Kitten Corner: Summer Fun!

This week’s round up is full of seaside-y, sunshine-y fun for you and your little readers! All of these books were sent to me for review, but all opinions are my own.

Kitten Corner: Handling Stressful Situations

I wasn’t sure what to title this post, but all three of these books deal with tricky emotions and situations, whether that’s arguing, fear, or indecision, so I think they make a nice group! All of these books were sent to me free of charge for review, but my opinions are all my own.

Kitten Corner: A Selection of Cats!

As you know, I am very much a cat person, and I’m always on the lookout for books featuring cats, in any age range. We’ve recently loved Mooncat and Me, which I reviewed here, and here are four more books for little ones that have cats! All of these books were sent to me, but that doesn’t affect my opinions.

Cat Chat by Dr Jess French and Penelope Dullaghan, from Nosy Crow

This is a wonderful introduction to the body language of cats! Each page has a brilliantly expressive illustration of a different cat, and a rhyming description that explains simply what each cat is feeling (“Say hello cat/let me go cat” for example). I think this will be invaluable as a tool to show my toddler when it’s safe or unsafe to approach our cat, which is something I’m hyperaware he needs to learn – Tomte is a gentle giant, but he’s still a cat with claws and teeth! I like that there are more detailed explanations of how to interact with cats at the back of the book, with an emphasis on when to leave cats alone and how to get them to feel comfortable with you – it has just the right balance of teaching kids to be wary while also acknowledging that they probably badly want to touch the cat! I’m very impressed with this, and will be glad to have it on hand for the future. Highly recommended for those who own both cats and toddlers.

Kitten Corner: So Many Animals!

This week in Kitten Corner I have an array of lovely animal-themed picture books to show you, so let’s jump right in! All these books were sent to me free of charge by the publishers, but that doesn’t affect my opinions.

This is Crab by Harriet Evans and Jacqui Lee, from Little Tiger

Kitten Corner: Mooncat and Me by Lydia Corry

Any picture book with a cat in it will always pique my interest, and this particular cat comes with a wonderfully thoughtful story about handling anxiety and apprehension!

Kitten Corner: Diggers and Rockets

Things that go vroom are having a real moment in our house, so I thought I’d round up a few books about building sites and spaceships that are sure to entertain a little one who loves to see how things work! All of these books were sent to me free of charge for review, but they’ve been extensively road-tested (pun intended!) and all opinions are my own.

Curious Kids: Stars and Space by Christiane Engel, from Little Tiger

This book is gorgeous. It’s full of beautiful pop-ups that have everything from galaxies to astronauts springing to life in beautiful bright colours. It’s jam-packed with facts, too, and between the delicate pop-up mechanisms and the level of information, this is definitely one best suited to slightly older kids who can a) be trusted not to tear it and b) understand the vocab and longer sentence construction. It would make a great read-together book, too, and will definitely have budding astronauts spouting off space facts. The artwork is really vibrant and appealing – I particularly love the pop-up of a comet racing through the stars. And bonus points for featuring female astronauts as well as male. This is a delight of a book.

How it works: Rocket by Amelia Hepworth and David Semple, from Little Tiger.

Keeping with the space theme, here’s a book aimed slightly younger in both construction and writing style, but still full of cool facts and illustrations! This one is a little bit sturdier, more of a traditional board book, and each page has a shaped cut-out that reveals slightly more of the rocket – it’s a really cool way to show the rocket shedding parts as it travels. Again, we have a balance of male and female astronauts, which is great to see. There’s also a little mouse to spot in each picture, which adds some fun! I really enjoyed the bright, bold artwork, and would love to get hold of more in this series.

Make Tracks: Building Site by Johnny Dyrander, from Nosy Crow

Moving on to something a little more earthbound, this book has such a cool concept! Each spread shows you a vehicle you might find on a building site, and explains about its job and its machinery, and then has a page with an embedded track that you can move that vehicle around using a sliding disc. It’s very clever, and hugely fun for little fingers to “drive” – a couple of the tracks have central islands that can be pulled off quite easily, and I admit I’ve had to take the glue-stick to a couple of pages, so this is probably one to save for toddlers who are past the ‘pull everything as hard as you can’ stage. That’s not to say it’s not well-made or well-designed because it really is, it’s just always a possibility with moving paper parts. But for little ones who can play gently, this will provide an enormous amount of entertainment!

What Can You See on a Building Site? by Kate Ware and Maria Perera, from Little Tiger

This is another book that puts cutouts to great use, with sneak peeks at all different stages of a building site. Each spread is full of fun details to spot and simple explanations of the jobs, machines, and tools you might find on a building site – it shows much more than just diggers and bricklaying! There’s a few building sites near us, so it’s nice to be able to point out things we might have seen on our walks. There’s also a different cat to find in each scene, which is an addition which will always make me smile! The pages are nice and thick so even with the cut-outs, it feels like it will withstand a lot of poking and pulling – I think this one will keep holding interest as the building sites nearby keep changing!

Kitten Corner: More Fabulous Flaps!

We’re still absolutely loving interactive board books chez Cup of Tea, so here’s a little round up of some of the newest flappy favourites on our shelves! All of these books were sent to me for review, but that doesn’t affect my opinions.

Where’s Mrs Car? by Ingela P Arrhenius

The latest book in the Felt Flaps series is another winner! These are so simple, but so well-executed, with five large and tactile flaps that babies will love to grab. This one, as you can probably guess, features an array of cute vehicles, and the mirror at the end is a particular favourite. Definitely a series to get your hands on if you need to entertain a little one!

Kitten Corner: Animal Books!

I realised the other day that a lot of the books we’ve been reading recently have had an animal theme, so here’s a little round up! All of these books were sent to me for review by Little Tiger Books, but that doesn’t affect my opinions.

Sea by Patricia Hegarty and Britta Teckentrup

This book is full of gorgeous underwater scenes and enchanced with cool cut-outs that reveal different creatures on each page, which makes it feel full of depth and mystery! It’s accompanied by rhyming text that tells you a bit about each of the fish and animals, and has an overt moral about keeping the sea clean to protect ocean life, which is very important. All the sea creature favourites are here, from sharks to manatees, and kids will love spotting them in the detailed background as well as when they’re the focus. A very pretty read!

Kitten Corner: Ancient History

Just a few books today, but they all ended up on a historical theme! These are all perfect for slightly older readers as they have more delicate and intricate flaps and plenty of interesting historical info to learn – so let’s take a look! All of these books were sent to me for review, but that doesn’t affect my opinions.

Find Tom in Time: Ancient Rome by Fatti Burke

I’ve already said I’m a huge fan of this series (my review of Tom’s adventures in Ming Dynasty China is here, and Ancient Egypt is here), and I was really looking forward to the Ancient Rome book as that’s my area of expertise! This Where’s-Wally-esque book is a fabulous peek into the past, covering loads of different areas of Roman life in bright, chaotic detail with the added fun of looking for Tom and his cat Digby! You could pore over this for hours to find all the fun little tidbits hidden in the scenes – it’s a great addition to the series!

Kitten Corner: More Books About Feelings

This time on Kitten Corner I wanted to highlight some beautiful picture books that tackle the subject of feelings, friendships, and other emotional issues – there’s been a gorgeous selection published recently, so if you’re in need of a book that speaks to your and your little ones’ hearts, this is the post for you!

All of these books were sent to me for review, but that doesn’t affect my opinions!

Sometimes by Stephanie Stansbie and Elisa Paganelli

Published by Little Tiger Books on 1st April 2021