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Thnks Funkypixie - will look those up. We also loved "the Flight of Dragons" by Peter Dickinson.

And on general books - "Hello Red Fox" by Eric Carle - brilliant!

As you know, i don't have children myself, but:

I learnt to read with Enid Blyton and Topsy and Tim.

Topsy and tim were great, they were small children too, and the books were really about small children doing small children things.

Enid Blyton is my favourite author of all time - i'm a big collector (you wouldn't believe how many books she wrote!). I only collect the stories that are not Famous Five or Secret Seven. not too keen on Brer Rabbit either, but the rest of them are great. My dad bought me my first one (chimney Corner stories i believe) when i was 3 and read them to me, and as i got older, i read them all for myself.

Worst: All those kids 'learning' books that they make you read in school - if you've got a higher reading age and get stuck with them, you can demolish the whole shelf in a month or so.

Cardboard books. I never had them - i was taught from a young age to respect books and not rip them or draw in them, so i was given 'proper' books with paper pages.

Alice in Wonderland is going down well with our boys at the moment (almost 5 and almost 6!). The How to Speak Dragonese books were very popular, too, along with The Water-babies, Treasure Island, The Eejits, and Snugglepot and Cuddlepie.

All of Julia Donaldson's books (A Squash and A Squeeze, the Gruffalo, Monkey Puzzle etc etc) are firm favourites. Then there are Aliens Love Underpants, Here Come The Aliens, The Gigantic Turnip, Little Horrors, King o' the Midden, A Wee Book o Fairy Tales in Scots, Sweetieraptors - A Book O Scots Dinasaurs, Blethertoun Braes - Manky Mingin Rhymes fae a Scottish Toun and The Hoose o Haivers.

My favourite is The Hoose o Haivers. It's a retelling of Ovid's tales with the likes of:

Immediately the Hydra come chairgin oot, bealin wi rage. It stood right up on its dugs legs towerin abuin Heracles an Iolaus while its nine snake heids hissed an glowered an grogged poison doon on the warriors faces. It wis a boggin creature wi wan muckle scaly boady, eighteen evil een an foostie braith an slevers comin oot its nine mooths. Young Iolaus felt seik jist lookin at it.

It sounds so much better and horrible than in English!

not necy a child's book, and not one I care to dip into nowadays in trad form, but there is something called the Glesca Bible or glesca nativity or something.
Some wizened old boy came to recite from it one year at the kirk and although I was quite young, I remember him glowerin' down from the pulpit saying "fae tha wuz nae room in the inn!"

I think children enjoy being read to and also recited to. My father was a great one for reciting, especially on holiday, as there was no escape for him, not to the allotment, not to the shed. We would go for long long walks for miles along beaches, and he would always recite the walrus and the carpenter. And the lobster quadrille.

Every Burn's Night a chap from the church choir would pace around the hall of the kirk reciting "Tam O shanter"

I love poetry and occasionally recite to my children. Other people think I am a bit odd.

Judith Kerr also wrote and illustrated the Mog books, about a family cat, which are quite wonderful.

For older children (what would now be termed Young Adult) I collect Rosemary Sutcliff - nobody can do Romans like her, and all her historical stuff is fantastic.
A more recent author I really like is Diane Duane, who writes the Young Wizards series, beginning with So You Want to Be A Wizard?

This has been really insightful, I have added loads to my shopping list, and I have dug out the Shirley Hughes books I had, E fell for them immediatley, they are now top ... I'll have to get a new copy of 'Moving Molly' a fave of mine when I was wee.

I also loved Roald Dahl, they were the only books that I read as a child (I was poorly schooled and have only recently begun reading for pleasure )

the.fee.fairy wrote:
Cardboard books. I never had them - i was taught from a young age to respect books and not rip them or draw in them, so i was given 'proper' books with paper pages.

I thought that too... but E loves her books soooooooo much and, until very recently she just didn't have the manual dexterity to turn one page at a time of paper without bending it, the cardboard ones were ideal. Also, some of the library 'paper' books for toddlers are in such a mess, I favour the cardboard ones.

Her favourite thing right now is taking a book from the shelf and going over to sit in the corner and read it herself... so very cute, she translates much of the story into baby sign language.

Same here with the cardboard books - Beth had her books from a very young age, far younger than she could be taught to respect them (we are talking pre-6 months) at that age you need something that can be chewed, spewed on and pulled about. I am a fan of cardboard books (and fabric ones when she was younger) as it means she could have access to books from far younger age than I could teach her to look after them (or as Annpann says, before she had the dexterity to turn pages). She looks after her books pretty well now (she has just turned two) but occasionally she still doesn't know her own strength and pulls too hard - she is mortified if she damages one of her books but it is usually an accident.

Annpan wrote: I also loved Roald Dahl, they were the only books that I read as a child (I was poorly schooled and have only recently begun reading for pleasure )

My boys (4 and 5) adore the Roald Dahl books on CD - great for long journeys and (I hope) great for using their imagination as they listen and create their own characters in their heads.

I have also recently found The Enormous Crocodile in the French library and as we read and translate it, we all improve our french.

I try and read to the boys every day, in both French and English. I wonder how long it will be before they say I have no need to translate for them

Can any of you lovely folks in France suggest any good toddler books (in french) I have been trying to do a little introduction to languages with E... it would be much easier with a few appropriate books... some in Spanish could be good too. I have browsed on Amazon.fr but as I couldn't flick through them I found it too difficult to part with the cash

Some basic repetition books, animals, parts of the body etc... not just picture books (I am getting flashcards) but basic stories along the lines of 'the hungry caterpillar' or 'tiger who came to tea' or 'are you my mother'

Any suggestions would be much appreciated. My French (and Spanish) are far too rusty to be relied apon, but I can read enough for us both to pick up basic vocabulary.

thanks

best for toddler: the very hungry catterpillar
worst for toddler: anything with lots of words or pages, mine gets bored eaily.
just plain creepy: Love You Forever (kind of sweet, kind of nice, until the mother takes a bus across town and breaks into her son's house to sing to him on dark nights)
best for mid age child: puddle lane books. i learnt to read using them.
older child (or 25 year old ): doreen cronin's click clack moo, giggle giggle quack and vote for duck.

Puddle Lane books are absolutely brilliant for learning to read. I had a friend who was a teacher, and she said they were the best reading scheme she'd ever come across.

Annpan
Have a friend who is a teacher in Infant school. I will have a chat with her and also get a few books here for no cost however as I am new at this, how do I get them to you?