We’re always on the look out for tops tips for our family guests on how to keep children entertained whilst on holiday and recently discovered Maggie and Rose’s fabulously titled book, This Book is Totally Rubbish. We tasked Karan in our Overseas HR team and busy Mum of two boisterous little boys to try it out and give us the low down.

“So, the interesting ‘summer weather’ that the last few months has given us has certainly given our house hold and two demanding little boys aged 6 and 2 some time be creative with wet weather activities!  Actually, to be exact we’ve tried everything from cake making (read as covering the kitchen in flour) to cushion den making (read that as two small boys mercilessly jumping on each other) and lots and lots of colouring books which produced some intricate wall ‘decorating’ from our 2 year old.  All quite challenging and just at the point when I really was drying up with creative and educational activities that didn’t involve tuning into CBeebies I was given Maggie and Rose’s This Book is Totally Rubbish.

“I didn’t have to wait long to get our new book out of the bookshelf and for once I felt pleased that I could meet shouts of ‘Mummy what are we doing today’ with something constructive – hooray!  Initially I was worried about some of the items needed – lots of glue, string and sticky paper but the clever authors of the book have generally made sure that all the equipment is of the general household variety and most of it was very easy to lay my hands on. Perfect.

“So happily we spent a wet Saturday afternoon together constructing rubbish paper flowers, eco sculptures and a whole rubbish town. Amazing and very easy for the kids to use their creative edge to customise the activity.  My boys both loved the busy page layouts and had fun with choosing what they wanted to do. It was easy for both of the children to as scissor handling skills can be a bit sketchy in our house!  However, we thought it was a superb book with lots of fun to be had when dry weather is thin on the ground.  The only problem now is where to store all these lovely creations!”

Maggie and Rose is a members’ club for families in Kensington, London. For more information on Maggie and Rose’s books visit www.maggieandrose.com.

This Book is Totally Rubbish is out now and available on buy on Amazon from £5.99.