This week saw a major reorganisation in our place. One of the driving factors was the overflowing bookshelf. We now have a much more spacious bookshelf in use but that has meant no more of the baby gravitating to the books. It seems the same four books have been read all week.

Who Sank the Boat? (Pamela Allen). Every time it reads ‘Do YOU know who sank the boat?’ C calls out ‘MOUSEY!’ So I guess I need to teach her about rhetorical questions soon.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle). Such a winner in our family right now. C isn’t fantastic with days of the week yet and this book is really helping. E loves putting her fingers in the little holes and, well, eating the book.

Good Morning, Gumnuts (one of the Gumnut Babies books, inspired by May Gibbs). One of C’s books really (but sharing is caring, right?) and I had to really lay down the law and not let her go as a gumnut baby for Book Week. Yikes.

Higgly Hen (Axel Scheffler). The winning feature of this book is the sound button. Who doesn’t love the sound of chickens? E will go for it if she is in sight of it so we often hear random chickens while she plays.

C has been in a big Ruby Red Shoes phase. It’s been a year since my Mum gave her the first book (which I was asked to read every night for about 6 weeks before it went into standard rotation); since then Mum has also given Ruby Red Shoes Goes to London (‘Ruby Red Shoes on the bus’); Ruby Red Shoes Goes to Paris (in which I must read the 3rd postcard repeatedly); and A Book About Ruby’s Feelings (which often turns into a matching game for the pictures). C loves Ruby so much that she went as her for Book Week (the shoes are really a dark red colour but that didn’t come out well in this photo). I absolutely love reading her all of the Ruby books, partly because it reminds me of my Mum, partly because the words are so gentle and evocative, partly because I would love to be in Ruby’s world. Is that strange? The outfits, the nature, the food, the flowers… I find it inspiring.Thank you, Kate Knapp.