Fancy Dress Farmyard by Nick Sharratt

'There's a party at the farmyard'! This is a fun vibrant picture book - it's actually a little young for my three and half year old but she still loves it. What's great is that it's suitable to read to both my children even with a three year age gap. It has rhyming text (tick for pre-speakers), bold contrasting colours (great for developing those eyes) and lots of interactivity (ideal for the 3 year old). Now to be perfectly honest the six month old doesn't do much more than sit on my knee and try to grab the book to shove in her mouth but I know that she is learning (deep down!) about what you do with a book and the great fun you can have with it.

The rhymes are short and not always that wonderful! But my three year old loves to finish them off for me or even recite them in total (sigh - yes it's one of those, we've read it every night for the last month. It's going to be time to hide it soon!). She also loves to shout out who is hiding beneath the fancy dress costume and when we lift the flap to reveal we make the animal noise, for the benefit of the 6 month old.

At the end of the book you lift the flaps of the barn and all the animals in their fancy dress are revealed. We then always have a heated discussion which goes like this:

'Mummy, which would you like to be?' 

'I'd like to be the pirate.'

'No, Mummy, you can be the princess or the fairy.'

'But I want to be the pirate.'

'Girls can't be pirates.' (shouting!)

'Girls can be anything they want to be.'

'No, you have to be the fairy.'

'Ok, but girls really can be anything they want.'

(frowning!)

'And boys can too, ok?'

'No, mummy. I'm the princess and you're the fairy.' (pause) 'Daddy can be the pirate.' 

(groan)

I think I've even been guilty of saying 'girl power' in one of these discussions before. I just cannot believe that my daughter can be so gender specific! It will get better won't it? I won't be having this argument when she's twelve (to pick an age randomly!). One of the first times we had this discussion she got so upset she started to cry about it. I don't think I ever envisaged having a daughter sobbing her heart out about not being a princess when I first had kids.

For all the crazy politics that go with this book it's definitely one of our current favourites and as I mentioned it is great to read with different aged children. 

Funnybones by Janet and Allan Ahlberg / Snapdragon at Norwich Castle

Funnybones was used as a basis for an activity session that we went to at Norwich Castle last week. We've read it on and off over the last year but I think that Rosie will probably be requesting it more since our day out! The book itself has a lovely rhythmic quality and gathers speed as you read the first page 'In the dark, dark street, there was a dark, dark house.' The story follows the adventures of a big, little and dog skeleton who go out to have fun in the middle of the night and want to find someone to scare. The dog skeleton ends up falling apart and they try to put him back together. Then they go to the zoo and although all the normal animals are asleep the skeleton ones are awake, so they have some fun together!

It's a simple great story that has been around for years and is always a favourite of libraries at Halloween. Our local one was doing quite a lot of drawing competitions based around it. You can understand it being used in so many different ways since it really lends itself to extra activities. Funnybones is part of a series and there are quite a few more including Mystery Tour, and The Ghost Train.

The activity session at the castle was called Snapdragon and for 2-4 year olds. It's run once a month on a friday. The next one is on December 14th. It's £2.50 for an hour and really well organised. We started off looking at different bones and all the kids had to guess what animals they came from (tiger skull, woolly mammoth calf bone etc) and then we were given binoculars (made out of loo roll inners!) and told to go and find the animals in the museum. After that we read Funnybones and then did activities that were bone related, including rubbing fossils through to paper. It was great! I really recommend it if you live anywhere near Norwich.

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.

Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker- Rees

This rhyming picture book has a lovely story, wonderful text and gorgeous illustrations. So it's really not a surprise that it was a Richard and Judy children's book choice.

Gerald is a giraffe that desperately wants to join in with the jungle dance but when he goes to take centre stage in front of the other animals they all laugh and jeer at him. So he runs away and hides until he meets a cricket who strikes up a tune and shows him that everyone can dance, just sometimes they 'need a different song.'

It's a great story to illustrate how differences can be good and not everyone does everything the same. I particularly love the illustrations of Gerald circling in a backwards somersault. I think it illustrates how you can imagine dancing without being constricted by an earthly body!

The Yoga Ogre by Peter Bently and Simon Rickerty

The Yoga Ogre is a very funny and charming book about an ogre who has got too fat and wants to lose some weight. Unfortunately because of his size everything he tries ends in disaster. His basketball slam dunks end with the town church missing its steeple. Yoga is a no-no when he tries to do a headstand and bashes the ceiling in.

The town people end up telling him that on no account is he to play any sport because of the damage he is causing and so everything quietens down... until he take up jogging!

The text is rhyming and nice to read aloud and the illustrations are lovely with lots of detail. A laugh out loud book to share together!

The Worst Princess by Anna Kemp and Sara Ogilvie

The Worst Princess has become a firm favourite in our house in a very short space of time. Partly because it features a princess, a prince and a dragon. Good stock characters that tick all of Rosie's boxes! But also because it's funny, a good story and gorgeous artwork. It makes me wish I could draw half as well!

I love this book because it's about an anti-princess. She doesn't want to be pretty and sit around in dresses and wait for her prince to come back. She wants to be out having fun, preferably with her pal the dragon! With my darling daughter completely obsessed with the colour pink and wearing pretty dresses I'm glad there is a book to show her that being a bit of a tomboy can be a lot more fun. I'm sure she'll find that out for herself anyway but it's a refreshing read!

The rhyming text is great too, with lots of references to tea! It's really funny that the Princess is called Sue (it definitely helps the rhyme along!) and can't stand her prince who's rescued her - he is a rubbish prince, admittedly. There are quite a lot of picture books that turn the myth and legend of fairy tales around and I think this is one that really works!

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!!

Stick Man by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

We have Stick Man on loan from our excellent and thankfully so far untouched library but I think I might buy it since we both love it. The version we have has an audio CD with it which is really good as well.

It's the story of Stick Man who lives in a tree with his Stick Lady Love and his stick children three. One morning Stick Man goes out for a jog and ends up having an adventure that takes him far away from his family and home. Amongst other things he's picked up by a dog, played pooh sticks with, decorates a sandcastle and a snowman and eventually ends up on a fire. Will he ever get back to the family tree?

The audio is lovely. It's read by Imelda Staunton and because of the beautiful text is a joy to listen to. It also has activities after the story has been read which is a nice bonus.

The artwork is gorgeous (well you wouldn't expect anything else from Axel Scheffler!) and the rhythmic jolly text is lovely to read aloud. It has a christmas theme so is slightly unseasonal right now but we still enjoy it!