ALFIE WINS A PRIZE : a reassuring and comfortable peep into a little boy's life

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ALFIE WINS A PRIZE : a reassuring and comfortable peep into a little boy's life

Age guide: 2 to 6. The Alfie books by Shirley Hughes are a bit like an antidote to perfect-minimalist Mommy blogs. Not that I don’t love reading a good Mommy blog!  But in the Alfie books there’s a very real family – they’re not especially rich. The house is not styled, it’s functional and beautiful as a result – there’s plenty of clutter (of both the physical and social kinds) and plenty of pushing aside clutter to make room for the next activity.

In this one, there’s a Harvest Fair coming to a local school and Alfie determines to enter one of the competitions. 

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The Trouble With Dogs!: winning Dad over!

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The Trouble With Dogs!: winning Dad over!

Age guide: baby to young child
Dad reckons the trouble with dogs is that they take over your life. But really Dad is just as much in love with Rosie and Dave as the rest of the family. 

Rosie and Dave were brought home from the animal shelter in Let's Get a Pup (also by Bob Graham). Since then Rosie has cemented her place on the couch but Dave just keeps getting wilder.

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The Librarian of Basra: the value of culture - and one woman's great courage

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The Librarian of Basra: the value of culture - and one woman's great courage

Set in Iraq. The true story of Alia Muhammad Baker - a middle aged Iraqi woman living in the town of Basra and working as a librarian. Alia knew that war was coming to Basra and she knew that war brings fire which would likely destroy the precious books. This is the remarkable and impressive story of her work to save them.
ages 4 years to grownup

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Let The Celebrations Begin!: a gentle and soft introduction to holocaust literature

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Let The Celebrations Begin!: a gentle and soft introduction to holocaust literature

ages 4 years to grownup
Set in Europe, this is one of my absolute favourite books. It's a book to give perspective to small bingles and it's a book to plant notions of empathy, courage, and resilience in children. Definitely one to have in your home library, Let the Celebrations BEGIN! speaks across a wide range of age groups and relates to so many sets of circumstances.

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The Wrong Thing: sometimes things that seem wrong are simply out of place

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The Wrong Thing: sometimes things that seem wrong are simply out of place

Age guide: 4 to 12
With surrealist pictures and a slightly tense story, this is a charming picture book. Hurricane, the cat, follows the Wrong Thing through the house, trying to protect his family who are sleeping. Until he realises that the Wrong Thing is a Lost Thing.

The Wrong Thing just needed its own place and family.

This is one of my favourite stories about things that seem Wrong being simply out of place. Hurricane worries that 'the big ones would not see it. And the small ones might want to catch it'.

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Space Travellers: a respectful and warm look at homelessness

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Space Travellers: a respectful and warm look at homelessness

ages 4 years to grownup
Children’s books about homelessness are hard to find and this one strikes just the right note. Zac and Mandy are homeless, but very far from helpless. Space Travellers is a beautiful book about homelessness, with themes of self-reliance, sharing, making do and so much more.

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