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Mr Moo loves stories. Every night at bed time, he selects three books (which is the number which we  ultimately manage to negotiate him down to from his opening gambit of seventy-four) and we snuggle up together while I read them to him. When I’m finished doing my version of Jackanory, he will inevitably beg for more stories “pleeeeeeeeaaaaaaaasssssssseeeeeeeeeeee”. At this point, I give him the option of either having his torch and a story book which he can ‘read’ himself or an audio book.

Recently he has consistently been opting for audio books and so I have expanded our modest collection of story CDs. At first, we used the CDs which came with a few of his story books but these proved to be a little too short for Mr Moo (I would have just settled down with a cup a tea and my laptop when I would hear shouts from Mr Moo’s bedroom of “put it on again Mammy!”). Instead, we now use cds with collections of stories on them and Mr Moo just loves them and drifts happily off to sleep in the world of the hundred acre wood or Peter Rabbit’s burrow.

So far, my absolute favourite audio books are these dramatisations of Winnie The Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner (I am happy to report that Mr Moo is also a huge fan!):

£8.07

£8.55

These adaptations of the classic A A Milne stories are read by a phenomenal cast. Here’s a list of some of the main stars:

Pooh – Stephen Fry
Piglet – Jane Horrocks
Eeyore – Geoffrey Palmer
Kanga – Judi Dench
Owl – Michael Williams

Combine these immediately recognisable voices with sprinklings of music and understated but effective sound effects and you’ll find yourself unable to turn these CDs off. They really are special (although admittedly I was a Pooh fan to start off with!). They are fantastic for long journeys in the car (each box contains two CDs so they are a great length) and are great value for money.

Mr Moo’s other favourites include stories from Charlie and Lola, Fireman Sam and Beatrix Potter (which also has an impressive cast) but I really do have a soft spot for that ‘Bear of very little brain’.

So now that I’ve turned our little house into a library that would have any librarian salivating, I began to wonder how we would ever keep track of all our books. Books should be shared and I think its a lovely idea for children to swap books with their friends or bring them into creche or school for story time (which is Mr Moo’s favourite thing to do at the minute). But how do you keep track of all those favourite stories?

I’m not quite controlling enough to implement any type of formal lending system to record who we lend each book to (not sure how Mr Moo’s friends would respond to receiving overdue notices!) but I would like to make sure that if one of our books goes astray and someone finds it, they will know that its ours and send it on its way home to us.

So this week I decided to buy a few bookplates for the babas. Bookplates are such a lovely old fashioned tradition and are a fantastic way to personalise a book.  There are plenty of different types to chose from but I wanted something that wasn’t too formal (some of the  ‘Ex Libris’ versions were a little too grown up for books which, in some cases, only have about five or six words on each page!) and also something that came already personalised.

In the end, I opted for personalised bookplates from a lovely Etsy shop called Oiseaux:

I got the Vintage Blue Bird one for Lollipop:

and the Animal Band one for Mr Moo.

They are so gorgeous, I really love the vintage feel of these two designs. These particular bookplates need to be glued on but you can get ones that are adhesive-backed (so they are just like stickers). You can even get personalised rubber stamps.

There’s a bookplate out there to suit everyone’s taste and pocket so get looking. Here are a few to get you started:

No more lost books……

Every now and again I go through what might be described as manic phases of buying children’s books and last week I got it into my head that Mr Moo had outgrown all of his picture books and was in dire need of some longer, meatier stories. So I couldn’t rest until I had scoured the web, reading reviews, looking at honours lists and checking out best sellers until I had found the perfect books. After much consideration, I picked out about 8 books all of which I’m happy with (and some of which may appear in future posts) but the one book from my selection that has really touched me and has been a big hit with Mr Moo is Dogger.

I am not ashamed to admit that, in the case of Dogger, I completely judged this book by its cover. When I was younger I used to adore the “My Naughty Little Sister” series. These books were written by Dorothy Edwards but they were brimming with fabulous illustrations by Shirley Hughes. So when I saw the front cover of Dogger, I immediately recognised Ms Hughes’ work. In this book, which was originally published in 1977, Shirley has written the story as well as drawn the wonderfully detailed illustrations.

Dogger tells the story of a boy called Dave who gets  temporarily separated from his beloved toy dog (the eponymous Dogger). Dave’s happiness (and his favourite toy) are restored when his older sister Bella steps in with an act of great kindness. The story itself is not a particularly imaginative or innovative one but its the way that it is told that is so wonderful – Hughes has a real gift for identifying with very young children and explaining how they feel. At one point in the story, Dave and his family are at the School Fair. Dave, who is already feeling very upset because he can’t find Dogger, watches as his sister Bella wins the three legged race and then wins first prize in the raffle which is an enormous teddy bear. Hughes tells us that Dave doesn’t like that teddy bear at all, in fact, he doesn’t like Bella very much at that moment because she keeps winning things.  Isn’t this just exactly how any little man would feel in the circumstances? Mr Moo already loves this story and points at Bella asking ‘is that Bella who keeps winning things?’.

The illustrations are very seventies but to me, this totally adds to the charm, I love Dave’s mum’s headscarf and her special green dress for the Summer Fair, Baby Joe’s push chair is no Bugaboo and Bella’s short shorts are just like the pairs my sister and I used to wear. There’s an innocent and wholesome charm about this tale of sibling love and I just adore it. Dogger won the Kate Greenway medal in 1977 and its easy to see why. Pick up a copy from Amazon for just £3.99Stg.

Children say the funniest things.

They are so honest and literal, it’s wonderful. Mr Moo is what one might describe as a ‘chatty’ little man, he always has something to say and he has been keeping us entertained with his discourse ever since he first found his voice. Some of the things he says are hilarious, some are poignant, some are just bizarre and I have been looking for a way to record these special utterances. For example, one of my favourite quotes followed a viewing of the film Kung Fu Panda when Mr Moo turned around to Mr McSpendy, took a long look at him and sighed “You will never be the Dragon Warrior Daddy”. Having his limitations so accurately assessed by a two and a half year old will perhaps not be one of  Mr McSpendy’s most treasured memories but the rest of us loved this moment.

I recently came across a book called My Quotable Kid which is just what I have been looking for. This book is a journal in which you can record all of the wonderful things that your baba says.

The journal is made up of specially formatted pages with spaces to insert each quote together with the details of when and where it was uttered and your baba’s age when they said it.

There is also a special page at the front into which you can insert a photo of your baba. The journal has lots of pages and plenty of space so you can create a really special record for your child as they grow up. It will be one of those keepsakes which you can pull out at all your baba’s major milestones (21st birthday, wedding etc) for embarrassment purposes!

This book isn’t that easy to find but you can get it from Amazon for approximately £9.

So just because you have children doesn’t mean you stop wanting to go out to eat. But toddlers don’t always (or ever!) want to sit around a restaurant table discussing their day while they wait for their entree. So save yourself the annoyance of wrestling with your 2 year old to try to keep them in their seat and when the bread basket arrives, bring out a sticker book. I’m not sure what it is about stickers that children find so captivating but those sticky little images are a godsend. We have a Sesame Street sticker book that has kept Mr Moo occupied for many restaurant visits. I wouldn’t dine out without it!

Sticker books aren’t expensive and they are easy to roll up and tuck into your handbag or changing bag.  So sit back and enjoy that slice of chocolate tart and go ahead and order that latte. It sure beats having to bribe them with ice cream!

Here are a few good value options (they’re all under £3 each) :

Bon Appetit!

It’s always lovely to find a book that both you and your baba will enjoy  and, in our house, Giraffe’s Can’t Dance is one of those books. Giles Andreae’s story tells the tale of a rhythmically-challenged giraffe who gets mocked by all of the other animals who attend the annual Jungle Dance. It seems that, like most men, Gerald just can’t seem to get his limbs to move in time with the music. But after being laughed off the dance floor at the Jungle Dance, he goes on a journey of discovery which concludes with Gerald finding his rhythm with a little help from a fiddle playing cricket.

Its all written in lovely lyrical verse which means it is easy to read and lovely to listen to. Guy Parker-Rees’ illustrations are lovely and (much to Mr Moo’s delight) the pages are full of animals. Plus, social-conscience-mammy is happy too because there is a lovely message to be taken from the book – It’s ok to be yourself. I’m not saying that Gerald is going to change the world but a little giraffe wisdom can’t do any harm!

This book would be a lovely addition to your baba’s library. It’s £3.58 for the paperback version.

This week Mr Moo and I have been reading Mo Willems’ Knuffle Bunny books at bed time and we are both loving them.

Mo Willems is an American childrens’ author, illustrator and animator. Before writing his fantastic children’s books, Willems spent ten years working on Sesame Street and won no less than six Emmys for his efforts. His books are clever, funny and, well, just different from your everyday kids’ books.

Knuffle Bunny (pronounced Kuh-nuffle) and Knuffle Bunny Too tell the stories of two landmark events in the life of Trixie ( our heroine) and her favourite toy (the eponymous Knuffle Bunny). In the first book, Trixie and her daddy take a trip to the laundromat where the unfortunate Knuffle Bunny goes missing. The story describes how Trixie, who is unable to talk at this stage, tries to let her daddy know that something is wrong. In the second book, Trixie takes her ‘one-of-a-kind’ Knuffle Bunny to school to show her friends only to discover that her classmate Sonja also has a Knuffle Bunny.  Just when you think Trixie’s day couldn’t get any worse, she ends up going home with the wrong bunny and only discovers the mix up in the middle of the night.

Willems animates the books himself by superimposing funky cartoons on to black and white photos of real backdrops (streetscapes, classrooms, laundromats etc), it sounds a little odd but I really like it. Written installments of the story appear as usual on each page but there is so much more to these tales than just the words – the illustrations add so much and in places tell parts of the story which the words do not.  Willems’ writing is subtle, clever and above all, very amusing.  His language truly reflects that of children and their often exasperated parents and his descriptions are genius, for example, see the below extract from Knuffle Bunny:

Isn’t ‘boneless’ the best description for that thing that all young children do…one minute you are holding the hand of a happy toddler, the next they are howling, its as though some one has removed their skeleton and you are left hanging on to a mass of limp flesh that won’t walk, sit or respond in any way to your desperate pleas for rigidity. Another favourite extract is from Knuffle Bunny Too when Trixie marches into her parents bedroom in the middle of the night to demand their assistance ..”Trixie’s daddy tried to explain what 2.30am means”. Both Knuffle Bunny books have won Caldecott Honors and both have appeared in the New York Times Bestsellers’ List (so its not just me who likes them!). They are currently £4.67 for Knuffle Bunny and £5.24 for Knuffle Bunny Too so give them a go. They would make lovely presents too.

Willems also writes the Pigeon series of books which are really fantastic. These are short books following the adventures of  a determined, self-assured and yet endearing bird called, well, called ‘The Pigeon’. The animations are so simple and yet often hilarious and The Pigeon’s dialogue is really clever. These books all involve the reader (its your responsibility not to let The Pigeon to stay up late etc) and having the characters talk directly to you adds a lovely dimension to these books which Mr Moo just adores. The extracts below will give you an idea of what to expect.

Have a look at the pigeons’ attempt to pursuade you to let him stay up late and drive the bus (below):

The board book versions of Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay up Late, Don’t let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, The Pigeon Has Feelings Too and The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog are super value (ranging between £3.56 and £3.65). These really are great little books.

Check out the Mo Willems website, its choc full of good stuff.

I used to think that children’s books without words would be a total nightmare…the pressure of having to come up with an interesting story myself each night, no thank you! Surely that’s like buying a blank CD!. But ‘Welcome to the Zoo‘ obviously caught Santa’s eye because it arrived under our tree this Christmas with Mr Moo’s name on it and I love it (Santa will be pleased to hear that Mr Moo adores it too!). Ironically, its hard to put what Alison Jay’s book does into words but here goes:

The beautifully illustrated pictures track a family’s route through a very unusual zoo where the animals roam freely and get into all kinds of mischief.

The pictures below will give you a taste of the fantastic illustrations, there is just so much to look at you could spend a whole story time just looking at one page. You can focus on the family (which Mr Moo has decided represent us…though he did express some surprise that at just seven months, Lollipop was able to walk around the zoo ‘all by herself’!) as they make their way around the zoo but there are so many other things to do on each page. For example, you can track one beleaguered zoo keeper as he tries in vain to capture a delinquent ostrich or you can follow the movements of a rogue parrot-shaped balloon which gets separated from its young owner in the early pages but, through the intervention of a goose, is ultimately reunited with him.  If you run out of your own ideas, the last page contains several suggestions for things to look out for.

This really is a lovely book. One word of warning though, if you aren’t David Attenborough then I would suggest working on your animal identification skills to avoid a very awkward silence when your child asks “What’s that animal, mammy?”.

We have the hard-backed version which comes in at £9.89 but the board-book version is just £3.73.  Alison Jay has also published several other books and I will definitely be checking them out.