If you’re looking for a subscription box for you or your kids, you are certainly not short of options. Of course, we’re a little biased, but we think a book subscription is just about the best thing to have pop through your letterbox each month. The benefits of a book subscription for children (and for grown-ups too) are many and varied. In no particular order, here are our top 5.
Over the years my family in general, and children in particular, have enjoy a wide range of subscriptions that have often come to us as gifts. As my children moved from the baby and toddler stage, particularly the second and third siblings, I increasingly found that we were stumped for present ideas. Friends and relatives would ask what the children might need or like and it was increasingly hard to think of anything. But then I hit upon the idea of suggesting experiences and subscriptions when family asked for ideas and they've always been a big hit with the kids.
It is yet another bumper year for festive books for children. It’s one of our favourite genres – there’s nothing like a really Christmassy read to get you in the festive spirit! Of course, there are the classics that we all go back to year after year, but which new titles should you be adding to your collection this year? Here is our pick of six of the best new Christmas books for kids published in 2021.
Our book subscription, with activities designed specifically to accompany each book, helps support your child’s literacy development throughout their time at school. You can also subscribe to similar subscription boxes that focus on everything from history to languages, nature to science, geography to art. But how exactly do they work and what are the educational benefits?
Finding the perfect Christmas gift for the discerning teen or tween in your life is one of the biggest challenges of the festive season! But don’t worry, we’re here to help. As ever, we’re proud to shop small and support our fellow independent businesses. Here’s our pick of the best gifts from our go-to brands for 12 to 14-year-olds.
We all embraced a whole new Christmas shopping routine last year. In the absence of big family gatherings, most of our Christmas gifting happened by post. And it was a revelation!
Choosing gifts that can be shipped straight to the recipient, cutting out the middleman (you!) and minimising the risk of those precious parcels getting lost in the post is an easy win. Here’s our guide to 9 of the best letterbox Christmas gifts for kids, tweens, teens and adults all sourced from independent UK businesses.
Did you love Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give as much as we did? One of the breakout stars of Young Adult fiction of the last few years, Thomas depicts the experience of young Black people in America in a way that is fearless and powerfully relevant. It’s no surprise that her debut The Hate U Give has been such huge hit and responsible for bringing many teens back to books and reading. But what to read next? Here are our top ten recommendations for fans of The Hate U Give.
The world of books for teenagers and young adults is hugely rich and varied. If you’re new to YA books, though, it can be difficult to know where to start. And if you have a young teen at home who is ready to move on from middle grade fiction, where do you point them first? Here we give you the low-down on the YA books and authors that we think represent the best of this exciting genre.
The book we sent our Cockatoo subscribers this month is a fun, quirky and in places pretty dark take on the classic fairy tale genre. Here debut author Chloe Perrin tells us what inspired the book and what other funny books for kids they would recommend you read next.
This month our Parakeet subscribers are setting sail on the high seas on a voyage of deadly doom with Velda, the most awesome Viking you are likely to meet! Here author David MacPhail and illustrator Richard Morgan tell us all about what inspired Velda and which funny books for kids they would recommend you read next.
It should come as no surprise that teenagers today spend less time reading than previous generations. There are simply so many more digital distractions competing for their time and attention. But the benefits of reading for pleasure still apply to our tweens and teens, so how can we encourage them to put down their phones and pick up a book instead? Here are a few of our top tips.
Kids love getting into the spirit of Halloween with crafts and activities to get stuck into. But we know that sometimes you need to take some shortcuts to make sure the kids’ grand plans fit in with your own. Here we share some of our favourite off-the-shelf activity ideas from fellow small businesses.
