Hiku is a fantastic read again book. A real winter favorite with the children, there is something different to look at every time you open it.

The illustrations in Cub’s First Winter are by the renowned artist Rebbecca Elliot and they really appealed to Mini (4) from the moment he saw it.

I have to admit that I wondered why anyone would need a book to doodle in, but upon passing The Boys’ Doodle Book 2 to Maxi my voices were silenced.

The Boys’ Christmas Book is a fantastic buy. With magazines for children costing in excess of £2.50, it really is exceptional value for money and engaged our 5 year old very easily. There is even a recipe for Christmas mocktails!

If your child is a fan of Justin Bieber then I’d say this book is a ‘must have’ present for Christmas! At £7.99 it makes a nice stocking filler.

The Girls Christmas book has a very Christmassy look with a red and green front cover and snowflakes etc. As it is a ‘Christmas Book’, everything in it was themed toward Christmas so you could learn how to turn your bedroom into a Christmas Grotto and keep a list of all the presents you received. You can also colour in, learn how to make gingerbread cookies and read short stories, so there is plenty of variety between the pages.

When we unpacked the book we were pleased to find a lovely hard back book with a sparkling cover with characters that you can only recognise. Forever Friends characters always have that cute factor and the cover of the book is definitely very cute.

At £6.50 the cube book is fantastic value and also the way the cube opens it pretty relaxing and compulsive to use. Maxi loves numbers and this was right up his street, in fact he has taken it to bed with him each night. He ask me to use it and test him and gets pretty happy when he gets it right and you can also hide the answers to self test.

This is a really great idea; it might be a nice gift to suggest that the grandparents or far away relations buy the children. You’ll get it out year after year and when the battery goes you still have a classic story! The children enjoyed the novelty of this book, which is a good thing.

“Have you ever wondered what’s below your feet? Beware when digging in the sand”: this tag line drew me in straight away and I couldn’t wait to discover the world of the GrumbleGroar whilst reading my girls their new bed time story.

Curling up with your children, whether it’s at bedtime or during a rainy afternoon, and losing yourselves in a pile of books is one of the not-to-be-missed treats of parenthood. Not only can you relive your own childhood but you also get to meet some new characters.

Like the miniature heroine Violet in Violet – A Very Special Hippo, (6+) by Annie Taylor. Violet has a talent for turning pink when scared, which is quite helpful in the jungle but not so much when spirited away to Hollywood, before being rescued by Reggie the Rhinoceros. The chapters were the perfect size to read to my four-year-old who I am just trying to introduce chapter books to.

When we saw The Tiger Who Came to Tea in the bookshop, it looked a bit staid and old-fashioned next to more modern, colourful stories. But this classic tale of a tiger who comes to tea with a little girl has been loved by generations, and is consistently ranked one of the best books for pre-schoolers in surveys. This new edition comes complete with a (china) tea set to play with, after you’ve read the story.

These toddler-proof books are perfect for Kai and designed to withstand some bashing – other books we have from the series are still going strong after months of use. Kai loved exploring the different textures in each page and the simple, repetitive story. As is the usual, each page hides a little white mouse somewhere in the picture and Kai loves looking for it and spotting it.

The Christmas themes for these two particular books are lovely – Kai may not have much of an understanding of what Christmas is yet but it made ME feel Christmasy to sit and read them to him! The Santa book seemed to be his favourite and features a wider variety of textures.