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love the latest pack... except that when sophie threw up on "where's spot" I thought we'd seen the last of that flipping thing, and here I am with a new copy aaaaaargh!!!

we are going to use her bookbag for the library 'cos I keep losing track of her books.

Bookstart lady at the "do" we went to today cam up and asked "have ouheard of bookstart" I held up soph's canvas bookstart bag which we were using today for all her stuff and said "just a little". I'm aparently the only person she's ever seen actually using the bag!!! why?! they're great!!

anyway, no doubt QB will be along in a min to back up my "woot for bookstart" comments lol!

Hey, hey, hey, here I am.

And in case anyone missed it before, here's the Bookstart link:

http://www.bookstart.co.uk/

Don't forget you can also get them from your local libraries and County Childrens Librarians.

My grand daughter got her bookstart books just after christmas - my daughter in law avoided telling them Penny had already 24 books as Christmas presents.
As she's not yet a year old I admit to buying her 'silly' books with noises and textures - not quite 'war and peace' but

I LOVE Bookstart!!! Although, if I have to read 'I'm Not Cute' in several daft accents one more time today, it will be confiscated!

hahahahaha! I love I am not cute! mainly 'cos soph gives me this grumpy look whenever i call her cute.
not got round to the seadog one yet, and where's spot got read over and over again 5 times last night before it was "accidentally" dropped down the back of the sofa.

citizentwiglet wrote:I LOVE Bookstart!!! Although, if I have to read 'I'm Not Cute' in several daft accents one more time today, it will be confiscated!

Ditto

The only thing with bookstart is that it makes me sad to think there are people who need convincing to read to their LO, I have been reading to E since she was born... Mind you the advice they give about 'your baby LOVES you voice' I think it helped JohnM read more to E, and feel more confident doing so. It is a lovely site to see her face light up when Daddy reads to her - especially if it spares me 'Alfie's Feet' for the 17th time in a day

I always read to Ellis too, we read a lot. Well, I read.
Actually, last week in toddler group I had a 5 second panic because I couldn't see him anywhere...(usual places - throwing himself headfirst down the slide / trying to get out of the fire-exit / trying to wheedle his way next to the grown-up chocolate biscuits). Where was he? Under a table with ALL the books. Just sitting there looking at them all with a big smile on his face. Very cute.

Favourites at the moment (other than I'm Not Cute) are Gorgeous (A Little Zeb story - very sweet indeed), Daisy and the Egg and...grrrr....a noisy-press-the-button Thomas book that drives mummy mad.

snapdragon wrote: As she's not yet a year old I admit to buying her 'silly' books with noises and textures - not quite 'war and peace' but

I love books like that... Theres a guy at Bridgnorth ... if anyone can get thers and he sell the best books I have seen at best prices. Everything from touch and feel/ fairy/ digger etc A lot of then are 3 for £6.00 brand new the stuff you would buy in the teens of pounds normally. So if you'r close enough for a day out as Bridgo is smashing anyway .. Saturday is the day to turn up in the High Street.

ooooooops sorry hijack alert

That Bookstart project is really awesome.. i wish we had something like that over here... it would be perfect for my little niece... gosh that would have been great for my gernaration too... I sometimes get really embarrest because some of my fellow clasmates proudly proclame that they only read books asigned in school an even then they do not read them whole...
I got to learn reading with four, because my slibings got desperate when I kept walzing in their room proclaiming boredom....
I am hooked since then.... I think my book count gets to one thousend... the stories I read on the net not included.... OMG... i am a nerd

[edit]:just correcting my spelling...

you are not a nerd, nobody who reads for pleasure is a nerd; we are just.... special
We have a 4x4cube ikea Expedit shelving unit full of my books (ok jim owns about 10 of the books on them!) plus a long shelf in the bedroom, my bathroom collection and the two boxes still left in the spare room.
Soph has a shelf in her room, plus we have another ikea Expedit shelving unit which is 4x2 cubes, 4 of which are devoted to soph.plus behind the sofa we have Buster's busy day, Wibbly Pig, Buster on the farm and Where's Spot.

my fave kid's book is still Click Clack Moo by Doreen Cronin.

Tee hee.

When we were buying feely board books we'd buy one at first so we could test it. First we'd have a gentle feel to see if there was a variety of textures and then we'd try tugging all the bits out and pulling them with our teeth.

Tee hee, naughty librarians (refernce librarians just got to file newspapers: Boring!!!)

I'm trying to remember what it was called, but there was one book about noises that I read at Storytime. We got to the end and the punch line was something like, 'no Miss, it was my bottom'. As soon as I read it there was stunned silence. One kiddy ran away to hide behind mum, a few others gasped in shock, and all of them started looking round to see if they were permitted to laugh. Everyone did laugh in the end but for a moment I thought I'd commited the worst faux pas possible.

QuakerBear wrote:Tee hee.
When we were buying feely board books we'd buy one at first so we could test it. First we'd have a gentle feel to see if there was a variety of textures and then we'd try tugging all the bits out and pulling them with our teeth.

Tee hee, naughty librarians...............

the very thought of librarians chewing the books

I didnt even know they existed - they weren't available when my boys were small - but grandbaby loves textures so when we saw them it was a 'had to have'
I currently have four boxes of books that belong to my sons in the dining room - they say I am to get rid of them - and I find that so difficult - to me they're a precious commodity - We had so few (due to expense ) when my sister and I were girls, winning a book token for good work at school or sunday school was a major occasion. Books were always to be treated with respect. (how times change)

Snapdragon - any more grandkiddies on the way? Even if not, you need to keep at least one or two as keepsakes for when the wee one has grown up.
Or you could donate them to a local toddler group, or children's ward or hospice in the area.

My school was very very in to reading and incredibly academic, any school prizes were given in book tokens. I won £15 in a science challenge when I was 12, another £20 for a short story when I was 15 and at 16 I won a fiver token for a poem.
now they give whsmith tokens which can be used for whatever whsmith sells so not just books.

QB, (or anyone else) the bookstart token: any idea where can it be used? 'cos I can't afford waterstones even with £1 off.

citizentwiglet wrote:Snapdragon - any more grandkiddies on the way? Even if not, you need to keep at least one or two as keepsakes for when the wee one has grown up.
Or you could donate them to a local toddler group, or children's ward or hospice in the area.

ooo I really don't think the kiddies will want to read James Herbert or Terry Pratchett,
apart from those I managed to hide, they donated most of their early books to school fetes and charity shops over the years.