Another year, another reading challenge! Let’s go.

Max’s Fuzzy Feelers. Mary Angus. a sweet book about Max the sloth (not rabbit!). I like how it can be used to describe our feelings, but the rhyming scheme could be more consistent.

The Wake-Up Call. Beth O’leary. Another great story by this author. I found myself thinking about it a lot! A good sign I think.

Don’t Put Your Finger In The Jelly, Nelly! Nick Sharratt. I read this book to Aidan, and I think I liked it better than he did, but it’s still ace! Such a funny, interactive book with cool drawings and rhymes.

Hairy Maclary’s Bone. Lynley Dodd. I remember these books from when I was little and I wish we had more of them! I read this to Sophia and Aidan one afternoon and they enjoyed looking at all the different doggies.

The Nutcracker. Miles Kelly. I’ve never really been into the Nutcracker, and Sophia had some interesting questions for me! She liked it when the mouse king was defeated, but seemed sad that it was all a dream in the end.

When You Adopt A Pugicorn. Matilda Rose. I like these books, and it’s great to have added the original to our collection! We liked understanding how Princess Ava came to have a Pugicorn in the first place.

Carole Matthews. The Cake Shop In The Garden. I really enjoyed this book. I stayed up too late reading it. I downloaded it onto the kindle app on my phone so I could read it while Aidan napped! I just loved it. I don’t know if it’s because there was a loss in there, or because I love cake, or because I’d love a narrow boat one day, or because Fay’s care for Stan reminded me of church, or because there was no marriage breakup (there so often is when characters are a bit older!). But it was great. Can’t wait to read the next one!

The Tiger Who Came To Tea. Judith Kerr. We loved reading this story together, Sophia telling me what happens next because she’s read it at school!

The Smartest Giant In Town. Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler. We do love a JD book around here! This was particularly special because I read it to Aidan and the children in his nursery. I came home and told Sophia about it, who said she had listened to it at school! We had a lovely conversation talking about what happened in a book we both enjoyed.

Christmas Cakes and Mistletoe Nights. Carole Matthews. I liked this second book in the series. More character development that I thought possible, a couple of unexpected turns and lots of talk about very tasty sounding cake! I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the first one, though, and I can’t give it five starts because I spotted one point where the main character’s name was spelled wrong!

The Wedding. Sarah Edghill. I did not enjoy this book. I got through it quite quickly, but mostly because I just wanted to move past the horrible drunk scenes, which took up like 50% of the book. Not my cup of tea at all, and a completely unsatisfactory ending.

The Housemaid’s Wedding. Freida McFadden. Blimey, Freida McFadden knows how to build suspense! A very good short story, full of drama, love and the characters we adore. I read this in one evening (not that I planned to!). A great addition to the Housemaid collection.

The Day The Crayons Quit. Drew Daywalt. What a gorgeous children’s book! We’ve had it a while but Sophia has suddenly got into it and we both love it!

The Day The Crayons Came Home. Drew Daywalt. Sophia and I didn’t know there were so many other crayons around! We especially liked reading about the one that got stuck to the sock in the dryer! That was funny.

Happiness For Beginners. Carol Matthews. This was OK. I liked the character of Milly but I didn’t really buy into the love story. I preferred The Cake Shop In The Garden – maybe I relate to cake better than I do to animals.

Ruby The Red Fairy. Daisy Meadows. Sophia and I gobbled our way through this book and very much enjoyed it! We might have gone a bit too fast, though, because we haven’t got the next one yet! Looking forward to picking it up soon, and also very delighted that Sophia is now into chapter books.

The Evil Man part 1. David Carter. Great to return to the world of Cheshire DCI Walter Darriteau after a bit of a pause. I’ve often been annoyed by the overuse of the word ‘grinned’ but I didn’t notice it too often this time. The only real plot flaw I can see is: why did Ann or Melvin not explain the whole situation to a professional earlier? But overall, I’m so gripped by this storyline that I’m loathed to spend time writing this review when I could be steaming through part 2!

Oi Dinosaurs! Kes Gray & Jim Field. This book is so funny, but I think more so for adults than children.

The Evil Man part 2. David Carter. I gobbled this book up and was really gripped at times! I’d love to read a sequel, given the last chapter! A good read.

From Egg To Chicken. Camilla de la Bédoyère. Aidan loved reading this book because he has a great time hanging out with the chickens at nursery! He pointed to the eggs and the chickens on every page.

Crying Roses. David Carter. A pretty good Walter Darriteau read. Not the best or the worst. I didn’t love the plot line but the murder weapon was pretty clever. I’m hoping we see something develop for Walter in the next book, especially RE romance

Five Minute Stories for 1 year olds. Igloo books. A really cute collection of Stories with nice pictures. You’ll definitely get through them in less that 5 minutes though!

Missing Letters. David Carter. This book is such a strange mix of things. It has a great and surprising start, but the storyline never really concludes. When it comes to the murder, it turns out it’s some kind of werewolf type thing. There are two clear halves to the books but not much of a link between them. I did enjoy the historical storyline though. I really hope that the next one carries the overarching plot line forward, but I’ve expected that in the past but it hasn’t happened. So many books in, I just want Walter to be settled!

Dumbo Magical Story. Walt Disney Company. We had a nice time reading this book. None of us have watched the film, and we were touched by the sad scenes when Dumbo was away from his Mum. But we all thought he was so brave to fly in front of such a big audience!