1984 / Board book / 18 pages / UK
****
More fun with flaps on the farm, with wildlife that's probably as exotic as Dear Zoo's for city kids, but will become increasingly relatable to our little one now that we're raising her as a country bumpkin.
2013 / Board book / 32 pages / UK
**
The fish book ("feh" as it's known around here) was a grower, but this one hasn't caught on. She's a big fan of birds ("doo-doo"), but maybe it's too wordy, or maybe she's disappointed by the unoriginality of reusing Eric Carle's hole-punching idea from 50 years earlier. That's probably it.
1980 / Hardback / 26 pages / UK
****
A classic picture book that's just as entertaining when you arrive on the other side and can empathise with the poor sod, it's a shame my daughter's stuck with an absurdly miniature version because the bookseller didn't specify which 'hardback' edition they were selling mysteriously (it turns out, explicably) cheap.
Anna Milbourne, John Butler and Brian Voakes, Baby Animals Jigsaw Book
2003 / Board book / 10 pages / UK
Roger Priddy, I Love Kittens
***
I'd been wondering how these worked: extra thick pages. After reading descriptions of different Usborne jigsaw books having puzzles with a whopping two pieces, I figured this would be the same, only to be presented with a slightly more complex puzzle with unreliable guide art that even took me a while. And second-hand, so an inevitable missing piece.
2010 / Board book / 10 pages / UK
**
Exploding the sensory boundaries of literature with our first textured book, it runs out of ideas surprisingly quickly, considering they only had to come up with four. I wouldn't have gone with milk, personally. She likes displaying it around the place like it's a birthday card.
