Alrightreads: Shit-Yer-Pants Scary

Rhys Hughes, At the Molehills of Madness

1993-2006 (collected 2006) / Paperback / 187 pages

***

This deliberately dark selection is more icky than creepy. The most horrific parts are the puns.

Various, NoSleep Classics – 2011

2011 / Ebook / 259 pages

***

One overachieving literary show-off before we get to more expected fare with Bloody Marys and shit.

Fave: 1000Vultures' 'Penpal,' marisunday's 'Jesus Camp'

Mark Samuels, Witch-Cult Abbey

2020 / Audiobook / 186 pages

***

Sink back into an ornate Gothic bath of blood and bones.

Eric Stener Carlson, Muladona

2016 / Audiobook / 290 pages

****

Bedtime stories for cursed children.

Kat Ellinger, Daughters of Darkness

2018 / Ebook / 100 pages

***

Credibly justifies the film's significance in the feminist neo-Gothic canon, even after the director admits he was primarily making bankable smut at the onset.

Alrightgames: Buckaroo!

Buckaroo!

1970 / Physical skill activity / 2 players

**

Not a game I would have paid money for (not really a game), she enjoys playing with the mule and the broken unicorn from her unicorn Buckaroo! more than playing the game (not really a game), marrying them and singing songs about kicking each others' brains out. And until this one inevitably breaks too, we can combine the purple and yellow item sets from the other game (not really a game) to make a four-player Super Buckaroo!, even if it's hard enough persuading two.

Alrightgames: My Little Pony – Tails of Equestria – The Pet Predicament

My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria – The Pet Predicament

2016 / Roleplaying game adventure / 2+ players

**

With an abundance of professionally-penned pony roleplay adventures promising to keep daughter and dad busy and entertained through the summer holidays, it was disheartening to be stalled at the first hurdle and find ourselves tasked with truly tedious chores that no one felt like bothering with. Until I belatedly realised that this rulebook-bundled exercise was the equivalent of a video game's training mode, to get you used to the controls of Starwing or whatever, and we were free to just skip to the proper game.

Sure, we'll be starting the premade follow-up adventure a little inexperienced, and a level lower than it was written for, but that might help balance out our plucky heroes' ridiculously overpowered talents somewhat.

Alrightgames: My Little Pony – Tails of Equestria – Ogres & Oubliettes

My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria – Ogres & Oubliettes

2019 / Roleplaying game accessory pack / 2+ players

**

Mainly a stack of cardboard punchboards bringing various characters and creatures to 2D life, this felt frivolous to buy separately, but justifiable as part of a discounted bundle of related supplements to make those readymade adventures more engaging for a player still several years shy of the target age. It could have been more comprehensive there though – a stack of stock pony NPCs would have been the most useful of all, but is conspicuously absent, so we have to repurpose the same few established faces – and the minimal bases supplied to stand them in is just stingy.

The included meta adventure-in-an-adventure may be a bit complex at this stage, but could be a fun diversion if an uncle visits or something. Might as well put all those damned skeletons to use.

Alrightgames: My Little Pony – Tails of Equestria – The Gift Horse

My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria – The Gift Horse

2017 / Roleplaying game mini-adventure / 2+ players

****

A nice, free printable designed to slot into an ongoing adventure, this made a nice interactive bedtime story prelude while we waited for cardboard cut-outs of characters and beasties to arrive in the post and hopefully help us kick off the real game in earnest. We dispensed with dice but kept imagination, and her reckless decisions were predictably true to character, despite my character's typically cautionary advice. I'm always going to have to bail her out of trouble, aren't I?

Alrightgames: Star Realms – Promo Pack I

Star Realms: Promo Pack I

2016 / Deckbuilding card game expansion / 2+ players

***

Flashy starships and starbases pretty much designed to ruin the finely-balanced game, but I've done enough of that already with add-ons that more imbalance might not even be noticeable. Anyway, shut up, rational brain, or I'll sic The Ark on ya!

My Star Realm

• Star Realms
• Colony Wars
• Gambit Set
• Events
• Promo Pack I
• Missions
• Scenarios
• Tech

Babyliography CLXXIX

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

2024 / Library book / 32 pages

**

Seemingly the start of a fairy tale expansion with an all-new map, but otherwise exactly the same, of course. I guess we're never getting Little Alien after all then.

Dana Simpson, Unicorn vs. Goblins: Another Phoebe and Her Unicorn Adventure

2013 (collected 2016) / Paperback / 176 pages

***

Irritatingly slimmer than its predecessors for no clear reason, but she's hooked now, so they can get away with anything (her secret birthday volumes are in the high cupboard, plus the next one to keep her going until then).

Patricia Hegarty and Summer Macon, Happiness Is a Rainbow

2021 / Library book / 22 pages

**

There aren't that many colours to come up with rhymes about, did you really have to repeat 'grows?'

Alexandra Robinson, I'm a Reader!: Mermaid School

2021 / Hardback / 30 pages

**

Mermaids playing football turned out to be a joke rather than a gaffe. I won't underestimate a Reception reader again.

Various, Read with Oxford: Stage 1 – Non-fiction – Animals and Us

2020 / Library book / 80 pages

***

Borrowed from the library for her own good, despite her protests. She came around when she saw the squirming baby rats.

Babyliography CLXXVIII

Mary Atkinson and Stuart Lynch, I'm a Reader!: Can You Do This?

2021 / Hardback / 30 pages

**

Slightly tedious home summer school begins in earnest. If she's not literate by the start of Reception, the blame is all mine.

Suzy Senior and Claire Powell, Octopants: The Missing Pirate Pants

2022 / Library book / 32 pages

**

Not the most eagerly anticipated sequel, but the underwater washing line was quite funny.

Susanna Davidson and John Joven, The Hare and the Tortoise: An Aesop's Fable

2019 / Library book / 48 pages

**

Padded with superfluous animals, yet doesn't make space for activities at the end.

Ana and Thiago de Moraes, The Night Bear

2020 / Library book / 32 pages

**

He's no BFG, I found it all a bit unsettling.

Bob Graham, The Underhills: A Tooth Fairy Story

2019 / Library book / 40 pages

**

Preschool's built her a more impressive attention span than mine. Fortunately, I was able to offload onto Mummy part way through.

Babyliography CLXXVII

Katharine Holabird and Helen Craig, Angelina's Baby Sister (a.k.a. Angelina and the New Baby)

1991 / Library book / 32 pages

**

Gets unexpectedly intense for a mouse ballerina story.

Giles Andreae and Lalalimola, Noodle Head

2018 / Library book / 32 pages

*

A "mature" expletive version could be quite funny.

Adam and Charlotte Guillain and Tony Neal, Tell Your Own Story

2024 / Library book / 32 pages

**

Barely even counts as a story.

Mo Willems, An Elephant & Piggie Biggie-Biggie-Biggie!, Volume 3

Collected 2020 / Ebook / 320 pages

****

We love 'em.

Mo Willems, An Elephant & Piggie Biggie-Biggie-Biggie-Biggie!, Volume 4

Collected 2021 / Ebook / 320 pages

****

Gimme more.

Babyliography CLXXVI

Steve Smallman and Caroline Pedler, There's No Such Thing as Monsters!

2010 / Preschool book / 32 pages

**

She wasn't worried about these things before, hopefully it doesn't start now.

Mo Willems, An Elephant & Piggie Biggie-Biggie!, Volume 2

Collected 2019 / Ebook / 320 pages

****

More shouty sketches and elementary metafiction. It's a shame these collections are so expensive in real life, but that's what .cbr readers are for.

Victoria Munson, My First Book of Nature: Minibeasts

2017 / Library book / 24 pages

**

Time out from magical unicorn stories for gross facts. 

Julia March, Disney Frozen II: The Magical Guide

2019 / Library book / 96 pages

***

Pictures and quizzes with wordy bits to variably skim, the best trivia is that the book was published on her birth date.

Zanna Davidson and Nuno Alexandre Vieira, Usborne Fairy Unicorns: Frost Fair

2017 / Library book / 112 pages

***

The unseasonal snowy one suddenly popped up in July. But we have to grab them when we can, before the library's other young unicorn fans get their dirty mitts on 'em.