I’ve just realised we don’t have many Valentine’s Day books or books on love. This shortcoming needs to be remedied in the future. Still, we’ve read plenty of books this months too. (And another big batch of books is on the way. Hurray!)

It is very interesting to see that even young children can have favourite authors, moreover, favourite publishers. E. enjoys Usborne books without noticing it. Her favourite authors are Allen Ahlberg, Julia Donaldson, Roald Dahl, and Lucy Cousins.

Little L. herself noticed that we read a lot of Walker books because she truly enjoys them the most. (When we start a book I also read the name of the authors’/illustrators’ and the publisher apart from the title. After a while L. finished my enumeration with saying Walker books at the end.) Her favourite authors at the moment are Lucy Cousins, Tony Mitton, Julia Donaldson, and the Hungarian writer Erika Bartos.

Colour codes: E.’s favourite, L.’s favourite, Both loved it

E. 5y 9 m old

Secret Garden (Usborne)

This is a beautifully illustrated hard cover book. We read it on the bus on the way to a musical instrument demonstration for kids in the Opera House. It was a real artsy afternoon. The story’s language is quite basic, perhaps a little too simple for E. but she was immersed in the story of a girl finding an abandoned garden and a strange boy. The two of them make the garden come alive again.

Mummy, Do you love me? by Jeanne Willis

Another gorgeous book with hard cover and is large in size. This was one of our Valentine’s Day book about a little chick always asking her Mom if she loves him no matter what he does (getting mucky, losing a race, destroying a flower etc). L. was a little frightened when I imitated little chick’s happy chirping louder and louder and she didn’t want to read the book. Careful with funny voices and volume while reading.

Monkey Do! by Alan Ahlberg

A rhyming book about a monkey who sees an opportunity and use it for his own good and escapes from the zoo. After a lot of adventures he returns to his mommy. The illustration has small details the girls liked to examine and talk about.

Pooh, Is that you Bertie? by David Roberts

This is a very funny book for kids on the one hand as you can push several buttons on the pages and they give different sounds of breaking wind. On the other hand the book has a lot of expressions how to express breaking wind in a more acceptable way than farting. (We use “fluff” in our home as our first native nanny used it and it just stuck with us)

The flying bath by Julia Donaldson

A funny story about 3 toys taking the bathtub for a rescue ride until the family is away. When they return they have a surprise for the kids. We’ve read this book about 4-5 times.

My race into space by Annie Auerbach

Although it’s a board book this is for bigger kids (first I wanted to read it with Linda only but E.’s been into space again and it turned out this book suits a 5-year-old more than a 2-year-old.) It’s a rhyming book about planets and the solar system. As for me it’s nothing special, there are much better books on space but E. quite liked it.

L. 2 y 2 m old

Dora Loves Boots (Scholastic)

Our official Valentine’s day book. Dora and Boots meet at Rainbow Rock and give each other a Valentine’s day present (something they know the other would love). It’s a typical Dora book with some Spanish words. L. enjoyed counting strawberries in Spanish.

Noah’s Ark by Lucy Cousins

As Little L. likes Lucy Cousin’s books she got this as a name day present. Both kids enjoyed it, not to mention the part when we sang the song, The animals came two by two. E. noticed that the pictures are painted. She realised the markings of a paintbrush. The story is a classic from the Bible in a simple way with interesting illustrations which gave us a lot to talk about. (For instance, there are 2 roosters going onto the ark. E. realised in this way chickens wouldn’t have survived the great flood as “you need a mommy and a daddy chicken to have little chicks” – sic)

The Runaway Tractor (Usborne)

Another name day present for Little L. for her nameday. This series of Farmyard tales contain many stickers in the middle with which kids need to fill the missing parts of the story. It is absolutely amazing how this helps kids memorise the story itself. While I was reading the story I always stopped where we had a sticker and L. said the word the sticker replaced. Not to mention the hidden ducks on every page your kids need to find. 3 weeks of enjoyment. (The story is about Ted losing control over the tractor which ends up in the pond. Another farmer comes to the rescue with his horse)

Let’s get ready for bed (Bear in the big blue house)

We do not watch Bear in the big blue house but we do have difficulties with the evening routine. This book nicely describes what activity comes after the other, like taking a bath, brushing teeth, getting into your pj and reading a bed time story) There are moving parts in this book which L. liked a lot but it was quite difficult for her little hands to move, like a toothbrush or the moon in the sky)

Horsey horsey (IglooBooks)

This is our 3rd book in this series of IglooBooks but unfortunately the tune does not match the one we know with this song. Anyways, Daddy made up a new song to this tune although it’s in Hungarian:

Áprilisi zivatar, nem tudja, hogy mit akar
Össze-vissza zivatar, ez egy nagyon hülye dal.

The kids love this song to a great extent and the tune is so catchy I sometimes sing it in the middle of the night.

Lulu’s Loo by Camilla Reid

We’re trying to potty-train Little L. with not much success yet. Though this books ahs helped a lot. There are fasteners to fix Lulu’s nappy, pink and squishy plastic potty to touch, toilet lid to lift up, big girl knickers of different patterns to touch etc. The book is really motivating, still L. is unwilling to go to the loo.

Now I am 2 (Parragon)

I think it was a January book but we read it a lot in February too. This little board book list things that 2 year olds can do (say Mommy, clap, walk etc.) This book is short so at the end I always added quite a few things Little L. can do (and whenever I told her she did them, like I can sing a song, I can wave goodby, I can blow a kiss, I can point at my nose, I can hug my sister, I can drink from a cup etc.) I think she truly enjoy the end rather than the book.

This month we’ve read quite a few Hungarian books (Anna, Peti és Gergő  and other rhyme books by Erika Bartos, Oszkár by Doris Lauer, Pipacska és Kockapaci by G.V. Szapgir, L.A. Levinova, Mi történik a kórházban? – Scholar) and we didn’t have so much time for new English ones. The other reason for fewer books this months is that they ALWAYS wanted the same books, their favourites (Dora Loves Boots, The Runaways tractor, The flying bath, Pooh, is that you Bertie?)