300 Picture Books

I talk a lot here about what I'm reading but not a lot about what I'm reading with the two littlest (and arguably most important - in their own eyes at least!) members of our family. To be succinct, we read a lot together. We read to Benji pretty much from day one, and to Sam slightly less early because to be honest, when you're breastfeeding and reading a story, it's kind of difficult for the kid to make eye contact with the book, let alone take in the pictures etc! But now we're onto bottles and Sam is all about trying to grab pages and 'read' to himself while rolling around the floor of the library dragging a board book with him.

Earlier this year I came across the 300 Picture Books Challenge which is being hosted by Live Otherwise and thought it would be a really lovely way to track our reading with the boys. I've been sharing our books as and when I remember to on Instagram, so once again if you want to see pictures head that way! (armchairbythesea)

I thought it might be nice to do a monthly roundup here on the blog too for those of you who have little kids or are interested to see what we read together! The criteria for the challenge is that it has to be 300 different picture books, so no reading The Gruffalo sixty times and counting it as sixty books! I'm going to keep a list, probably on this post, as we go through the year. I think it will be lovely to come back at the end of the year and see what we've been reading and what we particularly loved.

January's Books

1. Bouncy Bouncy Bedtime by David Bedford & Russell Julian - a big hit with Benji who demanded it every evening for the week we had it out of the library. I found it a bit weird that they didn't call animals by their actual names, but the artwork was absolutely gorgeous. 
2. Chimp and Zee by Laurence and Catherine Anholt - beautiful artwork, lovely repetition. Ben's a big fan.
3. Dragon Loves Penguin by Debi Gliori - one  of our auto-read authors, this one was as lovely as her books usually are and the pictures were as gorgeous as we've come to expect. Ben particularly loves her pictures of dragons.  
4. Funny Bunnies Rain or Shine by David Melling - cute little counting book with lovely little illustrations about bunnies doing silly weather related things. Benji and Sam both really enjoyed. 
5. Slinky Malinki Open the Door by Lynley Dodd - I've loved Dodd's books since I was a tiny kid so it's really nostalgic and wonderful reading these to Ben and Sam. This isn't our favourite but it does grow on you the more you read it. 
6. Someone Bigger by Jonathan Emmett & Adrian Reynolds - this has been one of our favourites (by which I mean Ben's, mine, Rhys's, my mum's, basically everyone who ever reads it to him) since Ben was about six months. It's just gorgeous and awesome how the little kid proves everyone wrong in the end. 
7. The Scarecrow's Wedding by Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler - our favourite writer/illustrator pairing. Their most recent caused lots of controversy because one of the characters smokes, but I'm here to tell you it's all totally plot-relevant and awesome. As usual. 
8. The Troll by Julia Donaldson & David Roberts - We're big Julia Donaldson fans in this house (again, all of us) and this is good but not one of my personal favourites of hers. I think Rhys likes it quite a lot though. 
9. The Winter Dragon by Caroline Pitcher & Sophy Williams - really beautiful artwork and lovely story about a little boy who's scared of the dark in winter. We've read it a few times now and enjoyed it every time. 
10. This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen - We read I Want My Hat Back by the same author a while ago from the library on a whim and found it absolutely hysterical. This one didn't disappoint my expectant hysteria levels either. If you have kids (or even if you don't) and haven't read Klassen's books you really must. Favourite book of January for both me and Ben I think!

We read more than that this month but these are the ones I remembered to take pictures of! If you're on Twitter, Instagram or anything else with hashtags and want to check out other people's books, search #300PBs.

We're probably still in Internet blackout as you read this so keep an eye out for some more scheduled stuff coming up and keep your fingers crossed that at least one of the major providers comes through for us in our new house so I can get back online soon!