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Bella's June Favourites



Apologies, I am so late uploading the review of Bella's June favourites. Without further ado, let's get into it!

Are We There Yet by Mariel Emmerson

This is a story about Molly and Henry as they are going on a car ride to have a picnic. Whilst they are travelling in their parent’s car they encounter some special guests. Each page features beautiful illustrations and short text flowing in different directions. Bella is more into the pictures than the words because she is still very young and she appeared to enjoy identifying different objects, for e.g. car or dog.

Some of the characters are well known from traditional fairy tales, but again Bella is too young to be able to connect with this notion and understand who each character is and their relevance. We first encounter the troll on troll bridge, Bella pointed at him and said, “scary!” Then we encounter the likes of Rapunzel, the three little pigs and the big bad wolf.

I like the fact that this book as mentioned earlier is not text heavy, so when reading it to Bella she remained focused and took in what was being read to her as well as the pictures. I liked the concept of the author Mariel incorporating fairy tales as Molly and Henry embark on their mini adventure.

The ending of the book was quite a pleasant surprise, I won’t give too much away, but it is a nice treat for younger readers.

George’s New Dinosaur

Now having seen the episode already, Bella was quite familiar with this story. She happily identified familiar characters in the book and found it fun to point out George’s dinosaur on each page. I am quite happy that they created story books of most Peppa Pig episodes, just because I don’t always like Bella to sit and watch Peppa Pig or anything on TV. This way it helps her to still enjoy books and see some of her favourite characters, so this was a great idea (it also saves me from listening to George and his rather annoying crying!).

As expected this book features a lot of text, but it was no problem for Bella and I because she loves stories especially ones that captivate her and draw her attention. The illustrations used throughout the book are no different to what we would see in a Peppa Pig episode. Bright, colourful and very appealing. I am sure that Bella will be picking another one of her Peppa Pig books for her July favourites, but we will have to wait and see what she comes up with at the end of this month!

Christmas Magic by Melanie Joyce

Now Christmas has come and gone, but it seems to be coming back around pretty fast as we are already in July! Anyway, this book was a nice read and is basically about a little girl’s excitement for Christmas. Her name is not mentioned throughout the book, so we do not know her name, but she describes the different tasks that her family undertake to prepare for Christmas day.

Bella appeared to enjoy identifying different objects in this book also and it gave me the opportunity to introduce her to some new objects. The use of illustrations is this book is nice and shows what the little girl’s house looks like as well as her bedroom, her family and a few of her toys. It is nice because some young readers will be able to identify with the book finding similarities between their room and the little girl’s room, for e.g. “I have my little pony toys and she has ponies on her bookshelf!”

This book is a rhyming book and I like the fact that I can read it to Bella in a rhythmic, natural way. I have found that the text is rather simple, but it does not take away anything from the story as the pictures do a lot of talking for the story in any case.

It would be a nice little treat in the Christmas period to teach the young ones what happens before Christmas. Christmas is a wonderful time of year, where most families get to be together to celebrate. I think that this is the kind of book you can read to your child just to get them prepared for one of the most enchanting times of the year!

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