Recently in Book of the week Category

I saw this project at Party Perfect, and got on the case pretty much straight away.

This was more than a weekend project: I suppose it was about one full weekend getting the photos, and another 4-ish hours doing the layout in iPhoto. And thank you, Apple UK. There were a number of options for getting the book printed but this was easiest (no special software to download) and I trusted it would be a really nice product. We got two copies. One to keep 'nice', one to read. I had intended to hold it back for his birthday, but just couldn't wait.

I'm glad I didn't.

It seems that Wobble Bear may have been displaced by a newcomer! Until a couple of nights ago, the kid wanted no part of Please Baby Please, by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee, illustrated by Kadir Nelson.

Usually, new books are dismissed out of hand. We generally spend a few days just looking at the cover, wondering what the story will be about, maybe a quick look at a couple of pages, before it feels familiar enough to read right through. But Wednesday night, on a whim, I tried just reading this one straight through and he was transfixed.

He's probably the exact right age, as he can totally relate to everything that the baby in the story does (tantrums over leaving the park? refusing to share a ball? oh yes). And the illustrations are just enchanting, especially the spread of the baby in the bath, the energy and the SPLASH feels like you're going to get drenched just looking at it.

So in summary: we both love this book, and it is our new Book of the Week. Read it through seven times last night and it was requested again before breakfast this morning.

My toddler (not quite two), nominates Wobble Bear, by Ian Whybrow and illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church, as our first book of the week. As with all his books, it did take several readings for us to fully appreciate this lovely story, but now it is a firm favourite. In fact it is one of only two or three books which he requests repeatedly and is familiar enough with to join in reading some of the pages. Particular highlights include 'Boom, boom, boom!' (the sound of Wobble Bear walking in his mummy's shoes), 'Splash, splash, splash!' (what happens when Wobble Bear finds a puddle), and the part where Wobble Bear gets dizzy and falls down.

In fact, we have had to ban Wobble Bear as a bedtime story - it is just too exciting and leads to dancing instead of sleeping.