What’s on my shelf?
Children’s books I love…
Children’s books are beautiful things, and I have a lot of them! Some are very well loved and a bit tatty and torn around the edges, while others are in pristine condition. Whatever condition they’re in though, I love them all the same. Here are a few of my faves...
First up we have ‘Whatever Next’, by Jill Murphy. I loooooooove this book and I’ve had my teeny tiny copy of it since I was a small child. Frustratingly, my copy was in tip top condition until MY children got their paws on it. It now has a rather loose spine and several pages have been torn and sellotaped back together again. It hurts me a little, but I guess it is just a reflection of just how loved this book is, and just how many times it has been enjoyed. My copy measures a tiny 12.5 by 10 cm and I remember feeling shocked when I first saw a larger copy as I had only ever seen it small up until I was in my 30’s.
“He packed his teddy and some food for the journey an took off up the chimney…”
Next up, we have ‘Ruby’ by Maggie Glenn. I have a lot of childhood memories of being tucked up snug in bed, being read this book by my Grandad. It is a beautiful story about a special bear finding a home, after being thrown to one side in the factory for looking different. I also love the delicate, pencil illustrations in this book. They just feel like home and I love them.
So that was two oldie but goodies for you, now I have a newer release… ‘Naughty Narwhal’, written by Emma Adam’s and illustrated by Katy Halford. Jam packed full and bursting at the seems with a rainbow of colour. The illustrations in this book just sing a song of happiness, and we (me and my three musketeers) love to look at each character in detail to see what they’re up to. The text in this book is rhyming, which I personally love, and is all about friendship and kindness, which of course makes it perfect for kids.
Another new one up next with Jarvis and his fabulous ‘Bear and Bird’ series. Full of charming illustrations and stories that just make us feel calm and cosy. I could snuggle under a blanket and read these on repeat all day long.
Next up is more of a non-fiction book called, ‘199 Things in the Garden’, which is part of a collection of books each showing 199 things on various themes…we have a lot of them! These books were great when my children were tiny and learning to speak. We would spend hours enjoying pointing out what we could see, asking the children to find a certain thing on each page, or having fun by pointing at a cat and saying, oooo I love that hippo! Which resulted in lots of laughter and corrections from the kids…my 4 year old still loves to do this now and we look at these books every night at bedtime together. And of course they’re beautifully illustrated by Mar Ferraro and Nikki Dyson.
Another book that I love, and one which I bought purely for the illustrations is ‘The Animal Orchestra plays Mozart’. Written by Sam Taplin and illustrated by Ag Jatkowska. I love the illustrations so much, Ag’s work is beautifully textured and her character designs are just adorable…I think I spot something new every time I look at these illustrations. And to make this book even more exciting, it has buttons to press that play snippets of Mozart throughout…which my kids love to dance around to while pretending to play the violin.
And last but not least, we have ‘It Takes Two to Twit Twoo’, by Paula Knight and Guiliano Ferri. This is maybe our most well loved book, and is definitely looking rather tatty and old now. The pages have creases, pages have sellotape on them…one of the corners has even been chewed by our kitten…so the whole house has loved it for one reason or another! This book is full of delicate illustrations which help to tell the tale of Olive the owl, who is desperately seeking a mate. It is just an all round beautiful book that teaches you something interesting about owls that you may not have known beforehand.
“She dearly wished to meet another owl who could hoot t’woo, so that they could t’wit t’woo together.”
So that’s a wrap! Thank you for reading this post and I hope you enjoyed taking a peek onto my bookshelf, I have many many more books that I could have shown but these are just some of my faves. Do you have any of these books on your shelf? Let me know what your favourite children’s books are in the comments section below.
