large print 3

Friends of ours are having a baby girl in a couple of months time, so I've been thinking about what 'welcome to the world' prezzie I'd like to give her. Books seemed like the best option, so for my second project using large print fabrics I've made a sturdy book bag with her name embroidered on it, and I've filled the bag with a selection of books to get Rita's library off to a good start. Here are a few of them:

Every bub needs a copy of Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar, so that they can enjoy turning the nibbled pages of the book and watching the wee critter munch its way through a week's worth of food, then build a cosy cocoon, and emerge as a gorgeous butterfly on the final page. Nobody does colour like Eric Carle. Even after all these years, his illustrations continue to fill me with joy.

From one greedy critter to another, no little one's library can do without Judith Kerr's classic, The Tiger who Came to Tea.

After reading this book when I was little I longed for a tiger to show up at my house for a tea party and then devour the contents of the pantry. Of course, I couldn't resist buying a copy of the book for Rita that came with its own little china tea set.

I know I've said it before, but in terms of essential picture books, you simply can't go past Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, so a copy of this book was the first item to make it into Rita's book bag. The emotional arc of this story of a young boy's anger, defiance, and regret was a huge influence on me when I was young, so I hope that it will resonate with Rita too.

Our Dad was very fond of reading us sad stories - 'little tear-jerkers' as he called them. His favourites were Oscar Wilde's stories, 'The Selfish Giant' and The Happy Prince', and just thinking about those stories still brings a tear to my eye. But perhaps the story that resonated most powerfully with me, my brothers and sister, was The Lorax by Dr Seuss.

This story about a passionate 'eco-warrior' and his quest to save the beautiful Truffula trees from being destroyed by the evil capitalist Onceler, never failed to get our blood boiling. But then you come to that image of hope at the end when the reclusive Onceler places the last Truffula seed into the hands of the young boy to whom he has narrated the whole sorry saga, and you close the book hoping like heck that that seed will grow and eventually restore the landscape to its former beauty.

We found Rita a nice edition of The Lorax printed on recycled paper, so I hope this moving little tear-jerker of a tale will matter to her as much as it did to us, and I hope too, that our contribution to Rita's library will mark the beginning of a long and wonderful relationship with books in her life.