David the Dinosaur is the first book by Adam Black. It’s aimed at the 4 to 8 age group and will appeal to both boys and girls.

The book tells the story of David Dinosaur’s terrible dietary habits, which provide a fun and funny message about healthy eating, combined with a sense of adventure ready to entertain the imaginations of all little readers…and listeners. David’s tantalising addiction to bad food choices (namely eating young boys) is bound to get him in to trouble!

I love a kids’ book with a sense of humour – in fact; I think that books for children should have a contagious sense-of-humour and should also have the potential to garner the appreciation of an adult audience (much like Roald Dahl’s books). Read this excerpt from David the Dinosaur (to give you an idea):

David the Dinosaur didn’t like dogs,
He didn’t like cats or horses or frogs.
He didn’t like to tidy his box of toys,
But he really liked eating plump little boys.

Haha – I love it!

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Sometimes, it’s easy to forget how young our children really are. With kids growing up with computers and mobile phones – things that were new to us just a few years ago – and seeming to take to them like ducks to water while we still struggle to set the Sky+, it can occasionally seem like we are the children and they are the adults!

Even the youngest children seem so grown up at times – my 4-year-old daughter diligently brought me a glass of water every 12 hours while I was ill in bed recently, and each time, she asked me how I was feeling and told me I was a good girl for drinking up the last one she brought!

And yet, I am regularly reminded of just how young she still really is, when I go into her room put her to bed only to find her hidden under the duvet, feet and hair sticking out, giggling audibly before she eventually tells me where she is as I dutifully pretend to look in all the wrong places.

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It’s been a while since Christmas, and you might be noticing that all those new toys that were so exciting at the time are starting to lose their shine a little by now, so here are a few tips to ring the changes on kids boredom without having to go out and spend any more money:

* Hold a toy swap: get together with friends who have children of a similar age or even older, and swap any toys that the children have grown bored with or grown out of. If you keep a log of who owns what, you can swap back again in a few weeks, when they’ve had time to forget about them, and they will feel like new again!

* Shop your cupboards: see what old, pre-Christmas toys you have lurking in the back of the toy cupboard that have been forgotten about since the influx of Christmas presents. Even if they were disinterested in them a few months ago, they will probably find them new and exciting again now. Make sure you have batteries in stock first though – there’s nothing worse than getting the kids all fired up about a long-forgotten favourite, only to find it doesn’t work!

* When is a toy not a toy? When it’s a kitchen implement! Get the pots and pans out, give them each a wooden spoon and put in your ear plugs! Or get all the cushions and blankets on the floor and make a den, or just collect random things from around the house in a basket and challenge them to make a game from them – it’s amazing what their imaginations will come up with given chance!

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Looking for toys with a difference? If so, P’kolino is definitely a brand to check out – the American-based toy company recently made its UK debut at the London Toy Fair, on the shelves of exclusive UK distributor Gander Kids.

The P’kolino range features a variety of retro-inspired wooden toys (rattles, tops, stackers and nesting birds), as well as award winning wooden puzzles and eco-friendly Arts and Crafts.

The Arts and Crafts range includes crayons and pencils which are coloured with food dye and angular-shaped so they won’t roll away; a stylish wall mounted Safari elephant easel, which releases the valuable floor space taken up by traditional easels; and Silly Soft modular toddler seating that’s part furniture, part toy.

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As ‘retro’ becomes trendier and trendier, The Slow Toy Movement simultaneously lays claim to the consumer’s consciousness.

‘Retro’ means culturally outdated… and that’s exactly what ‘slow toys’ are; toys that were fashionable or trendy long ago, and are now considered outdated. What is a Slow toy? Slow toys are:

* ethically sourced

* fun to play with

* without batteries

* sold in independent toy shops

* durable

* without thousands of different functions

These types of toys are back in vogue – think… rocking horse, educational abacus, classic wooden toy, much loved train set or traditional Jack-in-a-box. The kinds of toys my mum used to play with.

I am reminded of an old wooden cot that my granddad made for my mum; I then inherited the toy (which I loved) and my two-year-old, when visiting granny, took great pleasure in discovering the little white cot. Pretty cool, I think.

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