Babies galore!

Very young children have been the focus of my life recently for there have been two additions to my growing family – both of my sisters have very recently had children. My youngest sister has had her first, a little baby girl who is now one month old. My other sister has had a third, a little boy who is now two weeks old. This is a perfect excuse of course to need to read and review yet more books for babies and toddlers for they are always in need of recommendations and just to prove that no-one is ever too young for a book the youngest sister and her husband have been reading Room on the Broom and the Gruffalo to their daughter already whilst they are now in need of a book of nursery rhymes having making the shocking admission that they know none!

I don’t have a nursery rhyme book to recommend to them here but there are two books that I think they will love!

The first is Sing a Song of Bottoms by Jean Willis & Adam Stower (Puffin) is a wonderfully bright laugh-out-loud, rhyming, read-along story of bottoms from a hugely talented team! Bottoms are one thing that we are all closely acquainted with, especially new parents! In this book bottoms of all shapes and sizes are celebrated with joy whilst the narrator tries to establish exactly whose bottom should win aprize. I won't give away the wonderful ending but encourage you all to read this charming and hilarious story with its brilliantly clever and witty text as well as hilarious and cleverly captured bottoms in all their glory this book is a riot of colour and life, perfect for the eyes and ears of all little readers and listeners!

At the other end of the body there is of course the head and whilst many of Adam Stower’s bottoms have pants, Millie’s head has a hat. In Satoshi Kitamura’s Millie’s Marvellous Hat we find hats of all shapes and sizes varying depending on…. well the imagination of their wearer of course!

Millie falls in love with a beautiful hat and its perfect fit encourages her to decide to make a purchase, its “five hundred and ninety-nine pounds and ninety-nine pence” price tag is somewhat prohibitive but the shopkeeper is certainly resourceful and the wonderful box with its empty potential certainly inspires Millie. I loved the title of this book – reminding me as it does of my own sister Millie. All about using the imagination and being a little bit daring this is a book for lovers of distinctive and colourful illustrations, great stories and a little thought will enjoy the journey this book takes them on through parks, streets and interiors.

Creative, comic and fun both these books are about being an individual and having fun – what better message for two new mums and their growing families – plus two great books to read!