Boris's Big Bogey by Paul Bright and Hannah George

I have to admit I'm writing about this one under duress! It really makes me shudder! Rosie loves it and even though I have told her to get her dad to read it she made me read it tonight. So it made me think I ought to mention it on my blog.

It's the tale of Boris the cabin boy and his adventures on the high seas with a ship full of pirates. As they look at an old treasure map they think they spy an island although in actual fact it's one of Boris's big green bogeys (eugh!). But strangely enough there is an island and as they draw near the telescope shows a cave (again a bogey - ugh!) and then a treasure chest is found (a reflection of a bogey on the side of the lamp - yuck!). And so it goes on until they are back on board ship with a proper treasure trove. But lo and behold the ship springs a leak! So they turn to Boris to plug the leak with the offspring of his nose but unfortunately he's out of fresh ones. I won't tell you how it ends!

Probably the reason Rosie loves reading this with me is because I am-dram shudder and sigh my way through it!!

All about Fairytales!

We've been going a bit fairytale crazy recently and most of Rosie's playing involves being a 'charming girl' (Cinderella app - thank you Nosy Crow!), a billy goat gruff, a scary wolf who's going to eat everyone up and a handsome prince. It's all mixed up into one big fairytale of it's own!

Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Emma Chichester Clark is one of our favourite retellings. I really love the way that Emma Chichester Clark has breathed new life into this classic and I adore the house on the top of the hill in the forest that the bears live in. It's a Swiss dream!

For the younger child just starting out with stories the Ladybird Touch and Feel Fairy Tales are great. The text is very short and they have touch and feel bits for the young baby to explore. They work from when your baby is one year. They also have text which has extra bits to point out and talk about with your baby running along the bottom of each page.

We were give The Gingerbread Man by Father Christmas at Harrods and it's a great retelling with lovely artwork. The collection of Ladybird First Favourite Tales is quite extensive so you can generally find your favourite fairy tale amongst them. We intend to collect them all!

The Lift-the-flap Fairy Tales from Macmillan illustrated by Nick Sharratt and written by Stephen Tucker are funny, quirky and great for 2+ years old. The flaps add a great dimension to the stories and they're nice and tough too! The text is funny and rhymes making it great to read aloud.

We also have First Picture Fairytales from Usborne, illustrated by Jo Litchfield and written by Felicity Brooks. This contains eight different fairytales including Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella and Jack and the Beanstalk. Because it only has room to tell the story in two pages the stories are quite short. I find that Rosie likes to 'read' this by herself and I grow impatient reading a whole story in just two pages so that suits me!

So that's our little collection, we also love all the 'take-offs' of fairytales you get as well. Mini Grey springs to mind! I'm sure there are many more great retellings of fairytales for this age group out there. What are your favourites?