More new books for Olive

We caught up with Olive's uncle on the weekend and as usual he had some lovely gifts for her. She's really lucky, he takes his uncle duties very seriously and is always on the look out for books that she would like.

The Happy Lion by Louise Fatio and Roger Duvoisin.

This one is charming! A lovely story about a very happy lion who has lots of friends, until he finds the zoo gate open and decides to go for a walk. Wonderful illustrations. I think it's over 50 years old, and part of a series. Provoked lots of questions from Olive about why the villagers were afraid, and why the little boy wasn't.

The Biggest House in the World by Leo Lionni

Olive loves this book because she is The Snail Hunter, a little botanist in the making! She's obsessed with bugs, snails and spiders and likes nothing better than to hunt for snails in our garden. My mum recently sent her a bug glass which goes everywhere with her. This story is about a snail who wanted the biggest house in the world and what happened when it grew too big. I'm still very wary about telling Olive stories which have death or anything scary in them, but she seemed to handle this tale pretty well. I've been avoiding a lot of Hans Christian Andersen for this very reason, perhaps we'll give them a go, but maybe not at bedtime!