We are very pleased to announce that Scholastic Parent & Child Magazine has named not only one, but TWO, Child's Play titles in their coutdown of the top '100 Greatest Books for Kids'. We are extremely proud to have the high quality of our books recognised and honoured in this way.

The two titles selected are 'Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes', which ranked in at number 60 in the countdown, and 'The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear', which came in at 37th. We were delighted that 'THE LITTLE MOUSE,...' comes only one place behind the timeless classic 'The Secret Garden' by Francis Hodgson Burnett, and sits above Roald Dahl's famous 'Matilda' at number 41!

We must admit this leaves us feeling very happy that although we may be small we can still have a BIG presence in the world of children's books!

Well done Child's Play!

We are HUGELY excited to be celebrating Marta Altes's fantastic debut picture book 'NO!', which we published last year, being shortlisted for the 2012 Waterstones Children's Book Prize! We loved this title from the word go and have been so pleased to see how well it has been received by everyone. 'NO!' joins the shortlist in the picture book category, along with only five other titles, and we have everything crossed for the winners announcement on March 28th! Well done Marta!

Buy it now from our bookshop by clicking on the image above and enjoy this fantastic book for yourself!

Child's Play were delighted to have Hannah Cumming's beautiful picture book, 'The Lost Stars', shortlisted for the 2012 Portsmouth Book Award. Being short listed for any award is a great credit to the book, and in this case even more so as the titles are all selected by a judging panel made up of children!

The award itself is a greatly positive initiative run by the Portsmouth Library Service to promote the enjoyment of reading to young people and enthuse them about the wealth of fantastic children's literature currently available. They also hope to raise the profile of books and reading within the local community in general, and increase visits to local libraries. All in all a very positive project and one that we are extremely pleased to be involved in. Well done Hannah, and fingers crossed for the final winner's list!

This year Child's Play will again be exhibiting at the Education Show, from 15-17th March, at the NEC in Birmingham.

The show is always a great opportunity for us to meet a wide variety of Education professionals and showcase our products to this highly important audience. At the event we will also be offering attendees 20% off our entire range, along with amazing savings on book and toy packages.

So, why not come along and visit us at our stand at H101 to take advantage of the fantastic promotions and offers available?

You can register to attend the Education Show 2012 by clicking on the button below:

The three titles selected are:

Copy Cat by Mark Birchall

Chicken Licken by Francesca Assirelli

Ten Little Ducks by Airlie Anderson

It is always an honour to have our books win awards, and in this instnace it is particularly gratifying to be recognised for our presence as part of the global children's literature landscape. Thank you 'Hello Book Club'!

Earlier this year Child's Play were delighted to have one of our books, 'Don't You Dare, Dragon!' by Annie Kubler, selected for the 2011 Booktrust Booked-Up list.

Booked Up is a national programme that aims to give a free book to every child starting secondary school in England. The programme is run by the national charity Booktrust.

At this difficult transition stage unfortunately it is easy for children to become diengaged with reading. The Booked-Up initiative aims to educate year 7 students to the wealth of fantastic books available to them, and encourage them to appreciate the enjoyment that can be found in the simple activity of reading!

We were thrilled to be selected to be part of such a positive project and wish Booktrust every sucess with this year Booked-Up and their ongoing mission to enthuse people about books!

To read more about Child's Play's involvement in Booked-Up 2011 click here

Helping with real tasks is a natural progression from pretend play, and is a crucial stage in a child's development. Achieving a shared goal encourages a sense of responsibility, and develops many skills that are useful in later life.

These four new additions to our already popular 'Helping Hands' range are a great way to introduce children to the process behind in events such as hosting a party and helping them to understand what is involved.

The simple conversational text and lively illustrations are carefully designed to encourage further dialogue between reader and child. These books are a superb tool for getting children to engage with tasks on all levels and encouraging them to see them through to completion.

Surely everyone has a favourite fairy tale character?

Whether it's Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, or dare-devil Jack who climbed his beanstalk, wouldn't you love to know their thoughts..?

Well, now you can...

Our new range of Fairy Tale Diaries gives you the chance to share the innermost thoughts of these popular storybook characters in their own words. Complete with pop-ups, flaps and inserts these books make for an exciting and interactive read!