happy bunny

Miffy is just insufferably smug and middle class. Mrs Bunny wears twinset and pearls, Mr Bunny sports a suit and buys everyone lemonade after a lovely day at the park. Read the first Miffy and there's some very very strange quasireligious message going on there: little white bunny as Christ? most odd.

We don't have that one, I'm glad to say: but Miffy goes to the Park was a big favourite for a while, and having to read it every night was a horror.

So I steered little a tonight towards Miffy the Artist, which turns out to be a Tate publication (no surprise, since I bought it on one of our yummy mummy cultural outings to the Tate Modern). It's positively scintillating by comparison. And little a does love Miffy.

'She likes the lots of miffies. Because she's a miffy'

And there is something totally irresistible about that little cross for a mouth ...

FOUR stories tonight: brilliant that they still seem to work as bribery. Goldilocks and the three bears came to the rescue during the weekly nit safari. Hurrah for the old nursery tales that you can spin out as long as you need them to be during a tedious task. Quite a lot of wrangling and dispute though: no mummy, the bears wore shoes [who's telling the story? They put on their wellies] at grandma's house they wore shoes ... no the bed wasn't lumpy it was TOO HARD.

Time was I could tell tales however I liked and little a could be counted on to be filled with wonder. Nobody warns you how EARLY the rebellion and independence starts. But you know, with it comes the most amazing creativity and great personality. And little a tells herself stories all the time. Only child thing? I don't know, but I love to listen in.

And before I turn in, a word for the deeply brilliant Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett. She is the most beautiful beautiful artist. I utterly admire Roger Hargreaves and Dick Bruna for the simplicity and boldness of their illustrations, but Emily Gravett captures the spirit and character in a style reminiscent of Ernest Shepherd or Edward Ardizzone (ooh must discover some of his!).

The story is simplicity itself: monkey and me monkey and me monkey and me we went to see we went to see some ... [all together now] ... penguins! little a knows it so well now she's shouting out the animals before I even turn the page. But I love the way the clues are in the illustrations: monkey and me are leaping for the kangaroos, hanging upside down for the bats. And it's perfect for bedtime: you can have a last burst of energy yelling 'elephants!' before winding down to falling asleep over tea on the last page. I'd say this, and orange pear apple bear (which I've always coveted but never owned) are absolute essentials for the collection.

'She fell asleep with still a mouthful!'