pink rabbits

This is my granddaughter looking at some board books I bought for her - Counting and Colours by Finnish illustrator and designer Aino-Maija Metsola. See more of her work here. We love these books. We love the brilliant colours and funny drawings and there are loads of flaps to lift and close.

1 to 20

Children's picture books have become a regular item on my library (and credit) card now that I'm a grandma. These lovely illustrations are from 1 to 20, animals aplenty by Katie Viggers. I love that she's included one of my favourite animals - the capybara.

And today, for the first time, I saw Peppa Pig on TV. Isn't it great? I love Daddy Pig's voice. And all that giggling from Peppa and George.

take out

There are things about my neighbourhood that I really like. I love the idea behind these two street book exchanges. They're just sweetly decorated cupboards really - one on the edge of a park and the other in someone's garden. The idea is you "take one out, put one in" and not necessarily at the same time. I don't know if the libraries are monitored in any way but I have noticed there never seems to be a shortage of books and there are always different books so maybe it just works. Nice.

Reading: The New York dog by Rachael Hale McKenna. This is a collection of photos of dogs living in New York City. Best quote - "One of the great things about having a dog in the city is that it encourages you to socialize. You can meet interesting people for about five minutes, which is a nice chunk of time." William Wegman (artist)

Mr Fox

Last week a student set up a table outside the local library. She had a list of books that people felt had influenced their lives in some way. She'd written the individual titles onto strips of paper, folded them and dropped them into a box. The idea was that passersby would randomly select a title from the box - a bit like a lucky dip - then go in to the library and borrow the book.

I drew 'Fantastic Mr Fox' by Roald Dahl, illustrated by Quentin Blake. I decided that somehow this was serendipity and that I should borrow and read this book. Maybe something joyous would happen. So I did borrow it and read it. And I enjoyed it. I'm sure if I were seven years old I probably would've loved it.

I'm not sure of the purpose of the student's project. If you borrowed the book you were meant to return the slip to a different box inside the library - presumably for the student to collect later. Anyway, I think it was a nice gesture. It was an opportunity to read something you probably wouldn't normally read. Maybe even broaden your experiences. It lead me to rediscover my own Mr Fox and to borrow the DVD. So... not bad at all. Thanks.