Favourite Childrens Books

Whilst on the subject of books, I’ve just added some of my favourite children’s books to librarything, as I have been revisiting these. We have, like most schools lately, a reading day coming up where the kids have to dress up as Storybook characters, and although some of these might be interesting in interpretation, my daughter is going as either Harry Potter, or Red Riding Hood, because Gruffalo suits are hard to come by.

Aliens Love Underpants by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort- aliens love underpants so much they come down to earth for them. For some reason pants are a huge subject for children’s books lately - lots of titles have the word ‘pants’ in them - it’s a British thing and something I always get caught out on. For me, coming from New Zealand, everything with two legs in it as a piece of clothing is pants, but over here, it means only underwear. So when I go around saying pants everyone giggles like I’ve said something naughty. Then I ask them the simple question - “What’s under your pants then?” and sometimes they click on about underpant meaning underwear under (over) pants, sometimes not. Ah well, it’s a lost cause on that front, and a thematic topic for children’s books it seems.

Julia Donaldson’s books. Brilliant, most of them. The Gruffalo - which started it all off, is constantly on tour as a children’s stage play around Britain it seems. I think it’s Axel Scheffler’s illustrations which originally drew me in, but you’ve gotta just love the poetry through most of them. Some are better than others in my own opinion, so I’m listing those here.  The Gruffalo, Monkey Puzzle, Room on the Broom, Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book (where all the characters come alive, and you can actually read the newspapers and things in the illustrations), The Snail and the Whale and The Smartest Giant in Town (who somehow wears a dress?).