Julia Donaldson books

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Ds is very into Julia Donaldson's books and he seems to have his favourite on rotation. There are some I flipping hate reading over and over - some or just too repetitive but he seems to love those! The Smartest Giant is not one I enjoy... I do like Monkey Puzzle though. What are your favourites/least favourites?

I love Squash and a Squeeze. Reminds me of when DH and I were stuck in a little one bed flat that we were having terrible trouble selling!

Also like the Gruffalo and Monkey Puzzle.

One Ted Falls Out of Bed is my favourite

Surprised so many people like Charlie cook. I haaaaate it - I feel like it's not about anything! I mean I know it is but I feel like it's so boring, and has no real substance

Favourites are Highway Rat and Charlie Cook's Favourite Book. Will also always have a soft spot for the gruffalo as it was ds2 favourite book for a long time. He used to act it out with the stuffed toys.

Not a fan of Tabby Mctat, Tiddler, Monkey puzzle or the scarecrows wedding.

Recently discovered the Teeny Weeny Genie. All he wants to do is go somewhere quiet and drink tea, never related so hard to anything in my life.

I have 2 LOs who both love everything Julia Donaldson. Faves are:

The Gruffalo
The Gruffalo's Child
Stickman
The Highway Rat
Room on the Broom
Zog
Zog and the Flying Doctors
Snail and the Whale
Superworm
Squash and a squeeze
Tiddler
The Ugly Five
Monkey Puzzle
What the ladybird heard

The one's they aren't as keen on are:

Tabby McTat
The Smartest Giant in Town
Paper Dolls
Cave Baby
Tyrannosaurus Drip (although I like this one!)

There are some mentioned on here we don't have so making me want to order them!

We went to the live show of Room on the Broom and it was fantastic. They gave the cat loads more personality, it was getting increasingly annoyed as the witch kept adding all the animals and was making faces at the audience.

Snail and the Whale is my favourite as it’s the rhymes and the illustrations working perfectly together.

One thing you can always say for Julia, as she can write rhymes that bloody scan. It’s amazing how many childrens writers can’t. Gives me the rage!

Tiddler and what the ladybird heard. Been reading them to ds since he was born and they're still his faves and he is 3 and im not (too) sick of them

I had to remove The hospital dog from the house the year santa delivered it as it made me and the kids cry🙈

Room on the broom is excellent but I think my favourite is Sharing a shell.

Oh wow, the DD's and I were just talking about these books the other day, they are 11 and 13 now and I genuinely miss reading them, we had what the ladybird heard with sound effects but Tabby McTat was definitely all of our favourite

my daughter’s Italian niece came over to improve her English. She would read to the children and I will always remember her version of a skwash and a sqwizzy ! Our Christmas favourite was always Stickman . I miss reading all those books to my grandchildren who are now sadly too old .

A Squash and a Squeeze is very similar to a Yiddish traditional story (no pigs in the Yiddish version). I always think the wise man looks like a Chassidic Rabbi. The rhyme/scan always feels a bit clumsy to me.

Favourites here are
Cave Baby
Paper Dolls (like many other posters it makes me a bit tearful)
Tyrannosaurus Drip
Snail and the Whale

I really don't like the Rhyming Rabbit or the Unicorn one

I love Monkey Puzzle, it's a work of genius. The rhythm is spot on, the story is nice, and there's s nice lesson in there too

My least favourites are Smartest Giant and Sugar Lump

I find the stories a bit off and also not as good to read

My dd is now 12. I could still recite stick man and Tiddler now. I was never keen on a squash and a squeeze

I don't think anyone has mentioned The Detective Dog. We really love that one. Other favourites have already been mentioned- Tabby McTat, Charlie Cook, Monkey Puzzle, Room on the Broom.

I’m amazed that your 22 month old likes Tabby McTat every night! DS is almost 2.5 and loses concentration about 5 pages in. I thought it was because the book is too old for him, but perhaps not?

I love the snail and the whale and sharing a shell.

Which is doubly annoying given that her husband is Scottish and they lived there for many years!

Ha ha, yes! I really like that one too.

Agreed. I also, as a mother of an only child, love the family of three scene at the end.

I don't like the ones that require you to sing because you have to make the tune up as you go along- Tabby McTat, Ugly Five and Smartest Giant I'm looking at you. I feel like there should be a podcast with the tunes in it somewhere.

My son is 6 but still terrified of the lizard in Superworm. I love Stick Man and really liked the cartoon with Martin Freeman and Jennifer Saunders.

The Go Away Bird is a little-known one, not very plot-heavy but lovely illustrations.

Highway Rat is fun, very clever comeuppance for the baddie.

Jack and the Flum Flum tree is a pleasure to read and I love the illustrations. If anyone has a copy to hand though, look at the page towards the end where they are sailing off towards the sun. My son once said to me, out of the blue "Mummy it looks like the inside of a bottom". I couldn't work out what he meant, until he explained that he had been watching some sort of kid-friendly YouTube animation of the journey of food through the digestive system. Once you have seen it tabt was you can't unsee it

Spinderella is a favourite for my 3 year old. I liked it the first hundred times.

Like Monkey puzzle but not when DH sings it.

The Gruffalo books and Zog books are cool. I really like Princess Pearl!

Hadn't thought about different accents not rhyming well tbh (posh southern but adding a more northern hint following relocation!)

Someone beat me to it, but One Ted is the best counting book ever and with DC in secondary, DH and I can still recite the whole thing by heart. I practically can't even hear the phrase "1 2 3" without adding mentally "4 5 6, 7 8 9, 10 red bricks".

For older children, Princess Mirror-Belle is also great.

Massive JD fans in this house, even now they're 8 and 9. They started off with Tales from Acorn Wood and Monkey Puzzle as toddlers then moved onto the others. I love The Gruffalo and Gruffalos Child and can mimic the film voices pretty well so the kids love that 🙂 My absolute favourite is Room on the Broom. They also like the Zog books and What the Ladybird Heard. Haven't read the Highway Rat but love the film - we always shout chocolate in a Scottish accent when we're raiding the treat cupboard here 😆

What is interesting with my kids is that they mainly like the ones illustrated by Axel Scheffler. The others don't appeal to them as much. I think Axel includes lots of small interesting background detail that they like looking at.