Review-Little Alf

As you know I run my own small business, so when the opportunity came up to work with another small business I decided to do it. When Hannah Russell, the author of the Little Alf books, was asking bloggers to get in contact, to review her books and clothing items-I just had to contact her.

Little Alf was created by Hannah Russell, at the age of 17 in 2014. The idea behind this adorable brand came from Hannah’s miniature Shetland pony who has dwarfism.  He is super tiny but super cute! Little Alf came to live with Hannah in December 2013, she began writing a book series, based on Little Alf, with her first book being published in 2014.  ‘The Magical Adventure Of Little Alf – The discovery of the wild pony….’  Hannah has also designed a clothing and accessorises range which features a gorgeous little logo.  These can be found by visiting her online shop. Through Hannah’s work she is helping to support the Riding for Disabled Association.

 

About the book

Firstly, we sat down to read The Magical Adventure of Little Alf. This is quite a lengthy book with 77 pages, but it has been written with twelve small chapters, making it easier for Gracie, who is 7 to read. Archie on the other hand is only 4 so his attention span doesn’t quite reach the full book. The books target audience is 6-12 years old.

The Magical Adventures of Little Alf tells the Story of Hannah. who has just moved  to the North Yorkshire Dales. On a day out trekking, in the magical forest ,she spots a wild black pony, she is eager to return and see him again. The official blurb reads:

Hannah has just moved to the North Yorkshire Dales. With a passion for horses, she starts riding at nearby Meadowlea stables. 

When she spots a wild black pony one day whilst out trekking, in her heart Hannah finds herself determined to return and see him again. But what will happen if nobody belives she saw the pony? 

Will she give up all hope?

Embark on her magical adventure and follow Hannah as she enters the enchanted forest…

What we thought of the book

On almost every page there are beautiful hand drawn illustrations and on the front cover there is a picture of the most adorable little Shetland pony you may ever meet… Little Alf

This was more of a book for me and Gracie to read together. It is written with such enthusiasm that at the end of each chapter we wanted to continue reading, which wasn’t good as she needed to get to bed. It is the summer holiday’s, so I let her stay up a little later.

The one thing, in particular, that we really enjoyed was seeing pictures of Little Alf after reading the story.

What we didn’t like

There wasn’t anything that we didn’t like. It may be a little long for a bedtime story, or for younger children, but overall we were really pleased with this book. This little book will add a lovely little addition to their bookshelf.

Then it was time to read Little Alf-The Magic Helper. We love our books in this house so was extremely pleased to have been given the chance to review two books.

About the book

This book is the sequel to The Magical  Adventure of Little Alf, it has a similar layout except we love this one so much more as it’s Christmas related. Christmas is a favourite time of year in this house.

Little Alf- The Magic Helper tells us the story of a Christmas mystery. It’s one week until Christmas and a mysterious noise can be heard in the enchanted forest. Something has been eating all the carrots from Meadowlea stables, but who?  The official blurb reads:

It’s one week until Christmas and everyone’s in the Christmas spirit…

But then a mysterious noise occurs in the enchanted forest and something has been eating all the carrots from Meadowlea stables. 

It’s a race against time as Christmas gets nearer and there is dangerous creature on the loose…

Can Hannah and Little Alf solve the mystery before Christmas Eve?

What we thought of the book

We love this book, most of the pages are illustrated with small hand drawn pictures and beautiful Christmas silhouettes. Little Alf also often appears in pictures throughout the book. The front page is absolutely gorgeous, again it is a hand drawn illustration and Little Alf looks adorable. We couldn’t wait to start reading it, although I really wanted to save it for Christmas.

Gracie particularly liked the Dear Santa letter and how Hannah wrote to him to tell him about the mysterious creature living in the enchanted forest. It has a perfect little ending, but I won’t spoil the surprise. This little book will now be a part of our family’s Christmas Eve tradition.

What we didn’t like

There wasn’t anything at all we didn’t like. It has roughly the same number of pages as the first book (there aren’t any page numbers) but as it’s a Christmas book we all stay up fairly late Christmas Eve anyway, who doesn’t?

  

Little Alf Clothing Range 

As well as the fabulous books Hannah sent me a few items from her clothing range. We had a jumper (for my son) a hoodie (for my daughter) and a gorgeous Little Alf teddy for my youngest daughter. They absolutely love them!

Of course…they wanted to wear them on our recent day out at Old Macdonalds Farm. The clothing has the Little Alf logo on the front with a warm fleece lining. The material is super soft and super duper comfy! as my Gracie would tell you.

By the end of the day my children and their clothes were covered in mud. They were washed and came out as good as new-lovely,soft and retained the shape.

The Little Alf range will become a gorgeous and colourful little addition to their wardrobe. I may even get myself one to match (hehe)

  

 

I was very kindly sent a selection of items from The Little Alf range for the purpose of this review, all thoughts and opinions are my own.