Alrightreads: Ex Occidente Waiting to Happen

Adam S. Cantwell, Orphans on Granite Tides

2013 / Ebook / 95 pages / UK

****

Excellent metaphysical cosmic horror historical conspiracy thriller.

Louis Marvick, The Madman of Tosterglope

2013 / Ebook / 62 pages / USA

**

As deliberately ugly and unsatisfying as the creations it describes, or it can at least pretend that was the point.

Thomas Strømsholt, O Altitudo

2013 / Ebook / 94 pages / Denmark

***

Psychotopography or just psycho? You decide.

Fave: 'In Search of the Hidden City'

Benjamin Tweddell, The Salix Arcanum

2019 / Ebook / 82 pages / UK

***

Beautifully adorned Machen imitation.

Chrysostomos Tsaprailis, A Plot of Earth and Other Tales

2022 / Ebook / 32 pages / Greece

***

These morbid folk tales and mythology experiments work out what they're doing by the end.

Fave: 'Gula'

Alrightreads: More Albums

Joe Gross, Fugazi's In on the Kill Taker

2018 / Ebook / 184 pages / USA

***

Thoughtfully gets the musicians themselves to explain what they were doing there.

Ronen Givony, Jawbreaker's 24 Hour Revenge Therapy (or, The Strange Death of Selling Out)

2018 / Ebook / 232 pages / USA

**

Like regrettably clicking 'Read more' on a random punk album's YouTube comments.

Steve Tupai Francis, Kraftwerk's Computer World

2022 / Ebook / 160 pages / Australia

****

User-friendly manual to the product and associated consumer electronics/toys involved.

Timothy L. Jackson, Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 (Pathétique)

1999 / Ebook / 154 pages / USA

**

Obsessively decodes and contextualises the gayness of the symphony, sidelining the unfortunate paedo-incest angle.

Various, Album Cover Album 3

1984 / Ebook / 144 pages / Various

****

I wonder if Roger Dean & co suspected they would be meticulously cataloguing the decline of the art form. Thematic juxtapositions increasingly feel like exposés of unoriginality. Still a nice collection.

Alrightgames: Horse & Pony - My Stud Farm

Horse & Pony: My Stud Farm

2006 / Game Boy Advance emulator game

*

Like an equestrian Theme Park, this offered several minutes of carefree fun before finance became a pressing concern and it all got a bit complicated for a three-year-old and depressing for me. Back to flying unicorns it is.

Alrightgames: Barbie Horse Adventures - Blue Ribbon Race

Barbie Horse Adventures: Blue Ribbon Race

2003 / Game Boy Advance emulator game

*

She completed the first task before surrendering to fiddly isometric frustration. I'll spare her Sonic 3D.

Alrightgames: Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus

Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus

2005 / Game Boy Advance emulator game

**

A gentle introduction to platformers, it made me generically nostalgic for crap tie-ins of my own childhood and intermittently distracted during the day by nagging questions such as what those people are doing high up on branches anyway and why they just stand there after you turn them back from statues rather than going home or lending a hand. She was always ready with an answer/excuse.

Alrightgames: My Little Pony - Restore The Elements of Magic

My Little Pony: Restore The Elements of Magic

2013 / Free online game

***

This might have been her first proper video game (after 'put a bandage on the panda's boo-boo' type activities), certainly the first time I saw her get frustrated with fun.

Babyliography CXXVII

Eric Hill, Spot's Big Lift-the-Flap Book

2001 / Library book / 22 pages / UK

***

Economically if tediously ticks off various subjects rather than spreading them across a Little Library boxset. Surely the most boring Spot book though.

Unknown, My Little Pony: The Big Book of Friendship Stories

2017 / Hardback / 68 pages / Italy

***

I think that's all the arbitrary adaptation quintets done now. This one was randomly expensive until it wasn't. Annuals next, I suppose.

Fiona Watt and Rachel Wells, That's Not My Hedgehog...

2015 / Library book / 10 pages / UK

**

It's not explained whether it's a lost pet or some more sinister ID parade.

Rosie Greening and Stuart Lynch, Never Touch a T. Rex

2020 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

***

Like the Grover and pigeon books with dinosaurs. She loves being told off.

Roger Hargreaves, Little Miss Tiny

1981 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

*

With its overreliance on established characters and admission that it's just a gender swap, this one of his lazier ones, which is saying something.

Babyliography CXXVI

Unknown, Bunny's Big Craft, Story and Activity Pack

2022 / Story and activity pack / UK

***

High-quantity seasonal tat.

Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara, Mariadiamantes, Popy Matigot and Olivia Holden, Little People, Big Dreams: I Can Be a Brave Adventurer

2022 / Happy Meal book / 40 pages / Spain/France/UK

***

A free Happy Meal® book to feed your mind in an effort to counteract the junk food.

Isla Fisher and Paula Bowles, Mazy the Movie Star

2022 / Library book / 32 pages / Australia/UK

*

It's about a dog.

Pamela Duncan Edwards and Deborah Allwright, Dinosaur Sleepover

2010 / Preschool book / 32 pages / UK

**

She chose this herself, progressively transgressing the rigidly-defined unicorns/dinosaurs gender divide. It was funny when the stegosaurus put pyjamas on too.

Mike Henson and Jorge Martin, Parp!

2022 / Library book / 22 pages / UK/Spain

**

The virtual flap journey through a building-in-a-book could have been a classic, but perhaps I was expecting too much from a board book about farts.

Babyliography CXXV

Rhiannon Fielding and Chris Chatterton, Ten Minutes to Bed: Little Fairy

2022 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

**

A new batch with some new additions on the map to work through every kind of X-Files creature.

Sarah Coyle and Adam Walker-Parker, Pick a Story: A Pirate Alien Jungle Adventure

2022 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

****

The interactive gamebook is alive and well, if obscure. There were still some surprises left multiple bedtimes later when she thought she'd done it all.

multi end, multi theme, surprises even after thinks shes done it all

Joyce Dunbar and Petr Horáček, Mister Boo!

2022 / Library book / 32 pages / UK/Czech Republic

**

Thankfully spares us the dead pet gotcha between his deterioration and preemptive replacement.

Helen Nicoll and Jan Pieńkowski, Meg's Veg

1976 / Library book / 36 pages / UK/Poland

*

They're not the most charismatic bunch, so it's not a surprise that it took a couple of years for her to try another one on a whim.

Unknown, Peter Rabbit Tales: Trick or Treat

2022 / Library book / 16 pages / UK

*

So what if Peter Rabbit's personality is unrecognisable and the contemporary celebration clashes with the whole vintage aesthetic, lighten up, mate!

Babyliography CXXIV

Suzy Senior and Claire Powell, Octopants

2021 / Library book / 28 pages / UK

**

If there's an age when underwear is inherently hilarious, she hasn't reached it yet.

Naomi and James Jones. The Odd Fish

2022 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

**

A bit cute for an eco parable. Daddy, can we make some odd fish in the lake?

Viviane Cohen and Colette David, Little Miss Brainy

1990 / Library book / 32 pages / France

**

More of an ending than these things usually have, which is faint praise.

Julia Donaldson and David Roberts, The Flying Bath

2019 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

***

Good, clean fun.

Petr Horáček, The Perfect Present

2023 / Library book / 40 pages / Czech Republic

*

Soppy fluff, at least he resisted the purr pun.

Babyliography CXXIII

Martin Handford, Where's Wally?

1987 (revised reprint) / Paperback / 36 pages / UK

****

It may be nothing special today in a sea of sequels and rip-offs, but it held her attention more than most of those, even the unicorn one.

Natalie Marshall, 123 Bumblebee

2019 / Library book / 10 pages / Australia

*

After pretending to read a Pony chapter book she's too young for, she likes to unwind with a 3D baby book.

Anna Milbourne, Rosie Dickens and John Joven, How the Elephant Got His Trunk / How the Whale Got His Throat / How the Rhino Got His Skin

2015-16 / Library books / 96 pages / UK

**

I felt these required more of a disclaimer than her usual fantasy reading. At least they have samey puzzles at the end.

Eoin Colfer and Chris Judge, Cloud Babies

2022 / Library book / 40 pages / Ireland

**

Unexpectedly heavy and specific.

Anoosha Syed, That's Not My Name!

2022 / Library book / 32 pages / Canada

***

Her own grief will be more in the spelling department. Sorry, it made sense at the time.

Babyliography CXXII

Yu-hsuan Huang, Sing Along With Me!: Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush

2022 / Library book / 10 pages / Taiwan

**

I was distracted by the old Goofy/Pluto dichotomy as a fully anthropomorphic bunny danced beside a small, naturalistic one. Unless it was their baby sister who was left to play naked in the snow, that would work.

Nick Sharratt, What's in the Witch's Kitchen?

2009 / Library book / 22 pages / UK

****

A welcome innovation in flap books, she appreciated the pot luck peril, but not as much as the inescapable pop-up witch.

Adam and Charlotte Guillain and Garry Parsons, Molly's Magic Wardrobe: The Mermaid Mission

2019 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

**

This would surely be an iconic modern children's series if it had any originality about it. We'll no doubt get through them all.

Marjoke Henrichs, No! Said Rabbit

2021 / Library book / 32 pages / Netherlands

**

Did she recognise herself? Yes. Will it make a difference? Will it f—, said Daddy.

Mª Isabel Sánchez Vegara and Matt Hunt, Little People, Big Dreams: Stephen Hawking

2019 / Hardback / 32 pages / Spain/UK

***

She's probably too young yet for these to inspire as intended, but the motor neurone disease was still quite the hook.

Alrightreads: TV XV

Carl Sagan, Cosmos

Read 2015, re-read 2023

*****

Read along with the series this time for welcome reinforcement of its stirring statements and exclusive additions that were a better fit for print. The readings naturally backed by comprehensive fan-compiled soundtracks to complete the multimedia voyage.

Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who: The Crimson Horror

2021 / Ebook / 192 pages / UK

***

A worthwhile literary expansion of one of those middling episodes destined to be only vaguely remembered, padded out with a bonus prologue.

Michael Gallagher, Scott Shaw! and Dave Manak, Sonic the Hedgehog: The Beginning

1992-93 (collected 2003) / Ebook / 96 pages / USA

**

It didn't leave me hungry for more chili-dog-flavoured eco-fairytale Looney Tunes action, but the classic British comic would fare even worse if I only had the formative stuff to go on.

Steve Clark, The World of Jonathan Creek

1999 / Paperback / 128 pages / UK

****

A celebration of the classic era of a classic series that it turns out I knew next to nothing about, from its eclectic influences to alternative Creeks we were spared, with a particularly dark bonus mystery to solve at home. The only thing it gets wrong is never being updated.

Nikki Stafford, Investigating Sherlock: The Unofficial Guide

2015 / Ebook / 240 pages / USA

***

Not quite complete, but maybe all the adventures worth recounting, this opinionated companion strikes a delicate balance of source snobbery and Tumblr fangirling, but mainly felt like I was reading Den of Geek or something.