Books for a one year old featuring Peepo Baby by Georgie Birkett

I'm revisiting some of the younger books at the moment with my one year old. The one she currently can't get enough of is Peepo Baby illustrated by Georgie Birkett. This one is a Bookstart book so is probably very well known!

I think it really helps that this book has very sturdy flaps which my child can pull and tug at as much as she likes. They are actually half pages so short of the book falling to pieces they are going to stay on. She loves trying to make a 'woof woof' noise for the dog hiding under one of the flaps. It's more like a 'oof, oof' whistling noise that she does through her nose but I know what she's attempting!

Another winner for her at the moment is Peekaboo Baby by Mandy Ross and Kate Merritt. It's a game she loves anyway and the fact it's in a book and she can look under the flaps to find the baby is great fun. These flaps are stuck on and not so sturdy but sellotape is wonderful stuff!

We also really like Is This My Nose by Georgie Birkett. The lovely combination of the big fold out mirror at the end and the pointing to body parts always makes her giggle!

There are quite a few more books she likes but these are the ones I have really noticed her engaging with and enjoying.

Spaghetti with the Yeti by Adam and Charlotte Guillain, illustrated by Lee Wildish

This is a great fun, rollicking read of a picture book. It's well told and the illustrations are great too. Rosie was a bit tentative when we first read it, I think she thought it might be scary but it's definitely not! It's a bit silly and slapstick, I think Rosie particularly likes the final scene where the main character, George and the Yeti share a tin of spaghetti.

The story of George setting off from his bedroom with his backpack and a tin of spaghetti in search of a Yeti strikes a chord with Rosie because at the moment she is constantly in the world of make-believe. It's all, 'Mummy, pretend I'm this and you're that and then...'. Actually it can be quite exhausting because it all changes so quickly!

George toils up the mountain path in search of the elusive Yeti and each time he thinks he's finally found him it turns out to be another large monster-like creature who is appalled that he would think they are the Yeti. Each one of them has their own opinion on what the Yeti likes to eat and by the end of the story George is trailing a goat and lobster along with him, as well as other things.

It's a feel-good, funny story and we've been enjoying it very much!

Katie Morag by Mairi Hedderwick

Ok so I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and blog about Katie Morag. Partly because we have been very over-excited recently seeing Katie Morag on cbeebies! Last week was a very long week because every day Rosie would ask if Katie Morag was going to be on cbeebies that day and I had to keep replying 'not until sunday.' But finally we got there and were rewarded with a double episode to start us off. It was nice to see that they used stories from the books as the basis for the episodes.

We have the mini treasures boxset which has eight Katie Morag stories in including: Katie Morag and the New Pier; Katie Morag and the Big Boy Cousins; Katie Morag Delivers the Mail; Katie Morag and the Riddles; Katie Morag and the Wedding; Katie Morag and the Two Grandmothers; Katie Morag and the Tiresome Ted; Katie Morag and the Grand Concert. 

I think our favourite out of all of these is The Grand Concert. Rosie particularly likes the bit at the end where Katie Morag's dress is the same as her friend's and she's really upset. She doesn't understand why she would be upset and it fascinates her! The two uncles Sven and Sean are good characters and fun to read about in this one as well.

Rosie loves a wedding (I think it might be something to do with having been a flower four times before she was three!) and so she likes the wedding story a lot as well. It's very sweet with Grandma Mainland marrying Neilly Beag and Grandad Island turning up to put a smile on Grannie Island's face. 

One of my favourites is Katie Morag and the Big Boy Cousins because Katie gets led astray by her naughty cousins and then is the sorriest of them all and makes them all make amends to Grannie Island. It also features the phrase 'Gee Whillickers' which I can't stop saying since I first read it. It's such a perfect exclamation!

The cbeebies episodes so far have been Katie Morag Delivers the Mail and Katie Morag and the Two Grandmothers. I like the fact they've chosen to dramatise rather than animate the stories, in fact it's interesting that Rosie's preferred shows at the moment feature real people rather than animation - Swashbuckle is her other favourite! 

So to conclude we love Katie Morag in storybook form and we are loving the TV show - at the moment!