Babyliography LXXXVII

Dr. Seuss, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

1960 / Library book / 64 pages / USA

***

Fox in Socks Lite, the parade goes on and on, but it kept her attention. I made do with Stoppit and Tidy-up.

Dr. Seuss, Dr. Seuss's ABC

1963 / Library book / 72 pages / USA

**

Imposing order on the chaos makes this a lesser work, but still more worthwhile than your standard cash-in alphabet book.

Mac Barnett and Shawn Harris, A Polar Bear in the Snow

2020 / Library book / 40 pages / USA

**

The cut-outs would be pretty enough to justify an author-illustrator project, but this ambient non-story requiring an independent writer is like when a singer doesn't even pick up an instrument.

 

Various, Follow Me Around the World: Finger Mazes

2018 / Library book / 14 pages / UK

***

Indistinguishable from the varied environments of the first one, but maybe those fingers need new trails.

Unknown, My Little Pony: First Look and Find

2013 / Ebook / 24 pages / USA

*

"First" was the word to avoid there. When she wasn't being patronised by the familiar characters just standing there like a normal picture she just wasn't interested in finding their apple pies and shit.

Babyliography LXXXVI

Lou Carter and Nikki Dyson, Oscar the Hungry Unicorn / Eats Christmas / Eats Easter

2018/19/21 / Library books/ebook / 96 pages / UK

**

She was particularly tickled by the incoherent fairy tale chomping oddysey, so luckily there are virtually limitless regurgitations to look forward to. No more for me, I'm full.

Fabi Santiago, I Really Want That Unicorn

2018 / Library book / 32 pages / Brazil

**

Only a unicorn statue in this one, so it wasn't a hit. A crocodile in a tutu can't cut it.

Oakley Graham, Bradley Hunt and Lauren Ellis, 555 Sticker Fun: Horses and Unicorns

2018 / Sticker book / 56 pages / UK

**

As deceptively good value as any sticker book mainly padded out with the tiny, boring stickers she was never going to bother with.

Petr Horáček, Lift the Flap: Who Is Sleeping?

2019 / Library book / 16 pages / Czech Republic

**

A: Several random animals. This was part of library storytime, she wouldn't choose this babyish stuff for herself any more. Push and pull tabs are where it's at, granddad.

Claire De Marco and Steve Brown, The Mermaid's Socks

2016 / Library book / 24 pages / UK

**

A simple gag that early readers might recognise from The Little Mermaid. Generic Family Guy art, but they're supposed to be looking at the words.

Babyliography LXXXV

Sam Lloyd, Mr. Pusskins: A Love Story / Best in Show

2006-09 / Ebooks / 64 pages / UK

**

Harry the Dirty Dog if you don't like dogs.

Clement Clarke Moore and Miriam Bos, First Stories: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas

2020 / Library book / 10 pages / USA/Netherlands

**

A strange combination of the full poem in tiny text to fit on the cardboard pages and tabs for toddlers too young to understand it. Still, merry Christmas.

Unknown, Disney Pixar Finding Dory: Ocean Adventure / My Underwater Story

2016 / Library book/paperback / 64 pages / UK

**

Variably severe abridgements of the film with different activities to extend the experience, one going to the effort of a full jigsaw package.

Lucy Rowland and Mark Byrne, Unicorns Don't Love Sparkles

2022 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

**

It's almost as if you can apply an irrelevant unicorn theme to absolutely anything. She had no social context for the non-conformist manifesto, so this wasn't a hit.

Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks, What the Ladybird Heard

2009 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

****

Sensing a modern kidz's klassick, I told her this was my favourite of her library batch. She said it was the worst, because there were no unicorns in it.

Babyliography LXXXIV

Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Brigette Barrager, Uni the Unicorn

2014 / Ebook / 48 pages / USA

**

I don't know if she really appreciated the ironic twist, she just digs unicorns.

Kes Gray and Nick Sharratt, Eat Your Peas

2000 / Ebook / 32 pages / UK

***

A fun scene. She immediately requested broccoli for dinner so she could play it. She's better at the interactive lessons than I am.

Suzanne Lang and Max Lang, Grumpy Monkey

2018 / Ebook / 32 pages / USA

*

I'd taken this uninventive and uninteresting animal fable to be some kind of self-published vanity, but turns out it's from Random House. Some folks get the breaks.

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

2020 / Library book / 10 pages / UK/Italy

**

Typically non-functional. She was happy to provide the noises herself, but a shame we didn't get to hear the authentic prehistoric field recordings.

Nick Sharratt, Moo-Cow Kung-Fu-Cow / Unicorn Moonicorn

2009/2022 / Library books / 48 pages / UK

***

Simple rhymes and toilet humour worked a treat.

Babyliography LXXXIII

Sam Lloyd, Mr. Pusskins and Little Whiskers: Another Love Story

2008 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

**

Not the most loveable picture book cat, but a cute enough story for its target audience.

Joyce Dunbar and Petr Horáček, Grumpy Duck

2019 / Library book / 32 pages / UK/Czech Republic

**

An instructional selected for entertainment purposes, it didn't really succeed on that basis.

Anthea Simmons and Georgie Birkett, I'm Big Now

2017 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

**

She enjoys alternating roleplay between baby and caregiver, but she's less interested in reading about it.

Steven Wood, Nicola Friggens, Robyn Newton, Penny Worms and Kylie Hamley, Follow Me Santa: Finger Mazes

2018 / Library book / 14 pages / UK

***

A Christmas book in November, but she couldn't resist.

Unknown, Disney Frozen 5-Minute Treasury

2016 / Hardback / 192 pages / UK

*

She always wants to roleplay Frozen, so when I found this sourcebook of readymade scenarios, I bought with enthusiasm on her behalf that didn't turn out to be shared. She knows it's below par. I'll try to raise our standards.

Babyliography LXXXII

Unknown, My First Dolly Dressing: Fairies

2022 / Sticker book / 16 pages / UK

*

Didn't even have plastic jewels this time.

Fiona Watt and Stella Baggott, Baby's Very First Slide and See: Things That Go

2021 / Library book / 10 pages / UK

*

It's just sounds, you can read it by yourself while I look for proper alright alright.

Jack Hughes, Steggie's Stammer

2012 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

***

She's not insecure about her speech and found this enjoyably relatable, or maybe she just liked the dino friends.

Alison Green and Sharon Rentta, Mine!

2018 / Library book / 32 pages / UK

**

The brutal ending caught me off guard and confused the message somewhat.

Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, Let's Find the Smeds and the Smoos

2022 / Library book / 10 pages / UK/Germany

*

An unusually cryptic spin on babies' felt flap books. A parody of the form, or just squeezing a successful author brand for every last drop? Who can say.

Alrightreads: Slatter Platter

Angela Slatter, The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales

2006-10 (collected 2010) / Ebook / 209 pages / Australia

***

Covering the same timespan as Sourdough, this has the feel of a rough demo ahead of the more inspired and refined themed collection. She wastes no time raising and slaying the Angela Carter anxiety beast, so that comparison will never be made again.

Faves: 'Red Skein,' 'The Juniper Tree,' 'The Girl with No Hands'

Angela Slatter, Home and Hearth

2014 / Ebook / 31 pages / Australia

***

A jolting return to the modern world after immersion in the mythos, this put me in mind of a creepy Inside No. 9. Not exactly substantial enough for the solo release, but she was probably a long way from another miscellaneous collection.

Angela Slatter, Of Sorrow and Such

2015 / Ebook / 149 pages / Australia

****

The Sourdough movie wasn't a stretch after the long story cycle in the last collection, but I was more engaged.

Angela Slatter, Finnegan's Field

2016 / Ebook / 36 pages / Australia

****

The clash of suburban realism and monstrous fantasy is conventionally a bit awkward, but this has the makings of a modern folk horror classic.

Angela Slatter, Red New Day & Other Microfictions

2008-09 (collected 2020) / Ebook / 48 pages / Australia

**

An inadequate smattering of insubstantial stories, mainly playing with mythological figures. They were originally written for a daily web project rather than intended for publication, but might as well.

Faves: 'Binoorie,' 'Foundation,' 'The Impatient Dead'

Alrightreads: Tastes

Angela Slatter, Sourdough and Other Stories

2006-10 (collected 2010) / Ebook / 238 pages / Australia

*****

Variably dark, consistently enchanting fairy tales from the de facto bard laureate. It may be a while before I can share these bedtime stories.

Faves: 'The Shadow Tree,' 'A Porcelain Soul,' 'Lavender and Lychgates'

Angela Slatter, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings

2011-14 (collected 2014) / Ebook / 278 pages / Australia

****

Dark fantasy becomes outright horror in the Sourdough prequel scrapbook, occasionally overly infatuated with its own lore.

Faves: 'The Coffin-Maker's Daughter,' 'The Night Stair,' 'The Bitterwood Bible'

Howard Pyle, Pepper & Salt, or Seasoning for Young Folk

1885 / Audiobook / 109 pages / USA

**

Original fairy tales and crap verse with old-timey morals and some satisfying strangeness.

Faves: 'The Skillful Huntsman,' 'Clever Peter and the Two Bottles,' 'Hans Hecklemann's Luck'

Jeff Lemire, Sweet Tooth, Volume 1: Out of the Deep Woods

2009-10 (collected 2010) / Ecomics / 128 pages / Canada

**

Dystopian Farthing Wood, with guns. I'd planned to read the whole story, but couldn't really be bothered.

Liz Franklin, Kids' Cookery

2001 (revised 2005) / Paperback / 64 pages / UK

**

Completing a 4 for £1 offer with something potentially useful for lack of worthwhile frivolity, but it's too advanced for me, let alone a preschooler.

Ranking the Dead Can Dance albums

Subjecting some of my favourite ethereal background music to scrutiny wasn't an easy task, but I'll never learn which ones are worth listening to if I keep falling asleep to them.

It took several passes through to decide my Top 10 Dead Can Dance Albums & E.P.

Alrightreads: TV XIV

Tony Lee and artists, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Archives, Volume 1

2011 (collected 2015) / Ebook / 336 pages / UK

***

Contemporary adventures from the time when I was most immersed in the silly show, reading these is primarily an exercise in nostalgia, and Tony Lee crucially remembers that it's a sitcom. The art's all over the place and a bit uncanny.

Charles L. Grant, The X-Files: Whirlwind

1994 / Audiobook / 288 pages / USA

**

A good premise for an episode or comic story, stretched way beyond the point of interest. The series would inevitably get around to similar themes.

D. G. Chichester, Tracy Tormé and artists, Sliders

1996 / Ecomics / 154 pages / USA

**

Some of the stories would have made better episodes than others, but the comic pandering makes it occasionally unreadable.

Diane Duane, Star Trek: The Wounded Sky

1983 / Audiobook / 255 pages / USA

****

What fans want, but are rarely served by a Star Trek novel: cosmic wonder and adventure achieved through convincing technobabble with a strong grasp of character, though that part shouldn't be hard. It's also notably similar to some future episodes with experimental drives.

Jaime Weinman, Anvils, Mallets & Dynamite: The Unauthorized Biography of Looney Tunes

2021 / Ebook / 375 pages / Canada

****

I preferred Tom and Jerry, but this was an interesting history and analysis of those other violent schedule fillers.