Babyliography CLI

Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks, What the Ladybird Heard on Holiday

2021 / Library book / 32 pages

**

Dull London special for the Anglophiles.

Pat Jacobs, Pet Pals: Hamsters

2017 / Library book / 32 pages

***

I may have got myself more excited by the modest daydream than she was before conceding it's probably better to wait a few years, at least so I don't have to do everything.

Selma Knight and Emma Levey, Oxford Reading Tree Word Sparks: Adventure Mouse – Pip's Scarf

2020 / Library book / 12 pages

*

The Oxford Reading Tree logo gives me the vaguest nostalgia. This isn't really reading, skipping straight to literary theory.

Mandy Archer and Martha Lightfoot, Busy Wheels: Fire Engine is Flashing

2012 / Library book / 24 pages

**

The fire brigade's diversity hiring needs some work.

Kes Gray and Nick Sharratt, Really, Really

2003 / Library book / 32 pages

**

No comeuppance for the little sod.

Babyliography CL

David and Aimee Warburton, "Aimee Book"

2023 / Hand-written story, activity and songbook / 120 pages / UK

*****

I didn't have time to write another secret birthday book at nights, so this year's was a collaborative time capsule jumble that she can puzzle over when she's older.

Becky Davies and Richard Merritt, I Want to Be... a Ballerina

2022 / Library book / 18 pages

**

This bilingual propaganda primer for her dance class skirts over the pain aspect.

Unknown, My Little Pony Annuals 2019–20

2018-19 / Hardbacks / 128 pages

**

Completing her prenatal catch-up (unless she decides she needs to backtrack to the 80s). Having already abandoned stickers, these don't even include the board game any more. The death of an art form.

Sam Harper and Chris Jevons, 101 Bums

2020 / Library book / 32 pages

*

More unicorn-teasing filth.

Pippa Goodhart and Nick Sharratt, You Choose Christmas

2023 / Library book / 32 pages

**

A weak festive entry, but at least it sets the mood.

Alrightreads: Blood-chilling Terr-or

Garth Marenghi, Garth Marenghi's TerrorTome

2022 / Audiobook / 295 pages / UK

***

Be careful what you wish for. Sitting through a whole book of this joke is quite the ordeal.

Richard Littler, Discovering Scarfolk: For Tourists & Other Trespassers

2014 / Ebook / 168 pages / UK

****

The exhibits are strong enough to be gratuitously reprinted on their own, without a narrative desperately tying it all together.

Richard Littler, The Scarfolk Annual

2019 / Ebook / 136 pages / UK

***

Personalising the hauntological nightmare takes something away.

Various, Cthulhu Cymraeg: Lovecraftian Tales from Wales

2013 / Ebook / 148 pages / UK

***

Variably serious and intense travelogues.

Faves: Rhys Hughes' 'The Bicycle-Centaur,' Mark Howard Jones' 'Pilgrimage,' Brian Willis' 'Song of Summoning'

Ray Russell, Haunted Castles: The Complete Gothic Tales of Ray Russell

1959-69 (collected 1985) / Audiobook / 187 pages / USA

***

A couple of sadistic gems.

Faves: 'Sardonicus,' 'The Runaway Lovers'

Alrightgames: Unicorn Race Jigsaw

Unicorn Race Jigsaw

**

Apparently, these are characters from the spin-off 'My Little Pony: Feather Wings.' Not to be confused with the 'Keylocker' ponies, or the live-action 'Acorn Wood' ponies from her unicorn colouring book. I can't find any of this information on the internet, but she seems to know what she's talking about.

Alrightgames: My Little Pony 4-in-1 Puzzles

My Little Pony 4-in-1 Puzzles

***

A notable omission from her collection, mainly because I kept forgetting to look for them on eBay until one eventually showed up in a charity shop.

Two years on from her Peppa sets, her jigsaw capabilities are developing directly proportional to her age. She spotted the Applejack clipart clones before I did.

Alrightgames: My Little Pony Playing Cards – Black Peter

My Little Pony Playing Cards: Black Peter

2009 / Matching card game / 2+ players

**

Bought mainly for the sake of Generation 3 Stuff, it's a child-friendly card game, even if she takes losses far too seriously.

Loses a point for lazy and confusing reuse of the same few ponies across different number pairs, as if they didn't release enough toys to cover multiple sets.

Alrightgames: Top Trumps – Baby Animals

Top Trumps: Baby Animals

2021 / Card game / 2+ players

***

Six Eight Most of them are "too scary" to play with right now, resulting in quite short games, but the rest compensate with cuteness.

Babyliography CXLIX

Various, My Little Pony: Passport to Reading – Ponyville Reading Adventures

2015 / Paperback / 179 pages

**

Good-value omnibus of tedious reads, notable as her first independent reading without coercion, when she decided to tackle the welcoming word "No." Give it a few years and she'll have all the two-letter Scrabble words memorised.

Unknown, Poopsie Slime Surprise!: My Amazing Art, Fun & Play Activity Annual

2020 / Activity book / 48 pages

*

She hadn't realised how predominantly poo based this unicorn activity book was when it caught her eye, but she stood her ground, and it was her birthday money, do what thou will.

Edward Gakuya, Claudia Lloyd and Celestine Wamiru, Tinga Tinga Tales: Why Elephant has a Trunk

2011 / Preschool book / 32 pages

**

Her main takeaway amid the misinformation was learning about chameleons, but she was too scared to check out a real one.

Julia Donaldson and Karen George, Freddie and the Fairy

2011 / Preschool book / 32 pages

***

Reliably touching preschool fantasy.

Unknown, The World of Peter Rabbit: The Bedtime Bunny Hunt

2023 / Library book / 24 pages

**

Setting necro cash-in cynicism aside, it's been a while since we had a good old flap book.

Babyliography CXLVIII

Julia Donaldson and artists, Julia Donaldson's Songbirds: Bob Bug and Other Stories

2018 / Library book / 128 pages / UK

***

Time for the fun and unicorns to stop and the tedious alliterative learning to begin.

Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, The Snail and the Whale

2003 / Library book / 32 pages / UK/Germany

***

Ashamed that I didn't see the eco weepie twist coming even after all those viewings of Star Trek IV.

Dawn Sirett, Helen Senior and Rachael Prokic, Pop-Up Peekaboo: Diggers

2023 / Library book / 12 pages / UK

**

Passed some seconds in the library.

Lou Treleaven and Maddie Frost, The Snowflake Mistake

2016 / Preschool book / 32 pages / UK/USA

**

I bet she doesn't choose any of these when it's actually winter.

Unknown, My Little Pony Annuals 2007 / 2018 / 2022

2006/2017/2021 / Hardbacks / 192 pages / UK

**

Cross-generational birthday spread with varying degrees of prelove.

Alrightreads: Re-reads '23

Rob Grant, Incompetence

Read 2004, re-read 2023

***

I can't remember why I didn't review this at the time. Maybe I was too much of a sheltered kid to really get it, or didn't want to admit I felt let down. The re-read revealed a glut of tedious middle-aged moaning that might have once been mistaken for worldly wisdom, but there's still a pretty good mystery hook if you have the requisite stomach for our Rob.

Italo Calvino, If on a winter's night a traveller

Read 2015, re-read 2023

*****

I apparently loved this experimental book, despite not being able to recall a single thing about it almost immediately afterwards without any helpful explanation, so it was always high on the re-read list. Ah, yes, that's the one. Very good.

Homer (trans E. V. Rieu), The Illustrated Odyssey

Read 2015, re-read 2023

****

Adding someone's boring landscape photos doesn't particularly help with the immersion.

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

Read 2011, re-read 2023

*****

The essential Cosmos sequel brings the latest news from the outer solar system and reiterates the humanist messages somewhat more forcefully.

Jon Ronson, Them: Adventures with Extremists

Read 2014, re-read 2023

*****

This was already a slightly inappropriate time capsule when it was published on the other side of 9/11. Now it's borderline utopian.