The Aardvark Blog

Sunshine and children's books
1/03/2014

An early dog walk in spring sunshine set the pattern of the day. Crisp under foot, but with a beautiful open blue sky it seemed as if the year had finally turned. Not perhaps the ideal day to spend in a bookshop you may think, but later I took delivery of a large quantity of new children's books - fiction and picture books - and have spent a happy day cataloguing them for the website.

This particular group of books included both bang up to date fiction ( much of it published within the last six months ), with some new editions of favourites from the past such as Biggles, Rosemary Sutcliffe, Alison Uttley and even best of all a wonderful hardback edition of Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle. I have long disputed that this is a children's book - it seems to me that it can be read profitably at any age - but obviously the publishers think differently. Alongside the novels were some pop up books, wonderful painterly picture books, some first readers and a few non-fiction titles. All in all a delight for any children or parents who come into the shop over the next few weeks before they are all inevitably snapped up! Why delay.