Booksource - The Book Depository.co.uk

Any Anglo living abroad I'm sure can relate. You want to raise your child speaking your mother tongue and feel it's important to instill that language as their own mother tongue. Children love books and imaginative storytelling, what better way to share some quality time than sharing a good story? Books are hands down the most excellent means to vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension of any language. While living in Israel has many advantages it does make coming by English toddler/children's books rather difficult. You're faced with several options, buying books on sites like amazon and paying ludicrous shipping fees, and then some import taxes just because, begging friends and relatives to bring some over , or making due with children's books in hebrew.

I've mentioned before our love of books and reading and am proud to see that my little girl is well on her way to being a little bookworm herself. We buy more books than any other toy or activity for our daughter and it is often her preferred pastime to snuggle up on our laps and listen to enthusiastic renditions of her favorite stories. But how to keep up with her developmental milestones and make things interesting by adding new books to our collection? all whilst residing at least two continents and an ocean away from your nearest Barnes and Noble?

I've previously tried all off the options I offered above, some with greater success than others none off them enough to satisfy our craving for more books. I've recently perused the web desperately searching for online bookstores that ship internationally and stock a wide selection of English board books for toddlers. Imagine my surprise and joy stumbling on to an online bookstore based in the U.K called The Book Depository they not only ship worldwide, shipping is FREE!! You heard me free! I'm kicking myself for not finding/hearing of them sooner.



We just put our first order through two weeks ago and all the books were at our house within 1 week. We've been enjoying some new stories and I'm already making wish lists for future orders. The books ship individually, they were well wrapped and each came with a cute little bookmark. According to their website their aim is too make all books available to all a goal I admire and appreciate. They've certainly one me over, I know where I'll be doing my book shopping from now on!

O.k so out of our newest acquisitions we got two Charles Fuge books, I've never encountered his books before but boy am I glad we did! Somtimes I like to curl up in a ball written by Vicki Churchill and illustrated by Fuge and I know a rhino written and illustrated by Fuge are my daughters new favorite books. Toddlers can really relate to the endearing little wombat and all his quirks and the sweet story of a little girl and her animal friends.

Looking for a gift for your own little bookworm? why not a P'kolino book buggee to help them pull around their favorite titles and other prized possessions?

Bookworms!

Last Week we enjoyed a couple of really nice sunny days.... sorry for the lull in posts, we were out enjoying the good weather. The weekend brought the winter back with it though, it's been pouring since Friday and we've been cooped up inside and doing a lot of reading....

I've been a reader my whole life, started when I was three and I've never looked back. As a child I was often caught reading under my covers with a flashlight in the wee hours of the night. Nothing thrills me more than a real page turner. Books are the foundation of language, culture, and an endless source of knowledge. Needless to say that I want my daughter to love books at least as much as I do! Lucky for me we seem to be on the right track. I started reading to her as early as 6 weeks old, and spend many a morning just reading book after book, I'm sure the very animated story telling has a little to do with it as I often don't just read the story rather perform it! Since her birth we've collected at least 60 board books many of them classics that I grew up with some of them forgotten until now. In her room we store the "sleepy" time books, and more lively books are on her shelves in the playroom, in the bathroom we even have a stack of bath books! Some days she likes some books more than others but there are many favorites. Here is our unofficial list of must have toddler books.

1. Good Night Moon - by Margaret wise Brown and Clement Hurd. It's probably on every must have list, but that's not the reason we love it so much.... repeating the story in a slow drawn out voice has often been enough to lull her to sleep.

2. Hug - by Jez Alborough Though short on words the feelings of this book definitely get across to the toddler set! A little monkey wanting a hug from his mommy is something I guess mine can relate too as the slightest mention of Bobo brings a huge smile to her face!


3. Goodnight Gorilla -by Peggy Rathmann also short on words, this book unfolds almost entirely through the illustrations, but is a permanent part of our bedtime routine.

4. Jamberry - by Bruce Degen. This infectious rhyming book about counting and berries definitely grows on you. Every time you read it there's more to discover in the illustrations. While almost ignored when we first got it this book is probably "the" all time favorite!


5. My First Body Board Book - by DK publishing A.K.A. Bibi! This board book has been read and reread hundreds of times sometimes repeatedly for an hour! Sometimes we read every page sometimes we just "skip" to the favorites either way this book is on the list to stay.


6. Dear Zoo - by Rod Campell this lift the flap book is always well received, my daughter loves lifting the flaps to discover the animal sent from the zoo and shouting out their names.

7. What's wrong little Pookie - by Sandra Boynton This one totally inspired my daughters nicknames; pookie, pookie pookster, pooks, pookiesaurus, pookiesauraus rex, etc... it brings a smile to my face everytime we read it! mothers know best...

8. Yummu Yucky - by Leslie Patricelli This was a recent aquisition and we haven't put it down since. It has a place of honour on our shelf. Everyday food and objects broken down into two groups toddlers can understand; Yummy v.s. Yucky! and the illustrations are great too!



9. Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you see - by Bill Martin and illustrated by Eric Carle I'll admit that I don't entirely "get" it's appeal, maybe it's the repetition.... either way my daughter loves! this book, it was probably her earliest favorite....


10. Are You My Mother - by P.D. Eastman The tale of a little bird looking for his mother and there sweet reunion when he finds her at last is great for snuggling story time.



The list could go on and on but I promised it would be my toddlers top 10!

What about you? what are your must haves?