Book Review: The Ultimate Pokemon Trainer’s Guide

AD/Gifted. The school holidays can be hard to fill with fun stuff. I like to secretly get a small collection of fun stuff to pull out when the mood dips and he complains he’s bored. One of the things in my secret bag of wonders was a copy of The Ultimate Pokemon Trainer’s Guide which he received with a squeal of absolute joy.

The Ultimate Pokemon Trainer’s Guide by Ned Hartley is published on 2nd May 2019. It costs £7.99 and is a 64 page softback book packed with everything you need to know about Pokemon including reviews, facts, stats and tips.

Win a copy of The Ultimate Pokemon Trainer's Guide

The Ultimate Pokemon Trainer’s Guide is divided into three sections. In the first section, all the classic games are reviewed, from Pokemon Go, to Pokemon Ultra Sun and Moon and Pokemon: Let’s go Pikachu!

In the second section you can find more facts, figures and fun. With information about the TV shows, movies and the trading card game. Section three is where you can find the complete Pokemon encyclopedia, with entries on all 800+ Pokemon, including strengths, weaknesses and combat skills; in fact everything a Pokemon trainer needs to know!

This is a really comprehensive book about Pokemon. It’s absolutely the kind of book kids like my son adore. Every page is packed with facts and stats and it’s perfect for dipping in and out of.

Win a copy of The Ultimate Pokemon Trainer's Guide

The Ultimate Pokemon Trainer’s Guide is aimed at children aged 7+ and my 8 year old is thoroughly enjoying it. He’s had it for a few days now and he has got a lot out of it. I’m a big fan of letting kids read whatever they are interested in, because pretty much all reading is good.

The Ultimate Pokemon Trainer’s Guide is colourful, really well illustrated, packed full of Pokemon info and pitched at just the right level. Pokemon is showing no signs of falling out of fashion, and keenly priced at £7.99, The Ultimate Pokemon Trainer’s Guide is the ideal book to entertain an aspiring Pokemon trainer!

The Ultimate Pokemon Trainer’s Guide is published in May 2019 and is available for pre-order online now.

If you enjoyed this, you might like to download my FREE Pokemon reading log.

Disclosure: We were sent a copy of The Ultimate Pokemon Trainer’s Guide for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.

Books: Paperscapes – The Amazing World of Animals

Last week we reviewed The Fearsome World of Dinosaurs, a Paperscapes books from Carlton Books. This week we are taking a look at Paperscapes – The Amazing World of Animals. The Paperscapes books are beautiful hardback books, filled with die-cut illustrations and facts and information about all kinds of animals.

Meet the world’s most curious creatures! From ferocious hunters to cunning disguise artists, eagles with attitude to deadly dragons, you’ll discover a new furry, feathery or scaly beast with every turn of the page.

Win a copy of Paperscapes - The Amazing World of Animals

The Amazing World of Animals is a really lovely book. There are perforations around all of the illustrations, so you can press out around the images so they really stand out. The Amazing World of Animals is illustrated by Stuart Martin. Each illustration is beautifully detailed and the creatures on the pages really stand out and grab your attention.

Written by Moira Butterworth, The Amazing World of Animals is packed with animal facts; including their size, what they eat, lifespan and conservation status. There’s also a map of where they live and some did you know style facts.

Each page is filled with facts and information about each creature. For example, did you know that the Emperor penguin can dive as deep as 550 metres below the surface of the Antarctic sea and they can hold their breath for over 20 minutes. No? Me neither

The Awesome World of Animals is aimed at children aged 7+. It’s a really colourful, interesting, engaging reference books for children, right into their early teens. The facts are pitched at just the right level and the language used is fine for a good reader aged 7, but not too simple so that a teenager can enjoy reading it.

Win a copy of Paperscapes - The Amazing World of Animals

If you like the idea of these Paperscapes books, but dinosaurs aren’t your thing, there are three other books in the series – The Incredible World of Bugs; The Spectacular Journey into Space and The Fearsome World of Dinosaurs.

Paperscapes – Amazing World of Animals by Moira Butterfield is published by Carlton Books and costs £12.99. It is available online and from good bookshops.

Disclosure: We were sent a copy of Paperscapes – The Amazing World of Animals for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.

Review: STEM Activity Books

This month sees the publication of a new range of STEM Activity Books from Carlton Kids. STEM stands for; Science; Technology; Engineering and Maths. These are all the subjects (apart from Maths) which my son loves best and they’re all good subjects to encourage our children to be interested in.

My son will be 8 in just a few short weeks and if I’m honest, we’ve been struggling to find activity books to do at home. We always like to have a few in the activity bag which we take out with us whenever we go for a meal or a day out somewhere. Good activity books aimed at children his age seem to be fairly hard to come by.

Giveaway & Review: STEM Activity Books

The STEM Activity Books range includes;

Sensational Science by Steph Clarkson
Terrific Technology by Claire Sipi
Extreme Engineering by Paul Virr
Amazing Maths by Hannah Wilson

The STEM Activity Books from Carlton Kids look like they’re going to fill that activity book gap for my son. In face when I showed them to him he was thrilled and immediately went off and started working his way through the Extreme Engineering book.

Each of the STEM Activity Books are filled with mazes, puzzles, quizzes and facts and there are over 40 activities in each of the books. The Sensational Science book, covers a really broad spectrum of science including; Our Universe; Chemical Reactions; Gravity; Awesome Atoms; Brilliant Bodies; Rocks and Fossils and Electricity. For a boy who loves science as much as he does, this is the best book in the world right now.

In the Amazing Maths book, find the coordinates on the map, colour in the polygons to reveal the animals, work out the area of the farm, and spot the symmetrical objects. These are just some of the activities featured in the Amazing Maths book.

Giveaway & Review: STEM Activity Books

The other books, Terrific Technology, Extreme Engineering and Amazing Maths are all similarly packed with facts and fun things to do. They’re colourfully illustrated and aimed at ages 6+. My son is nearly 8 and I would say they were absolutely bang on for him.

Each of the four STEM Activity Books is engaging and interesting. They’re the kind of things you can do on car journeys, or days out. Or perhaps keep them to one side and do the activities alongside any STEM activities they might be studying at school. My son goes to a science after school class, so these books are great to accompany and reinforce his learning at home too.

Each book in the STEM Activity series costs £9.99 and they are available to order now online or in good bookshops.

We were sent these STEM Activity books for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.

Review: I Am Not A… Craft Activity Books

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but each Wednesday I try to publish some kind of book review or round-up and each Thursday I do some kind of craft. Imagine my delight when I opened up a package containing all four of the I Am Not A… craft activity books. Crafts and books… two of my favourite things!

The series of I Am Not A… craft activity books is written by Sara Stanford and contains the following titles –

I Am Not A Cereal Box
I Am Not A Toilet Roll
I Am Not An Old Sock
I Am Not An Eggbox

Review: I Am Not A... Craft Activity Books

They are ideal books for those of us who look in our recycling bins and wish we could turn some of our trash into treasure. This series encourages you to recycle your cereal boxes, old socks, toilet rolls or eggboxes.

Each book shows you how to create ten craft projects in an easy to follow, step-by-step way. The books are just the thing for children to follow by themselves, or with a little extra help from a grown-up. I’m sure teachers and playgroups will also find a lot of craft inspiration in these books.

I Am Not A Cereal Box shows you how to make a robot, an aquarium, a car, a dinosaur, a castle, an elephant, a rock star guitar, a building, a marble run and a puppet theatre. In I Am Not A Toilet Roll you can make a shark, a bat, an elephant, a rocket, a pirate, a unicorn, a ninja, a gingerbread man, a castle and a mermaid. The other books in the series have a similarly dazzling selection of craft ideas to make.

The books are well illustrated and simply written, so children will find the instructions easy to follow. Each page also includes some fun facts and other ideas for similar crafts to make. At the start of each book is a handy list of the craft materials you might need throughout the book.

Review: I Am Not A... Craft Activity Books

If you have crafty children, or you want to encourage them to craft a little more, these easy to follow books are a great place to start. I know my son always loves junk modelling and creating things out of things that might otherwise have been thrown in the bin. I know my son is already drawing up a things to make list and I’m collecting all the toilet rolls I can get my hands on. Always a good sign!

Each book in the series costs £6.99 and they are available to order now online or in good bookshops.