Listography - Books and Babies

For this weeks Listography I have the pleasure of bringing you a guest post from the unique and fabulous MummySquared. For those of you who haven't yet discovered this mother and daughter team (or should that be granny and mother team?) then you're in for a treat. Each post is written from both 'mummies' perspectives - first one, then the other - and both are equally wonderful to read.

Anyway 'Granny Bloggins' has written the below post for this weeks Listography which is Top 5 Books for Babies \ Toddlers \ Children, so listen up!

"With the present government threatening so many of our rural libraries with closure and little CKs’ first birthday looming, I got to thinking about how important books have been in my life.

When I was pregnant with my daughter I was told I needed bed rest every afternoon so my two year old son and I would struggle up the stairs with a pile of books from the childrens’ section of the local library and spend several warm and happy hours together restin’ and reading,’ as we called it.  We couldn’t afford to buy lots of books at that time but the local library was great and then once a year, just before Christmas, we would go to our local city where there was a wonderful independent bookshop (if you are too young to know what that means, ask your mother…) called ‘Chapter and Verse’, and we would splurge in a really big way.  I don’t think the children were ever disappointed to get books as presents because it was so obvious that their parents valued them so highly – let’s hope CK will feel the same!

When my daughter was very young she would hold a book up in front of her nose and pretend to be reading like the rest of us and by the time she was three she would choose a book she knew well enough to be able to ‘read’ all the words.  This very soon led on to her asking me about any words she didn’t recognise in other books and, hey presto, by the time she was three and a half she was reading. She just loved everything about her books, the pictures, the stories, and the cuddle-up-together time we always had when reading. So, not surprisingly, reading came completely naturally to her.  We played word games and had fun with words, there was a time when everything in the house was labelled and she would run around pointing at objects and shouting out their names, she thought this was hilarious and after a while would collapse panting in a giggling heap. 

Reading has continued to be important in her life – good job as she is now an English teacher, and we are already enjoying buying books for little CK which there is no way she will understand or read for several years, but those books are there, lurking, beckoning, their bright pictures drawing her in.  She does already seem to like her board books so I am hoping for another little book worm in the family.  After all when the world gets a bit too grim to contemplate where better to escape to than a good book."


Granny Bloggins

So following that lovely post I'm going to give you my (Kate's!) Top 5 Books for Toddlers.


But before I do I want you to cast your mind back a little to when your little darling would make you play peek-a-boo for 40 minutes straight and then still give a shocked 'it's you!' expression when you popped your face out.

Well, when the toddler years hit that same determination quickly shifts into the sphere of books.

The one piece of advice I wish I had been given when I started buying my kids books was this: Not only does your child need to love the book - you do too - because you will probably be reading it to them six times a night for the next six months. 'Again mummy, again'!

1. Puppies by F.Watt and R.Wells

2. Hug by Jez Alborough

3. It's Mine by Rod Campbell

4. Traffic Jamboree by Sue Nicholson and Christyan Fox

5. Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

These are the books I'll happily read to my kids again and again and again. Don't forget to pop over to MummySquared to read their lists too. Then write your own and come back and post your link below.

*I've even added a widget so that you can easily find them on Amazon - though I've no idea if I've done it so that they will make it worth my while...Any tips taken gratefully!