Review & Giveaway: Children's Book - Sir Scallywag and the Golden Underpants

Big congratulations to @BlueBearWood you are the lucky winner.  Please DM or email me your address details.  Many thanks, Michelle

There is a new favourite bedtime story in our house right now.  The girls are just loving this new book we have been sent. Sir Scallywag and the Golden Underpants is marketed as being perfect for boys aged 3 - 6 years and I think they are right, boys will adore the silly poetic verses in this story.  However, equally so two little 4 year old girlie girls are enjoying it as well.

'Read it again Mummy', 'Why has the King chopped his head off and flushed it down the loo?'.  Oh yes, I have been getting all sorts of questions and fielding those can be fun!  As you can tell from the questions there are a couple of bits in the book which I found a little questionable, not rude enough that I would not read the book but just a tad silly, the sort of thing that young kids love.

I felt the storyline carried a similarity to David and Goliath from the bible, in that just because someone is small does not mean they cannot conquer, which of course is a really nice message to give your kids.

The award winning author Giles Andreae was also the creator of Purple Ronnie, which made me smile as I have not thought about that little stickman for a few years. The illustrations in the book are outstanding as you would expect from Korky Paul, the man responsible for illustrating the Winnie the Witch books. In all the poetic wording and superb drawings join together to make a fabulous book, which is great lighthearted fun and a really easy read.

So how do you fancy winning your own copy?

How to enter:

• Mandatory - Leave a comment to let me know how I can contact you - twitter ID or email.
• Additional entry - tweet ''I want to #win a Sir Scallywag & the Golden Underpants book from @puffinbooks & @michelletwinmum #giveaway http://bit.ly/wASURx'

 Terms and Conditions of Entry:

• The winner will be chosen at random
• Open to UK and Ireland residents only
• Giveaway closes at 12 noon on Thursday 9th February 2012
• The winner will be contacted within 3 working days of the competition closing
• The winner needs to contact me within a week of my announcing the winner or I will draw again
• The prize is not transferable and there is no cash alternative
• The DVD will be sent direct from Penguin Books

Disclaimer:  This is a review post.  Many thanks to Penguin Books for this book.

Review: The Polar Express DVD

I don't think I have quite accepted yet that Christmas is over! Whilst I am enjoying being back to normal and having the chaos cleared out of my house I still love to watch Christmas movies.

So I had a very enjoyable 96 minutes a couple of days ago in bed on my own, watching The Polar Express. I had not watched this film before so when I received it as part of a Christmas present bundle from Warner Bros. I was super pleased! It is a G for general viewing and I can imagine all five of us sitting down next year to watch it together in the run up to Christmas.

It really is a very magical film. The animation is amazing and so different to many other animated films that have been released in recent years but in a beautifully mystical way.  I cannot even start to explain how much the film captivates you and draws you in, making you want to watch it the whole way through. An animated Tom Hanks is the conductor on board the Polar Express, which is a magical train that rides to the North Pole each Christmas Eve loaded with children. The four central children characters are excellent with their own very prominent and unique personalities and you watch them grow and change as they take this roller-coaster journey.

If you don't believe in the magic of Christmas before this film you certainly will afterwards.  I will happily recommend this as a family movie which will appeal to the adults just as much as the children (maybe even more so!). This is not your typical Christmas feel good film full of humour and pranks but that for me was a welcome change.

Amazon have some great deals on The Polar Express now and there is even a 3D version on Blu-ray too, which you could buy for £14.99.

Enjoy!


Disclosure:  This is a review post.

Children's DVD Review: Arrietty

As a child I loved Mary Norton's book The Borrowers, about tiny people who lived under the floorboards and came up to borrow things that the human folk may not need, such as sugar lumps and tissues.  So hearing it had been made into a modern film was exciting news. Arrietty is an animated family feature film which runs for approximately 90 minutes.  Made by the Ghibli studio that produced Spirited Away and Ponyo, it is the tale of a young boy called Sho who is seriously ill and comes to stay in a mansion in the leafy outskirts of Tokyo whilst he awaits treatment.  During his time there Sho meets a tiny little girl called Arrietty who lives in the depths of the house in her own diddy house with her parents. Sadly once her parents realise that a human has seen her they need to move away to keep themselves safe but before this we get a delightful story of an unlikely friendship and a slightly kooky housekeeper!

This is a beautiful film, which was enjoyed by all the family from my 4 year old girls through to my husband and I. The animation is just lovely, I commented to dh that it is not at all garish like some children's films.  It is muted and very realistic and the story unfolds in a very touching and captivating way.  This film has provided a couple of happy afternoons viewing for us so far.

Arrietty will be available to buy from all good retailers from 9th January 2012.  I would happily recommend it as a good investment to add to your family films library.  You can pre-order on Amazon for £11.99 for a DVD at the moment.

Take a peek at the trailor -



Certificate : U
Run Time:  90 minutes
Language:  English or Japanese with English subtitles
Actors: Saoirse Ronan, Olivia Coleman, Mark Strong, Tom Holland
Directors: Hiromasa Yonebayashi

Disclaimer:  This is a  review post, I received the DVD free of charge. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

Review: Scotch Pop-Up Tape

Now I have to be honest with you and say this is going to be a pretty concise post, let's be honest, how much can I say about sticky tape before you click away?

I have been using the Scotch pop-up tape strips for probably 2 or 3 years now.  They do work out to be a little more expensive than tape on a roll but I find the faff of finding lost ends on tape rolls a complete put off and that just never happens with these nifty little strips.

When you need to wrap about 20 shoe boxes in Christmas wrap for Operation Christmas Child you need something that actively helps you rather than hinders and Scotch pop-up tape does the job really well.  Look, I even modelled my little dispenser in action for you -

The dispenser filled with 75 strips in a pad retails for £2.49 and refill packs of 3 tape pads are available for an RRP of £2.69 but I have to be honest and say that I always buy mine when they are on discount or 2 for 3 type offers.  I do like a bargain and you can pick them up in most good stationers, supermarkets and general retailers. Thea re 2 for £3.00 at Tesco at the moment.

So will I be using tape strips this Christmas to do my wrapping, oh yes I will, in about 10 minutes in fact.  All the kids are now asleep so it is the perfect time to grab dh and get in a bit of wrapping action - it is all rock and roll here!


Disclosure:  I received a dispenser and some strips for the purposes of doing this review.  I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

Recommended Children's Books for Christmas

Not too long until Christmas is upon us and if you are anything like me then some of your Christmas shopping will be done in bookshops.  I just love to browse through books, each year I take it upon myself to help the children I buy presents for improve their love for books.  I bought one of my nephews a book recently and he commented this would be his fourth book.  How sad is that?  My kids have dozens and dozens of books each and we visit charity shops and the library frequently so we can keep rotating and keep our reading fresh. I suppose my love of reading has translated into a love for them too - result!

I was recently sent 3 books to review and share with you.  Here is what we thought!

Magic Beans: A Handful of Fairytales from the Storybag. RRP £9.99 in hardback

This one suited my girls age group (they are 4) with me reading to them but equally JJ could easily have read it to himself at age 8. It is a wonderful book to read at bedtime and I was able to read to all 3 children with them  all equally being interested and engaged. The book contains fourteen wondrous stories and each one is described as a magic bean: written to capture a child's imagination. The collection of classic stories are retold in a modern manner by some of today's best children's story tellers including Jacqueline Wilson, Phillip Pullman, Michael Morpurgo, Anne Fine, and many more.

My girls particularly liked the tale of Rapunzel told by Jacqueline Wilson and I was super pleased to see Aesop's Fables included.  I have such fond memories of being read these simple but brilliant tales by my Mum when I was young. I would happily recommend this book for both boys and girls.



History Keepers: The Storm Begins by Damien Dibben. RRP £12.99 in hardback

JJ who is 8 read this but let me tell you a secret....  so did I and I am considerably older than 8! lol I am assuming this book is aimed at pre-teens/ teenagers but at a mature 8 JJ was fine reading it and really got into the fast-moving story.  In this book (the first of many I hope) young hero Jake Djones travels through time to save his parents – and history itself.  The way that true life historical events are woven into the story is extremely clever. I felt like I was being taken on a  rollercoaster ride through this book and it kept me turning the pages avidly. I believe this book will appeal to both boys and girls and should feature on every older child's Christmas list.  It is superb and I can't wait for the next book in the series...

Sapphire Battersea by Jacqueline Wilson.  RRP £12.99 in hardback

This is the second book in a trilogy, with the acclaimed Hetty Feather being the first. As JJ is a real boys boy I passed this book to my friends 10 year old daughter, H and asked for her comments. 'I loved it' was the first thing she said to me when I saw her the other day.  She told me that she read it in 2 days over a weekend as it was fantastic.  She had not read Hetty Feather prior to this book but she said it did not matter as she was able to understand everything in the book and she would, be using her pocket money next week to buy Hatty Feather. 

Her mum tells me that Sapphire Battersea is well written and very pre-teen/ early teenage years friendly. There is a sad part when a key character dies (I won't spoil it and say who) so you need to be aware that it is not really aimed at younger children. Also your child needs to be aware that there will be a third book out in a year or so which will reveal the ending to the story.....  so they need to be patient and wait for it!

Another recommendation, I am now reliably informed that JJ would have loved it too and whilst my assumption was that it is a girls book, apparently that is not so.

All three books are available at good booksellers such as Waterstones and WH Smiths and can also be purchased online from Random House.


Disclosure:  I received these books free of charge to review.  I was not instructed what to write and I remain honest.