I've always been an absolute bookworm, as you'll know if you've seen the number of book reviews I post on this blog, so I'm really happy to see that I have passed this passion on to the kids.
Even 17-month-old Pierre is just starting to realise that books are quite good fun to look at as well as chew and throw across the room so he instantly crawled over to investigate the four Felix the Fast Tractor books that we were sent to review. This cheerful tractor may have his own website and even a facebook page but, here in The Madhouse, we'd never heard of him. We were therefore keen to get to know him.
Well, the kids were instantly taken with him. Juliette thought he looked a bit like the Rumblin' Chuck toy that we reviewed last week and Sophie thought he looked more like Brum. I thought he also had overtones of Thomas the Tank Engine, with the bucolic lifestyle of Postman Pat thrown in for good measure, so there are enough familiar elements for the kids to instantly feel at ease.
But that's where the similarities end. As well as telling great stories, the books are really educational. The regular "Want to know more about ...?" bubbles throw up lots of interesting facts about all aspects of life in the countryside, many of which I'd never even stopped to think about so I loved reading them too ! The frequent questions, such as "Can you spot Felix in the picture ?", also went down really well and made bedtime storytime into a much more interactive experience.
The books are A4 sized, softbacked and contain 32 pages each so they're not too heavy for little hands to hold, while being big enough for everyone to gather round so that they don't miss out on the lovely detailed illustrations.
I can totally understand why the books have won the Lakeland Book of the Year award (with the 2009 award for "Author of Best Cumbrian Book Ever" by public online vote). We'll certainly be looking out for future titles to add to the four currently available and we'll be playing at all the fun activities on the website too.
star rating : 5/5
RRP : £5.99 or £18 for the whole set on the Felix website
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These would be perfect for my little man's growing library (& he's not even due for 2 months!)
ReplyDeleteLOL You can't get them reading too early (well, maybe while he's still on in the inside, it may be a bit tricky !!)
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