Picture Books

November is Picture Book Month and so I made a list of 30 picture books that I did not mind repeatedly reading to my children.

All fall down by Helen Oxenbury This was the first picture book my daughter asked me to read again.

Maisy makes gingerbread by Lucy Cousins The first book by son tried to read. I love Maisy anyway.

Miffy by Dick Bruna I remember reading Miffy as a child and so got one for my daughter. I was really surprised at how boring they are for an adult but something obviously appeals to children as both of mine liked them and so do many friends' children.

Handa's Surprise by Eileen Browne Handa picks seven fruits to take to her friend Akeyo but on the way they are eaten by a series of animals. Luckily however, a pile of tangerines falls into the basket instead. We all loved the illustrations which are so rich and the punchline always made me laugh.

Night Pirates Quite an anarchic story about a group of pirates straling a house front as a disguise for their pirate ship. Wacky text and illustrations have made this a family favourite.

Tell me a dragon by Jackie Morris Beautiful illustrations of sifferent types of dragons. If you don't believe in dragons this book may well make you change your mind.

What-a-mess by Frank Muir A friend lent me her collection of What-a-mess stories after I found one secondhand. A very messy afgham hound gets into many scrapes manily because he is not very bright. Very silly and lots of fun.

Little Bo-Peep's library book by Cressida Cowell Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep so she goes to the library for help in finding them. One of those delightful books which has parts to pull out and read.

Angelina Ballerina by Katherine Holabird and Helen Craig Delightful illustrations and gentle stories about a dancing mouse. The idea may be twee but the whoile package is charming.

Princess and the Pea by Lauren Child A lovely retelling of this fairy story which quirky Lauren Child illustrations. I especially like the fact that the princess cannot say what a bad night she has had ebcause of her good manners.

Five minutes peace by Jill Murphy

Elephant tree by Penny Dale

Where's Chimpy?

Baby Duck

Each Peach Pear Plum by Jamet and Alan Ahlberg

Meg and Mog by Jan Pienkowsky

The Church Mouse by Graham Oakley

Mini Grey

Jane Ray

Shirley Hughes

Emma Chichester Clark

Fairytales far and wide

Usborne Puzzle Adventure series

Piratres galore

Asterix and Obelix series I remember reading and enjoying these as a teenager and now my daughter is enjoying them too. The puns are so bad they are good and the stories are so silly that they are hard to resist.

You wouldn't want to be series

The world is full of babies

River story

The Ladybird

Tell me again about the night I was born by Jamie Lee Curtis

Fairy Tales

As well as urban fantasy I really enjoy retellings of fairy tales. Here are all the ones I can remember.

Beauty and the Beast
Beauty bt Robin McKinley
Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley. McKinley loves this story so much she has retold it twice. Both different but delightful.

Cinderella
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

Maid Maleen
The Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale. This was not a fairy story I particularly recognised but on going away and reading the original I coul see what a brilliant retelling Sahnnon Hale had managed. A girl is locked up in a tower for seven years for refusing the man of her father's choice. But what happens when the food begins to run out? Told by the maid servant and with references to a Mongolian set culture this was wonderful.

Princess and the Frog
The Frog Princess by E D Baker. The start of a whole series following the adventures of Emma and Edric. Enjoyable twist right at the beginning when the magic kiss turns the princess into a frog.

Sleeping Beauty
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen Uses the holocaust experience to explain the sleeping part. Beautiful and sad.

The Swan Princes
The Swan Kingdom by Zoe Marriott. When her mother is killed only our heroine recognises that her new stepmother may not be all that she seems.

Twelve Dancing Princesses
Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier. Five sisters go dancing in the realm of the fairies. Also has elements of the Princess and the Frog.

More than one tale
The Secret History of Tom Trueheart by Ian Beck. The first in a trilogy about Tom and his seven brothers who create the fairy tales by living them until the wicked scribe Ormestone decides that everything should have an unhappy ending.

Scotland

Having just had a holiday in Scotland I was looking for stories set in Scotland which proved surprisingly hard but here is what I found.

The Boy with a Bronze Axe by Kathleen Fidler Set in the Orkneys this is about a stone age tribe and their first encounter with the bronze age. Gripping adventure
Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff Marcus must go to Scotland to retrieve the lost eagle of the Ninth Legion. Marvellous historical adventure set during the time of the Roman Empire.
Hamish and the fairy gifts by Moira Miller A crofting family have to outwit the fairy folk. A beginner reader book.
The Hill of the red Fox by Allan Campbell Alisdair returns to Skye and solves the mystery of his dead father's estate
Katie Morag delivers the Mail by Mairi Hedderwick (and of course all the other Katie Morag stories) Delightful picture books depicting life on the Isle of Struay from the point of view of young Katie Morag
The Puzzle Ring by Kate Forsyth Hannah discovers that her father was Scottish aristocracy but there is a curse on her family and she must go back in time to the 1560s to break it. Starts in Perth and moves all around. As an added bonus Hannah is home educated.
Seal Island by Rowena Farre Rowena and her aunt moved to a remote croft in the 1930s where they managed to adopt a couple of seals. This is a true story.
Six Dinner Sid: a highland adventure by Inga Moore Picture book sequel set in the Highlands.

It is also worth looking on the Kelpies website as they republish children's books set in Scotland.

Home educated children

Books with home educated children.
These ones I have not read, a fact I intend to change.
Alabama Moon by Watt Key (2006)
Armageddon summer by Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville (1998)
The Broken Bike Boy and the Queen of 33rd Street by Sharon G Flake (2007)
Double Fudge by Judy Blume (2002)
Emily the strange by Cosmic Debris et al (1992)
Every soul a star by Wendy Mass The girl who could fly by Victoria Forester (2008)
Ida B... and her plans to maximise fun, avoid disaster and (possibly) save the world by Katherine Hannigan (2004)
I'd tell you i love you, but then I'd have to kill you by Ally Carter (2006)
Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo (1999)
Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli (2007)
Nim's island by Wendy Orr (2001)
Nim at sea by Wendy Orr (2008)
The remarkable and very true story of Lucy and Snowcap by H M Bouwman
Savvy by Ingrid Law
Schooled by Gordon Korman (2007)
Skellig by David Almond (1998)
The society of S by Susan Hubbard (2007)
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli (2000)
Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie S Tolan (2002)
Theodosia and the serpents of chaos by RL LaFevers (2007)
What would Joey do? by Jack Gantos (2002) .

The ones I have read.
Little Blog on the Prairie. The heroine's mother wants the family to connect so she makes them all go on a summer camp which is based on the Little House lifestyle. The couple who run it have a daughter who is home educated so has no friends. Her parents have a computer which she is not supposed to use because she is living in the 1890s but she has been doing so. Very enjoyable especially if you have read the Little House books
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren When Pippi tries out school her teacher ends up by asking her never to come again. her need for more space to draw her horse is particularly wonderful.
The red pyramid by Rick Riordan (2010)A great adventure novel but a poor depiction of home education. As usual it means having no friends and no routine. But the writing is compelling and you do want to know what happens next.
Wings by Aprilynne Pike (2009) Laurel has been home educated with a lot of freedom but no friends but she doesn't mind until a move means having to go to school. (On page 1). Then she makes friends but discovers she is a fairy. A lovely novel with a happy fairy in it. I am looking forward to reading the sequel.

As usual if you have any to add please let me know.

Urban Fantasy

Urban Fantasy is where the author sets a fantasy novel in our world. Within the fantasy genre it is probaby my favourite variant. I would let my 13 year old read all of these except Bitten. That one may take a couple more years.

On the Edge by Ilona Andrews Set in the place where the magical world and the human world meets.
Bitten by Kelley Armstrong Werewolves. Enjoyable but I have not yet read any more
Moon called by Patricia Briggs Mercy Thompson is a shapeshifting coyote living near werewolves, who mends cars for a living and one of her customers is a vampire. Worth reading in order. This is the first. The others are: Blood bound; Iron kissed; and then 3 more
Cry wolf by Patricia Briggs Also about werewolves but a different series
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr Keenan the Fairy King of the Summer court is looking for his summer queen. Ashlinn a human girl can see fairies although she pretends not to. This series is quite sad at times but I think beautifully written. The others are Ink Exchange; Fragile Eternity; Radiant Shadows; Darkest Mercy
Percy Jackson and he Lightning Thief by Rck Riordan Percy is the son of a Greek God and has to battle monsters like the heroes of old. First in a series of 5.

Word games

We have played a lot of word games over the last few years. So here they are in no particular order.

Boggle 16 dice which you shake and then look for words where the letters touch one another. The points are based on length of word. I found a useful handicap when my daughter was younger was that I was not allowed 3 letter words. This plus an initial bonus nicely evened up the game. We still regularly play this one.

Word Pool. AN ELC game. Each player takes a card with a picture on one side and the word on the other. The board is made up of lily pads with letters on. You throw a dice and then move that many spaces trying to collect the letters of your word. Surprisingly frustrating to play on occasions. We enjoyed it whilst in the learning to read stage but it has had no longevity.

Lexicon. A pack of letter cards with various suggestions for games. Initially I picked out a word ending, eg AT, then sorted the remainder of the cards into a single alphabetical set and then we searched for words with that ending. This was enjoyable in the learning to read stage. We have since progressed to playing the basic word game. Very portable and still played. Solitaire games also given.

Kan-u-go. Old card game rather like a poor man's Scrabble. Takes up a lot of space and the rules are rather unclear.

Scrabble and Junior Scrabble. Junior Scrabble starts with a preprinted board where the players match letters. The other side of the board varies from set to set but ours is a rainbow board which usefully penalises longer words thereby handicapping the adult. In starting to play Scrabble again we began with a bonus to the youngest players until they could beat us with it.

Upwords. Played like scrabble in that the words themselves crisscross but unlike Scrabble you need to modify words by building upwards to get the higher scores. A game where you look at words very differently. Can be easier for children because it is often shorter words that are better because they can be adapted more easily.

Bananagrams. This has 144 letter tiles that are played into a crossword grid. Each player starts with 21 tiles and then makes their grid until one player has completed it at which point all players must take another letter. A quick game. Again we handicapped ourselves by not letting adults have 2 letter words. The tiles themselves are very tactile and fun for children to form into words.

Letter Dice. A simple game with 13 letter dice which the player must form into words. Players take it in turns. Good for travelling

SHAKE spell. 7 dice this time but with a chance dice that dictates word length, becomes an extra letter or affects the score. Another quick game useful for travelling.

Got a minute. 7 dice in a cube with a timer. How many words can you make in a minute? Akin to Boggle.

Maths board games

I have accumulated a number of board games where maths is the primary objective. Some are number based and some are logic puzzles.

Number games
Sum Swamp. A simple board with three dice. Two have numbers on them and one has plus or minus. The three dice are thrown, the player solves the sum and then moves forward that many places.

Triolet. A French board game akin to scrabble. Each player has three tiles and uses these to make a sum of no more than 15. No more than three tiles can be used in a sum so placement on the game board can be crucial. Very good for number bonds.

Smaths. The maths alternative to scrabble can be a lot harder. We started off with only plus and minus sums, then added in multiplying and dividing at a later stage. Usually with this game we give up before using all the pieces. However it is enjoyable just hard work on occasions.

Number Quest. A large board is covered with the numbers 1 - 100 in a diamond formation. Each player throws four dice and then uses those numbers to make a sum that adds up to a free number between 1 - 100. For example if the player threw 4, 5, 6. 6 the sum could be 4+5+6+6 or it could be 4X5 + 6X6. We tend to use a timer and then see how many points we can earn in half an hour. You can aim to cover a line or have a continuous link from 1 - 100. Lends itself to different solutions.

Shut the box. The box has the numbers 1- 9 and by throwing two dice the player tries to shut down all 9 numbers. Simple but fun.

Logic puzzles
Tangram. Wonderful to play with and make different shapes. I found a ravensburger set with an entire booklet of ideas.

IQ block. Nine shapes that fit into a sqaure 40 different ways although finding one can be hard enough.

Other games
Blokus. Each player has 21 pieces to place on the board trying to maximise their coverage of the board whilst blocking their opponents. Reminds me of tetris.