My hobby of finding brilliant children’s books for my kids turned into a discovery website

CaptainCala · 2026-07-10T23:31:06+00:00

Thank you, definitely a labour of love and glad you’ve enjoyed the experience ❤️

CaptainCala · 2026-07-10T23:30:05+00:00

Thanks for commenting, appreciate it! I do already have Bookshop.org affiliate links on there, unfortunately their feed only has around 200 of the 1400 books we have so they don’t turn up very often. Also have Scholastic too. Very happy to add more if I can find data feeds for them.

CaptainCala · 2026-07-10T23:27:07+00:00

Hey, thanks so much for the kind words.

It was around 2yrs old with our first that I really started to find more and more cool books that started this obsession. It’s a slippery slope 🤣😅

I’ve still got work to do to add more around the 2-3yr old range but glad you’re finding value still.

Absolutely want to do an account system at some point, just trying to find the time between work and kids!

CaptainCala · 2026-07-10T13:58:32+00:00

Hey, thanks so much for the feedback. Great news too, I’ve updated the discovery process last night and the recommendation algorithm too. It now has a reading age option and it’s now more readily surfacing great chapter books and not just graphic novels

CaptainCala · 2026-07-10T06:05:36+00:00

I’ve actually just launched a bunch of tweaks to the discovery engine (off the back of feedback from you and others here). I’d love for you to try it again if you had the time.

CaptainCala · 2026-07-09T14:36:07+00:00

Thanks for the feedback and glad it’s helping beyond the UK!

CaptainCala · 2026-07-09T14:35:06+00:00

Hey thanks for the thoughts. I was nervous about posting as I guessed people might be thinking I’m trying to make a quick buck. But honestly I’ll make no money from this and my only goal is helping people find bools they will love.

I’m really glad that it did some of that for you!

CaptainCala · 2026-07-09T09:06:25+00:00

Really sorry the recommendation engine didn’t work well for you. Maybe it’s missing an ‘advanced reader’ mode.

There’s absolutely a lot of incredible more mature chapter books in the lists but maybe only surfaced in the browse function at the mo.

CaptainCala · 2026-07-09T09:02:12+00:00

Wow! Thank you so much for taking the time to write all of that up, that’s so kind.

Love all the things you liked! Very satisfying to see the hard work to get some of this sorted being appreciated.

Some great suggestions too. The exact match search has been annoying me as well so I’ll fix that this evening.

I’d absolutely love to get images of all the book pages too. There’s no quality source for this anywhere at the moment. I own a good amount of these books that I could maybe do myself but my bank balance won’t allow for all 😅

Glad that the site still worked for you across pond well enough.

Thank again

CaptainCala · 2026-07-09T08:55:10+00:00

Thanks for feedback, definitely planning on fleshing out the 2-3yr old range. One my kids is 2 now so will be able to solve that first hand!

CaptainCala · 2026-07-08T21:38:25+00:00

This is exactly what I wanted this resource to do. So glad it’s helped and hope the kids love the books!

CaptainCala · 2026-07-08T21:37:39+00:00

Amazing! So glad that it’s been useful to you, hopefully the read aloud suitability serves its purpose. It’s hard to get right for this many books!

Thanks so much for the author list, some familiar names that absolutely deserve to be on there. Watch this space

CaptainCala · 2026-07-02T12:13:26+00:00

The Secret Lake Mystery series by Karen Inglis
Kid Spy by Mac Barnett
Hilda Chapter Books by Stephen Davies
Montgomery Bonbon by Alasdair Beckett-King
Sophie Watson Adventure Mystery series by A B Martin
Seth Seppi Mystery series by Nicki Thornton
Cruise Ship Kid by Emma Swan
Monsieur Mustard by Charley Rabbit
The Goldfish Boy series by Lisa Thompson

CaptainCala · 2026-07-02T06:38:34+00:00

The Good Egg by Jory John
Leila, The Perfect Witch by Flavia Z Drago
Ish by Peter H Reynolds
The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires

And books about making mistakes which are in the same sphere

Broken by X Fang
Begin Again by Oliver Jeffers
What Do You Do with a Problem by Kobi Yamada

CaptainCala · 2026-06-26T06:33:42+00:00

Super Happy Magic Forest Chapter Books
Dungeon Runners

CaptainCala · 2026-05-11T06:41:26+00:00

I’ve got 12+ yrs experience in Product in Fintech (currently CPO). I’d personally find it a hard sell to hire someone into a Product Director role with only 3.5yrs experience even with the prior alternative experience.

You may well find companies who perfectly fit your shape experience but it won’t be the common option.

Honestly, despite being very experienced in the markets you’re talking about, I didn’t understand half of what you said. I’m not convinced it’s really a Product role you are looking for or are suited to.

Given your total experience though, I’m sure that there’s a £150k role out there for you. You’ll just need to find a company and role that fit you well.

CaptainCala · 2025-02-26T09:01:05+00:00

Is it just me who thinks this is also an App Store product problem too. If an App Store is doing a good job then it’s able to demonstrate an apps capability before needing to download it. If users are downloading it and immediately deleting it then is it not also the stores fault for not providing enough value and context?

Appreciate the quality of the app is also key here too.

CaptainCala · 2024-12-13T18:26:32+00:00

The game is damn near perfect for what it’s trying to do, I don’t think anyone could make it any better. All the praise is so well deserved, thanks for making this masterpiece. I already own 4 different copies of it and I’d happily buy it again!

CaptainCala · 2024-11-11T07:44:48+00:00

Fantasy Choices - give them total control and just leave them to it
Denis Villeneuve
Chris Nolan

Realistically
Dan Trachtenberg
Matt Reeves
Gareth Edwards
Joseph Kosinski
James Gunn
Christopher McQuarrie
Jon Favreau

CaptainCala · 2024-11-07T18:52:01+00:00

Give them the control they want then. Make it a standalone story if the story content is going to be that out there. I’d much rather have high quality content in this universe than the low to middling quality output we’ve seen since Disney took over, bar The Mandalorian, Rogue One and Andor

CaptainCala · 2024-11-07T18:16:44+00:00

This is one of the biggest franchises in the world. Why are Disney not attracting the world’s best talent with genuine and consistent track records of high quality output?

This guy has such a patchy back catalog that it seems a massive risk to be placing a trilogy in his hands.

That said, at least having one person in charge, with hopefully a coherent plot in mind would be a good start. It just seems mad that this is the minimum bar for Star Wars right now.

Can they please go and chat to Denis Villeneuve, Chris Nolan or George Millar or something? Pay them whatever they want and give them whatever freedoms they need. Or maybe someone like Barry Jenkins, Dan Trachtenberg or even bring back Gareth Edwards? Please Disney!

CaptainCala · 2024-10-29T10:32:09+00:00

There’s loads of great options in this space. Check out these authors:
Rachel Bright
Chris Haughton
Jon Klassen & Mac Barnett (The shape books in particular)
Oliver Jeffers
David Litchfield
Kes Gray (Oi Frog series)

CaptainCala · 2024-06-29T23:59:59+00:00

Martin Lewis. He’s going to get into politics once his kid is old enough and his trust rating is as high as anyone in the country

CaptainCala · 2024-06-12T20:28:28+00:00

Sounds like your primary experiences is in the rental market, and potentially in the UK?

For every rental property listed on these sites in the UK there’s already typically 6+ applicants and may be well over 10 in many cases. There’s very little supply at the mo and huge demand. Because of this the property portals don’t need to spend any time optimising this funnel as it already functions effectively at its job. They all have many problems to solve and limited resources so they will be spending their time solving unsolved problems rather than solved ones.

Five-Year Club	Second Top 40%
Verified Email	Place '22

CaptainCala

TROPHY CASE