Monthly Book Roundup - What we been reading in December

Its time for my monthly book round up again. Each month I write about new books that I have introduced to Lily at bedtime and what we think of them. We always read around 3 books a night and most nights we end up reading the same ones with a few odd ones read in between. I find reading the same books helps Lily relax and not get over excited at bedtime but she does grow fond of the stories each month and is happy when I pull out the stories she enjoys.

You can read all our other monthly roundups here.

This month is a Christmas Special and we have a selection of christmas books we have been reading. Lily has really loved having Christmas stories this month and it has been making her even more excited for christmas. 

So here is this months selection. 

1. Puppy's First Christmas by Steve Smallman 

This is such a delightful Christmas story about a puppy and his first Christmas. He is good friends with the cat that also lives in the house and is totally confused by all the christmassy things happening and cat has to explain them all to him. Not only is the story really festive, it also is a soft to touch book and the things like christmas hats and Father Christmas's suit is soft and nice to stroke. Lily loved this book as has had me reading it to her most nights, I think it is easy to say it was her favourite of the roundup this month. I got this book from the Books and Pieces website. 

2. The Stink before Christmas by Sam and Mark

You can't beat toilet humour and this book really is funny. It's all about Father Christmas having a little bid of a dodgy tummy and needing to do a big trump! All the trumping that he and his reindeers do get them into all sorts of trouble and problems along the way. It has brilliant rhyming and such a good storyline and Lily thought it was brilliant. I really enjoyed reading this to her. You can buy this book from the Scholastic Website. If you want a preview of this book, why not listen to me reading it to Lily in the video below. 

3. Father Christmas Needs a Wee by Nicholas Allan

Even more toilet humour here with this story. As well as a great rhyming story about father Christmas needing a wee, it is also a counting book as you count all the drinks that Father Christmas has had on his journey delivering gifts. Lily really enjoyed it and she has also started to learn parts of this story to be able to read it back to me. Its a great book that I think a lot of children will enjoy. I bought this from a book shop but you can also pick it up in places like amazon and ebay.

4. Little Ducks first Christmas by Dawn Richards 

We didn't actually read this book very much, Lily never wanted it each time I offered it. I think although it was a sweet story, it wasn't as good or exciting/funny as the other stories and so just didn't interest her. The story is about a little duck who is worried that father christmas won't come because she hasn't been good enough and hasn't found the perfect gift for her parents. On her journey she actually does some really nice things but that prevents her getting to the market and so doesn't end up getting her parents anything. In the end Father Christmas does bring her gifts because she has been very good and her parents end up with the perfect gift after all, which is duck herself. It is actually a really nice storyline so it is a shame that Lily wasn't to interested in this story this year. I bought this from a book shop, but you can pick it up online.

Which of these books do you like the sound of?