Alrightgames: Wooden Jigsaw Puzzles

Wooden Jigsaw Puzzles

Wooden jigsaw puzzles / China

****

Donated

Her friend's birthday cast-offs are proving variably challenging, but she'll have the harder vehicles memorised soon enough so she can maintain her savant image. She did admittedly have to tell me that I'd put a rocket piece in upside down.

You get a nice bag an' all.

Babyliography XXXVIII

Allan Ahlberg and Bruce Ingman, Alison Hubble

2016 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

***

I'm always impressed when writers manage to make maths fun, and the lack of explanation or resolution for this kid's exponential doubling was bold, inviting more astute readers to extrapolate the apocalyptic horror to come.

Jon Stone and Michael J. Smollin, The Monster at the End of This Book

1971 / Ebook / 24 pages / USA

****

She doesn't know who Grover is, but still seemed to enjoy tormenting him. Though being allowed to press an arrow key on Daddy's laptop was unfair extra temptation.

Don Freeman, Corduroy

1968 / Ebook / 32 pages / USA

***

Sixties Toy Story. She immediately set about roleplaying it, which is always a glowing recommendation.

Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

1967 / Library book / 28 pages / USA

**

It teaches colours and animals, but not in ways ground-breaking enough to make sense of its reputation. I forgot we'd even read it before, unless that was one of the sequels/remakes.

Anna Süßbauer, Spin and Spot: Moon and Stars

2021 / Library book / 14 pages / Germany

**

She likes the moon, but the novelisation didn't do much for her. 'Spin' suggests a less stubborn wheel that the target audience might have a chance of turning without assistance.

Alrightgames: Back to the Future – The Card Game

Back to the Future: The Card Game

2010 / Hand management card game / 2-6 players / USA

****

Resold

An impressively faithful and functional time travel simulator (based on the unappealingly American-history-themed Chrononauts and a heavy dose of Fluxx) picked up satisfyingly cheap. It requires familiarity with the films to understand what the hell's going on and why you should care, but if you haven't watched those, you've got more serious problems going on.

It's also nice to have a worthwhile interactive side dish once my daughter's initiated into the films. Back in my day, we only had the comparatively basic Smiths Crisps board game. It's still a fond memory.

Babyliography XXXVII

Lemony Snicket and Rilla Alexander, Swarm of Bees

2019 / Library book / 48 pages / USA/Australia

**

Unsatisfyingly random, anticlimactic mess.

Mick Inkpen, Kipper's Little Friends

2015 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

***

Balances the fun of interfering with nature and the intellectual fulfilment of researching etymology.

Marcus Pfister, The Rainbow Fish

1992 / Ebook / 32 pages / Switzerland

*

Lacking the pretty sparkles in ebook form, it's just a horrible fable of conformity for kids making their first fickle friendships. She likes fishies though, so we'll probably have to read it again.

Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd, Goodnight Moon

1947 / Ebook / 32 pages / USA

****

My belated impression of this bedtime classic was admiration of its dreamy twilight atmosphere and slight sinister edge (who is "nobody?"). She didn't really take to it though, which is probably a relief in the long run.

P. D. Eastman, Are You My Mother?

1960 / Ebook / 64 pages / USA

***

This felt more like a first comic than a picture book. While I'm normally in favour of creeping kids out, it's refreshingly free from gritty realism as our plucky newborn topples invincibly from the tree and befriends its natural predators.

Alrightgames: One Deck Dungeon – Bonus Pack

One Deck Dungeon Bonus Content: Phoenix's Den & Caliana

2017 / Dice-rolling dungeon-crawl card game expansion pack / 1-4 players / USA

**

For want of worthwhile physical expansions, there are some legitimate online freebies to print or draw: a midtier dungeon/boss and an ephemeral promo character (I opted out of the optional lore).

The fairy's sudden-death gimmick was worth a play, but not worth all the statistically probable replays it would take to avoid being slain by rolling some 1s against an otherwise pathetic beastie. So no, I didn't make it to the birdie.

Babyliography XXXVI

Unknown, Thomas & Friends: Thomas' Jigsaw Book

2017 / Jigsaw puzzle book / 8 pages / UK

***

She likes doing jigsaws before bed, she likes Thomas at the moment, and this was £1 in a charity shop, so there's nothing to complain about, really. Apart from the lack of visual variety, but I suppose that's a realistic simulacrum of train life.

Marion Billet, Listen to the Music by Mozart

2021 / Library book / 14 pages / UK

*

Expose your baby to the magic mind-expanding programming of Mozart and see how they fare with the occasionally weird questions that are there because there had to be some text. Noisy books are her favourites, but even she didn't see the point of this one.

David Melling, Smile with Splosh!

2019 / Library book / 24 pages / UK

**

A sensitive duck and his colour-coded mates go for an emotional picnic. It probably takes the familiarity of re-reading to empathise.

Anna Milbourne and Simona Dimitri, Peep Inside the Forest

2019 / Library book / 14 pages / UK/Italy

***

Getting a bit more advanced with ecology than what animal's hiding in the tree, but the education bored her. Inception-style layered flaps haven't been a  novelty since Oh Dear!

Unknown, Peppa Pig: Peppa's Zoo Adventure – A push-and-pull adventure

2021 / Library book / 8 pages / UK

*

Barely any thought went into these flaps and levers, which generally just widen the picture or make something move a bit. If you're going to nick a gimmick, at least be interesting.

Alrightgames: One Deck Dungeon

One Deck Dungeon

2016 / Dice-rolling dungeon-crawl card game / 1-4 players / USA

****

Diablo Yahtzee. Not as good as playing a computer game, obviously, but a splendid low-tech, low-budget alternative that doesn't require nominating a narrator. To think I actually bought a set of dice once.

Babyliography XXXV

Debi Gliori and Alison Brown, Little Owl's Bedtime

2020 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

***

This little guy always jumps out at her from the library shelves and she sat through the whole thing, so kudos to the artist. The story itself hit a bit close to home on Mummy's work night.

Maddox Philpot, Alice-May Bermingham, Kylie Hamley, Emily Bornoff and Lindsey Sagar, See, Touch, Feel ABC

2020 / Library book / 26 pages / UK

**

I was curious about the gimmick and we haven't practised for a while. The inconsistent hand and foot art and even less frequent tableware crafts at least gave us something to talk about.

Sharon Miller, Thomas & Friends: Misty Island Rescue

2012 / Library book / 24 pages / UK

*

21st-century Thomas has usurped Peppa as the current breakfast favourite. At least you can't hear him on the page, though I confess I caught myself doing the voice.

Unknown, Peppa Pig: Where's Peppa?

2021 / Library book / 10 pages / UK

***

It's Spot, not Wally, but the elements of misdirection and deduction justify the otherwise uninspired rip-off. Eric Hill should get royalties for all of these.

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

2017 / Library book / 10 pages / UK/Italy

***

Less educational than the more exclusively nature-themed ones, but it'd still be nice to have the set. The library copy was selectively broken, we provided our own soundtrack.

Peppa Pig Mini Memory Game

Peppa Pig Mini Memory Card Game

2018 / Memory card game / 2-6 players

***

Donated

Easier to grasp than Happy Families, she picked it up right away and remembered her age-scaled batch as well as I did. It's the sort of thing you can doubtless get free as an app (or in my own upbringing, as a mini game in Bart vs the World), but she doesn't need to waste her precious screen time on edutainment.

Babyliography XXXIV

Unknown, Peppa Pig: Peppa Goes Boating and Other Stories

Collected 2016 / Hardback / 144 pages / UK

**

Another biennial supplement to relieve some of the tedium of reading the same exciting adventures every day. The total lack of consistency in the shape and size of these collections can only be a deliberate measure to help prevent compulsive tendencies in later life.

Fiona Byrne, Robyn Newton, Kate Ward and Martina Hogan, Follow Me: Finger Mazes

2016 / Board book / 16 pages / UK

****

She doesn't really get the mazes yet, but the wildlife Where's Wally entertains her in the meantime.

Unknown, Thomas & Friends: Noisy Thomas Sound Book

2019 / Library book / 10 pages / UK

*

No effort to incorporate the single sound into the plot. The library copy's dying battery added an eerie v a p o r w a v e atmosphere.

Unknown, Mr Men: Hide-and-Seek in the Garden – A Lift-and-Find Book

2019 / Library book / 20 pages / UK

***

Incorporates detection and counting to make use of the space, which was more than I expected.

Lauren Holowaty, Peppa Pig: I Love You, Daddy Pig

2019 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

**

More fun than the Mummy Pig equivalent. Only a few more years of this, I'll be fine.