Celebrating 5 years of Lovemybooks | Our new patron | Book in focus | Make a puppet theatre | New books and activity pages | Summer Reading Challenge
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It's our birthday! Lovemybooks is five years old this month!
When we launched Lovemybooks in 2015 we aimed to use our experience as literacy specialists to combine carefully chosen books with activities and resources designed to help parents and young children enjoy sharing books together.
SOME OF OUR WONDERFUL READERS
Our website has grown and grown. It has excited interest from all over the world; 250,000 visitors and over 1m page visits in 5 years. Lovemybooks is very well used by families, schools, Early Years’ settings and libraries. We are delighted that our resources have proved particularly useful in offering creative, book-based resources for home learning during ‘lockdown'.
MORE OF OUR WONDERFUL READERS
Our extensive website now includes over 220 activity pages based on fantastic books for children up to the age of 11. A new feature added to our resources for older children are downloadable activity books. We are very proud of what we have achieved with Lovemybooks and hope it will continue to grow. Thank you to all the schools, settings, libraries, local authorities, HE colleagues, families and friends who have supported us. We are grateful to Joan Thurgar for her Early Years and Science suggestions and also to Anne Thompson and Sarah Baker for their contributions to our website and newsletters. We would also like to thank our wonderful patrons and feel very proud to have the support of such a distinguished group of people.
Sue Ellis, Sue McGonigle, Olivia O'Sullivan
OUR WONDERFUL PATRONS
(from top L to R)
Michael Rosen, SF Said, Mini Grey, Chitra Soundar, Chris Riddell, Myra Barrs, Marilyn Brocklehurst, Imogen Russell Williams, Joseph Coelho, David Almond, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Julian Grenier, Jessica Souhami Read more
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  Frank Cottrell-Boyce
We are delighted to announce that Frank Cottrell-Boyce has become one of our Lovemybooks patrons! Frank Cottrell-Boyce is an award-winning screen writer and novelist. He won the Carnegie Medal for Millions and the Guardian fiction prize for The Unforgotten Coat. He was commissioned to write the sequel to Ian Fleming’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and collaborated with Danny Boyle to create the storyline for the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony in which children’s books had a central role. He is a strong advocate for the importance of children’s books and reading for pleasure.
Visit our activity page for The Astounding Broccoli Boy |
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Our focus book is Billy and the Beast by Nadia Shireen
Billy and Fatcat discover the forest animals have disappeared and are suddenly captured by a scary beast who wants to make them into terrible soup Billy decides to outwit him.
This story is great fun with a quirky and resourceful heroine and bright and bold illustrations.
A parent comments:
My two children, aged two and three, loved reading and acting out the story of Billy and the Beast, wearing beast masks that we had painted. We had lots of fun making 'terrible rumble' noises with different instruments and making and eating 'terrible soup'. These activities prompted other ideas for example I hid animal puzzle pieces around the room that 'the beast had taken', they enjoyed hunting for the pieces and doing the puzzle.
Visit our activity page
Buy the book
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 Cardboard boxes can be easily transformed to create a makeshift puppet theatre. This can be a great thing to create as a family. To make a quick puppet theatre stick a couple of strong cardboard boxes together with tape, cut out a window for the performance space and decorate with paint, drawings or stickers. For a finishing touch you could add curtains made from fabric or wrapping paper. See this Youtube link for instructions.
No puppets? No problem! You can make your own – see our suggestions for stick puppet , sock puppets and finger puppets . Why not choose a favourite story, make puppets for the main characters and act it out together?
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 Little Rabbit Foo Foo by Michael Rosen and Arthur Robins
Little Rabbit Foo enjoys nothing more than speeding through the forest and bopping any poor hapless creatures he comes across on the head. However, he is being watched by the Good Fairy who is not going to let him get away with this!
This is a funny, anarchic tale about a very naughty rabbit who meets his match. The illustrations add to the humour of the story. The rhythm and repetition of the chorus make this fun to join in with or even sing along to.
Visit our activity page
Buy the book
 The Secret of the Tattered Shoes by Jackie Morris, illus. Ehsan Abdollahi
Based on The Twelve Dancing Princesses by the Brothers Grimm this version is part of publisher Tiny Owl’s ‘One story, Many Voices’ series. It is an exquisite book, beautifully written and with magical illustrations. It provides an optimistic, alternative ending to the story, with the soldier who solves the mystery rejecting the harshness of the King and his court seeking love and wisdom elsewhere.
Visit our activity page
Buy the book
 Little Badman and the Invasion of the Killer Aunties by Humza Arshad and Henry White, illus. Alexsei BitskoffHumza Khan (aka Little Badman) wants to be a famous ninja rapper, it is his destiny. But when very strange things start happening at his primary school he puts his plans on hold and with his friends Wendy and Omar decides to find out why.
This is a funny and page-turning story in which Humza not only solves the mystery and saves the world from an alien invasion but also comes to appreciate his family and finds out that there is more to aim for in life than just becoming famous.
Visit our activity page
Buy the book
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 Here is a reminder of our suggestions for online learning and activities during school closures and the summer break Read more...
Our favourite weblinks for home learning
Have you seen our suggested weblinks for homelearning? Don’t miss Little Angel Theatre’s amazing puppet shows, have a look at the British Library’s resources and invitation to make a mini book. Well done and thanks to the many authors and illustrators who are offering their time and skills with storytimes, starting points for writing and wonderful draw along video demos.
 Watch the story
If you don't have a book and don't have access to a library at the moment, watching the story is one alternative and wherever possible we have included video read alouds on our activity pages, see here for The Tin Forest and Oliver’s Vegetables two of our most popular pages.
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 The annual Summer reading challenge run by the Reading Agency in partnership with public libraries is running online this year. The focus is on funny books, happiness and laughter. Children are invited to read anything which makes them happy. They can register, create their own to read list, browsing recommendations from other children, visit their local library website to find out how to access eBooks, audiobooks, comics and magazines for free. There are also lots of games and other activities on the Summer Reading challenge website.
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