Now with Borders closed (oh, how I loved to take the kids there and wander around all morning!), our next best book store is Dymocks. When we can’t get out to our local store, Dymocks online is the place to go. Browsing through the $10 and under children’s books section makes it easy to find a bargain! Here are my favourite 10 books that are $10 and under at Dymocks today:

World of Eric Carle: Eric Carle’s Opposites $9.95
My Very First 100 Words $7.99 – great bright pictures for the early readers
My Very First 100 Animals $7.99
Say Ahhh Finley Pig $7.99
Three Little Pigs $4.95 – can’t go wrong with a classic!
Dr Seuss On The Loose $5.00
Animals $5.99
Blue Hat, Green Hat Boardbook by Sandra Boynton – we love Sandra Boynton, such a fun series of books
Richard Scarry’s Chipmunk’s Abc $7.95
Baby Touch – Smooth $9.95

We’ve ordered books from the Dymocks website a few times in the past year and they’ve always been right on schedule. Individual books will have their own estimated shipping date, so just make sure you’re aware of when to expect your new books when you place an order

For more great children’s books, visit Dymocks online
www.dymocks.com.au

Did you know there was a Chuggington magazine? I didn’t! Having a 4 year old boy in the house, everything is trucks & trains and Chuggington is always a huge hit with him

If you don’t know much about Chuggington, it’s a train-based animated TV show aimed at preschoolers. I find the trains – Wilson, Brewster and Koko – to be pretty cute and funny, and there’s always alot of positive storylines in each series. It is different to Thomas the Tank Engine, so I recommend you pop it on if you’re looking for something new.

The Chuggington Summer Special magazine is chock full of games, colouring in pages, colour matching and there’s even 108 stickers to use within the magazine (and on each other). I love the reading section of the magazine, a mini story about Brewster – Brewster Goes Banana’s!

It’s great magazine to pop into your handbag or in the car for those long car trips these school holidays. There’s so much within the magazine that your kids will return to it time and time again to solve all the puzzles and complete all the games.

The magazine is available at all newsagents across Australia and NZ and retails for AU$5.95.

And you can catch Chuggington on ABC2!

Chuggington
www.chuggington.com.au

During both my pregnancies, I blogged all the time and took photos to mark each month that went by. But offline, I also had a diary that lived in my handbag and kept records of all appointments & each little milestone. I highly recommend keeping a diary (offline or online) because the time does fly by so quick and you’re bound to forget so much along the way.

I spotted May Books while watching some early morning tv last week, and wanted to share them all with you today. May Books make beautiful custom notebooks and have a great range of Pregnancy Planners, Newborn Baby Journals and Wedding Planners along side their 2012 diaries, meal planners and lined or dotted notebooks.

There are so many patterns to choose from, and you can even add your own custom monogram!

May Books have strong stitch binding, Green-e Certifited Canvas Covers which are water resistant and durable and the paper they use is partially recycled. I love customised notebooks and diaries, and even more so when they are eco friendly.

May Books do ship to Australia but you need to contact them for shipping rates. Prices start from US$15.

May Books
http://www.maybooks.com

There are so many great books for kids to choose from these days, but nothing warms my heart more than sharing a book from my own childhood with my own children today. My fondest memories are of a stack of Golden Books in our makeshift library at home, so lovingly tattered and worn down to it’s last legs. Each book had our hand drawn library card system inside the front cover, and we ‘borrowed’ our favourites every day to read to each other. Those were the days….

Fast forward 20 years, and technology has come a long way. Our children today have the opportunity to read our favourite books both on paper and electronically. And while I still prefer the paper version, I’m slowly coming around to purchasing iPad App Books for my kids because I have seen how beautiful and interactive this medium can be. It’s brought a new life to old faithful books and that can never be a bad thing

Recently, I purchased 2 iPad App Books for my 4 year old – Animalia by Graeme Base and The Monster at the End of This Book by Sesame Street.

Animalia (and The Eleventh Hour) by Graeme Base was one of those books at the school library that was ALWAYS checked out. But when you did get your turn, you never wanted to give it back. The detail of the illustration is such a treat, and the iPad app for Animalia brings back those memories AND is creating new memories for my son now. Explore Animalia, Go Get Graeme and What In The World are so much fun – even the adults will be enchanted!

After reading the glowing reviews for The Monster at the End of This Book, I was expecting to get my money’s worth (around AU$5 for this iPad App) and it didn’t disappoint. Reading it along with my son for the first time and seeing his little face light up, totally worth the cost price. I was expecting just a straight book (read and turn the page) but there’s animation and interaction throughout and it definately brought out the giggles. Who would of thought you could fall in love wit a furry blue monster all over again?

While I do love hardcopy books and I’m absolutely one to budget and not impulse buy, I would still recommend to look at getting 1 or 2 special iPad book apps for kids to get them interested in reading on the iPad (rather than just playing games!). Animalia and The Monster at the End of This Book are 2 very cool iPad book apps to consider. They’ll last forever electronically and with all the new features iPad brings, you’ll get value for money.

Grug Plays Cricket by Ted Prior $4.99
Mr Grumble by Roger Hargreaves $4.95
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street by Dr Seuss $9.99
Going to Bed Boardbook by Sandra Boynton $7.95 – I love her series of kids books!
Animals – Bright Baby Bumper book $5.99

For more great books for kids and adults alike, visit Dymocks online for special online-only prices
www.dymocks.com.au

one. Skip Hop Tree Top Friends Soft Activity Book $29.95 at Urban Baby
two. My Duckling Book Was $22.95, Now $19.95 at Bambini Pronto
three. Farm Tails Book $19.95 at Lime Three Kids
four. The Very Hungry Caterpillar – children’s soft book $29.95 at Oranges and Lemons Boutique
five. Playgro – Farm Friends soft book $10.99 at The Kids Depot
six. Peek A Baby – Soft Baby Book $19.95 at Huggus and Stookles

The soft books above also have a loop so you can easily attach the book to your pram or stroller. (Buy a pack of Loopy Links to make the book more accessible).

Soft books are a perfect introduction to books for your newborn and a great way to continue and encourage reading, colour & concepts to older kids. They’re kid-friendly and introduce textures to fingertips and develop imagination to our little ones!

My love for buying books for my children continues to grow – and there’s one particular set of books that I seem to be collecting!

Pictured above, they are books by (or illustrated by) Nick Sharratt – a British author & illustrator who has illustrated around 200 books.

What I love about books is the opportunity to not only learn how to read, but how to interpret the story from the illustration. While our kids might not know how to read words, they are able to look at a picture and come up with their own (often hilarious) scenarios. Nick Sharratt’s illustrations are bold and colourful – they’re fun and compliment the fun style of the books they’re in.

Our absolute favourite at the moment is You Choose – which is about 32 pages of Nick’s illustrations. On each page, you get to choose out of a number of objects. For example, a double page of drawings featuring a never ending banquet of food — what do you choose when you’re hungry? (My 3 year old loves to choose the green icky stew for mummy!). Each turn of the page captures not only my son’s but my own imagination

The love for Nick Sharratt’s illustrations started with Pants – if you haven’t read it yet, I recommend that you grab a copy and try not to have fun with it

You can find Nick Sharratt books in most bookstores, or online at Angus & Robertson.

Books for Newborns is an online store that specialises in black & white books for children aged 0 to 6 months. That’s right, books are great for newborns!

Why black and white for babies?
At birth a baby’s eyesight is quite blurred. Black and white images with sharp outlines are much easier for baby to see in these first few months of life when it is hard for them to focus, and hard for them to differentiate colour.

A baby’s eyesight will continue to develop over the first 6 months, gradually enabling them to see bright colour, and to see for longer distances. Use of our specially designed black and white books will help to nurture that development.

My littlest one, Jovie, is just over 20 months old now. She’d recently regressed a few months back, and hadn’t been engaged with books much lately. Sitting with her last week, we had a look through Mesmerised by Katey Love (available at Books for Newborns). The black and white pictures on each page really grabbed her attention – and made her smile! Even though she’s outside the recommended 0-6 month age bracket – I think Mesmerised would be a great present for older children and will be a great addition to any library.

The Australian designed board book for newborns, Mesmerised,  is illustrated by Tasmanian mum, Katey Love, is available for AU$11.95. It’s really lovely, so if you’re looking for a mesmerising book then check out this one!

To find out more, please visit the Books For Newborns website
www.booksfornewborns.com.au

My personal obsession with buying my kid’s new books, has inevitably begun my obsession in keeping the books neat and tidy! (Do you have the same problem, books everywhere?).

We recently invested in a small bookshelf for the growing library of books – so stumbling across these bookends at Little Styles is an oasis. Pictured above are my favourites – especially the Skip Hop bookends.

1. Skip Hop – Zoo bookends – owl AU$59.95
2. Little Styles – Wooden bookends – fairy AU$24.95
3. Sparkle T – Wooden bookends – pirate AU$17.95
4. Skip Hop – Zoo bookends – monkey AU$59.95

You can find more bookends on the Little Styles website, aswell as other great items to decorate your children’s room.

Little Styles
www.littlestyles.com.au

Books also make great Christmas or birthday presents. There are so many great titles for early learners and toddlers, but here are just a few from Angus & Robertson that I would love to share.

• I Want My Potty by Tony Ross
• Adam Saves Christmas by Eoin Bennett and Benji Bennett
• Lucy Cousins Nursery Rhymes by Lucy Cousins
• Colours And Shapes by Ladybird Books Staff and Ladybird
• I Know A Lot Of Things by Rand , Ann Rand and Paul Rand
• Choo Choo Clickety-Clack! by Margaret Mayo
• Knock! Knock! Mr Crock by Jo Lodge
• Monkey Makes A Mess by Brian Glover
• Guess How Much I Love You by Sam Mcbratney
• My Very First Book Of Shapes by Eric Carle

Angus & Robertson
www.angusrobertson.com.au