My Beautiful Room: Interior Design Workbook is written and illustrated by Jasmine Orchard and Olivia Whitworth and published by Ivy Kids. Through gentle tuition and completing of projects your child learns many of the essential principles of design.

If this sounds boring, think of it more as 'designing your own epic bedroom'.


The first thing you realise about My Beautiful Room is that you are jealous of your child's book. My partner and I both poured over it and commented how much we'd have loved it. We were actually more keen to get stuck in than the children.

Architect Academy is written by Steve Martin and illustrated by Essi Kimpimaki. It is a very different kind of children's fact book in that it teaches you the basics of architecture and building design. As you travel through the book, the activities work as a 'course', but aren't just like school work, this is more 'lessons with that supply teacher you really liked'.


Inside the front cover you get the first clues that Architect Academy is different, as half a press-out model bridge cut from card greets you before you even start to read.


The contents page was a bit daunting, with topics such as Construction Maths, and Drawing To Scale, but they are presented in a fun and personal way, and your child won't necessarily even view them as learning. Designing a floor plan for your own imaginary house was the kind of thing I loved when I was young.