Maisy Goes To The Museum. Lucy Cousins. Sophia liked seeing what all the characters got up to at the museum. Her favourite bit was the page about the dressing up.

The Twyford Code. Janice Hallett. ‘It’s time to solve the murder of the century’- I’m not even sure who died! I loved The Appeal but this was just not good. It tried to be clever but just fell short for me. As a starter-finisher, I’m naturally pleased I finished this book, but it would be better if I hadn’t started it in the first place.

Mad About You. Mhairi Mcfarlane. Another good one by Mhairi McFarlane! I really enjoyed the different characters and thought the ending was pretty spectacular. I might even read this again!

Five Minutes’ Peace. Jill Murphy. We love the large family, and this is a great addition to our collection. I really understand where Mrs Large is coming from!

Pip and Posy: The Bug Hotel. Nosy Crow Ltd. a cute story that Sophia enjoyed. She has now asked to make her own bug hotel!

I’m Ready For The New Baby. Jenna Robaard. Sophia thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and remembering what it was like when we were expecting Aidan to arrive a year ago.

You Choose Christmas. Pippa Goodhart and Nick Sharratt. We borrowed this from the library but enjoyed it so much we could gladly buy it for our house! There’s so much to look at on each page, and we had great fun choosing things for each family member.

Mr Wolf’s Pancakes. Jan Fearnley. Sophia’s first book in her book bag! This was a fun book for us to read all together. Sophia enjoyed recognising characters from other stories and she was surprised by the ending!

Jonty Gentoo: The Adventures of a Penguin. Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. We love this new book! How brave is Jonty? We love the characters he meets on his adventures and are happy about where he ended up.

Robin Hood. Bethan Woollvin. We enjoyed this take on the classic story. Sophia liked learning about the famous Robin Hood who lived near her grandparents!

We Love You Hugless Douglas! David Melling. We’re big fans of Douglas and thought this one about all his friends was very special. Sophia liked that his Daddy was in too!

Secret of Secrets. Dan Brown. I love Dan Brown and this latest Robert Langdon story did not disappoint! I had to stop reading everything else until I’d finished it because every chapter was so gripping! It’s making me fancy a trip to Prague…

Alfie’s Numbers. Shirley Hughes. A lovely book borrowed from school. Sophia liked the page where the children were playing on the fallen tree.

Dear England. Stephen Cotterell. I think of my top 10 favourite churstian books, three of them are written by Stephen Cottrell! I’m a big fan. This book, Dear England, is very different from the others because it’s a letter to our country, off the back of a brief conversation he had in a coffee shop! Dear England gives a good grounding in apologetics (something CofE training does not!), and I’d say it’s a must-read for anybody exploring or new to faith.

From Me To You, Love God. Claire Freedman & Emily Boughton. A gorgeous book about God’s letter to everyone. Aidan liked the rhymes and all the colours and Sophia counted all the letters. One we will return to again and again.

Here’s Looking At You. Mhairi Mcfairlane. Another lovely rom com by Mcfarlane. I enjoyed the character development, but I have to say that I did guess all the plot twists before I read them! Still, a nice read.

Monkey Puzzle. Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. Julia Donalddon is the gift that keeps on giving! We love this story all about a list baby monkey and a butterfly who helps him find his Mum.

Snail and the Whale. Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. Such a cool book where a snail travels the world on the tail of a whale! We liked spotting characters from other stories and, of course, the gruffalo, who was quite tricky to spot this time!

The Dress With 100 Pockets. Lily Murray and Jenny Lovlie. Sophia loves dresses with pockets and likes the idea of the cool shoes at the end.

The Housemaid. Freida McFadden. I wasn’t sure I was going to like this book but in the end I found myself thinking about it a lot! Just the right mix of thriller and romance. Looking forward to the next one!

I Want My Hat Back. Jon Klassen. Sophia likes reading this because she reads it at school. We talked about how it isn’t good to lie, and Sophia showed me that the bear is actually sat on the rabbit at the end!

The Housemaid’s Secret. Freida McFadden. Wow! Plot twist! I gobbled up this gripping story really quickly. I’m loving Millie and Enzo more the more I read. A really good book.

Farmer Duck. Martin Waddell. We liked how the animals took charge in the end! Sophia and Aidan enjoyed the sound effects of all the animals.

One, Two, Three, Oops. Michael Coleman. Sophia enjoyed this book and laughed at the idea of Daddy rabbit not knowing how many children he has!

The Housemaid Is Watching. Freida McFadden. I’ve grown fond of Millie and enjoyed reading about her as a Mum. She’s a powerful, intuitive mama bear, but she’s not perfect. As usual, there were shocks and plot twists throughout this book. For me, this was a really good read, I’m only sorry I can’t move on to another one!

John’s Adventure. Maisie Kershaw. A lovely story about siblings John and Willow and an adventure to Paris! We have a signed copy by the author!

Babbity’s Big Bad Mood. M Christina Butler. We liked reading this story together over breakfast and we talked about how we all feel grumpy sometimes and that’s OK.

The Runaway Wives. Karen King. This is a pretty good book. Sometimes, I felt there was some unnecessary prose, but I enjoyed the character development, the setting and the storyline.

The Sustainable(ish) Guide To Green Parenting. Jen Gale. Nathan bought this for me on Kindle a while ago and I’m sorry I didn’t get around to reading it sooner! This is a great book about how to be more environmentally friendly as a family. A couple of thoughts: I am a starter-finisher, so I read the whole thing even though my youngest is 1, including the bits on pregnancy and newborn life. I ended up feeling so guilty that I hadn’t done nappies ‘right’ that I had to put the book down for a fortnight. Another thing, the cynic in me thinks the the author didn’t know how to tell people how to buy fewer presents for her kids, so she wrote a book instead. Overall, though, it’s pretty good, with lots of tips and odeas to take forward.