We are interrupting our usual blogging schedule because sometimes you just have to stop and say… We totally love Usborne Books!!! And today is Usborne Day, Saturday 5 October 2013. My love for Usborne began as a young child, which kind of dates me!!! I grew up on them and loved them and my kids are the same – leave an usborne book on the table and it will be read again and again and again… In fact these are the books in our home that are literally loved and then read even more!!!
Did you know Usborne have a Tumbler/Blog. Did you know that if you click on an usborne book in their catalogue, you will be able to see inside the book and many of the books have free fabulous printable activity pages with them. And did you know that Usborne Books have this fabulous feature – Quicklinks. Quicklinks are an awesome resource for finding kid friendly information all over the internet. On the site, enter the topic keyword or book title… that will take you to a relevant book and a number of interesting websites to visit for that topic. Great fun, packed with interesting info and I have to say – it is fun for everyone, I am an avid follower of the daily quicklink on twitter… well worth a read of some interesting factoids and fun activities every day!!!
Se7en + 1 Usborne Books We Love…
- And now for my first and favourite Usborne book ever… Mine had a yellow cover and was inscribed: Happy Birthday way back in 1979. This book was instrumental in my love for reading, of stepping into books and living inside them!!!
- Followed closely by the Nature Trail Omnibus, I was into reading Dr. Dolittle at this stage and all about studying creatures in the great outdoors. This book sent me poking around streams and looking in the neighbours hedge for creepy crawlies, peering at things discovered under the microscope!!!
- I moved on and read Harriet the Spy, I lived and breathed that book and then I was given the Usborne Book of SpyCraft as a gift… Heaven sent, everything I ever needed to know!!!
- My love for Usborne never stopped and all my kids have been raised on the Farmyard Tales and hunting for the famous little duck!!!
- Usborne Puzzle books are simply the best and have been absolutely key in launching most of my children from barely reading to really reading…
- For cooking… Usborne books are fabulous for cooking with kids, and baking and food around the world!!! These books have inspired our kids to cook real food from real recipes… and to be totally comfortable in the kitchen.
- For Craftiness, these guys can’t be beat – we always have a “Make and Do” book in our library pile… there are literally dozens in the Make and Do series!!! these are packed with crafty goodness that even little children can be inspired to do on their own. I love how they have dozens of topics, there has to be something your child loves, and they appeal to a wide wide age-group!!!
- And since Usborne Books is a company that grows with the times, it would be remiss of me to leave off their fabulous sticker apps for the iPad.
These are some of the most loved apps amongst my junior i-pad users… they just love them!!! And so they should – so fun!!!
And the Se7en + 1th…
And that is hardly touching on the long list of favourite books that happen to be piles and piles of Usborne books… We love them and I am so thrilled to have been an Usborne reader my entire reading life!!! I am sure you have fun memories and favourite Usborne books, tell us your favourite favourites… we would love to see if we love the same ones that you do too!!!
Hi Se7en!
Woo Hoo! Happy Birthday Usborne!
This is the first year we’ve had a literature-based classical chunk of curriculum, so we are using the weekly lessons/labs in the ClassiQuest Science Logic Stage Biology book…they recommend using the Usborne Internet-Linked Science Encyclopedia, and the Usborne Illustrated Dictionary of Biology for each lesson. We love them! The quicklinks are great for my visual/audio inclined daughter. The books themselves are beautiful, inside and out.
In the US, lots of Usborne titles are a rare find-I ordered mine through Amazon, but they were shipped (for free) from the Book Depository in the UK.
Now, I keep a constant lookout for Usborne books at every used book store, garage sale, etc. My daughter will use the books at least all the way through high school, and possibly into her college years. She’s in 7th grade now, so the brand new books will end up costing an average of about $ 1.00 – 3.00 USD/year. Truth is, Usborne books are worth their weight in gold!
Have a happy week!!
Hi there tcmullinax, Happy Birthday to Usborne indeed!!! WE use so many usborne books in our homeschool – they are literally a part of everyday!!! For history and science they are so packed with facts in a fun and presentable way!!! We love them totally too!!! Hope you are having a fabulous week and thank you so much for stopping by!!!