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!

You Can't Eat A Princess by Gillian Rogerson & Sarah McIntyre

This picture book ticks many boxes for us. Princess - yes (groan but actually I approve of Princess Spaghetti, she's ballsy and likes chocolate, it's all good). Aliens - yes (when we look at the night sky and we pick out what we can see Rosie also always mentions aliens, hmmm!). Chocolate - yes (we both love chocolate, who doesn't?). So I guess we were always going to love it. I also enjoy reading Sarah McIntyre's tweets and blog posts - partly because she's based in our old stomping ground around Greenwich.

It's Princess Spaghetti's birthday but her father, King Cupcake is missing. It turns out he's been kidnapped by aliens who are rather partial to a juicy human. It's down to the princess to rescue him in the Royal Rocket. Once she's located him she tries to persuade the aliens of the joy of chocolate instead of eating humans by inviting them to her birthday party.

This story was so successful the first time we read it that the next day we did a complete re-enactment of it before breakfast. For some reason I had to be nearly every character while Rosie directed me, but that's another blog post.

I love the text, I think it's imaginative and reads really well. And the illustrations are fab, except for the fact that they make me a bit hungry!

Chocolate Mousse for Greedy Goose by Julia Donaldson and Nick Sharratt

This is quite a young book which you could share with a child who is younger than two but we came to it a bit later and still really enjoy it!

It's a rolling rhyme which goes through a dinner party of sorts introducing all sorts of different animals and their different characters (shy gazelle, fussy duck, angry rabbit) and some different foods (carrots, macaroni, chocolate mousse!) until they all end up asleep. It's a bit crazy and feels quite like a collection of words forced together but somehow it does work and with the payoff of being able to whisper 'sleep' at the end Rosie really enjoys reading it.

I will not ever never eat a tomato by Lauren Child

The title of this always gets me in a bit of a muddle. I'm sure it's supposed to! I suspect this book is really brilliant if you have a fussy eater for a child and you're at your wits end and can't see how they'll ever eat any vegetables. So far Rosie is pretty good with food so I don't love the book for that.

What I love about this is the funny characters and the contrariness of young children that is captured perfectly by Lauren Child. Of course it's a book that's been around a little while so everyone knows who Charlie and Lola are because they now have a very successful TV series.

This particular book tells the story of Charlie having to feed Lola and what a difficult job that is because she doesn't like - in no particular order: peas, tomatoes, carrots, fish fingers, potatoes (even mash), bananas, oranges, eggs and the list goes on. Charlie decides to entice his little sister to eat by calling the food exciting and mysterious names, so mashed potatoes become 'cloud fluff from Mount Fuji' and carrots are 'orange twiglets from Jupiter'. By the end Lola is enjoying herself so much that she even starts to eat tomatoes, or what she call 'moon squirters'.

It's a great book and I have no doubt that Rosie will be renaming all her food very shortly!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

This book doesn't need introducing. It's one of the best known children picture books ever and for a very good reason - it's a wonderful book! I have spent hours, days, weeks, possibly a year trying to think up a picture book as good as this. It covers days of the week, the life cycle of a caterpillar metamorphosing into a butterfly, different foods, numbers, I probably could go on!

And then there is the classic, timeless artwork. It has a naivety yet is brilliantly sophisticated at the same time. You can clearly see the influences of Picasso and Matisse in the line, texture and colours. It probably has the most spin-offs in terms of other product (crockery, stationery etc) that any children's book has and this is mainly due to the enduring appeal of the artwork.

We've been reading this since Rosie was tiny and it still is one of our favourites - proof of why it's a classic, it endures! When we read it we spend quite a lot of time on the food page with the cake, pickle etc and choose what we think everyone we know would like to eat off the page. I have also done some butterfly painting with Rosie (when you fold a piece of paper and paint half a butterfly on it and then press the other half of the paper onto it so it's a mirror image) but I think the joy of doing that is when you can do it yourself and she's still a little young.