Join me 'Living Barefoot' Giveaway

My first batch of gorgeous Barefoot Books have arrived and I am like a kid in a sweet shop! This takes me right back to my bookshop days when a delivery of new titles was like Christmas. I absolutely adore the smell when you open the box - new print, unopened books full of delights just waiting to be enjoyed...  The there is the 'oooo'-ing and  'aahhh'-ing as each treasure is lifted out and examined. It doesn't matter how thorough the reps are seeing an image of a book in a catalogue is never as good as actually holding it in your hands....

So, yeah, I LOVE books!  I especially love beautifully illustrated kids books!! And when it comes to illustrations Barefoot Books are definitely amongst the best - from the distinctive (and lovely) oils of Niamh Sharkey  and the stained-glass inspired illustrative style of Olwyn Whelan to the dreamlike quality of Italian artist Nicoletta Ceccoli and the gorgeously bold and colourful work of Debbie Harter plus many, many more.

There are also a large number of story books available with accompanying CD's and Barefoot Books have enlisted the vocal talents of Niamh Cusack (Tales from Celtic Lands, The Faery's Gift), Jim Broadbent (Storytime, The Prince's Bedtime), Miranda Richardson (The Princess and the White Bear King, The Barefoot Book of Stories from the Opera) and Juliet Stevenson (The Tear Thief, The Real Princess)

Amongst their new titles for this year are a series of gorgeous 'Sing along' books complete with 'enhanced' cd's that bring the book's illustrations to life in a little animation with  the words scrolling across the bottom of the screen! Brilliant fun for little ones (and not-so-little ones) and a great way to learn a new favourite.

Check out the fabulous 'Over in the Meadow' below



To celebrate my becoming a Barefoot Books ambassador, I have one copy of this gorgeous book and enhanced CD to give away to one lucky reader!

To enter this competition please do at least one (if not all) of the following:

• Firstly - pop along to Barefoot Books and have a look around at their gorgeous selection of books for children of all ages, then come back and leave a comment telling me which one (or more) you would love to give to the special little person in your life. You MUST do this to be entered into the draw.

For extra entries you can - 

• 'Like' the Tales from Mount Pleasant Facebook page - this will keep you up to date with future competitions, giveaways and new Barefoot Book releases. Comment to let me know.
• Follow this blog with 'Google Friend Connect' or subscribe to the RSS feed by clicking on the tab at the top of the column to the right. Again, please comment to let me know you have done so.
• Post the tweet ' I want to #livebarefoot with @forestflower23 and Barefoot Books' with a link to this blog post.

The competition runs until 9pm Sunday 24th July. The winner will be chosen by a Random Number Generator and the winner will be announced on Twitter and Facebook and emailed if address provided. If the winner does not get in touch within 7 days the prize will be re-drawn.

Please note this competition is open to UK residents only. 

Good Luck x

*please note the prize has been paid for by myself and not provided for free by Barefoot Books. This post is not sponsored by them in anyway. As a Barefoot Books Ambassador I earn a commission on any books sold through my link to their website.

Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

Here's a synopsis of a well known storybook I bought for the Little Man the other day :

'after escaping from a hot oven, our hero runs for his very life, being chased by various villagers and farm animals until he comes to a river. There he is tricked by a wily old fox who carries him across, apparently to safety, before eating him.'

Scary stuff eh? It is, of course, The Gingerbread Man and this particular version is beautifully put together by those fab people at Ladybird. The 'Well-loved Tales' collection were a big part of my childhood reading adventure and I felt it was time to get some traditional stories to balance his current 'Aliens love Underpants' obsession. This little series has been developed for little ones and is aimed at 2+ year olds. I let him choose which stories to start with and as he was already familiar with the 'Run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!' line from nursery it was a dead cert he'd pick that story.

What I didn't realise was that he wasn't familiar with the ending...

He woke up around half one this morning, crying his eyes out and babbling about the fox 'eating me all up'! Now I know he's a smart lad with a very active imagination but he is at an age where his understanding of everything is very literal. 'It's only a story' just doesn't wash with him yet. The Gingerbread Man is as real to him as Mummy and Daddy, as is the threat of being eaten up by a sly old fox...

So what do I do? Shield him forever from the horrors of traditional fairy tales? Or explain that as the Gingerbread Man is made of gingerbread and, therefore, meant to be eaten, he was actually being very naughty running away...

It's a dilemma.

I am really not looking forward to explaining the other book he chose - Three Billy Goats Gruff. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it... (pun intended)