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Forestry commission

Picture book presents.

29th November 2013 by Jax Blunt 8 Comments

We’ve had some wonderful potential presents for review recently. It’s been a real pleasure reading most of them.

I adore Stick Man.

stick man

His adventures are quite woeful in a way (Big has declared that pooh sticks has been ruined forever!), but the easy rhyming of the story carries you along, and makes this a wonderful read aloud. Don’t race through without checking out the pictures carefully for some old friends though. Or as is preferred here, just accept you’re going to read it over and over. And stick (hoho) with it, because there’s a touch of magic coming to sort everything out.

And if you’d like to experience a Stick Man trail, the Forestry Commission is running them at 13 sites up til the end of January. Well worth exploring to see if there’s one near you. They’ve also got some wonderful Christmas events on around the country, so why not combine your visit?

Another absolutely glorious picture book is When It Snows

when it snows

This is all about the pictures and the magic. There’s a very different take on the traditional reindeer and I just adore the feeling of these pictures. There’s warmth and emotion somehow spreading through the sparse words and drawing you into the story with the little boy. I adore this – I love the little teddy towed along throughout the adventures.

And I love that it introduces the idea of a book as a magical place. Forerunner to Narnia.

Now. Um. Not sure how to describe this next one. is not really my kind of book. I know that children often go through a period of fascination with bodily functions – we try to accept that these things are natural and don’t need to be emphasized or giggled about. That probably makes me sound like an absolute prude, but that’s just the way it is here. I can see that this would be a massively popular book with many children, but probably slightly older than my younger two. However if the word fart gives you a problem, you might not want to bother.

father christmas comes up trumps

We’ve also recently been sent 4 Babar books to review. I hadn’t realised the books were first written 80 years ago. I have fond memories of them from childhood, and I guess the parts that sailed over my head then will sail over my children’s head now. Or maybe I just never read the one where the baby elephants are given top up bottles :/ Barring that, these are wonderful trips down memory lane, though it’s amazing how much has changed since these books were written. You may find yourself having to explain rather a lot of them, but it’s worth it.

When It Snows

So there’s a few recommendations (or not) for picture books that you might enjoy this year.

What are you reading with your children, or for yourself at the moment? Stick a link in the linky so we can all see.

Disclosure: thanks to the Forestry Commission and various publishers for these books.

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Filed Under: Book club, review Tagged With: Babar, father christmas comes up trumps, Forestry commission, read52, Stick man, when it snows

Discovery Pass giveaway with the Forestry Commission and #weloveforests

8th April 2013 by Jax Blunt

Forestry Commission Badge

I’m very lucky to be working with the Forestry Commission as an ambassador at the moment, and I’m looking forward to getting back to our local forest, now that spring has sprung (she remarks quietly so as not to scare it off) *and* we’ve got a working car. (Knocking frantically on wood, and not really caring if that scares spring off after all!) As part of the arrangement we’ve been given a Discovery Pass, which gives us free entry/parking to our local site, along with a batch of other benefits. It’s a very worthwhile perk 🙂

And now I can offer you the chance to win your very own Discovery Pass.

Forestry Commission Discovery Pass - image

It’s valid for a specific location, and you will need to stipulate which venue you want. See the full details here

The prize will be fulfilled by The Forestry Commission and the winner must be willing to provide full contact details, to be passed to them.

The pass is valid for 12 months and gives free parking for one car at the designated location.

There are additional benefits to the pass including

  • A seasonal e-newsletter, with forest news and events
  • Generous discount vouchers for shops and activities on and off site. Benefits differ from site to site.

Sounds good doesn’t it? You too could have your very own preferred forest location and get free parking there. And all you have to do to enter is leave me a comment, telling me what your favourite tree is.

You can have extra entries for any or all of the following:

Sign up to the Forestry Commission Newsletter

Follow the Forestry Commission on Twitter

Like them on Facebook

Tweet this post *including* the hashtag #weloveforests (hint, the tweet button should do it for you.)

Share the post any other way you like.

You *must* leave an extra comment for each entry method – I use And the winner is plugin which makes a random draw from the entered comments. Competition runs until next Sunday evening 14th April at midnight.

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Filed Under: giveaway Tagged With: discovery pass, Forestry commission, giveaway, weloveforests

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