Royal Celebrations!

Dress Up Dollys and Knitted Princesses

To celebrate the upcoming royal nuptials, we decided to enter into the spirit and put in this lovely Royal London window display. Walker Books kindly supplied us with the cut-out of Westminster Abbey (an illustration from their beautiful new London Souvenir Cityscape) and our very own Holly and Annie put the window together around it.

We've carefully selected from the avalanche of books about the Royal Wedding and we think there will be something for everyone. One of our favourites is the William and Kate Dress Up Dolly Book, which is a perfect way to while away the time until the big day (for grown-ups too!). As well as it's eye-catching cover, this book has dozens of different outfits for the royal couple to model.

For your own mini princess, this Royal Wedding Activity Book from
Scholastic is a great way to keep little hands busy over the Easter holidays. From designing the dress to decorating the wedding cake, this book has everything necessary to join in the wedding fun!


We haven't forgotten about the grown-ups, don't worry! We also have the brilliant new Alison Jackson book Kate and Wills Up the Aisle, with hundreds of her trademark lookalike photographs of the Royal Family, as well as the bestselling Knit Your Own Royal Wedding, a joy for those knitting fans among you.

So however you'll be spending the 29th April 2011, don't forget that there are some great books to keep you company and provide a perfect souvenir of the
historic event.

Castle Challenge Summer Activities!

We had some brilliant fun at the shop yesterday as we embarked on a Castle Challenge! Scholastic have kindly sent us some excellent castle building kits, from their Chicken Socks range and they were a big hit.

We had moments of people's pieces all getting mixed-up and looking for that piece that has stone and grass on, but Emily was able to smoothly host the event with lots of enthusiasm.

Thank you to Hannah Welsh at Scholastic for the great kits and to everyone who came along.

We have a range of Chicken Socks and Klutz books avaialble in the shop, a superb range of activity books for the everyone.

The Night Iceberg - Helen Stephens

We have been very lucky to have award winning author and illustrator Helen Stephens visit our shop for a fun storytime last year and we are all very excited to see her brilliant new book The Night Iceberg. It touches on a subject that we all face with little ones at some point, the idea of sharing.

Tofta finds it difficult that she has to now share things with her little baby brother, but by chance one night she sees a beautiful iceberg drift by her window and decides that she wants that all for herself. She didn't anticipate 500 penguins turning up for some fun and games, but she learns to enjoy all the fun.

This book is so, so magical! It is filled with page after page of such thoughtful illustration and a wonderful lyrical story. This was a top choice among our avid audience during storytime in the shop this last week. We spent the rest of the storytime talking about the funny tummy sliding thing penguins do, what items we have shared with another person recently and would we pack 1 or 2 tins of sardines?

This story gave us much to discuss and it was such a pleasure to read. This is a book for keeps! £6.99 available now in the shop.

If you enjoy this book, you will definitely enjoy Helen's award winning book Fleabag. Shortlisted for the Blue Peter Children's Book Award and Winner of the Children's Book Award.