Melissa and Doug reusable sticker pad and Unravelling Oliver by Liz Nugent

I mentioned this pretty nice, over sized sticker pad before as a handy idea for a birthday present, and ended up getting one myself. The Habitats version is at least half the price of the others (House and Dress Up) probably because the whole sticker thing sells better to girls. Anyway, this is €3.65 and while I cannot say we got hours of entertainment from it, I can say we got half an hour and three silent children. Half an hour isn't bad. That's long enough to make a cup of coffee, drink it and read a few brilliant but chilling chapters of Unravelling Oliver, or stick some sort of dinner in the oven, whichever you prefer.

It's perfect as something to bring to someones house if you get invited to those kids-included lunch do's, that I'm always reading about in Sunday supplement magazines (Melissa and Doug is more or less the toy version of Boden, and cannot remotely be seen as a shabby petrol station gift) or maybe to shove in the roof box if you are heading to a rented house this Summer and good weather is not guaranteed.

Like it says on the cover, the stickers are reusable, and actually are. If I were a bit more organised I'd get a few ziplock bags for them, as quite a few have migrated around the house. All in all, a good deal and as always, any alternative to a screen-pastime is a good one.