On the Omnibuses: June

Various, The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Sixth Edition, Volume 1

Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels (1726) ***

The prototypical satirical phantasmagoria was entertaining for its first couple of adventures, but I didn't lament the publisher's edits.

Various, The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Sixth Edition, Volume 2

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899) ****

The Stygian voyage is uncomfortable on multiple fronts, but never as psychedelic as I hope.

A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard, Winnie-the-Pooh: The Complete Collection of Stories and Poems

When We Were Very Young (1924) ***

More autobiographical sketches from Christopher Robin's upbringing, in and out of imagined imaginings. Pretty adorable for parents, but not really ones to read aloud, except very selectively. Nowadays, I suppose his childhood would be invasively streamed on YouTube.

Faves: Lines and Squares, Halfway Down

Now We Are Six (1927) **

Either the magic wore out or my patience did.

Faves: The Charcoal Burner, Waiting at the Window

Various, The Mammoth Book of Classic Chillers

M. R. James, A Warning to the Curious (1925) ***

One of his dullest, but the message about not bothering to investigate areas that ridiculous superstition suggests you don't is timeless.

A. M. Burrage, Nobody's House (1927) ***

Tense two-hander with a denouement both obvious and obscure.

Captain Frederick Marryat, The Werewolf (1980) ***

Takes its time, but delivers the grisly goods.

Honoré de Balzac, The Mysterious Mansion (1934) **

There might be a decent gothic yarn somewhere in this flowery tapestry.

W. W. Jacobs, The Monkey's Paw (1902) *****

The cautionary classic has doubtless prevented a few ironic magical backfires over the years, but it's still best to run your wish draft past specialist legal counsel to make sure you're not getting shafted.

Sir Walter Scott, Wandering Willie's Tale (1824) ****

Less raunchy than expected, but the commitment to dialect gave it exotic/cultured flavour.

Guy de Maupassant, The Horla (1925) ****

Suffocating paranoid meltdown, recommended.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, The Haunted and the Haunters (1931) **

Reflective haunted house pick-'n'-mix.

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Carmilla (1872) *****

I skipped novellas I'd read more recently (The Turn of the Screw, Jekyll and Hyde), but the coy lesbo vampire classic is always a treat.

Babyliography XLIX

Unknown, Peppa Pig: Peppa's Play Date / Easter Egg Hunt / Etc.

2020 / Library book / 16 pages / UK

*

A breed of novelisations that vary unrecognisably from the episodes and are worse, for inexplicable reasons.

Camilla Reid and Ingela P. Arrhenius, Peekaboo Moon

2021 / Library book / 10 pages / UK/Sweden

**

The inevitable counterpart to Sun, the topic is disappointingly bedtime rather than astronomy.

Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet, Alan the Bear: Party Time – A Lift-the-Flap Book

2019 / Library book / 12 pages / UK

***

The silly bear with the arbitrary name is quite fun as far as flap book mascots go.

Unknown, Thomas & Friends Super Library

2014 / Box set / 60 pages / UK

**

We didn't really need another of these, and there was even a missing book / jigsaw piece, but we're not pursuing minimalist efficiency. I never cared for Toby anyway.

Amber Lily and Maaike Boot, Seek and Find Little Unicorn: Baby's first lift-the-flap book

2022 / Library book / 10 pages / UK/Netherlands

*

It's not the book's fault that she's too big for it, but its assortment of girly stuff is a bit desperate.

Alrightreads: Comixxxxxxx

Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino, Gideon Falls, Book 2: The Eater of All Things

2019-20 (collected 2022) / 336 pages / Canada/Italy

***

The formerly eerie mystery collapses into a dimension-hopping zombie survival quest and even the art falls back on old tricks.

John Migliore and Bill Maus, Stargate: The New Adventures Collection

1997 / Ecomics / 64 pages / Canada/USA

**

An interesting but trite curio, the brief comics continuity between the film and the TV franchise takes some inspiration from Bill McCay's thoughtful literary sequels, when it's not content to be a kids' dumb action comic.

Viz, Viz: The Sausage Sandwich – Stuffed with the meat of issues 38 to 42

1989-90 (collected 1991) / Ebook / 127 pages / UK

***

There must be a golden age somewhere, they can't just put out the same old faintly amusing shit forever. Surely?

Faves: Zip O' Lightning, Holey Joe, Clumsy Claude.

Kristofer Straub, Starslip Crisis, Volume 1

2005-07 (collected 2007) / Ecomics / 176 pages / USA

***

A distinctive sci-fi comedy rather than the trite parody expected, the universe and arcs build nicely, but the humour's stuck in the orbit of the daily "funnies."

Alan Moore and artists, Alan Moore's Twisted Times

1980-83 (collected 1987) / Ebook / 64 pages / UK

****

Much stronger and more ambitious outings than the miscellaneous Future Shocks, the brief saga of Abelard Snazz and comically convoluted Time Twisters hint at greatness to come. It's a shame he didn't write more for kids, it makes for a refreshing reprieve from all the rape.

Faves: Time Twisters

Babyliography XLVIII

Unknown, Peppa Pig: Where's George's Dinosaur? – A lift-the-flap book

2022 / Library book / 10 pages / UK

**

You can't go wrong, really, though the cover manages to be irrelevant.

Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet, Alan the Bear: Bedtime – A Lift-the-Flap Book

2019 / Library book / 12 pages / UK

***

Bit unfair that Alan gets a name while his giraffe and robot mates don't, but you get your money's worth in flaps and the objective narration leaves space for discussion.

Ingela P. Arrhenius, Where's the Unicorn?

2018 / Library book / 10 pages / Sweden

***

Unicorns are everywhere when you start looking for them. This is a slight step up from the usual hide and seek by cobbling together the final product from other mythical creatures.

Jeffrey Burton and Zoe Waring, Twinkle, Twinkle, Unicorn

2019 / Library book / 16 pages / USA/UK

*

Yeah, it's just that.

Roger Hargreaves, Mr. Jelly

1976 / Library book / 36 pages / UK

***

One of the more rewatchable episodes.

Alrightreads: Comixxxxxx

Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino, Gideon Falls, Book 1: The Legend of the Black Barn

2018-19 (collected 2021) / Ebook / 432 pages / Canada/Italy

****

The sombre sibling to Kris Straub's Broodhollow, its bare-faced Twin Peaks tribute act and generic sci-fi/horror mythology are excused by exceptional art.

Robbie Morrison, George Mann, Brian Williamson and Dave Taylor, Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor – The Complete Year One

2014-15 (collected 2017) / Ecomics / 368 pages / UK

***

Not the substitute for the long-postponed Capaldi-era rewatch I'd foolish hoped, and some distance didn't even help to paper over the inevitable cracks that show when writing for work-in-progress versions of characters. They were adequate as generic Doctor Who stories with no specific nostalgia.

Garth Ennis and John McCrea, Troubled Souls

1989 (collected 1990) / Ebook / 96 pages / UK

****

As when confronted with other atrocities of the recent past or present that haven't personally affected me, I was disgusted and depressed to be reminded. But not to worry, I'll immediately forget about it again so I can be freshly appalled next time.

Gordon Rennie and Mark Harrison, Glimmer Rats

1999-2000 (collected 2002) / Ebook / 64 pages / UK

***

Juvenile gore porn? Self-aware satire? Slap on some death metal and take what you want. It briefly became deliriously funny with the introduction of the Gimp and the turn-of-the-millennium CG art was specialised nostalgia.

Alan Moore and artists, Alan Moore's Shocking Futures

1981-83 (collected 1986) / Ebook / 72 pages / UK

***

A non-comprehensive curation of fun primordial shorts, advance self-parodies and more dubious works. I sometimes think I missed out on 2000 AD as a kid, but I was content with anthropomorphic cartoon heroes.

Faves: 'They Sweep the Spaceways,' 'The Hyper-Historic Headbang'

Babyliography XLVII

Unknown, Find Spot at Nursery: A lift-the-flap book

2021 / Library book / 16 pages / Unknown

**

If it debuted in 2021, it's not Eric Hill (d.2014), is it? Unless he thoughtfully churned out a load of these in advance for his publisher to milk at a steady trickle after his death. Then again, it's hard to believe that anyone else could come up with such imaginative places for Spot and his friends to hide after 40 years. Toddler liked it.

Kasia Dudziuk, Kerri-Ann Hulme and Natalia Boileau, Follow Me Farm: Finger Mazes

2021 / Library book / 14 pages / France/UK

***

She's getting better at these. Since I didn't buy it, we didn't need to bother with the side quests to get more value.

Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks, Who's At the Zoo?: A lift-the-flap book

2021 / Library book / 10 pages / UK

*

A new lift-the-flap series in 2021. Innovate, you lazy cunts.

Unknown, My Little Pony: 1001 Stickers

2019 / Sticker activity book / 48 pages / UK

***

So that count's mainly made up of the small square stickers she doesn't like, but it's a hearty (in both senses) activity book she can scale up with (if she doesn't scribble all over the harder mathematical ones) and the big stickers were perfect for potty pimping.

Patricia Hegarty, Unicorn: A Magical Book of Colours

2019 / Library book / 16 pages / UK

**

If they like the aesthetics of My Little Pony, but it's all a bit fast yet, this could be a barely adequate supplement, simplifying the characterisation somewhat.

Alrightreads: Games IV

Karen Dolby, Emma Fischel, Caroline Church, Daniel Howarth and Teri Gower, Usborne Young Puzzle Adventure Stories

1993-98 (collected 1998) / Paperback / 96 pages / UK

****

More overtly vicarious second childhood curation purchased tellingly far in advance, I hope she enjoys these elementary story puzzles as much as I would have done. But I was too absorbed by animated franchises back then and didn't indulge in this sort of thing as much as I should have, bar a Crystal Maze Mystery and a Quiz Kids or two.

Trish Kuffner, The Toddler's Busy Book: 365 Creative Games and Activities to Keep Your 1 ½- to 3-Year-Old Busy

1999 / Ebook / 397 pages / Canada

***

You'd think websites would be better, but having these variably obvious variations ("hide a bean bag," "hide a bear"...) all in one heap is convenient, even if the excessive padding requires a lot of skimming.

Various, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?: The Bumper Quiz Book

2000 / Ebook / 528 pages / UK

****

A decent adaptation (provide your own friend and dramatic stings) that gives you a more realistic idea of your capabilities than nodding along with the telly.

Alex Horne, Taskmaster: 220 Extraordinary Tasks for Ordinary People

2018 (revised 2019) / Ebook / 352 pages / UK

****

I'm too busy, old and antisocial to consider putting these to use, but twenty-two-year-old me might have been up for it, and I might end up running the gauntlet anyway when my child's old enough, so I appreciate it on their behalfs.

Robert Fisher, Brain Games for Your Child: Over 200 Fun Games to Play

2011 / Ebook / 192 pages / UK

**

Do you know what types of games involve the brain? All of them, making this selection less specialist and more bloody obvious than it first sounded. Though that's probably less of an issue once you get out of the first three years, helpfully grouped together here like the uniform epoch they are. I might hang onto it, just in case, but school should be taking care of it by then.

Babyliography XLVI

Tony Ross, I Want My Dinner

1995 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

**

Misleadingly not really about dinner, but rather a manners instructional. There's even a coherent plot this time, so less repetitive filler than the potty one.

Barbara Lehman, The Red Book

2004 / Ebook / 32 pages / USA

****

She didn't really get or appreciate this wordless magical tribute to shared reading, but I thought it was lovely anyway.

Mo Willems, Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale

2004 / Ebook / 36 pages / USA

***

You can tell she enjoys and relates to a book when she wants to read it five times through and then roleplay it so many times you lose count. Fortunately, the props were on hand.

Sam Taplin and Federica Iossa, Usborne Sound Books: Zoo Sounds

2019 / Library book / 10 pages / UK/Italy

***

The noisy books are always her first picks at the library, and there's still somehow always one we haven't "read." The enthusiasm of the editor forced to keep coming up with text for these things is contagious.

Sam Taplin and Federica Iossa, Usborne Sound Books: Wild Animals Sound Book

2021 / Library book / 10 pages / UK/Italy

***

I thought we'd done this one, but I didn't record it and can't remember either way by this point. Some good field recordings, but not having similarly realistic art is a bit odd. They presumably know what they're doing.

Alrightreads: Further Adventures

Various, Indiana Jones Omnibus: The Further Adventures, Volume 1

1981-83 (collected 2009) / Ecomics / 368 pages / USA

***

A tasty lasagne of retro cheese covering vintage cheese. It was impossible to discern sincerity from sarcasm, even as Indy genocides and pillages ancient cultures to their face, but it was enjoyable nonsense regardless, particularly the enthusiastic and unnecessary narration. ("A foot now achieves what a hand could not...") ("A journey that is both grueling, invigorating, tedious and beautiful.")

A. A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

1928 / Audiobook / 192 pages / UK

***

Duller than the first book, largely for its determination to establish a new breakout character, though this seems to be where most references and adaptations come from, so maybe people like it for the memes.

Stefan Petrucha, Jill Thompson and Alexander Saviuk, The X-Files: AfterFlight

1997 / Ecomic / 64 pages / USA

***

This elusive straggler from Stefan Petrucha's worthwhile X-Files run was inevitably a bit of an anticlimax, riffing on over-familiar themes with a sentimental message, but it's been a while.

Peter David, Star Trek: New Frontier, Book One – House of Cards

1997 / Audiobook / 168 pages / USA

**

The writer of some of the more worthwhile 'Trek comics, I thought I might as well finally get around to trying out his pioneering literary spin-off, not realising that the first book only amounts to a quarter of a pilot episode. It's more of the same if you need it, but doesn't especially persuade me to keep watching any more than the modern-day Treks.

Rhys Hughes, The Further Fangs of Suet Pudding

2012 / Ebook / 89 pages / UK

**

This double sequel to two books from different authors that I haven't read likely wouldn't make any more sense if I had. Seemingly purpose-scribbled as free bonus content, it's unfettered by such conventional demands. He probably had fun writing it, that's the main thing.

Babyliography XLV

A. H. Benjamin and Nick East, In a Minute, Mum

2014 / Paperback / 24 pages / UK

***

Dinos have crawled into her childhood earlier than expected, and this prehistoric sitcom was unintentionally appropriate for addressing her own insistence on "just few minutes."

Eric Carle, The Very Hungry Caterpillar's Wild Animal Hide & Seek

2021 / Library book / 12 pages / USA

**

What's he doing there? Ignoring what made the original innovative and borrowing from elsewhere, finger trails meet flaps to give blatant clues that I admittedly failed to pick up on at first as a grown literature graduate.

Eric Hill, Spot's Birthday Party

1982 / Library book / 24 pages / UK

**

The same bloody thing again, except Spot is seeking this time, in an incredible twist. You can tell it's an early one, as most of the friends are still off-model.

Julia Donaldson and Nick Sharratt, Animal Music

2013 / Library book / 24 pages / UK

*

She likes animals and music, but this combination didn't impress. It didn't help that it can't use the actual names of most of the instruments because they're not convenient for the rhyme.

Rod Campbell, My Presents

1988 / Library book / 24 pages / UK

**

Unadventurous and oddly sterile Dear Zoo genre swap. Each stock gift gets its own brand new sentence rather than just a changed adjective, so that's progress.