Granny Franny's Big Red Bus - Kids Book Review

It's time for another Children's Book Review.

Today it is a book for young children about a granny and her grandkids going on an adventure.

We have always felt that books are very special to our family and share a love of reading but now that Fred and I have got to the "grandparent stage" we are once again looking at, buying and reading books that are suitable for young children.


So when I heard about this book and the fact that it was about a granny who liked to go on an adventure with her grandkids I was very interested to get a copy to read with our grandkids.


Disclaimer:  I did receive a free copy of this book to read and give my honest review.



So let's have a look at

Granny Franny's Big Red Bus

As with other Children's Books I have reviewed

SSHH Don't Wake The Baby! - Christmas Children's Book Review

Marie & Mr Bee - Children's Book Review

I like to get our grandchildren involved but things did not go exactly to plan this time.


We had planned to visit them and sit on the comfy couch with them snuggled in beside us and have them make the big hard decision of

 "Who do you want to read this book to you today?"

But then 3 out of that family of 5 took sick with a nasty cold and so the visit was off.

I had told them we had a new book for them!

What were we going to do - once they know we have got something new for them they are always looking forward to seeing what it is.

Now any children find it hard to wait and this gang were already disappointed that we were not coming to their house so we decided we would read the story while on facetime like we have done other times.


Grandpa is the designated reader while we are on Face Time calls and nanny does the "Guess What I'm drawing today!" and we both do the jigsaw puzzles and the hunt the bear round out house and the other games we play.
We have loads of things that can be easily enjoyed together in these posts
10 Easy Ideas for Face Time with Kids
10 Easy Games to Play on Face Time with Kids


So Grandpa got himself comfortable in the chair at the kitchen table with the iPad on the table and lifted the book.

If a book is meant for that young age group then it should be tested with children of that age.

At the time of writing this we have 3 grandchildren Matthew almost 5 years old, Ruby is 3 yrs  and Sarah will be 1 in 2 weeks time but she was with her mum and not listening and watching with us this time.

So Matthew and Ruby were ready on the iPad for Face Time and ready to watch as grandpa read to them.

Well back to testing out the book.

It is an "off for an adventure" kids book with some lovely phrases for the kids to repeat after grandpa has read a page.

one of my favourites was the

thick, icky, sticky mud

can we all say that one quickly???

Can you spot it in the pic below?

We enjoyed the rhyming parts of the story as well as the bright, bold illustrations with lots of detail  which means that the children will enjoy coming back to the book for further readings as they will not have remembered everything of the story or the pictures from this first reading.


You can see from the pictures above that this book is very bright and colourful.

But what you don't know yet is that the illustrations are funny and there is a lovely character named "Thinkerbell" on the Big Red Bus. (There is a glimpse of her in the picture below)

Grandpa is as mad as me sometimes and really got into the swing of the story - that's why the kids have a hard job deciding who reads to them.


Here is the front cover of the book.

I love the details on the bus:

• Reg GR4N  for Gran but there has to be a number on a reg plate.
• Seaside Park, Zoo Playground - destinations for the story
• Gransville - town location

Here you can see the back cover of the book

I just would have loved to have seen a picture of Sonia (the author) here but that's more from a grownup's perspective, kids probably aren't interested in this at the younger age.

Now the surprise in this book is that there are actually two adventures (practically 2 stories in one!)


So I have told you about this fun book which I believe would make a great gift for any family to read together but more especially where grannies and grandpas can enjoy it together with the grandchildren as we did.

Maybe our having to do it over facetime made it even better because it was a special treat just between us and the grandchildren.

This book is written by Sonia Beldom and is also illustrated by Sonia and all this completed during the  COVID-19 pandemic.

Proceeds from this book are going to bus-related charities due to help with the fact that all private hire vehicles were off the road for a prolonged period of time.

You may also be surprised to find out that Sonia drives heritage London Routemaster double-decker buses at weekends (in between her other normal jobs).


So Deciding thought on this book?


Yes it's a big Tick from me and Fred and the grandkids.

Disclaimer:
I was given a free copy of the book to read and write an honest review but no other compensation.  
The views expressed here are completely my own.

SSHH Don't Wake The Baby! - Christmas Children's Book Review

Disclaimer:
I have NOT been offered a free product to write this blog post nor any other compensation.  
The views expressed here are completely my own.

It's Christmas time again and it's Christmas Book Review time.

Today it is a book for young children about the real focus of Christmas.

We have always felt that books are very special to our family and share a love of reading but now that Fred and I have got to the "grandparent stage" we are once again looking at, buying and reading books that are suitable for the "0 - 5 years" age group.


So when I heard about this title and the fact that these books can be got cheaply - more about that later I - and knew the people who were recommending them were reliable (very important!) I was quick to tell my friend at church and if you read on you will find out what that resulted in.

Well back to testing out the book.

If a book is meant for that young age group then it should be tested with children of that age.

We have 3 grandchildren Matthew just turned 4 at the start of last month, Ruby 2 yrs 5 months and Sarah 10 weeks old, all of whom fall in this age group.

Unfortunately Sarah was fast asleep when we arrived back with Matthew to his mum and dad from having a sleepover at our house so we did not lift her out of the cot to disturb her but it will not be long before she is on Nanny or Granddad's knee as we read other stories to them all.


(I forgot to get a picture of Sarah in her cot asleep but here is one from a few days previously when she was asleep in my arms.)

So you can see this book was very apt for Matthew and Ruby because of baby Sarah and Yes even though we were reading the book together and mum & dad were chatting & laughing in the kitchen we didn't wake Baby Sarah.



We had cuddled into the big corner of our son & daughter-in-law's sofa in their living room where we always go in their house to read our storybooks together.



Ruby gets very serious when she is looking at a new book and always seems like she is trying to take in everything on the pages.

At first I think Matthew thought maybe this book was better suited to Ruby's age than to his but it wasn't too long until he was sitting forward to see the great illustrations.

At one stage you have to turn the book round in a circle to read the spiral writing and this really got Matthew's attention

 plus he then decided that he needed to check something from the previous pages before he would let me continue reading.

The book goes back and forth between referring to a baby in the family and the baby Jesus and this did not confuse either Matthew or Ruby at all.

We have a saying in our family - one which was started by our children when they were young
"No Hugging, No Kissing!" they would shout when Fred and I would get too close to each other - and it is still chanted all these years later.

So we laughed when we got to this page

The book was just a nice length for Ruby who was very attentive the whole way through.

Matthew however was a bit sad that it wasn't longer and didn't want me to close it after I read the final words.

The book is a lovely size (6ins x 6ins)  for slipping into a handbag or for little hands like Ruby's to hold.


There is also a hardback version of the book which is approximately 9ins by 9ins but I have not seen this in person.  It would be an ideal size and a sturdier type book for using to read to a group of children.


Here you can see the back cover of the book

So back to the point where I had told my friend in church about this book BEFORE I even had a copy. 

In fact the copy I had for this review was given to me by her because once she had looked it up on the website she just felt it was the right book to get for our church to give to all the children who come to our "Sonshine Club" each Tuesday (our Mums & Tots group).

She ordered 60 books to have today for our Christmas Party and because this book focuses in on Jesus as a baby and the special reason for this baby it is an ideal gift for the children to learn about Jesus, the true reason of Christmas and also for the mums and dads and grannies and granddads who sit cuddled up with the little ones they love and read of the love of God at Christmas.

Now what would be the point in me telling you about this beautiful book which would make an ideal gift for any young child if I did not tell you where to get it.

This book is written by Helen Buckley and illustrated by Jenny Brake and can be ordered from  10 of Those  a company which sell many of their books at great discounts in fact if you order now there is something like 40% off the retail price.

This company also sell some books in large quantities and when these were bought for our church event we got them for only £1 each.


So Deciding thought on this book?

Yes it's a big Tick from me and Fred and the grandkids.

Please note the book is not available through Amazon.co.UK or  .Com however you can find other books by the same author on Amazon HERE

Disclaimer:
I have NOT been offered a free product to write this blog post nor any other compensation.  
The views expressed here are completely my own.

A Fan for Christmas - A Dose of Encouragement

Children make a lot of crafts at school and Sunday School especially at special times like Christmas.

How many times have you run out of magnets to attach another picture created especially for you?

Some people keep all of their children's pictures but we didn't,

     we just enjoyed them at the time

          and then enjoyed the next one

               and the next one

                    and the next......

However some other things the children have made for us or bought us have been kept and one of these things is one of the decorations Fred and I put up on our Christmas Tree last week.

I have never worked out what a fan has to do with Christmas but then I suppose a lot of the decorations we have for this festive time do not really relate to Christmas time so why should this one have to.

It is gold and green and tones in with what we expect colour schemes to be at Christmas time.

It was made by our son Daniel many, many years ago and although we do not wrap it up carefully each year as we do with some of the other ornaments for the tree, it has never got damaged in all the years.

But even though this fan does not remind me especially of Christmas or the Bible it does remind me of Love.

Daniel made it carefully and it was well-made.

He gave it to us for the tree and even though this was probably prompted by his teacher, all these years later I see Love in this simple tree decoration.

I don't particularly think Daniel was thinking about how much he loved us when he gave it to us but I do know that because it was made by him that I love it.

It certainly is not because of the colours as I am not very fond of green but you see colours do not mean anything in this case.  It is the fact that this was made by my son, that is special to me.

God also took delight in His Son Jesus and His actions.

God even spoke out and told people how pleased He was with His Precious Son.

Do we speak favourably about our children?

Do we tell others how much we love our children?

Do we tell our children how much we love them?

The next time you see something that was given to you by your child or made by them think about when you last told them how precious they are to you.

If it was a while ago, go tell them now.

But even more importantly

if we are trusting in Jesus and know the importance of Christmas,

the Love that was expressed at Christmas and the love later expressed by Jesus on the cross 

then

are we speaking out about Christmas

and are we speaking out about Jesus

and

God's Love for us?

If you didn't read my previous blog post about our Tree Decorations you can do so at  3 Sleighs for Christmas

Loving our Children in 14 inches of Snow!!! - A Dose of Encouragement

On 14th March 1993 our family awoke to 

14 inches of snow at our front door. 

 

Needless to say this was not in Northern Ireland, nor in Belgium but in the lovely village of Hockessin in the state of 

Delaware, USA.

The kids were young then and Fred and I were full of energy then too so as Fred dug down into the hard packed snow on the driveway and cut it away in blocks the kids and I used them to make an igloo on the front lawn.


Of course we could not form it completely to curve it in so it was an open-top igloo.

Then our neighbours (another couple from Northern Ireland) came out and we all went round to the back of our houses to enjoy sledding down the slope of our gardens which was a good distance because none of the houses had boundary fences or hedges or walls.  In fact our home garden just merged into the woods behind our neighbourhood or estate (as we call it in the UK).



We just got on the sleds and slid until we came to a natural stop, or an unnatural one where we ended up across the side cul-de-sac and up to the front door of another house (but that was mainly Fred).

That is one of the greatest memories we have of winter in Delaware.


Well last Saturday here in Banbridge, NI we had some snow and even though it made us think back to all those years ago, we could not even make a snowball let along an igloo in our front garden here.

Making lasting family memories is good for children.

Memories are great, especially when they make us smile or laugh, and they are something special that we have to share together. 


However we need to have spent time together to form these memories and these days I often look at the kids in church and everywhere else and wonder what memories they are building up with their families for the future while they are so engrossed in all these electronic games and gadgets. 

I am thankful to God for all the places we have been and all the experiences we have had as a family over the years but I'm also grateful for the fact that we became Christians before we got married and had our children so that God was a part of our marriage and family life together because that makes such a difference.


Are there any children in your neighbourhood or church who do not have the privilege of growing up in a Christian family?

Can we not find some ways of making a difference for Jesus in the lives of these children?



You may be interested in some other  Doses of Encouragement