Littlefae’s Birthday- Picture Book Faevorites through the years

Today Littlefae turns 6 😭.

Books and stories have been fundamental since she was a tiny baby and I read aloud things like The Secret Garden to her in the first few weeks recovering and books have always been a presence even before she could concentrate long enough for a full picture book!

So I’ve collected list of the greatest hits, the faevorites that endure, those that I will probably have to hermetically seal copies so they are ready if she has children of her own in the future!!

As I’m featuring some of her current faevorites across the blog I thought I’d make a list of those pictures books that hold a place in her and my heart.

Belle & Boo and the Goodnight Kiss -Mandy Sutcliffe text by Gillian Shields (Orchard Books 2013)

This was one of the first books I ever got for her. Littlefae was due on Easter Sunday 2013 but born the day before the Spring Equinox and with pointy ears so I said she was meant to be a Easter Bunny but turned out to be an Ostara Bunny.

Belle and Boo is a story about a little girl with her cuddly rabbit having every day adventures whether it be getting ready for bed, or playing outside with beautiful artwork by Mandy Sutcliffe tugged at my heart.

We still enjoy ’sunny days, rainy days and dreamy let’s be lazy days‘ together with Belle and Boo.

Ten Little Pirates – Simon Rickerty and Mike Brownlow

This is possibly the most favourite book of all time as she will still have it read/sung to her, will read it aloud/sing it now to her sister and we are on our third copy (thank goodness for board books) it’s been so ‘beloved’

Ten Little Pirates all say Arrrr!!’

The Jelly that wouldn’t wobble- Angela Mitchell and Sarah Horne (Maverick Books)

Thanks to the CBeebies Bedtime Story this book became part of our regular rotation with its hilarious story about a elderly Princess with dashes of Veruca Salt and an anthropomorphised jelly that doesn’t want to be eaten so it refuses to wobble in a satisfactory manner until the littlest boy in the kingdom comes up with a ‘tutti frutti’ solution

I think this story really cemented Littlefae’s love of slightly naughty and darkish humour and is still a favourite.

Meltdown! by Jill Murphy (Walker Books)

‘piggy cake! piggy cake!!’ We Love Jill Murphy’s family based picture book such as Peace at Last and 5 Minutes Peace but Meltdown! in particular appeals to the darker wicked humour side of Littlefae. This naughty little bunny has the mother of all tantrums about a cake to her mother’s eternal mortification and like much of Jill Murphy’s picture book work is gently and lovingly illustrative of the mundane and not so pretty realities of parenting

Walter’s Wonderful Web by Tim Hopgood (Macmillan)

We adore the work of Tim Hopgood and have a lot of his beautiful and thoughtful work but Walter’s Wonderful Web is probably Littlefae’s favourite because Walter the spider never gives up.

It’s at its essence a shapes primer for toddlers and preschoolers but it is also a beautiful tale about perseverance, resilience and adapting until you finally get it right, even if that right is very different from what you originally imagined.

That’s not my books (Usborne)

We have a few of the That’s not my books and one of Littlefae’s favourites was a That’s not my hedgehog when she was a toddler.

I think it’s become a right of passage for most children to interact with the ‘That’s not my’ books when very young, and I’ll be honest, she still loves to have a sit with them now- I feel she finds them calming and that’s a great thing.

Room on the Broom- Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffer (Macmillan)

The books by this pair have also become synonymous with childhood but whilst some focus on The Gruffalo, Littlefae has always loved the kindly witch of Room on the Broom so much that it has regularly been re-enacted in our house and we have the picture book, board book, Noisy version and cookbook!!

Sir Lilypad – Anna Kemp and Sara Ogilvie (Simon & Schuster)

You may or may not know that Littlefae and her sister are very small for their age, remarkably so, they have been checked out for known genetic reasons and none found but small they remain and not all children are kind to Littlefae about that.

Sir Lilypad is one of our ‘little but fierce’ books to help the girls realise that it’s not the way you look on the outside but the content of your character that makes you wonderful, beautiful, a hero etc a perfect companion to the other empowering books by the duo including The Worst Princess.

Blueberry Girl – Neil Gaiman Illustrated by Charles Vess. (Bloomsbury)

Littlefae has been my Blueberry Girl since she was the size of a blueberry.

This book was originally a poem written for the newborn daughter of Tori Amos and as expected from Neil Gaiman this is full of magic, hopes & wishes for girls like her *sobs* and she knows this is ‘her’ special book.

So these are some of the picture books that have held a place in Littlefae’s heart since she was tiny and I hope remain there for time to come.

She asked for an Isadora Moon cake and we are going to the local wildlife park – I’m going to be very emotional today!!!