Jo Joof, A Baby's First Word Book of Numbers
*
Copy-pasting the same image with a minor modification ten times and using Comic Sans makes for the laziest excuse for a book I've ever read. One of eBay's used booksellers sent this by mistake and refunded our missing item without wanting this back – that's how empirically worthless it is. It turns out the baby quite likes it though. I suppose it's not really aimed at me.
Various, illustrated by Gaby Hanson, More Favourite Nursery Rhymes
***
A noticeably darker sequel, with child abuse and ambiguous infanticide from the onset, this is the sort of thing most people would select at random in the pound shop, but I'd been after it for a while to help maintain the symmetry of my daughter's bookshelf and give her a headstart on the OCD.
2004 / Hardback / 96 pages / UK
****
This seemed like a responsible edition of this mandatory library addition to get, satisfyingly unsanitised (within reason) and with dual narrative streams hopefully helping her along with she learns to read in a few years. As of now, it couldn't be of less interest.
Eric Carle, The Very Hungry Caterpillar
*****
She likes to get interactive with the accompanying toy, but I don't think she fully appreciates this one yet. That's fair, I didn't recognise its concise genius myself until that time I wrote a three-page review of it to procrastinate A-level revision.
2009 / Board books / 48 pages / USA
***
There's no shortage of sets like these out there, and this isn't the only one leeching off a well-loved brand, but I thought it might make a nice supplement to the classic original and get some vocabulary down her, which turned out to work a treat.
