The Hut have what they claim is a 93% discount on four activity paperbacks and two hardback titles. They’re selling the six books for £2.95 instead of £40.94. While I can’t imagine ever paying that for single use books I know that they’re worth a lot more than £2.95!

• Make the first preparations for the Christmas holidays

I actually reviewed The Night Before Christmas, Chilly the Snowman, and The Twelve Days of Christmas before Christmas and think they are absolutely brilliant activity books.

They are full of stickers and activities such as dot to dot puzzles, spot the difference pictures, and press out models, along with other things.

The book Santa’s Snowy Surprise is a pop-up book with bright illustrations to capture the imagination and is apparently full of hidden surprises.  The final book, My Treasury of Farmyard Tales has 160 pages of stories featuring a range of farmyard animals, perfect for bedtime any time of the year.  

These books are so good, they are worth ordering to keep as presents, or to put away for your own little ones for Christmas.

Thanks to tasi124 at HUKD

The Book People are selling this 1000 Things To Make And Do activity book for £6.99, rather than its list price of £20.

• Click HERE to take a look at 1000 Things To Make And Do

So, day three of the Easter holidays - how's it going? I have to say, that whilst having teenagers in the house is not a lot of fun a lot some of the time they are rather good at entertaining themselves during the school holidays - I say entertaining themselves, what I really mean is sleeping for 20 hours of every day.

Younger children, however, are like little tornadoes of energy combined with the attention span of gnats and keeping them occupied for two entire weeks can be a challenge.

The weather isn't reliable and now that the kids are off school it's turned just a tad chilly (typical) so messing around in the garden for hours isn't really an option; going out is just hellishly expensive and there's only so much babysitting your TV should do.

The solution, then, could lie in this 1000 Things To Make And Do book.  It's jam packed full of little projects that can be done at home - painting, drawing, cutting, sticking or whatever takes your fancy.

Reviews are good, here's just one of them...

"I bought this for my 5 year old for Christmas and it has to have been the best purchase I made. She spends hours leafing through, oohing and aahing at all the suggestions. She makes four or five things a week from here and it has saved us on a lot of cold, wet miserable days since Christmas. I can see her getting a lot of mileage out of this so it was worth every penny. Highly recommended and I'll buy more copies for her friend's birthdays."

If this is all you buy from The Book People then a £1.95 single item delivery charge will apply.

This 1000 Things to Make and Do book looks rather fabulous for keeping the kids entertained and out of mischief for the rest of the Christmas holidays, the price looks rather fabulous too as The Book People have reduced it down to £6.99 from £20.

• Click HERE to go over to The Book People

There are enough projects here to keep your child amused for over almost three years if they just did one thing a day; imagine that, peace and quiet for that long!

Although the downside would be having 1000 'things' to have to find homes for them all if your child is anything like my youngest and becomes distraught at the idea of throwing any of this arty crafty creations away!

Whether your child likes sticking, cutting out, painting or drawing there's plenty of everything crammed into the pages of this book, which may just save your sanity throughout all of the school holidays still to come between now and Christmas 2012 (not that I'm wishing time away you understand!).

Here's what one 1000 Things to Make and Do owner has to say about it...

"This Usborne book is packed full of inspirational ideas and is a must for creative arts activities. I ordered it to help keep our grandchildren occupied and it certainly achieves this goal. So many exciting ideas and what a bargain!"

Marvellous; happy making and doing!

Apart from food, Aldi often offer seasonal specials, and at the moment, they have some great (and some not so great) Christmas activities and entertainment kits for children available.  We’ve been reviewing four items from Aldi’s Christmas range for the last few weeks.

First out the box was the Marvin’s Magic ‘Fifty Pranks To Freak Your Friends’ kit.

It looks like fun, and at the top of the neatly packed box is a sponge thing – I later found out was meant to be a rock – and a book with fifty tricks you can pull.

This Klutz Book of Animation is ABSOLUTELY the last thing I'm buying my youngest for Christmas!

• Click HERE to get animated over at Amazon

Disaster struck last week - I'd bought the LEGO Darth Vadar Mini-Figure Clock I told you about and it was in the kitchen, ready and waiting to go upstairs.  My youngest and his dad made an impromptu visit and it was SPOTTED!!

Having been categorically told, "I don't like alarm clocks..." I'm now debating whether to take it back and replace it with this Klutz Book of Animation instead; I think I might...I hate being present busted!

So, this book - it looks rather awesome (watch the little video on Amazon) and looks like it will provide hours of fun not just on Christmas Day, but for days, weeks and months after that.

It will teach you how to make stop-motion animation and includes: animation software, one blob of plasticine clay, googly eyes (you've got to love googly eyes!) and links to Klutz created sample videos.

I can picture it now: the hottest new name in animation is being interviewed about their latest blockbuster that has smashed all previous animation records, "So, how did you get involved in animation?"  

"Well, it all started when I was given a Klutz Book of Animation for Christmas one year..."

The usual price for the Klutz Book of Animation is £12.99; you can pick it up for £8.93 until Amazon change the price.

Happy Animating!

The Book People website is one of my favourite places to shop for books; you really can't beat them for great book deals and their service is reliable too.

If you've got a young Peppa Pig fan in your family then you might want to take a look at this Peppa Super Activity Collection, it's just £7.99 and comes with a free gift, worth £2.50, too.

• Click HERE to pop over to The Book People

The Peppa's Super Activity Collection has a mix of eight books ranging from story books, puzzle and sticker books and a collection of simple first activities to encourage creativity.

As is often the case with book collections like these, they are ideal for splitting up and putting inside party bags for other young Peppa fans to take home with a slice of birthday cake.

If you DO buy this Peppa Super Activity Collection for party purposes then you're going to be extra pleased with the free gift - it's 20 Peppa Pig Thank You cards - they are automatically added to your basket when you order the eight Peppa books.

Single item delivery with The Book People costs £1.95, standard delivery for more than one item is £3.95 and if your order comes to more than £25 you don't pay anything for delivery at all.

Thanks to Snoopylover9 at HUKD

If you have, or know, a Hello Kitty fan then here's a lovely little deal for you.

The Book People are selling this 10-book  Hello Kitty Book Collection for £9.99 instead of the usual £40.90 list price.

• Click HERE to go over to The Book People

The Hello Kitty Book Collection is a lovely mix of sticker books, colouring books, activity books and a, rather fabulous, 'Things To Do When You're Bored' book .

My niece is sticker crazy and this would make the perfect Christmas present for her; equally, if you have a little girl's birthday party coming up, you could split up this Hello Kitty Book Collection and put a book in each party bag along with a Hello Kitty pencil and rubber perhaps.

The book collection is pink and cute and fluffy and your young Hello Kitty fanatic is bound to love it.

A single item item delivery charge of £1.95 will apply if this is all you order, but if you find a few other bits and pieces that take your fancy, which bring your order over £25 then you'll be entitled to free delivery.

Thanks to fluffhead7 at HUKD 

I'm still on the prowl for sticker books for my mum to buy my niece for Christmas; I've just come across this Charlie and Lola: My Shopping Sticker Book over at Red House for £2.99 instead of £4.00.

• Click HERE to snap up this deal

My youngest niece loves sticker books.

She's only two-and-a-half and is very, VERY precise when it comes to sticking stickers in her books.  If they're not positioned just so, she'll take them off and reposition them if she can.  If they don't come off the page easily, or tear, then all hell can break loose.

Sticking is, clearly, a very important business.

She will absolutely adore this Charlie and Lola: My Shopping Sticker Book as she'll need to help Lola stock the shelves in her shop - precise sticking of items on shelves is definitely going to be the order of the day for her.

There are 16 pages of sticking joy and over 100 stickers to apply to them; that should keep her busy for a little while!

If you can find other bits and pieces to make your order up to £15 then Red House will deliver your order for free, otherwise a single item delivery charge of £1.95 will apply.

Happy sticking!

The Hut are selling this rather fabulous pack of four Princess books for just £3.99; they say the original price should be £33.99 - I'm not sure anyone has ever paid that for them (I wouldn't), but what do I know!

• Click HERE to go over to The Hut

I would, however, pay £3.99 for them and might, as I have a little girl to buy a birthday pressie for this month.

In the 'I'm a Pretty Princess' book you can add a picture of your daughter so she can star in her very own Princess adventure.

The 'Who's Hiding in Princess World?' is a lovely hardback book with lots of Princess related activitites - your daughter will need to find all the characters in the fun filled, action packed story scenes with over 1000 things to spot; that should keep her busy for a while *grin*

Then there is the favourite sticker and activity books - 2 books in 1 volume full of puzzles, games and activities with lots of stickers to use.

Finally there is the 'Girls Press Out Dolls and Dress Up Dolls' - a big 2 in 1 volume full of over 350 press out Princesses, fairies and ballerina's with all their clothes and accessories.

I wasn't very girly when I was small and my daughter wasn't either so I didn't get to buy this sort of thing for her - thank HEAVENS for friends with cute princess-type daughters.

You won't pay for delivery from The Hut, so £3.99 is all you're going to spend.

Thanks to ozzy15 at HUKD

OH JOY!

OH RAPTURE!

A Gruffalo Activity Collection!

• Click HERE to grab these activity things Gruffalo

My youngest turns five years old two weeks tomorrow and trying to work out what to get him for his birthday is a nightmare.

You see, he already has more Lego - of Star Wars and original varieties - than you can shake a stick at, an entire community of Bakugans, ten tons of anything Ben 10 and a troop of Transformers.

He's already got a bike, a scooter and a ride-on Tractor and is having a 'party in the park' with 25 of his classmates in attendance - his dad is bracing himself for the arrival of 25 different plastic toys to add to the toy room of their little batchelor pad!

Lucky for me my youngest ADORES the Gruffalo as much as we do here at PlayPennies - so I've just ordered him this Gruffalo Activity Collection of five books.

He's got a copy of The Gruffalo, but not the activity or colouring book.  He's got a copy of Room on the Broom, but not the activity book. He's got a copy of The Smartest Giant in Town, but not the activity book...you see where I'm going with this, right?

The list price for the Gruffalo Activity Collection is £19.95 but The Book People are selling it for £4.99 instead; I love The Book People.

There's a single item delivery charge of £1.95 if this is all you buy; spend over £30 and delivery will be free.

HUGE thanks to fish1234567 at HUKD (for solving my 5th birthday present woes!)

Those lovely folks at Red House Books are selling these two In the Night Garden activity books for toddlers for £3.99 instead of £7.98.

• Click HERE to go over to Red House Books

I love activity books, they are a great way to keep toddlers amused and provides a opportunity to teach them that some books are appropriate for drawing in and others aren't.

You see, I love books and I can get a bit precious when it comes to looking after them – I can’t stand broken spines, bent corners and pages that have been written on, so activity books are GREAT because they’re designed to be ‘lived in’ (I can’t think of a better way to describe how loved activity books look).

Your child can take a pen to the pages and not worry that they’re going to be told, “STOP! Noooo you musn’t draw in books!”

These In the Night Garden activity books are perfect for young In the Night Garden fans;  in Happy Garden! the stickers are BIG enough to be handled easily with little hands and they can create their own In the Night Garden scenes on the fold-out front cover.

In Hello Makka Pakka! your little one will have the freedom to draw, colour and scribble all over the pages; there are brilliant press-out and play pieces which are also big enough for titchy fingers.

If you find other books to take your fancy and your order comes to more than £15 then you'll qualify for free delivery, otherwise there's a single item delivery charge of £1.95.

Happy drawing in books *shudder*

If you’ve got a small Peppa Pig fan with a birthday coming up, then this Peppa Pig Activity Book Collection might  be of interest to you.

• Click HERE to wallow in this great deal with The Book People

I do love books and I can get a bit precious when it comes to looking after them – I can’t stand broken spines, bent corners and pages that have been written on….unless they are activity books.

Activity books are GREAT because they’re designed to be ‘lived in’ (I can’t think of a better way to describe how loved activity books look); your child can take a pen to the pages and not worry that they’re going to be told, "STOP! Noooo you musn’t draw in books!"

There are eight Peppa activity books in this collection and are jam packed with lots of things for your little ones to do: colouring in, sticking in stickets, games, puzzles, quizzes, dot-to-dot and all the other favourites.

Activity books are perfect for a rainy days, keeping small people occupied during half-term (just two weeks away now) or for splitting up and putting in party bags.

The list price for this Peppa Pig Activity Book Collection is £29.92, The Book People are letting them go for £7.99 and if you only order this then you'll pay the 'single item delivery charge' which is just £1.95.

Thanks to timnlaura at HUKD

The Book People have these six Nick Sharratt Activity Books on sale for £4 instead of the £23.94 list price.

• Click HERE to go over to The Book People

Kids Activity Books are great things to have on standby - rainy days, too-hot days (ohhh we can only dream hey) and the dreaded and coming-soon half-term days.

They also make perfect party bag gifts and things to stash in the emergency present drawer as long as they are reasonably priced, which these six Nick Sharratt Activity Books are.

The six titles are: The Royles' Day Out, Pirate Fun, Once Upon a Time, Farmyard Fun, The Magic Mummy and At Home with the Royles.

They contain puzzles, mazes, wordsearches, dot-to-dots, spot-the-differences, find the odd-one-out and all the other things that EVERYONE loves to do when they pick up books like these activity books.

If you find lots of other things that take your fancy whilst you're at The Book People and your order comes to £25 or more, then you won't pay anything for delivery; otherwise standard delivery is £3.95 (£1.95 if you order just one set).

Thanks to hhhh222hhhhwww at HUKD

The much loved Gruffalo story will appeal to your little ones and keep them busy till they go back to school (or after school, if it's too late for that already!). The Gruffalo Activity Book is £1.98 at Play.com, a £2.01 saving on the usual £3.99.

• Go Play.com with the Gruffalo Activity Book

Has anyone ever read and not loved the Gruffalo? Well, this activity book is packed with puzzles, games and colouring-in. Games such as 'spot the difference', lead the mouse through the deep dark woods maze, a Gruffalo word search, Gruffalo dot-to-dot games and so on will keep your child enthralled for hours. It also features all the characters from the much-loved picture book classic.

And to top it all off, there's also around 50 reusable stickers and a scene from the picture book, so you and your little one can create your own stories again and again.

The Gruffalo Activity Book has 16 pages, and 16 full colour illustrations. It is in stock, so should be dispatched within 24 hours and delivery with Play.com is free .

Thanks to d0rm4nt at HUKD

I love things like this Make and Colour book collection of eight books which are on offer over at Red House.

• Click HERE to make a dash for Red House

I'm a HUGE Christmas fan - forget Halloween, that's nothing more than commercial begging as far as I'm concerned, it's Christmas all the way for me from here until the big day!

I love decorating the tree and hanging long home-made nut garlands around the the fireplace (drilling holes in over 300 nuts was a labour of love let me tell you!) and I still have some paper decorations that the teenagers made when they were little.

This Make and Colour book collection has eight books that are full of things for your kids to...erm, make and colour!

The titles included are:

• Make and Colour: Christmas Cards
• Make and Colour: Christmas Decorations
• Make and Colour: Greetings Cards
• Make and Colour: Farm Animals
• Make and Colour: Paper Dolls
• Make and Colour: Paper Planes
• Make and Colour: Party Things
• Make and Colour: Thank You Cards

...which are perfect for the run-up to, and during Christmas.

I've always found that cards and presents for the grandparents, made by the kids, have been more valued than something bought.

Not only that, when the Christmas holidays start to drag, there are lots of activities in these books to keep young minds occupied.

These should retail for £30.45 but are currently up for grabs with Red House for £7.99; use this code too and you'll get free delivery thrown in - FREE5037.

Happy making and colouring!

Books, glorious booooks! The Book People have a lovely little deal on six Disney's Club Penguin activity books.

• Click HERE for book bargains with The Book People

Getting your kids to stick their noses into any kind of book, is a good thing...in my book hur hur.

I watched the 'Gareth Malone's Extraordinary School for Boys' three-part series on BBC2 a couple of weeks back, and was stunned at how badly some of these boys read; STUNNED!

Books were b o r i n g and reading was b o r i n g - WOW! I can't imagine going through life thinking that, I ADORE books.  My 16-year-old son is a serious reader and devours books at an alarming rate; my daughter and youngest are the same.

So what to do, if your child is anti-books?

Activity books, like these Club Penguin ones, could be the way to go. They're fun, they're engaging and, importantly, they look 'friendly'.

In this particular collection there is a joke book, two sticker activity books to light the creative spark and three 'pick your path' story books.

Pick your path books are GREAT - you choose what happens at various stages of the story and your choices will dictate the ending; I loved these when I was small.

The Club Penguin activity books collection has an rrp of 29.94, The Book People, however, are letting them go for £6.99. Use code ZD533 at the checkout and you'll qualify for free delivery too.

Thanks to Rhys135 over at HUKD!

I'm really beginning to love BooksDirectBargains - this deal for 16 kids activity books for just £9.99 is absolutely storming, in my opinion!

• Click HERE for this booktastic bargain

I WANT these books!

It may well be that the weather, for the foreseeable future, in your part of the country is set to be lovely and autumnal - but where I am...it's not.

Rain, rain, some wind and then maybe some more rain is what's in store for us.  So ALL HAIL the joy and brilliance of the activity book - I'd be lost without them!

Ok, so the Teenagers aren't overly fussed with them anymore , but they used to be, and my youngest adores messing around with activity books.

You get a ridiculous amount for your money with these 16 activity books; brace yourselves, you get:

• Books featuring: Thomas, Charlie and Lola, Lazytown, The Moomins and Bob the Builder
• Over 200 stickers
• Reward posters
• Colouring pencils
• Patterned paper
• Carry case
• Thomas chalkboard story book
• My Absolutely Best Story Collection - five Charlie and Lola story books

I'm sure there's more!

You could also split this up and use the bits and pieces to put in party bags, if your little one has a party coming up soon!

There's no delivery to pay either - just £9.99 when it should be £58.99! This has to be my Deal of the Day; amazing!

Thanks to becci148 over at HUKD

The summer holidays are looming, it's time to start planning ahead!

• Click HERE to go over to The Book People for this deal

When The Teenagers were small - ahhh, those halcyon non-hormonal days where their days were spent playing with cars and drawing butterflies - they went to a creche that was attached to the little primary school, so both places used to close down for the school holidays.

So some forward-planning was always required to be ready and armed with lots of activities that would keep them amused for the l o n g six week summer break (is it just me that dreads the summer holidays...? Bah HUMBUG!) and activity books were ALWAYS a firm favourite.

The Book People are offering a great deal on these 10 Summer Activity Books, having reduced them down from £39.90 to just £7.99.

I love the look of these books so much that I'm almost tempted to get some for me! There are so many great little things inside to do - wordsearches, puzzles and mazes.

Games to play indoors when the summer abandons us and it's raining outside and treasure hunts for hot sunny days outside (don't forget the sunscreen, click HERE to enter one of our featured competitions to win £100s worth of Nivea suncream!).

These Summer Activity Books have been designed to combat the “I'm bored” moments of the long school holidays  and have lots of game ideas - silly sports and relay races being just a couple - that can be played with little friends in the garden.

Just an awesome AWESOME bundle of books for a great price!

Thanks to millarcat over at HUKD!

P E P P A PIG! (althogether now..) OINK OINK!

Click HERE to wallow in this great deal with The Book People

I do love books and I can get a bit precious when it comes to looking after them - I can't stand broken spines, bent corners and pages that have been written on....unless they are activity books!

Activity books are GREAT because they're designed to be 'lived in' (I can't think of a better way to describe how loved activity books look!); your child can take a pen to the pages and not worry that they're going to be told, " STOP! Noooo you musn't draw in books!"

There are eight Peppa activity books in this collection and are jam packed with lots of things for your little ones to do: colouring in, sticking in stickets, games, puzzles, quizzes, dot-to-dot and all the other favourites.

The titles are:

• Peppa's Party
• Peppa's Space Trip and Teddy's Day Out
• Peppa's Playtime
• Piggy Playtime Sticker Book
• George's Birthday Sticker Story
• Fun with George Activity Book
• Fun with Peppa Activity Book
• Peppa and Friends Sticker Book

Perfect for doing out in the sunshine lazing on a blanket in the garden or indoors if the weather's not so great - although, fingers crossed, things are gradually warming up out there! YIPPEE!

The Book People have reduced these books by an enormous £21.93 so you can have them for £7.99 and if you'd like free delivery on these items - which of course you do - then pop MAYPP into the promotion code box in your basket.

Thanks to ramnee over at HUKD!