New kiddies books to look out for from Penguin Books

If we’re talking about books, it must mean that it’s #BookReviewFriday right??? I received quite a few new kiddies books from Penguin Books not too long ago, and I wanted to share them with you. I am always on the hunt for new kiddies books, and because they’re stacking up a bit (one book day a week just is NOT enough to talk about all the books!), I wanted to chat about a few in today’s post.

Angry Owl finds a Hobby – Kerryn Ponter (RSP R70.00)

Recommended for Ages 3-6

All is good in the life of Angry Owl – so much so that he decides to join in the beautiful singing he hears every day from a nearby tree. He grabs a guitar, feeling confident that he’ll be the greatest musician ever. To his great disappointment, the other birds fly away from the dreadful noise of his playing. By now Angry Owl really wants to find a hobby so he tries his hand at rugby, cooking, knitting, painting and dancing. But each ends in failure. After a conversation with Mr Dove, he realises that to be good at something, you have to practise and practise. So Angry Owl returns to his guitar and practises until he can play well.

In Angry Owl Finds A Hobby, young children will be entertained by the comical situations in which the owl finds himself in his search for the perfect hobby. As ever Kerryn Ponter’s illustrations are delightful and amusing. This is the fourth title in her Angry Owl series.

Our thoughts

We have reviewed an Angry Owl book before on the blog, so it was nice to see a familar face and spend some time with Angry Owl again. Adam loves Angry Owl, his expressions, especially when irritated, are the best! Adam will point and say: Owl is sad! Look mummy, owl is cold. I find this to be a somewhat educational series as well, as in the last book we learnt about seasons and in this one, different hobbies.

That’s not my zebra… , by Fiona Watt (RSP R150.00)

Recommended for ages 3-6, but I think anytime from age 1

Celebrate the 20th anniversary of That’s not my… with this gorgeous new addition to the bestselling series. Babies and toddlers will love touching the textured patches as they meet zebras with hairy tails, fuzzy noses and soft stripes. The bright pictures and textures to stroke are designed to help develop sensory and language awareness.

Our thoughts

This is a lovely book for a baby or a toddler. Adam loved touching the textured parts and exclaiming: It’s soft mummy! Oh it’s so hard! Look at his feet? Also the pages are hard cardboard, which means its durable as well to withstand destroying toddlers.

Roald Dahl’s Creative Writing with Matilda: How to Write Spellbinding Speech, by Roald Dahl (RSP R110.00)

Recommended for ages 9-12

Go on a creative adventure with Matilda and learn how to write MARVELLOUS conversations and MAGNIFICENT reported speech.

These super fun activities will help you to:

• Develop language and vocabulary skills
• Give you the tools to write your own story
• Learn how to write brilliantly authentic dialogue, experiment with silence and reveal what a character is thinking

Our thoughts

I think these books are fabulous for the budding writer, or just for improving your child’s English writing skills for school. The activities are really fun and get the creative juices flowing. I am a huge fan of these books, and they will appeal to your kids, because they are based off of Roald Dahl books. We also received 2 others:

• Creative writing with Charlie and the Chocolate factory
• Creative writing with The BFG

Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson’s Journal, by Jeff Kinney (RSP R230.00)

Recommended for kids aged 9-12 

Get ready for a whole new look into Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid! Introducing the newest Wimpy Kid author – Rowley Jefferson! Rowley’s best friend Greg Heffley has been chronicling his middle-school years in thirteen Diary of a Wimpy Kid journals… and counting. But it’s finally time for readers to hear directly from Rowley in a journal of his own. 

In Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid, Rowley writes about his experiences and agrees to play the role of biographer for Greg along the way. (After all, one day Greg will be rich and famous, and everyone will want to know his life’s story.) But Rowley is a poor choice for the job, and his “biography” of Greg is a hilarious mess. Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson’s Journal offers readers a new way to look at the Wimpy world—one fans won’t want to miss!

Our thoughts

You may already know that Addison is a huge Diary of a Wimpy kid fan and she inhales every book released. This book was no exception! She finished it in less than 24hrs, and she chuckled and giggled her way through it. If your kid is a Diary of a Wimpy kid fan, there’s no option, you HAVE TO get them this book!

Those are some of the new kiddies books on our bookshelf! It’s so difficult for me to choose favourites, because we honestly love every single book we receive. I want to donate some books to Adam’s school, but I’m so scared he’ll grab them off the shelf and scream: This Adam’s books!!!! Not yours! What a problem to have hey?

Let me know what your kids have been loving lately and I hope you’re reading to your little ones every night 😉

Disclaimer: These books were sent to me by Penguin Random House SA, but as usual, all opinions are my own.