Winnie's New Computer by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul

We've been Winnie the Witch mad recently, mainly reading Winnie's New Computer - because that is the only Winnie book we have! Although we've had quite a few out from the library in the last few months, Winnie in Winter being a favourite, too.

 I think Rosie particularly likes the computer one because she feels sorry for Wilbur being shut out in the rain and being turned blue and then invisible. It's nicely done and thankfully fun to read (I think it might be nearing about 50 times now, I'm available for recitals!). 

Winnie orders a new computer and when she gets it she realises she can scan all her spells in and get rid of her spellbook and her old wand. But then something goes terribly wrong! It's actually quite an interesting comment on the paperless office now I come to think of it! And I did experience the utter terror of losing everything you hold online when my yahoo work email went down a few days ago. Yikes!

I think the Winnie books are charming and there is enough extra detail in the illustrations to bear rereading them again and again. The duo of Winnie and Wilbur is great fun too, although Wilbur always seems to bear the brunt of Winnie's crazy plans.

Monkey Nut by Simon Rickerty

This book has captivated my 18 month old. My four year old also loves it. I don't totally understand why the toddler adores it so much but I think it must be to do with the minimal text and slapstick humour!

It did however win the Roald Dahl funny prize in 2013. I do enjoy reading it since the minimal text and the amount happening in the illustrations lends itself to reading it in a very silly way. I always add 'CRUNCH!' when the elephant steps on the big black spider.

The design is quite clean and graphic, using photos (of the monkey nut) and illustrating the spiders. It's good fun! But it has made me realise I must buy some monkey nuts to show the girls since they've never had them - I know, deprivation in its worst form.

The Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson and Rebecca Cobb

We've been really enjoying The Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson and Rebecca Cobb. It's the story of a little girl whose mother makes her a string of paper dolls and they name them 'Ticky and Tacky and Jackie the Backie and Jim with two noses and Jo with the bow' and take them on all sorts of adventures until they are untimely cut short by a little boy with a pair of scissors!

It's a simple story but touches on some very big themes, including remembering people who have died, and growing up to become a parent and the passing on of traditions. After the little boy cuts the paper dolls into pieces the text tells us that they 'flew into the little girl's memory' and in the little girl's memory we find all sorts of things including 'a kind granny'.

The text is slightly different to Julia Donaldson's usual fare and I really like it, it's rhythmic but not rhyming and I know from experience how hard it is to get that to work. I guess if anyone is going to do it well it would have to be Julia Donaldson!

I really like the artwork by Rebecca Cobb as well. I like the sketchy feel of it and the colour palette she uses. She also manages to show the movement of the paper dolls, which I think is a feat in itself!

I'd almost forgotten that you could make paper dolls, they're so easy to do, anyone can make them, even me! We've made quite a few sets and seeing Rosie play with them is fascinating, it's easy to see why this picture book came into being, it's the imaginative world of a little girl come to life.

Favourite Christmas picture books!

It's nearly Christmas so here are a few of my favourite Christmas picture books. There are loads out this year and we haven't got round to reading them all by any means, in fact most of these are from previous years!

One that I haven't read yet but I am wishing for in my stocking is Alfie's Christmas. It looks wonderful! I am fairly confident that Rosie is going to receive it so we will snuggle up together and share it on Christmas day!

One of our very favourite Christmas books is Father Christmas Needs a Wee. It's got counting, Christmas and funny rhymes - it truly is a Christmas cracker of a book! I don't know why but even as an adult I get very excited seeing Father Christmas' house depicted. This year Random House have published Father Christmas Comes Up Trumps which looks equally fun.

Angelina's Christmas is a really sweet story about the old village postman being home alone and old and how Angelina and Henry cheer him up. Angelina's world lends itself to Christmas anyway with the nostalgic and beautiful illustrations.

We got The Christmas Show by Rebecca Patterson out of our library a couple of weeks ago and it has resonated with us since Rosie was in her first nativity play last week. She wasn't quite as forgetful as the main character in this book though! It's a nice gentle story about a school putting on their Christmas play. I love Rebecca Patterson's artwork, it's cheeky and cute!

I love the poem The Night Before Christmas and this version illustrated by Christian Birmingham is really lovely. The book we have is rather small - I wish I'd got a larger version (if there is one!) but it's still really nice.

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!