Saturday 21 December 2013

Portable North Pole Review

Click on the image to see the review.


Friday 20 December 2013

Thomas & Friends: Merry Christmas Thomas! Review

We were recently sent a copy of Thomas and Friends: Merry Christmas. This DVD has six fun and festive episodes and it also has a special bonus DVD with a further five episodes. What a great bonus!

Thursday 17 October 2013

Stick Dog Wants a Hot Dog Book Review

We were recently sent a book called Stick Dog Wants a Hot Dog for my son to review. It is a proper book, with chapters, which was a new thing for my son, who is only four. I wasn't sure if his attention span would stick with a longer book, but I needn't have worried because there is a character called Poo-Poo! This meant that he was listening intently waiting for the time he could hear his mum utter the words poo poo before he collapsed in giggles on the floor! After the first chapter the giggles subsided slightly, but the sniggers continued until the end of the book. It took us a week to get through the book at bedtime each night. It was a really enjoyable read and we even caught the teddy bear having a peek!

What they say.
In this second book by Tom Watson, Stick Dog is at it again—and he's hungrier than ever. He and his four friends, Poo-Poo, Mutt, Stripes, and Karen, must execute a master plan to steal some hot dogs. But the closer they get to the hot-dog vendor, the more obstacles they meet, including:

A team of raccoons that wants the hot dogs too
Hot-dog-snatching plans that are a little, umm, not so hot
A dognapping . . . sort of
Readers will delight once again as Stick Dog and his gang of goofballs work to overcome these challenges and more—to satisfy their hunger for hot dogs.

Stick dog wants a hot dogTeddy bear reading a book

Good points
Great story which was well told.
We both loved the illustrations.
Kept my son entertained throughout the whole book.
It would be great for children who could read by themselves too and the lines on the pages make it a lot easier to read.

Bad points
I found that I had to explain what a lot of the things in the book were because the narrative is American. I also found it jarred slightly when I was reading aloud. Although reading in an American accent helped!

Would I buy it?
Yes. It entertained my son and was funny. I liked reading him a bedtime story which continued every night and it reminded me of being a child and having stories read to me.

Stick Dog Wants a Hot Dog is available to buy now and the RRP is £5.99. You can find out more information here.

Disclosure: We received a copy of the book for the purpose of review. All opinions are my own.

Friday 20 September 2013

DC Super Friends Magazine Review

We were recently sent a DC Super Friends Magazine for my son to review. He usually only gets a magazine when we go on long train journeys or aeroplanes., so he was very excited to see a magazine waiting for him when he got back from school. He loved the free toys and took those straight off to play with them. We sat down together to look through the magazine. I think there is a really good mix of things for children to do, great stories and super heroes. The boy has just started taking an interest in super heroes, especially Batman, so it was very well timed for him. 


What they say
DC Super Friends offers exciting stories about the super friends Batman, Superman, The Flash and Green Lantern and many others. DC Super Friends is packed with lots of creative learning quizzes and activities, colouring games, cut out and keep, make and wear activities, character fact files, a fan mail section for all of those lovely pictures we receive and brilliant prizes to be won through our competitions. DC Super Friends stimulates the imagination of pre-school boys through play activities and great stories of good role models uniting through friendship. Plus, every issue comes with a free toy! The first edition comes with two cool communicators with switching screens.

Good points
Great range of activities.
Good stories.
Fabulous colours and exciting content.


Bad points
The toys which came with the magazine were pretty poor quality. My son dropped one of the communicators on the carpet and the top broke off instantly. The same happened with the second communicator the next day. The inserts fell out very easily too and we have already lost one.

Would I buy it?
I would definitely consider buying the magazine again. It is entertaining and kept my son busy for a few hours once we had completed all the arts, crafts and colouring in.

The magazines went on sale in the UK on the 19th September 2013. You can find copies in supermarkets and newsagents. You can get good discounts if you are a subscriber, details of which can be found at www.titanmagazines.com/superfriends and within the magazine itself.

Disclosure: We were sent the magazine for the purpose of review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Friday 30 August 2013

Thomas & Friends: King of the Railway Review

My children were recently sent a copy of Thomas & Friends: King of the Railway. Both children like Thomas, but they haven't ever watched a feature length DVD before. I wasn't sure they would sit still for that long, but it turns out that they both loved it! The DVD arrived just in time for a long journey down to Wales. We set off at bedtime and I put the DVD on. The boy and the girl watched enthralled for part of the journey. When it ended, they got fidgety, eventually falling asleep at gone 9pm which never happens! I guess they were both excited. We have watched Kind of the Railway a few times since and each time they have both really enjoyed watching it and have asked to watch it again.

What they say
Join Thomas & Friends as they embark on a legendary movie adventure! The steam team's quest begins when a special guest arrives on Sodor with a big surprise and important jobs for Thomas, Percy and James. The engines meet new friends and discover suits of armour, coats of arms and legends of long-ago heroes. Then their bravery is put to test when their new friend Stephen goes missing. Will Thomas find him in time? Will the engines discover the truth about the Island of Sodor's biggest mystery? It's a crusade of knightly proportions for Thomas & Friends in this epic movie.

Friday 12 July 2013

Monsters University Soundtrack Review


Click on the image to see the review.


Sealife Manchester Review

A couple of weeks ago we went to visit the newly opened Sealife Centre in the Trafford Centre. I took two very excited children and my sister with me. We arrived at 10.30am to a rather random queuing system where those who have pre-booked were taking far longer to get through the queue than those who had paid on the day. From the entrance we were taken through to a holding area where we had our photo taken and waited on a ramp for a talk about turtles. We entered the talk only to be shouted at by the woman giving the talk who said too many of us had come in. She shouted at her colleague with her microphone on that her colleague shouldn't have let us through. Her colleague was busy taking photos of people coming in, so I am not sure she could have done both tasks. We were then all told to go back down the ramp. There was a group of disabled children behind us in wheelchairs who had to reverse down and it was all very awkward. The lady giving the talk said loudly, "I can't do two things at once, oh wait, I am" and then flounced back in to give the talk. At this point one family left and another mum stated that we didn't need to know the politics, we just wanted to be allowed in.