The Little Boy Who Lost His Name and The Little Girl Who Lost Her Name are gorgeous A4 sized personalised books created by 3 Dads and an Uncle who had a dream, and made it a reality.

Aimed at children aged 2-6 and written by David Cadji-Newby and illustrated by Pedro Serapicos, it's been a real delight to review.




The first thing that struck me was the careful way they were sent, with stiff card to prevent them being damaged in the post. The books were also a lot thicker than I'd anticipated with more pages, and much heavier quality, environmentally friendly paper.

 
 
The first pages of each book are the same, introducing the little boy and his predicament - he has lost his name and can't remember what it was, and goes on an adventure to try and find it...





I was intrigued to see how the stories worked, as my youngest child's name only has 4 letters, his book has 30 pages. My 5 year old's name has 6 letters and his book has 34 pages, so I guess the longer your name, then you may get a slightly longer book and slightly longer story. Most names are 3-7 letters anyway, so it's not going to make a great deal of difference.


I was also interested as to how they dealt with 2 letters being the same - in our case one letter came from an animal the boy meets, and the other from large dark hole in the ground, which will work for any letter of the alphabet.


At the end of the book your child realises that the letters spell out their name. This was a revelation to my 4 year old who was stunned. He hadn't realised that the familiar letters would go together to make his own name. My 5 year old had cottoned on about half way through, but wasn't confident until the end. They were both delighted with the story and really pleased - making the decision that the little boy was them.


It's really the detail that makes this book, the people involved in it's design and production clearly love what they've made and are proud of it. The illustrations are gorgeous. The adventure is little disjointed occasionally, but children won't see that. All of the creatures the child meets are interesting and have a story to tell, they are all individual characters, and none are in the least scary.

These books will be something special to treasure forever. The Little Boy Who Lost His Name makes an excellent gift to send to a friend or relative's child and I'd have been delighted to receive it for any of mine. It's a great substitute for sending chocolate this Easter.

We've previously reviewed LOGO Billionaire and LOGO Best Of TV & Movies, but I'd only played LOGO itself a few times at friends' houses before and hadn't tried LOGO What Am I? We were sent both games to review, and we've had a real laugh with them.

LOGO (rrp £32.99) is the original in a series of games from Drumond Park. Designed for 2-6 players aged 12+ it's a really easy game to grasp, and the rules are very simple.





On the back of each question card are  4 questions with answers. Players take it in turns to be question master, asking the player to their left the questions until they get one wrong, when they instead ask the next player. Every time a question is answered correctly the player moves their counter to the next available section of board with a matching colour, until they reach the centre, when they must answer 2 questions correctly consecutively to win.


We play this with our teenagers and it's a real laugh, as well as teaching us some bizarre and probably useless trivia! It's ideal for family evenings in and we found although the adults win most of the time, it's close - in another year or so I'll have no chance. The questions are mainly so obvious once you see or hear the answer, they don't require academic knowledge, just general knowledge and you have to have paid attention to the world around you!


LOGO What Am I? (rrp £24.99) is a junior version of LOGO that is suitable for 3-6 players and age 8+. We played it with everyone, with the younger boys working as team players with us. Our 5 year old has trouble with the reading, but grasped the gameplay almost instantly despite being too young.


Again played by moving around the board, LOGO What Am I? isn't about trivia and doesn't have questions. Instead play is by each player in turn throwing a die and then completing a challenge on the card. They have to get the other players to guess what they are describing or drawing.


Depending on where you land on the board you take a card and may have to describe the brand or product without using the name, draw a picture for the other players to guess, or simply answer questions with 'yes, no or maybe' until the brand or product is guessed correctly.


LOGO What Am I? is a timed game, everyone gets 1 minute to try and get the other players to guess correctly. If they do then both the person who guessed and the person holding the card move forward. There are 2 winners. When the question answered is held by the player in the centre Winning Zone, both players involved win.

This is a great game for the bringing the family together, especially when you want something for teenagers and pre-teens to play on an even level with the adults. Our 5 year old is obviously below the recommended age, and didn't really grasp the 'yes/no' aspect and always asked the same questions, but as part of a team with his Dad they won more than anyone else. Everyone knows what ketchup is - however old.


We really liked both games and they'll be back out on Saturday for games night. Neither are frustrating or leave room for arguments to develop. They are great games to play on your own, or in pairs if necessary, and are suitable to play with the older generations together. It's real family fun.

Drumond Park have recently released a FREE LOGO app.  for iPhone and iPad, which is available to download here from the Apple store. The only officially endorsed LOGO app., it has full approval and permissions from the brands and features loads of big name favourites such as Birds Eye, Wagon Wheels, Tesco and Campbell's.

Late last week I got a surprise email from Denmark. Not from anyone I've previously talked to about LEGO, but from DUPLO. After half an hour trying to remember how to edit a PDF to insert my actual signature, my non-disclosure agreement was signed and I was let into a big secret that I can now share with you. I've been asked to sit on the jury panel for the brand new How Do You Play? competition that was launched yesterday on the LEGO DUPLO Facebook page.


Shocked doesn't really cover it, I'm incredibly flattered to have been asked. They've even designed me a custom build Brick Castle. It's awesome. My jaw is still on the floor.


The competition is really simple and anyone can enter. LEGO DUPLO want to see how children interact with their DUPLO. They want to see creativity and imagination at work. They want to see how you play.

All you have to do is upload a video of your child playing with LEGO DUPLO to the app. on their Facebook page. It has to be less than 30 seconds, you can film it with your phone or whatever you have to hand, and it must be genuine LEGO - this can include other LEGO bricks as well as DUPLO. You can even enter up to 3 times in total over the 6 week period, so if you think of a better entry or your children make something awesome after you've already entered, it's fine.

Each week 3 winners as chosen by public vote via the Facebook app will receive a bundle of 5 LEGO DUPLO sets. LEGO can additionally choose up to 3 wildcard entrants who are not in the top 3 most voted, to also win. On top of this 3 voters will be chosen at random each week to win a box of LEGO DUPLO themselves - so it's worth voting even if you don't wish to enter a video. That's up to 9 winners each week, for 6 weeks.

At the end of the 6 weeks all of the entrants with winning videos will go through to the grand finale to win a prize money really can't buy, and something I'm incredibly jealous about - The Grand Prize: a fantastic trip to Billund, Denmark to visit the original LEGOLAND, along with a host of extras (as described at the bottom of this post).


It was our one and only big family holiday abroad to take all 7 of our children to LEGOLAND, Billund 3 years ago, and it's something none of us will ever forget. Our 5 year old still talks about it now, many memories were made on that trip. I spoke about our holiday in my LEGO memories post.




What are you waiting for? Get building and filming.....best of luck to all of my readers whether you enter the competition, or you vote for the winners!

Full Terms And Conditions are shown on the LEGO DUPLO Facebook Page Competition Tab, and should be read by any potential entrants. 
All entries must be submitted within the competition entry period, which ends at 11.59pm May 11th EST (4.59am May 12th UK).
There will be one Grand Prize, consisting of flight, five nights in the pirate theme room at Hotel Legoland, including breakfast, Legoland Billund Resort passes (including access to Legoland, Lalandia Aquadome, Monkey Tonkey play land, and Givskud Zoo), VIP visit to Legoland where winners will open the gates to the park, a guided tour of the Idea House Museum, meet and greet with a LEGO Designer, and a signed LEGO® DUPLO® box. Plane tickets and stay at hotel LEGOLAND includes 2 adults and 2 children. Prize should be claimed before December 31 2014

SELECTION OF POTENTIAL WINNER: The Potential Winner will be selected by a panel of judges composed of members of the marketing teams from LEGO System A/S (“Judges”). Entries will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

• Creativity (40%),
• Originality (30%), and
• Overall fit within the LEGO DUPLO So Many Ways To Play tagline (30%).

My 4 and 5 year old boys love DC Super Friends, so it was great to see that Bantam Publishing have released a range of DC Super Friends books aimed at youngsters aged around 5-7.


We were sent a selection of 4 books for review -


The Wipe-Clean Activity Book is a 16 page A4 book and a pen with an eraser at the end. It has various puzzles and pictures to complete and an RRP of £3.99.


I like this book, although I do feel it's a little bit pricey. It has very basic puzzles, most of which my 4 year old can tackle with a little help. It's only 16 pages, but they're very varied and full of activities and information, and the erasable pen works well.

The Save The Day Sticker Book is a 24 page A4 book with over 100 reusable stickers, and puzzles and pictures to complete. It has an RRP of £3.99.


This is a really nice book which is good value. The stickers are great and it's full of interesting puzzles and pictures and information about all of the Super Friends.

Hero Havoc and Crime Wave are both 32 page full colour First Readers with simple repetitive text and short sentences and an RRP of £3.99.


Amid the simple vocabulary they introduce some really quite tricky words, but the pictures are really clear and help the reader work out the text. It's not particularly intimidating for my 5 year old even though he can only 'read' around half of the text at the moment.

Crime Wave! is a story about the mysterious Black Manta, who steals the world's largest pearl and the Super Friends have to race in to save the day!


Hero Havoc! is a story about a character named Bizarro who wants to be a Super Friend and he thinks he knows how to go about it, but it goes a bit awry...


I  like these early reader books very much indeed. I've 4 boys and have found them to be far more reluctant readers than our 3 girls. They've all adored the DC Super Heroes and comic books have been a great way to encourage them to read. These books are perfect encouragement for them. My 5 year old has tackled words like Bizarro, octopus and penguin and read them by himself, which has boosted his confidence massively.

On sale from Tuesday 1st April, the 4 brand new LEGO Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sets look pretty cool.

Karai Bike 79118 retails at £11.99 and contains Leonardo and his long time rival Karai with a great motorbike. It's a set for the younger members of the family, age 5+ with only 88 pieces and makes a great little playset.

Mutation Chamber Unleashed 79119 retails at £19.99 and is suitable for age 6+. As well as the Mutation Chamber where you can transform your minifigures into mutants, it includes Raphael and Victor, plus the fearsome Spider Bytez figure (or the Cosmic Tomato as it was called on children's TV the other week).
T-Rawket Sky Strike 79120 retails at £29.99 and is suitable for age 6+. It includes the turtles home-made T-Rawket with pizza shooter and ejector seat, plus backpack glider.
The set includes 4 minifigures with their weapons and accessories - Donatello, Michelangelo, Mutated Dr O'Neill and a Kraang.

Turtle Sub Undersea Chase 79121 is the biggest set of the 4, with an RRP of £59.99. With a suggested age range of 7+ and 5 characters - Donatello, Leonardo, 2 x Kraang and a Leatherhead figure. The Turtle Sub has a detachable mini sub and there's also a Kraang mini sub with flick missiles.
Inside the Turtle Sub is plenty of room for the turtles to hang out, and an opening hatch to release the mini sub, plus loads of other goodies.


I know nothing much more than I've shared, but like last year's TMNT LEGO sets all 4 are suitable for younger LEGO fans with masses of playability and suggested ages of 7+ or less. There are flick fire missiles, opening hatches, space to play and sturdy builds. They're not designed to sit idle on a shelf, they're for using.


The new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles LEGO sets go on sale Tuesday 1st April and will all be available to buy from the official LEGO shop online.

Our LEGO Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Lair Attack 79103 review 
Our review of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutagen Mayhem DVD
Our review of the Karai Bike escape 79118
Our review of the T-Rawket Sky Strike 79120

I do always like to support the 'little guy', especially if they're local, so an opportunity to review a start up family-run business based only a few miles from me was something I was unlikely to turn down.

Good Bubble is a brand new company making natural and fun bath products aimed at younger children aged 3+. The entire range is at least 98% natural, full of fruits and free from nasties like Sulfates, Parabens, PEG and artificial colourings. They are vegan and the ingredients derived from palm oil come from sustainable sources.

I love the ethics and the sound of it, so I was excited to try it out on my young boys.

Good Bubble have 2 product ranges - Dragon Fruit and Cloudberry. I was sent 3 products from the Dragon Fruit range - Super Bubbly Bubble Bath, Clean As A Bean Shampoo and Smoothy Softly Conditioner.


First thing was the packaging. I didn't really see anything too special, but actually in use it's great and wasn't slippy at all. The lids were easy to open and shut one-handed , incredibly handy - especially in a shampoo and conditioner.

The smell is lovely. Really fruity and fresh, quite sweet, but not too strong. My boys like the smell - they even commented on it. The bubble bath seemed runnier than other bubble baths, but makes easily the same amount of bubbles for the same quantity of bubble bath. The shampoo and conditioner I needed only a 20p sized blob for each boy to get a good covering of their entire scalp.

When it came to the shampoo and conditioner, something very odd happened. My youngest's rather long and curly hair went a bit wild! It was incredibly 'flyaway' after the first 2 washes, but actually after that it settled down and was fine. It didn't happen to my 5 year old at all. I spoke to the company at the time and was assured this is because it's so different from regular shampoo and just needed to settle. Settle it has, and both of the boys have lovely smelling, soft hair and scalp that looks and feels really healthy.


I'm really pleased with the Good Bubble products. It's nice to know that what I'm using has such good ethics and is kind to our planet and our children. It's great to think that the boys aren't building up harsh chemicals on their scalps and they smell lovely!


They're passionate about what they do, and I for one wish them well and will be watching out for them in store.