Monthly Book Roundup - What We are Reading in March

Books are something that we have made sure we have lots of in this house. I think stories and reading is great for children from birth. It helps with the imagination as well as helping learn new words and it also is a great way to spend some one to one time with your children. 

Lily always has access to books in the living room where she has a small box full where she can help her self to them. Then in the bedroom we have her books which we save for bedtime reading. 

I always read at least 5 stories before bed and sometimes it can be more like 8 stories before bed. Story time is the one time that Lily will happily sit on my knee still and relax and I love this time with her. It also helps her have routine and wind down before bed.

Lily is currently very particular to which books we read before bed and I must admit, I've been reading the same stories for over a month now and most the time when I try a new story, she pushes it away! She knows what she wants.

Here are a few of the books that she will always happily let me read. 

1. Goat goes to Playgroup by Julia Donaldson
We always save this one for last as this is currently Lily's favourite. She really loves the characters and at the end loves asking who everyone in the story is. I love this story because its not to short and not to long and it has great rhyming in it. Its also very colourful with fun illustrations. The story is all about the different things that goat and his friends get up to at playgroup. It would be great for children about to attend playgroup as it shows all the activities that may happen.

2. Toddle Waddle by Julia Donalson
This book is very different and it has a group of sounding words on each page that are describing what is happening in the picture. The list of words gets longer and longer and you end up making a little tune out of it. (or at least I do but that may just be me being silly mummy) Lily must really enjoy listening to me make these tunes as she sits quietly and listens right until the end. The words are all with lovely colourful illustrations and recognisable settings like the park and the beach.

3. Blue and Bertie by Kristyn Litten 
This one is also my favourite for bedtime. Its a really beautiful story about a lost giraffe who finds a blue giraffe who helps him get home. On the way they go on a wonderful adventure and become really good friends. Its a really nice story of kindness and friendship. One of the things I love the most is the illustrations in this book. They are really beautiful and Lily loves the colourful flowers on each page and is constantly pointing to them and asking what they are. I think she would love them all over her walls if she could.
Also one thing you may not know about me is that I have a little obsession with giraffes, they are my favourite animal and so I was really happy when Lily decided she loved hearing me read this story.

4. Hattie the Dancing Hippo by Jillian Powell and Emma Dodson
This story I used to read to the children in the nursery I worked in. They always loved it and asked me to read it over and over and so naturally I had to go out and buy it for Lily. Lily loves it just as much as the other children did.
Hattie the dancing hippo is a short story with only a few words on each page. So its really good if you have a child who won't sit long for stories. Its all about a Hippo that wants to be able to dance, but its not exactly easy for a hippo to be a dancer and she finds problems along the way. I think what children love about this story is the expressive action words that are used such as Wobbled and Wiggled and the colourful images that go with them. 

Others....
Other stories we may read may be Foxes Socks, Each Peach Pear Plum, The tiger who came to tea, my dad and others. You can read about them in Lily's top 10 here

What are you reading to your children at the moment? Any recommendations?

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