Peppa Pig Little Library

Now I'm not going to try and claim that Peppa Pig is up there with the best children's books but we do have a few of the books and I think that this format is a brilliant one for taking out and about.

Rosie has been going through the Peppa Pig stage for quite a while now. I've been told it's a stage every child goes through and you just have to wait it out. I must admit I don't mind too much. I quite like the TV series, although why can't they be longer than five minutes?! I even have a favourite episode!

The little library is a format that lots of publishers use, mainly for series that have already done well and especially for TV or film tie-ins. Because of the size of the mini books the content is usually pretty basic but they work and I find that kids really like the way the books are so tiny.

The Peppa Pig Little Library has six books: Peppa at Playgroup, Peppa's Friends, Peppa's Garden, Peppa's Favourite Things, Peppa at Home and Peppa's Family. I think Rosie's favourite is probably Peppa's Friends since she likes to name all the different characters. Favourite Things is a hit too. It signs off with Peppa's most favourite thing of all - muddy puddles! Rosie loves to shout this out at the top of her voice! The books can be flipped over and used as a puzzle to form a picture of the Peppa Pig family in a muddy puddle. All in all for £4.99 it's great value!

Toddler Touch First Words and First Numbers

The Toddler Touch series has been developed to lead on from Ladybird's very successful Baby Touch series. There are currently two books: First Words and First Numbers. I've used them with Rosie and she's really enjoyed them but she's more into her stories at the moment and they are also slightly young for her. I think they are more suitable for 1-2 years old. It's probably also the format. Board books with touch and feels just don't hold Rosie's attention in the way they used to (she's now 2 and a half). It's interesting finding this out with your own child. When I was working in book publishing I would merrily propose board books for much older ages! She does like books with bits you can remove however! I hate them! They end up all over the house. Another thing I never realised when I was busy making books that had about 50 removable pieces in them!

But although they don't hold her attention as much as they would if she was a bit younger she definitely enjoys exploring the books with their lift-the-flaps and touch-and-feel trails. And she particularly likes to display her counting skills with the First Numbers. Each book has a trail to follow, apart from just being good fun they are there to encourage pre-writing skills, if you can follow a twisty line with your finger then it's one step towards using a pencil.

First Words follows themes and displays them in engaging ways. The Food theme is arranged as a teddy bears picnic and the Outside theme is arranged as a walk around a park. It works well since you can use them to generate discussions and ask your child what they like best and what they would choose etc.

I think the design and illustrations work really well for these books and they look fresh and fun. They're easy to use and clear in what they're setting out to do.

I do have to put in a small caveat here and admit they are written by me. So I am going to be biased towards them! I don't gain from any sale of them though so although it's slight self-promotion it's not for monetary purposes.