Babyliography CCLV

Hawys Morgan and Ludovic Salle, Collins Big Cat Phonics for Letters and Sounds: The Great Fire of London

2020 / School book / 24 pages

***

She has to read these three times at home (after the school sessions), so I advised she read the sad last chapter three times in a row to spare her feelings the rest of the week.

Javi De Castro, The Spectacular Space Loop

2026 / Library book / 64 pages

***

Making a dual narrative out of optical illusions was a bold move, and a few of the objects don't even look uncannily like upside-down faces.

Mª Isabel Sánchez Vegara and Ana Albero, Little People, Big Dreams: Louis Braille

2025 / Library book / 32 pages

***

She usually picks these out and doesn't bother to read them, but I knew the combo of disability and secret code would hook her.

Jane Bingham, Fiona Chandler and artists, The Usborne Illustrated English Dictionary & Thesaurus

2010 / Paperback / 448 pages

***

Does this dad know how to buy fun birthday presents or what?

Neill Cameron, Donut Squad: Take Over the World!

2025 / Paperback / 208 pages

****

Not as funny as the second book, whether due to the slow burn or repetition getting old in reverse, but the dangerously saccharine Sweetums was a hit and she was inspired to draw her own.

The Smiling Man by Aimee

Another Halloween tale, likely based on relatively tame creepypastas that I still probably shouldn't have shared yet.

The Smiling Man

Once, I was walking in the street. I saw a man smiling at me. I blinked my eyes – he disappeared.

Wait, what just happened? Was I daydreaming? Or was that real?

The next day, I saw the same man every single day, and every time I blinked my eyes every single day, he disappeared.

I thought it was very strange, but I kept ignoring him. One day, after 10 years, that was still popping in my head. I saw him clearly in my eyes. It was just... it didn't make sense to me.

Well, I still went every single day out to the supermarket when I saw him there, smiling, but I tried to think about it again, then I remembered about the details. At the beginning, he wasn't looking at me, but left, away. But every time, he went a bit closer to me. This time, at the supermarket, he was looking straight at me. When I blinked, he didn't go away. And then I ran away. He chased me!

When I ran back home and got in bed, I covered myself in the cover. When I woke up, I tried to get out of my blanket, but I wasn't in my blanket. I was surrounded by black. But then, after a few minutes, I was in my blanket. Was I daydreaming all that time?

Then, I went to the supermarket and I saw the same man, but he was not grinning at me. He was just a normal man. What could have happened?

Alrightreads: Decapitating in the Street

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: The Face

1996 / Audiobook / 148 pages

**

Another one where you can figure out the story in your head from the cover and save yourself time.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: Secret Admirer

1996 / Audiobook / 148 pages

**

The culprit was probably just as blatant for the target audience of slightly nerdy girls.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: The Perfect Date

1996 / Library book / 147 pages

*****

Thirty-seventh time's the charm. I could see the non-existent movie in my head and watching this accidental killer get his excessively bloody just desserts was morbidly moreish.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: The Confession

1996 / Ebook / 150 pages

**

The dishonest "psyche!" cliffhangers are so rife and pathetic in this one that I'll imagine it was ghostwritten.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: The Boy Next Door

1996 / Ebook / 147 pages

***

Columbo-style transparency made this more tense right from the start and was a welcome break from the usual compulsive misdirection.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street Super Chiller: Goodnight Kiss 2

1996 / Ebook / 208 pages

**

The predictable return of the beach vampires.

Alrightgames: Devil Dice

Devil Dice

1998 / Sony PlayStation emulator game / 1-4 players

***

Not as replayable or existentially horrifying as Kurushi, but a nice take on a virtual dice game that would be possible but annoying to play IRL, featuring an unnecessary CGI demon baby because it's the late 90s. I felt clever as I laboriously rotated dice into matching sets, until time started running out and I realised it was more productive to run around like a madman scoring points from random chance.

Alrightgames: Love Letter – Adventure Time

AEG Black Box 2015: Love Letter – Adventure Time

2015 / Card game / 2-4 players

***

Of all the games in the junk bundle that could go straight to the try-to-resell pile, a duplicate of a game we already have themed around a cartoon we haven't watched seemed an obvious candidate. But the young Love Letter fan was delighted to have a completely unnecessary variation, even if she struggled with the name changes and minor rule tweaks that presumably make some kind of thematic sense if you know who these characters are. Still a good game, but I don't know why you wouldn't prefer to play the original.

Alrightgames: Battlecrest – Expansion Collection #1

Battlecrest: Expansion Collection #1

Resold

The extra character options you'd really expect to be included in the base game if they didn't insist on fitting these things into a single wallet. Fortunately, the pair of them are now often available second hand for the price of one, along with the extensive rules and cards to run the necessarily convoluted solo mode. Once the novelty wore off, I traded them in.

Whispr & Forge: Hero Sets ***

Doubles the character count of the base game for almost essential variety and extends the false nostalgia of making it feel like I'm clicking through a mysterious ViewMaster reel that came through a portal from an alternate 1980s.

Imperator: Solo Expansion & AI sheets ***

I generally avoid solo modes that involve fiddly flowcharts and constant cross-referencing, but there's no way around it with something complicated like this. It's a bit of a rough simulacrum and too easy manipulated, but that's what I get for not playing computer games like a normal person.

Alrightgames: Battlecrest – Fellwoods Base Game

Battlecrest: Fellwoods Base Game

2022 / Skirmish card game / 1-2 players

***

Resold

This fantasy skirmish game in 18 reversible cards with evocative non-existent comic book art is the densest Button Shy game I've seen yet, but not as complicated as I feared once the rules were mansplained to me in videos. Playing elaborate tag with myself is a bit tedious though, so I'm going to have to crack open the similarly intimidating AI manual.

Alrightgames: Last Letter (DIY)

Last Letter (DIY)

2014 / Word/card game / 2-6 players

**

Matching first and last letters isn't much of a game, but it served as a desperately educational school break activity, especially as she creatively cheated by inventing words (including ones ending with silent Zs to be extra helpful for dad's turn) and identifying features not actually present on the cards ("they're behind the door"). Some families probably only use Dixit cards to play Dixit.

Alrightgames: Codenames – Duet (DIY)

Codenames: Duet (DIY)

2017 / Deduction card game / 2 players

***

We seemingly got the full experience of the published game using printed grids (hidden by birthday cards), Stella word cards and unwanted Agent Hunter cards for thematic flavour, but it still ranked low on our list of Dixit-like games, even after inevitably swapping the word clues for more open-ended picture cards.

Alrightgames: Gloom of Kilforth – Pimp My Gloom

Gloom of Kilforth: Pimp My Gloom

2018 / Roleplaying card/board game accessories / 1-4 players

***

None of these deluxe upgrades for the already-attractive game are necessary if they're not included in your second-hand bundle already, but race standees represent the characters better than class standees do (which is lucky, because those have mysteriously vanished), the larger landmark cards stand out better when other cards are piled on, and loads more dice are always welcome.