Best of 2022, Not from 2022

Squeezing work around full-time parenting cut into my self-improvementindulgence time this year. I may not have read any long novels, but I did see the entirety of Peppa Pig several times over and learned all the names of multiple generations of plastic ponies.

Here's what I managed to scrape together for my out-of-calendar cultural year.

Alrightreads: Little Ex Occidentes

R. B.  Russell, Bloody Baudelaire

2009 / Ebook / 72 pages / UK

***

Decadent revivalist soap opera in an atmospheric setting, shame about the ponces, and the inadequate proofreading baiting a supernatural red herring.

George Berguño, The Exorcist's Travelogue

2010-11 (collected 2011) / Ebook / 125 pages / USA

***

Tall tales from across Eurasia and down the halls of time.

Faves: 'Flaubert's Alexandrine,' 'A Chronicle of Repentance'

Adam S. Cantwell, A Pallid Wave on Shores of Night

2011 / Ebook / 93 pages / UK

***

An enigmatic opera of primordial secrets and uplifting visions. If only it was a full album.

Fave: 'Moonpaths of the Departed'

John Howard, Numbered as Sand or the Stars

2012 / Ebook / 64 pages / UK

**

Money literally talks. This would have been an interesting experiment in a longer collection of tales, but didn't feel especially deserving of the boutique release.

D. P. Watt, The Ten Dictates of Alfred Tesseller

2012 / Ebook / 79 pages / UK

****

That's more like it. I have a feeling this morbid tour through Earth's inevitable ruins is probably more profound when the end is nigh, so I'll try to remember and hopefully there'll be time.

Alrightreads: Samuels' Annuals

Mark Samuels, The White Hands and Other Weird Tales

1995-2003 (collected 2003) / Ebook / 196 pages / UK

****

A very impressive debut collection of pulp tributes and more visionary horrors. It could have been longer, but he looks fairly productive, so there's plenty to look forward to.

Faves: 'The White Hands,' 'Mannequins in Aspects of Terror,' 'The Impasse'

Mark Samuels, The Man Who Collected Machen and Other Weird Tales

2003-11 (collected 2011) / Ebook / 164 pages / UK

****

Possibly a more refined blend of influences, from cosmic doom to poetic gore and fear and loathing for its own art form, but it lacked the stand-out tales of the first collection for me.

Faves: 'Thyxxolqu,' 'A Question of Obeying Orders,' 'The Tower'

Mark Samuels, Written in Darkness

2011-14 (collected 2014) / Ebook/audiobook / 128 pages / UK

****

Apocalyptic nightmare visions of decay and disillusionment. Still, you've got to laugh, haven't you?

Faves: 'The Ruins of Reality,' 'Alistair,' 'My World Has No Memories'

Mark Samuels, Glyphotech and Other Macabre Processes

2003-08 (collected 2016) / Ebook/audiobook / 190 pages / UK

****

An intriguing if unpleasant collection of linked stories with recurring themes of suffocating paranoia, body horror and the futility of our sham existence. Lovely.

Faves: 'Ghorla,' '"Destination Nihil"' by Edmund Bertrand,' 'A Gentleman from Mexico'

Mark Samuels, The Prozess Manifestations

2015-17 (collected 2017) / Ebook / 130 pages / UK

****

Characteristically unsettling tales with more explicit if still confounding links across time and genre, from haunted wanderers to cyberpunk detectives and jungle commandos.

Faves: 'An End to Perpetual Motion,' 'The Crimson Fog,' 'In the Complex'

Alrightgames: Julia Donaldson's Songbirds – Alphabet and Phonics Games

Julia Donaldson's Songbirds: Alphabet and Phonics Games

2012 (collected 2014) / Educational card games / 1 player / UK

***

More wholly on the edu side of -tainment, its recommendations matches her attention span and she was happy to go along with it for the praise. I feel sorry for the kids who had to play test it during development, hopefully they were amply rewarded.

Alrightgames: Alphabet Match – First Alphabet Puzzles

Alphabet Match: First Alphabet Puzzles

2013 / Jigsaw puzzles / 1+ players / UK

**

Some form of alphabet jigsaw was inevitable. She was more into laying out the pictures and using them as a footpath than the admittedly tedious spelling part.

Alrightgames: Finding Dory – My Underwater World Storybook and Jigsaw Puzzle

Disney Pixar Finding Dory: My Underwater World Storybook and 2-in-1 Jigsaw Puzzle

2016 / Book and jigsaw set / 1+ players / UK

**

She didn't mind that other kids had completed the colouring side. She's not really into colouring, they saved her the effort.

Alrightgames: Top Trumps – British Wildlife

Top Trumps: British Wildlife

2010 / Card game / 2+ players / UK

**

Bought more as cheap animal flashcards than for competitive fact fights, but they might kill some time in the long run.

Alrightgames: Donk-a-Dino

Donk-a-Dino

2019 / Memory game / 1+ players / UK

**

Whack-a-Dino would have been more visceral fun, but Dino Simon's probably better for developing the old noggin, and that's what kids like, right?

Babyliography XCIV

Ruth Galloway, Fidgety Fish

2001 / Ebook / 32 pages / UK

***

Sit still and don't go into caves with sharp teeth. She's got a trampoline, so we don't deal with these problems.

Teresa Heapy and Katie Cleminson, Loved to Bits

2018 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

**

I didn't expect a pun on teddy dismemberment. She didn't seem disturbed, I guess we'll only see any effects in the long term.

Rachel Bright and Jim Field, The Squirrels Who Squabbled

2017 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

***

Lovely autumn forest art made this a pleasant read. She asked who I thought would win, which showed engagement, but you'd think she'd have picked up on the trend by now.

Lorna Freytag, My Humongous Hamster Goes to School

2014 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

***

If this is a series, we're up for more surreal photofit collages. You can have a hamster when the cat dies.

Unknown, Wipe-clean First Maths

2020 / Wipe-clean activity book / 24 pages / UK

***

She was pleasingly adamant about wanting this for home school, and we made it through all the addition and subtraction before division snuck up on us.

Babyliography XCIII

Rosie Greening and Stuart Lynch, Do You Believe in Groovicorns?

2018 / Library book / 12 pages / UK

*

More swatch book than story.

Various, Tick-Tock Clock Book / My First Clock Book

2015/2020 / Hardback/Library book / 22 pages / UK

**

Learning the clock was a particularly troubled home learning memory, so I'm just easing her in with the o'clocks for now.

Posy Simmonds, Baker Cat

2004 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

**

This may have been her introduction to institutionally grim British children's literature. It got me down, anyway.

Adam Hargreaves, Little Miss Bad / Little Miss Brave

2003/2021 / Library books / 64 pages / UK

**

Her enthusiasm is warming me to the endless, repetitive churn.

Emily Gravett, Too Much Stuff!

2020 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

****

If this is really the first time a self-destructive hoarding fable's been told with magpies, we've got a modern classic on our hands.

Babyliography XCII

Fhiona Galloway, What Do Animals Do All Day?: Penguin

2022 / Library book / 10 pages / UK

**

Flaps 'n' facts. She could have done without the latter.

Roger Hargreaves, Mr. Messy / Mr. Busy

1972/78 / Library book / 64 pages / UK

**

It's nice that these are still entertaining kids, even it they read as rather closeted today.

Emma Adams and Katy Halford, Unicorn and the Rainbow Poop / Rainbow Snow

2018-19 / Ebook/Library book / 64 pages / UK

**

Love unicorns? Love poo? These otherwise interchangeable fairytale stories have one major point of difference, but she doesn't yet have the social mores to find it outrageously funny.

Anna Milbourne and Stephanie Fizer Coleman, Peep Inside a Bird's Nest

2022 / Library pages / 14 pages / UK

***

Nice to have an educational flap book for a change, even if she prefers the frivolous ones.

Lucy Cousins, A Busy Day for Birds

2018 / Library book / 34 pages / UK

****

Avian instructional brought to life at library storytime.

Babyliography XCI

Viviane Cohen and Colette David, Little Miss Quick / Little Miss Curious / Little Miss Somersault

1990 / Library books / 96 pages / France

**

Learning that these were French translations makes some sense of their off-brand strangeness.

Adam Hargreaves, Little Miss Stubborn and the Unicorn / Little Miss Sunshine and the Three Bears

2008/2015 / Library books / 64 pages / UK

**

Don't bother coming up with new ones any more, just stick unicorns and stuff in.

Will Mabbitt and Fred Blunt, This Is Not a Bedtime Story

2016 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

**

She can make silly stories on her own. Having to deal with another kid's imaginings didn't seem so fun.

Lydia Monks, Mouse's Big Day / Frog Hops Off!

2017-18 / Library books / 64 pages / UK

***

A cute cast, useful messages and simple stories she unfailingly wants to play herself immediately after.

Sean Taylor and Neal Layton, Where the Bugaboo Lives

2015 / Library book / 56 pages / UK

****

I'd been on the lookout for this for a while. It could inevitably do with being longer and more varied, but it's another good beginner's gamebook. She's probably ready for Fighting Fantasy now.

Babyliography XC

Dr. Seuss, There's a Wocket in My Pocket!

1974 / Library book / 36 pages / USA

***

The usual poetic nonsense, at a reasonable length for a change.

Laura Ellen Anderson, I Don't Want to Be Quiet!

2020 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

**

The conventional learning curve via Big Library propaganda. It's about a loud girl, so of course she finds it amusingly relatable.

 

Wendy Meddour and Cindy Wume, Not in That Dress, Princess!

2021 / Library book / 32 pages / UK/Taiwan

*

God, it sounds hard to be a princess. You have my sympathy.

Unknown, My Little Pony: Ponies Unite

2021 / Ebook / 32 pages / USA

*

Easy-reading reference to the new toys, I mean characters.

Megan Roth and Agnes Garbowska, My Little Pony: Sunny's Day / Izzy Comes Home

2022 / Ebooks / 64 pages / USA/Poland

**

Getting a headstart on teaching her to read these things so I don't have to.

Babyliography LXXXIX

Jeanne Willis and Briony May Smith, Stardust

2018 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

**

My First Cosmos.

Britta Teckentrup, Mole's Star

2019 / Library book / 32 pages / Germany

**

An atmospheric fable she was bored by. Moles are only good for making juicy hills.

Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, The Gruffalo: A Push, Pull and Slide Book

2020 / Library book / 10 pages / UK/Germany

**

This format isn't really suited to plot.

Emma Yarlett, Nibbles: Numbers / The Monster Hunt

2019/2020 / Library books / 44 pages / UK

**

Eating the book is a fun gimmick, if 50+ years old.

Unknown, Peppa Pig: Let's Play with Peppa Sticker Activity Book

2021 / Sticker activity book / pages / UK

**

She demanded this at the Home Bargains checkout. At least she can do them by herself now.

Babyliography LXXXVIII

Teresa Bellon, My Little Green World: Rabbit

2022 / Library book / 12 pages / Spain

***

The genuinely educational facts and environmental advice are kind of at odds with the wheels and flaps, she didn't have the patience for that rubbish.

Louis Growell and Chris Jevons, Jack and the Giant Tantrum

2021 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

***

We headed straight for the library's 'big feelings' shelf after a particularly bad session at home. This had some helpful if obvious suggestions.

Marion Billet, Listen to the Birds / Farm

2022 / Library books / 28 pages / France

**

The quizzes at the end are a nice upgrade for the new set, somewhat more challenging for the birds.

Unknown, Disney Princess Storybook Collection

2006 / Hardback / 160 pages / UK

**

Replacing her crap Disney compendium with a slightly less crap, if similarly outdated one, this one at least has linear stories.

Corrinne Averiss and Rosalind Beardshaw, My Pet Star

2020 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

***

A down-to-Earth animal version would have been nice enough, but why not make it magical?