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 Cow That Laid an Egg by Andy Cutbill and Russell Ayto

We've been enjoying this wacky picture book a lot recently. I think it helps that Rosie's at an age to realise that cows laying eggs is a silly concept - I think she realises this! We'll see... the last egg related picture book had her dropping eggs onto the floor (thank you Mini Grey and Egg Drop!). So if she starts asking chickens to 'moo' I'll know it's all gone a bit wrong.

It's the story of Majorie the cow who is feeling a bit low. All the other cows do clever tricks and she doesn't feel like she can do anything half as clever. Cue a bit of plotting from the farmyard chickens and she suddenly discovers one morning that she's laid an egg! The other cows become very jealous and are convinced that it's not going to hatch into a cow. They're right, it hatches into a little chick... a chick that says 'MOOOO!'

A lovely story and I love the illustrations. They're full of life and humour and perfectly capture the whole story.

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.

Gorilla by Anthony Browne

We read Gorilla while at a friend's house the other night and Rosie fell in love with it so when we saw it in our local library (please support them everyone, we need to use them to keep them, and even then that's sometimes not enough, but I digress!) we checked it out straight away.

We already have one of Anthony Browne's classic gorilla stories Willy and Hugh which is about an unlikely friendship between a lonely chimpanzee and a gorilla but the story in Gorilla is far more poignant and captured Rosie's imagination.

Hannah is a little girl who loves gorillas but she spends most of her time on her own because her father is always too busy to take her anywhere or do anything with her. For her birthday the thing she wants most in the world is a gorilla. When she wakes up in the middle of the night and finds a small toy gorilla wrapped up on her bed she's disappointed and throws it into the corner of the room with her other toys. But then a magical thing happens. The gorilla grows and grows and takes Hannah on a wonderful adventure, to the zoo, the cinema and to a cafe. When Hannah wakes up she runs downstairs to tell her dad all about the exciting time she's had but before she can say anything he asks her if she'd like to go to the zoo. Hannah ends the story a very happy little girl!

The artwork is amazing in this book. The sense of perspective and wry touches in each drawing make it a feast for the eyes for both grown-up and child! Although most of us are probably not as guilty as Hannah's dad for not managing to spare enough time for our children it's a valuable reality check for anyone.

Dogs don't do Ballet by Anna Kemp and Sara Ogilvie

We've recently discovered the wonderful partnership of author Anna Kemp and illustrator Sara Ogilvie.  We can't stop reading Dogs don't do Ballet! It could be to do with the fact that Rosie adores her Baby Ballet class! But it's also because it's a funny story and the illustrations are lovely.

The story features a little girl and her dog called Biff. Biff always wants to come when she goes to her ballet classes, in fact he even gatecrashes a class only to be told that 'dogs don't do ballet'. When she gets tickets to see the ballet for her birthday she wants to take Biff but isn't allowed. But while she's at the ballet the prima ballerina's place is taken by... you've guessed it, Biff! He wows the audience and proves everyone wrong by showing that dogs can do ballet.

It's a great quirky tale and there are more to look out for from this duo. We haven't read Rhinos don't eat Pancakes yet but it's on our list and The Worst Princess (not out until August but we've had a sneak peek) is wonderful.

Scruffy Bear and the Six White Mice by Chris Wormell

Scruffy Bear and the Six White Mice by Chris Wormell is a beautiful picture book, both in terms of the story and the artwork. It recently won the Red House Children's book award in the younger category and since this award is voted for by children it shows that it hits the spot! We've been enjoying reading this a lot although I think it is a little too old for Rosie and will resonate more with children three years and up.

Scruffy Bear is going for a walk at dusk when he hears a squeaking noise of some animals in distress from just inside the wood. He ventures inside and finds six white mice terrified that they are going to be eaten so he takes them under his wing. First they are stopped by Owl who wonders what the six white fluffy balls could be that Scruffy Bear has with him, snowballs, answers Scruffy Bear and Owl nods wisely and goes on his way. Next they are stopped by Fox and then finally by Snake. Each time Scruffy Bear comes up with an ingenious explanation for the six fluffy balls. But do they get away with it?! You'll have to read it to find out!

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!