Book review: Usborne Minis'¦ for the journey!

Rainy days, travel, school holidays or simply a day out'¦ grab a handful of Usborne Minis and boredom will be banished in an instant!
Isabelle and Jessica Kidd choose their Usborne Mini puzzle booksIsabelle and Jessica Kidd choose their Usborne Mini puzzle books
Isabelle and Jessica Kidd choose their Usborne Mini puzzle books

These bright and colourful pocket-sized activity books – including sticker shapes, drawing, puzzles and rub-down transfers – are the perfect answer for children who need to keep busy when the family is on the go.

Slip them in a pocket, tuck them into bags and suitcases, or use them as a special gift inside party bags. Ideal for children aged six and over, these pint-sized but big-on-entertainment books feature everything from animals, pirates, pets and outer space to marine creatures, gardens and the jungle.

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Colouring Book Garden with Rub-Down Transfers by Sam Smith and Ruth Russell is filled with garden scenes to colour and bring to life using the transfers provided. Each page has plants, flowers, animals and insects to colour, and there are transfers of birds, leaves, cats and flowers to add to the busy pages.

And there are plants, animals and insects to colour as well as transfers of parrots, flowers, snakes and lots more exciting creatures in Sam Smith and Ruth Russell’s Colouring Book Jungle with Rub-Down Transfers.

Find fun and adventure in Simon Tudhope’s Pirate Puzzles, a super, swashbuckling activity book filled with word searches, mazes, spot-the-differences and logic puzzles or enjoy Sam Smith’s Space Puzzles featuring out-of-this-world word searches, mazes, spot-the-differences and logic puzzles.

Young artists will love Stick People to Draw by Sam Smith and Jenny Addison, a lively, pocket-sized activity book full of inspiration for drawing stick people. Simple step-by-step instructions explain how to draw skateboarders, tennis players, weightlifters and windsurfers.

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And in Stick Pets to Draw by Sam Smith and Jenny Addison, youngsters will find inspiration for drawing stick pets including playful cats, hungry hens, slithering snakes and galloping horses.

Let them get stuck into Sam Smith and Carly Davies’ Sticker Shapes Animals, creating lions, giraffes, foxes, mice and penguins using the multi-coloured stickers. The pages are bursting with colourful scenes to fill with animals.

Or dive into the ocean with Sam Smith and Carly Davies’ Sticker Shapes Under the Sea, making pufferfish, turtles, crabs and submarines in fantastic underwater scenes.

Fun, absorbing, ideal for youngsters and the perfect solution for travel-weary parents, no family should leave home without these handy little books!

(Usborne, paperback, £2.99 each)