Oh Brilliant Bookbuggy!

Sometimes, as a parent, you come across genius ideas that you want to shout about and let every other parent know about. This happened a lot to me when I was a new mum – discovering new things that made my life a bit easier happened a lot back then.

First there was the Snoozeshade – I met Cara who invented the product and started the business at The Baby Show in London and bought one there and then. Then there was the Bebe au Lait feeding cover, which saved my blushes as I breastfed my daughter in Starbucks (I never could do it subtly, I always had to wang them out for every other mocha-drinking customer to see). I even remember waxing lyrical about Gap baby socks – the ONLY brand that I found stayed on my little baby’s little feet. Every other brand wriggled its way off her foot and ended up dropping to the ground outside Sainsbury’s.

And now, Bookbuggy is a discovery that I find myself wanting to tell everyone about. Bookbuggy is a website that sends you a personally curated pack of children’s books every month. Set up by couple Mehmood and Jyoti, who are parents to their son, Dara, Bookbuggy is something you can sign up to for three months or twelve months, or even just buy one month’s worth to try it out.

When you register, you fill in details about your child – age is important of course, but you can also tell them what the child loves, things they enjoy doing, books they have loved reading in the past – pretty much anything you like. It all helps them build up a picture of your child and send books that they think will be loved. Then they send you a package with three to four books in. The books’ RRP will never be less than the price you pay and if you receive a book you’ve already got? Just give it to a friend and Bookbuggy will send you a different one. For real!

Mehmood and Jyoti pride themselves in curating fantastic must-read books and when your books arrive (in gorgeous packaging) they flag up to you which skills each book will help develop in your child.

We were asked to trial Bookbuggy, and the books we received were brilliant…

We got Lucy Ladyburd by Sharon King-Chai, Julia Donaldson’s Jack and the Flum Flum Tree and 100 Things by Mayayuki Sebe. I could tell immediately we’d love them all – isn’t it funny how you just sometimes know?

Lucy Ladybird is a lovely story about how Lucy wants spots like her ladybird friends – it’s one of those heartwarming tales about trying to be just like everyone else and teaches kids that being different is actually a brilliant thing, after all. The illustrations are beautiful and it has a fab pop-up element too.

As Julia Donaldson fans, I was surprised I hadn’t heard of Jack and the FlumFlum Tree – there’s something special about discovering another book by an author you love, isn’t there? This story is SO fun to read, with its rhymes and humour about Jack and his friends who go on an important journey to find a flumflum tree.

Not so much a story and more of a book to ‘do’ with your child, 100 Things has lots of fun things to spot and talk about on every page. Our three-year-old loves counting things (she sometimes misses out the number 20 but we’ll let her off) so this book went down really well. Love the design and illustrations too.

The pack comes with a personalised information sheet, telling you about each book and the skills they’ll help. Great idea, no?

I can see Bookbuggy being a really popular gift from grandparents and other family members. It’s £21.49 (incl P&P) for one month, £59.99 (incl P&P) for three months and £224.99 (incl P&P) for 12 months. Even just as a one-off gift from you to your child every now and then, the joy of receiving the parcel and opening it up to discover which books have been sent is fantastic. It’s the gift that grows with your child. Love you, Bookbuggy!