At the end of last year Biba was selected to become a brand ambassador for We Read Box for the first half of 2020! These UK boxes are for readers aged 8-12 (and beyond if you love MG fiction!) and have a great combination of themed crafts and activities to go along with the book, they have moved to quarterly boxes so this is the Jan/Feb/March box. You can find unboxings for the September box here and the November box here as well as live unboxings pinned to my story highlights on instagram if you have it.

The Book

This months theme is Spooky Skillz!! Unusually I’m got to go in a start straight away with the book this time and the featured book is Demelza and the Spectre Detectors by Holly Rivers and published through Chicken House and it sounds just like the kind of book that Biba will love! A bit sciency, a bit spooky and an exciting mystery adventure.

Demelza loves science – she loves it so much that she stays up late to work on her inventions. But she soon discovers she’s also inherited a distinctly unscientific skill: Spectre Detecting.

Like her grandmother, she can summon the ghosts of the dead. When Grandma Maeve is kidnapped, Demelza and her pasty-faced best friend, Percy must leap into action to solve the deadly mystery…

This box came with not only a signed book plate, but in fact three so that there will be ones for future books in the trilogy too, which is such a great idea and a lovely touch.

Box items

The box items this month were absolutely amazing and we especially love the Spectre Kit with its Alice in Wonder Land style “open me” envelope. Inside is Nightglow Fimo, a spectre shape and some googly eyes, Biba is just itching to make this but I’m trying to get her to hold off until half term next week! As usual there was a themed bookmark although this one is quite a bit different! Shaped like a teapot but made out of circuit board this is a totally stand out item and really striking – also Biba’s favourite colour is purple so the ribbon went down well too, this bookmark came from A Quarter Past Eight and we’ll definitely be checking out more of their items on etsy. The next items was a Scratch Mask – these scratch items are a firm favourite in this house, we love them and the colourful rainbow underneath the surface, the ones in the box are from Baker Ross. Next we had a lovely little pocket mirror from Midnight Bookmarks with the quote “under the moonlight it glimmered like a strange alien creature” this is such a cute addition and one that will be going straight into Biba’s favourite bag!

Enamel Pin

We Read Box always feature an enamel pin, however this box, like so many other companies, has had delays with items produced in China because of the health concerns. This is 100% right because peoples health should always come first. At the moment there is no firm date for when production will start again, but exclusively I am able to share with you the design that will be being made, this is through Felfira Moon Designs. Again we are huge fans of her pins and Biba got quite a few from Santa in her stocking at Chirstmas!

Activity Book

This box’s activity book is brimming with ideas and activities, including a recipe which we’ll be making in half term next week and is amazing as it’s something her little brother can be involved in too. Biba also has her first ever review published in the booklet which was for The Clockwork Crow, one of the two books featured in the November Natural Magic box. I’m really proud of her for this and I hope that when you read it you enjoy it too!

This is another exceptional box from We Read Box and as I’ve mentioned in the post, absolutely perfect for school holidays! All their boxes have similar crafts and activities and you can buy past boxes in their online shop as well as individual items too. They are amazing value for money at just £27 posted within the UK and would be the perfect reward for young readers who have had a great term at school or as a pick me up for children (or indeed adults) who need a little boost ❤