The younger children are just starting out on their reading journey and area already beginning to show their preferences. Star loves a good adventure story but it has to feature animals or mythical creatures. Boo likes funny easy to read stories and her favourite book is The Magic Faraway Tree. The Little Man loves easy to read books, he’s only six and reads all the time.
I’m really happy to be a Boolino Books blogger and get the chance to review their books on a regular basis. Boolino Books have a mission to create lots of new readers by helping parents find books they would like easily. The website is easy to use and the books are easily searched by age or topic. There are also lots of reviews and recommendations on the site. They also have a fabulous selection of bedtime stories to read or listen to on Soundcloud.
The first book I was offered to review is Introducing Teddy, a story about being yourself.
The book is written by Jessica Walton and illustrated by Dougal MacPherson and is published by Bloomsbury.
Here is the blurb from the back;
Errol and Thomas the Teddy play together every day. but when Thomas feels sad one morning – and not even the swings cheer him up – Errol is worried.
Thomas has a secret to share, and it’s something that is difficult to say out loud. Will Errol understand that Thomas would rather be called Tilly? And can they still be friends?
A heart-warming story about friendship and acceptance, starring a very brave teddy.
At first I was concerned about it being aimed at introducing to transgender issues, but the entire story is quite charming and it’s so much more about the strength of friendships rather than gender issues. My concerns were soon lost and I actually felt ashamed that I felt them in the first place. These are issues that are faced every day and children will grow up more accepting if they understand that some people are not as they seem straight away rather than shielding them from it. In fact it would be the perfect story for a child where, say perhaps, Uncle Simon has become Auntie Jane.
In short Thomas is a boy teddy bear and he wants to be a girl teddy bear, he’s worried what his friends will think, but his friends don’t care because they love him anyway.
The text is easy enough to be grasped by early readers but it’s also a good book to read to your children. The illustrations are delightful and make the story even more special.
The book was well received by both my six year old and my eight year old children.
Disclosure: We were sent this book for the purpose of this review, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
I LOVEd introducing my boys to new books when they were younger. One of the best bits about parenting is bedtime stories!
Aren't books wonderful? Ive not heard of Boolino before but they look like good books x
Brilliant to see a book teaching about transgender, I am convinced we can make so much positive change in the world through children's books. Thanks for sharing, picture books are so good for tricky issues, for all ages.
I think sometimes a reading book is far easier to use when explaining issues than trying to tell a child yourself.
It's good to see books covering a range of issues – we have often used a book to deal with a complicated issue.
Love the sound of this. My daughter gets stuck on one author and reads everything they've ever written but it's hard to drag her away to try something new.
What a wonderful concept for a book. I would absolutely read this to my children.
This sounds to me like a great book for introducing transgender to children. Sometimes it's easier for younger children in story form.
These sound like lovely books, off to have a look at their website x
Oh wow, such an amazing way to approach the subject with young children! Emma has started noticing these things now when out and about so I will be sure to add this to my Boolino review list.xx