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.