What We Have Been Reading Lately from Bumble Books… And there is a GiveAway…

Did you know that November is #PictureBookMonth and we are having a week of books on the blog, so… I thought it would be thoroughly appropriate to show you a couple of picture books from a local publisher, Bumble Books…

And there is a GiveAway in there for a lucky reader too…

by Justin Fox and illustrated by Lucy Stuart-Clark

Earlier this year we blogged about My Great Expedition, by Justin Fox and illustrated by Lucy Stuart-Clark. It is a wonderful family adventure, of the grand tour variety, that Justin and his family took through Europe back in the day. It reads like a travel journal for kids, richly illustrated and a tour from England, to France to the Greek Isles and a whole lot more in-between. Read on, read on to find out about our GiveAway.

The Sock Rat written and illustrated by Janina Pechova

This book is a fairy tale, or rather a rat tale, and if you have ever wondered what happened to “the other sock” in every pair of socks… well this book has the answer. Rafael is a very artistic and creative rat, he loves making beautiful works of art and he noticed that whenever there were socks hanging out on a line that there were always two. Who would miss just the one?

As socks get harder and harder to find, and poor Rafael has a harder and harder time, with managing his growing sock collection… it is time for him to create his sock masterpiece. Honestly, after this story you will never wonder where the odd socks go again, in fact you will probably be pretty pleased that they are being used as part of a masterful work of art. If this book doesn’t inspire you to make a collection of beautiful windsocks or any other sock creations, then nothing will.

Meanwhile, I left out an invitation to play and we now have a pile of odd socks for Rafael to collect and use at his leisure. The illustrations in the book are delightful, pages and pages of the best looking socks, ever and the story has a sweet outcome… this story is a keeper!!! You can meet the author/illustrator, Janina Pechova, on her website here.

Rocking Rosetta written and illustrated by Emmaline Tomalin.

This book grew on my kids, the first time they read it they were intrigued by the illustrations, this is clearly not your regular family, they are all somewhat alien!!! They missed the point of the story, completely. But on the second reading they paid a little more attention to the words and it is lovely it is all about that one person that needs to be heard: Rosetta comes from a family that is in every way, a little ordinary, and she is more than a little different. She is indeed an artist of the very musical variety… and her family are just not like that… and they told her to quieten down and down and down… and Rosetta feels sadder and sadder and sadder… but just as she was hitting rock bottom her granny came to the rescue… and what a granny!!!

After an afternoon of rocking together granny style, she is ready to return home and she is a lot less bothered about the fact that she doesn’t quite fit into her family.

If you have a child that doesn’t quite fit… and every family has one. If you live with a somewhat wacky artist, then they will love this book. It is a book about being loved for who you are, not to mention the coolest granny ever.

If you are looking for a craft to go with this book… then how about some kelp horns if you live by the seaside:

Or inventing your own musical instruments:

And the GiveAway

Is a throwback to a previous Bumble Book Blog Post about My Great Expedition… follow the link to read more about this great traveling story for families…

If you have a child that is desperate to explore the world, or even a virtual traveler in your midst then this book is the perfect story… It is available locally from Bumble Books or if you click on the image below you can find it on Amazon. Leave a comment below and tell us which country you would like to visit as a family… somewhere snowy, somewhere hot, a city maybe, or a wide open space?

Our GiveAways are open to everyone: Just leave a comment below… by 8 December 2018. If you have won a GiveAway before never fear – enter away. If you live on the far side of the world – enter away. Postage takes forever from here but eventually it should get to you! Good luck and happy commenting!!!

Thank you so much to Bumble Books South Africa for giving us these books for review purposes, this is not a sponsored post and opinions expressed are as usual entirely our own.