cuts out a wide range of foods, from pizza and processed foods, to sausages, ice cream, sweets and sauces. 

Adriana Rabinovich was one of the parents who found herself in this position, after her 17 month old daughter was diagnosed with coeliac disease, and she’s written this book to help other parents who are trying to adapt to cooking for a child with coeliac. The book is packed with over 100 child-friendly gluten-free recipes, from pizza and chicken nuggets, to crisps and cake. There’s also lots of practical advice for parents on eating out, travelling and dealing with school trips, help with adapting to a gluten-free lifestyle and a top 10 of kids favourite dishes, gluten-free style. There’s even a recipe for gluten-free play dough!
BUY NOW