Before T was even born we had a large amount of books ready to read to him. From story books to picture books, books about animals to books about vehicles, same-sex parent families to single parent families. We wanted them all. We wanted him to enjoy books just as much as we do.
Over time, that collection has grown with his appetite for stories. At the moment, there’s not really one particular theme that he likes more than others, he gets just as excited reading about a dinosaur as he does a train. Us on the other hand could probably do without the 145th rendition of Spot the Dog! This is great as it means when we get free rein to choose the book (which isn’t often) we can choose anything and we’re all happy.
Boolino
Boolino is a readers’ advisory for children and young adults. Offering a service to help children and young adults discover or continue their love for reading. Unlike other services I’ve found online, you can search for books by subject or theme, as opposed to others that only allow you to search by age or even gender (boo hiss!). This means the pages are limitless and don’t restrict readers.
A few weeks ago, we were invited to find some books for the toddler. Seeing as the seasons were changing we decided to go with a ‘Moon’ theme and left it to Boolino to choose what they thought would be good for us.
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Within a few days they found two books for T and one book for us (how lovely of them!). We received the following:
Goodnight Baby Moon by DK (Dorling Kindersley)
This is this delightful story about two rabbits on their evening stroll before bedtime, telling us about the different phases of the moon whilst on their walk.
It features an LED backlight at the front that encourages lots of imagination as well as lots of stunning imagery. T was absolutely taken a back with this feature.
The Moon by Moonlight Publishing
Aimed for children a bit older than T, although T still enjoyed looking at the pictures and asking questions, this book details lots of facts about the moon, such as its phases, the first landing, even what an eclipse is.
I was really impressed with this choice of book as it meant we had something to look forward to or something we could keep going back to as T got older. Plus, it was educational!
Moonrise by Sarah Crossan
In comparison to the other two, this book is completely different. A novel and poetry book by Sarah Crossan, it details a story about two brothers, where one has to say goodbye to the other.
I thought this was a really nice touch as it showed that the service is not just for children. I have no doubts that I would be able to find something for me as well as the toddler.
You don’t have to just search for a topic or a theme within Boolino. If you have a particular book that you’re looking for you can also search by title. Being connected to a number of popular publishers means that books can be found easily. They’re also lovely to speak to if you can’t find what you’re looking for.
I have no doubt that I’ll use Boolino over the next few years, whether it’s collecting our next set of books for our book advent or moving up to the next stage of reading with T. Boolino is a lovely service that is easy to use and has certainly encouraged me to think of new ways to find books.
Disclosure: We were given three books courtesy of Boolino in exchange for an honest review of their service, however all thoughts and options are our own.
