picture books

What We Read This Week (19/1/25)

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There was not as much reading at home this week as there was last week. It was one of those weeks where a few books were read, and a few bedtimes included a story request or 3, but it was not a book-heavy week. 

Actually, this is the sort of week that Old Me used to worry about. “Read to your child every day” can carry a lot of guilt with it if, say, your child thinks it’s hilarious to run as fast as she can away from you, or if you try to start reading them the story that they have picked out and *asked you to read to them* but about three words into the first sentence you are told, quite firmly, to shush. No. No reading. The Old Me used to stress about this until I realised that they actually get a fair bit of reading exposure without me sitting them down after a bath to do Story Time. There is reading throughout the day. They have reading at daycare. More and more, the younger two are seeing C and me doing reading. The New Me has realised that forcing things on toddlers and preschoolers is a futile and frustrating course of action that has the opposite effect than that which is intended.

So this week there was not much, and that’s ok.  C read this chapter book today, which she seemed to enjoy.  “Pearl the Flying Unicorn” by Sally Dodgers and Adele K Thomas. E’s favourite book this week has been “The Moon Book”. Yeah, not its real name. “Goodnight Baby Moon” is NOT it, but the book she borrowed last weekend about Eid is. What a find. All the girls have also been loving a Japanese lift-the-flap type of book, about hatching animals. It makes me want to revise my Japanese characters!

S now has a bookcase next to her bed, with books she can access, so she has gone a little wild. She often falls asleep with a book under her cheek or pushing into her tummy, or being ruffled by her feet. Currently in her cot are the following: Hammerbarn (Bluey); Never Touch a Grumpy Unicorn; Where is Baby’s Belly Button; and an Ella at Eden chapter book. I am not allowed to read her any.

What We Read This Week (12/1/25)

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Things have progressed somewhat since my last “What We Read This Week” post. My girls now all love books. Phew! 

C now reads voraciously. Mostly she now reads silently, but when she does read out loud I am very proud to hear her doing voices and expression. She is very engaging! 

E switched from being impossible to read to, to loving books. She doesn’t always ask for one at bedtime, but if she has missed a sleep train then “May you please read me a book?” comes out.

S. Hoo boy. What a journey it has been. They say it’s not a good idea to compare your kids, but really. C: lift the flaps and board books and paper books all fine from age dot. E: enthusiastic lifting of flaps as a baby means there are some that are no longer attached. S: all flaps removed; all board books pulled apart; now very careful and sincere with paper books.

All this, plus a developing ability for my girls to adhere to my “It’s time to go now” statements, have meant we have started visiting the local library again. Christmas was a very “book-y” Christmas, from us as well as from relatives. I am often pondering how to incorporate a reading nook for the girls and how to house the books and how to keep on top of library books.

So what we read this week is rather more wide-ranging than it used to be. Hallelujah! Instead of listing alllllllll of the books that have been collecting on the girls’ floor this week (and on my bedside table and on the sofa and on the rocking horse of all places), I picked a book the girls have each favoured reading this weekend, plus some that I found for them that I am loving, plus – gasp – a book for ME! Astonishing.

Whenever I need to take a breather in the bedroom, S comes in to help me feel better (that new doctor kit is getting a workout), and insists I read “Blossom Possum” as many times as she can wheedle out of me. I think it was a find at the school library’s culled book fair, and it is chock full of  Australianisms and rhymes. E found a book about Eid at the library and I read it to her 3 times at the library and another several times today. It is a beautiful book. C is on a mission to read every Geronimo Stilton book that the council library has to offer. I’m not sure how many there are. I’m not sure how many she has read. “Happy Birthday, Geronimo!” was the find yesterday, which was finished by the afternoon. 

“Be You” is one I feel every kid should have in their mind as early as possible. “What Feelings Do When No One’s Looking” is a very lovely approach to accepting our emotions, something I struggle with but am trying to overcome. And “My Name Is A Gift” is the one that makes me tear up. We thought long and hard about names for our girls; their names and meanings are so precious to us. “My Name Is A Gift” is a beautiful expression of the importance of a name and the importance of saying it correctly. 

Because C had finished her sole library book within a few hours, and I had cleared off my bedside table with its stack of her books, “What Katy Did” was floating around and, sure enough, C started reading it and just casually left it on my pillow. 

I actually started reading for me again recently. I have a large number of books on my phone, and I read a murder mystery last month, the kind of thing that I used to read all the time. When I started the second in the series, I got tired of it. I won’t blab on about why, but it reignited my desire to read good books. So at the library, I went on a hunt for books by an author I have followed on Twitter and Instagram for years but never read. Two books by Matt Haig were found; I borrowed one, “The Last Family In England”, and I have no regrets.

What We Read This Week (Baby Classics)

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It feels an age since I’ve shared what we’ve been reading. I’m putting this down to E being such a different child from C, on top of our home life being a wildly different home life. C would always have a story or five before bed. E was resisting more and more until I just gave up. It makes me sad to say it but it was just too hard. There was only so much I could force her to sit with me and read so I put her story time on the back burner, knowing that we would come back to stories at some point. 

And we did. At this point, I would like to thank Blue. E was given Verandah Santa and Bob Bilby last Christmas. Throughout the year we were also given Sleepytime and Hammerbarn. These books are soooooo well-loved. So much so that I’ve had to remove Sleepytime from sight as E would get obsessed with it and turn the pages too quickly and we all know how that goes. We haven’t found our groove with story time just yet but I am relieved that books are being rediscovered.

C has continued to have at least one story a night and – great excitement – was finally allowed to borrow from the library at school last week. Three nights since then, I went by her bedroom when she was meant to be asleep and heard her telling her toys all about what was in the stories. Libraries are fantastic. She’s a bit sad that she has to return the books tomorrow but rather excited that she can then choose MORE books to borrow! Bliss.

That brings us to S. I am sure that her experience of books is much more interrupted than it was for either of the older girls. “Here is the blue sheep, and here is the WHAT WAS THAT? What was that sound? Ok put that down… And here is the red sheep. Here is the bath sheep E, stop, get down from there, thank you, and here is the bed sheep. But where is no, I said NO, hands off! Gentle… gentle… no sweetie she needs to breathe. Thank you, maybe we can play with it next? But not shoved into her face like that…” etc. That said, this week has been especially lovely. E is past the stage where she pulls so enthusiastically (or intentionally) that any flaps from lift-the-flap books are ripped off. S is in the stage of knowing that this bit of coloured cardboard moves and there’s another picture behind it and ooh look! It’s an elephant! So I have been able to read Dear Zoo (Rod Campbell) to both of them, together, delightfully. This coming week we will also revive some of our other flappy books and I may even get inspired to fix the no-longer-very-flappy books. 

Other books that have been read often this week are Kissed by the Moon (Alison Lester), and Where is the Green Sheep (Mem Fox and Judy Horacek). The former was for S from the Christmas Eve Book Fairy. It was one I borrowed from the local library when C was a baby and I love it. I have read it a few times with all girls around me this week and that is possibly one of my highlights. A beautiful wish for my babies. The latter had been hiding under a sofa for a time so its rediscovery has been a joy. Every pair of sheep brings smiles. Every reading brings smiles.

What We Read This Week (it’s never too early for Christmas stories)

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We love books. We have two story times during the day: before lunch nap; and after bath. The first is more baby-oriented, the second is for the 3-year-old. Baby story time happens in front of the bookshelf, so those choices always go straight back once they’ve been read. Older story time happens on the sofa and by the end of the week there will be a collection of books piling precariously on the sofa. 

Here are our favourites this week.

The Story of the Little Mole Who Knew It Was None of His Business (Werner Holzwarth and Wolf Erlbruch). Everyone loves a good poo story.

Santagram (Sophie Masson and Shiloh Gordon). Is it too early for Christmas stories? Too late? Who knows. Christmas stories are always an option here.

Where the Wild Things Are (Maurice Sendak). We love a good party.

There’s No Such Thing As Monsters (Steve Smallman and Caroline Pedler). This always elicits great squeals of laughter.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle). We have a hard copy so yay for chewing, and the 3-year-old has started insisting on ‘reading’ it to us.

Bunny’s Egg Hunt (Shannon Hays). A board book, with pop-ups, and beautifully illustrated.