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Winter Magic at Hollybrae Castle by Jaimie Admans #Review

  Winter Magic at Hollybrae Castle by Jaimie Admans was published by Boldwood Books on September 9th. A Scottish castle, a fake marriage… and one very real Christmas romance?   After a window display goes disastrously viral – thanks to a malfunctioning animatronic Santa and an unfortunate encounter with Paddington Bear – Lula Haines finds herself without a job just weeks before Christmas. So she jumps at the chance to decorate Hollybrae Castle in Scotland for the holidays. There’s just one complication: her handsome new boss, Oliver Bracewell, needs a fake wife for the festive season. To secure a promotion that could save his family’s castle, Ollie has been pretending to be a married father-of-two to impress the family-focused firm where he works. Now his bosses are coming to stay at Hollybrae over Christmas… expecting to meet his non-existent wife and children. At first, playing along is easy as Lula is swept up in the magic of turning Hollybrae into the perfect f...
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The Julia Donaldson Story Collection

 


Today on the blog I have the Julia Donaldson Story Collection. These picture books will appeal to 5 - 7 year olds. The beautifully illustrated rhyming books are long standing favourites with many families. Of her numerous books, The Gruffalo is the most well known and has been translated into 43 languages.

You can order the collection here: Books2Door

Titles in the Collection

  
 


   The Gruffalo

    The Gruffalo's Child

    The Snail and the Whale

    Room on the Broom

    A Squash and a Squeeze

    Cave Baby

    The Paper Dolls


    Charlie Cook's Favourite Book

    The Smartest Giant In Town

    Tyrannosaurus Drip

 

 

 

 

 

My Thoughts

This is a lovely collection of picture books which many young children will recognise as old favourites. They all bear the hallmarks of Julia Donaldson's rhyming stories which are so suitable for reading aloud. They are tailor made for sharing and there are so many opportunities for language development and empathy. Packaged in a colourful book bag, they are perfect to carry along especially with the summer in mind.

    My particular favourite is Charlie Cook's Favourite Book which has a wonderful cyclical structure as it moves through different genres of stories. There is plenty to notice in the illustrations and as this photo of a double spread from A Squash and a Squeeze shows, even the youngest child will appreciate the humour in the stories.

 

About the Author

 
Julia Donaldson is an extraordinary author of children stories, prior to Donaldson releasing her first book, she was in fact singer / songwriter for children shows. The song Squash and a Squeeze was then changed into a book with pictures in 1993, during this time she actually collaborated with the amazing illustrator Axel Scheffler, 6 years later Donaldson published the famous The Gruffalo. Julia Donaldson has made a strong impact in the world of children's publishing, being a Children’s Laureate between the years of 2011 and 2013. Julia Donaldson has written over a massive amount of books of more than 180, some of which includes the Songbirds books as part of the Oxford Reading Tree series.

 ISBN: 9781509801251 

Book link: Books2Door

Thanks to Books2Door for a copy of the collection. 

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