What We BoughtBook List

What We Bought: July Edition

July 27, 2021

Get your book wishlists up and ready to update! Here are the titles the Bookroo Crew bought in July and what we think of them.

Jane and Kesler:

What we were looking for: Childhood nostalgia!

  • chapter • 229 Pages
    The Magician's Nephew
    5.0
    #1 in Series
    C. S. Lewis
  • chapter • 208 Pages
    The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
    5.6
    #2 in Series
    Pauline Baynes, C. S. Lewis
  • chapter • 240 Pages
    The Horse and His Boy
    3.5
    #3 in Series
    C. S. Lewis
  • chapter • 240 Pages
    Prince Caspian
    #4 in Series
    C. S. Lewis
  • chapter • 256 Pages
    The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
    #5 in Series
    Pauline Baynes, C. S. Lewis
  • chapter • 256 Pages
    The Silver Chair
    #6 in Series
    Pauline Baynes, C. S. Lewis
  • chapter • 224 Pages
    The Last Battle
    #7 in Series
    Pauline Baynes, C. S. Lewis

These were a childhood favorite, and as we emerge more solidly into a family who reads aloud chapter books, I knew this was a must-own for us. For me, a home library is all about what they’re ready to read now, but also having intriguing things to look forward to at the next step, and this series is a winner!

Tiffany and Chandler:

What we were looking for: Birthday books for our two-year-old daughter!

Madame Badobedah
Written by Sophie Dahl & illustrated by Lauren O'Hara
Madame Badobedah
Written by Sophie Dahl & illustrated by Lauren O'Hara
Our thoughts

One of the funnest parts of picking up a copy of Madame Badobedah was learning how to pronounce her name—once you know how it’s said, it’s really fun to say. (Listening to a reading by the author Sophie Dahl (granddaughter of Roald Dahl) helped us figure it out.) Madame Badobedah is an eccentric character, and the story had us intrigued to the end.

picture • 48 Pages
Oli and Basil: The Dashing Frogs of Travel
Our thoughts

We love Megan Hess’s character Claris (the chicest mouse in Paris), and when we saw she was releasing a new collection called Friends of Claris, we knew we had to get it. Oli and Basil are such charming characters—the dashing frogs of travel—but they make only a passing appearance in the original Claris story, so we enjoyed learning their backstories and definitely plan to continue collecting this series.

board • 22 Pages
In the Rain
In the Rain
Written by Elizabeth Spurr & illustrated by Manelle Oliphant
In the Rain
Written by Elizabeth Spurr & illustrated by Manelle Oliphant
Our thoughts

We love reading fun picture books with our girl, but we also have to have board books for her to hold while we read to her so she doesn’t tear or wrinkle the pages (one tip of many we recently shared on our blog). This is a sweet adventure of puddle jumping on a rainy day with terrific, simple prose.

Rebecca and Tayler:

What we were looking for: Touch-and-feel books, a current favorite at our house!

picture • 28 Pages
Beautiful Oops!
5.8
Beautiful Oops!
Written and illustrated by Barney Saltzberg
Beautiful Oops!
Written and illustrated by Barney Saltzberg
Our thoughts

We found both of our books from Bookroo’s touch-and-feel topic page. Our little boy loves the ones we have in our library, but we only have a few, so we wanted to grab more. We love the variety of this interactive book—there’s pre-ripped pages, a balled up piece of paper, a kaleidoscopic accordion of paper to explore, flaps to lift, and different textures to explore. While the target age range is for a slightly older toddler than my nine-month-old, it’s super fun and will be great for him to continue to grow into and enjoy.

board • 10 Pages
Never Touch a Dinosaur!
Our thoughts

This board book is full of silicone rubber textures and designs for little fingers to touch and explore. The front cover is the most fun, with the spikes of a porcupine and the elevated, swirly squirrel’s tale, and there are a few other pages that are unique and fun, but the majority of the pages are similar in texture. I would recommend this one more highly, except for the text in the book—a few pages are okay, but generally it feels like the text is there just to be there, with the easiest rhyme someone could come up with. It’s a little bit of a shame, as I think the book would be quite a hit if it had more thoughtful, fun text.

Top 5 on Bookroo

    1
    A New Parent's Guide to Reading
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