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PICK A STORY: A DINOSAUR UNICORN ROBOT ADVENTURE

By Sarah Coyle, Illustrated by Adam Walker-Parker

Price £7.99 paperback

Age 3+

This ‘pick your own’ adventure puts young readers firmly in the driver’s seat, allowing them to make their own decisions about the action! With twists and turns and decisions to make on every page, it takes them on a whirlwind interactive adventure through the world of dinosaurs, unicorns and robots. Has the cake been stolen by dinosaurs? Or taken by robots? `Or snatched by unicorns? It’s up to YOU the reader to decide!

There are three fun-filled worlds to discover, meaning that every story time is different.

Visit good high street retailers and www.waterstones.com

MY MAGICAL BEARDED FRIEND

By Chris Husband

Price £9.99

Age 2-8 years

Discover whether the magical bearded friend is real, or just a trick of the eye, in this imaginative picture book that engages young readers through interaction. The magical bearded friend is a mysterious and dapper figure, with his cane of pure walnut and his hat as tall as a tree. But is he tall or is he the shadow of the buildings and towers around your area at dusk? Can you smell his perfume or is it the scent of the flowers wafting on the breeze? Is he colourful and sparkling, or is he simply the reflection of the rising sun? Your child can be the one to decide! Rhyming words and a rich vocabulary will encourage even hesitant children to work on their reading skills.

Visit www.chrishusband.com and www.amazon.co.uk

READING EGGS READING JOURNAL

Price free trial for 30 days and £6.99 per month thereafter

Age 2-13 years

Children’s online learning programme Reading Eggs has launched a new journal that can be customised to help kids keep track of their personal reading progress and to engage more closely with books so that reading becomes a more enjoyable journey. It also allows children to engage in ‘book talk’ with the option to rate and comment on each book they read.

Children can make the reading journal their own, decorating each page with colourful stickers, tapes and pins. They can also choose their own special journal cover – ranging from unicorns to robots ­ with a new decorative theme each month Crucially, it helps them to show off their achievements so they can feel proud of their reading progress.

The journal celebrates all reading and each page has an option for kids to record what they have read offline or outside of Reading Eggspress.

Available online or as an Android or iOS app, Reading Eggs features alphabet and spelling games, phonics activities, word puzzles, nursery rhymes and story books.

Visit www.readingeggs.co.uk

MATCH AND SPELL

From Orchard Toys

Price £9.75

Age 4+

Discover two ways to play this fun first reading and spelling activity/game, designed to encourage guided and independent word building in pre-schoolers and children starting school. Take turns to find letters and spell words: it’s a great way to learn letter recognition, explore phonetic word building and to practice matching pictures and words.

Visit www.orchardtoys.com

WIGGLY WORDS

From Orchard Toys

Price £9.50

Age 6+

In this brain-teasing family game that gets the thumbs-up from teachers, players build a wiggly line as they spell words. It encourages them to practise their literacy and language skills as they go over words they already know or learn to spell new ones.

The aim is to spell words by joining together the letter on a wiggly worm’s head with the letters on a wiggly worm’s tail: for example, b-ake, s-ell, gr-ow, br-ight. There are 45 double-sided worm cards to maximise the number of combinations and words that can be spelt. Plus, the worm heads feature hilarious characters, such as sailors, superheroes, swimmers, and even a punk rocker! It’s a race to be the first player to get rid of all their cards.

Visit www.orchardtoys.com and all good toy retailers