ReadItDaddy Reads aloud - Mostly Books and Usborne's 40th Anniversary, the perfect time for storytelling fun!

We kept a keen eye on the weather, and thankfully the rainclouds stayed away long enough for us to sit comfortably, and begin. 

"My Big Shouting Day" by Rebecca Patterson (Jonathan Cape PB Ltd)

"Splat the Cat" by Rob Scotton (HarperCollins Children's Books)

"The Bear Under the Stairs" by Helen Cooper (Picture Corgi)

"We're Going on a Bear Hunt" by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury (Walker Books)

"Peck Peck Peck" by Lucy Cousins (Walker Books)

Starting off with that mischievous woodpecker in "Peck Peck Peck", children loved the idea of the book being full of holes and joined in wonderfully - shouting "Peck Peck Peck" and even "Kiss Kiss" when daddy woodpecker kisses his little protege goodnight. 

We then moved on to "My Big Shouting Day" which was again a great book for audience participation as children read (and shouted) Bella's lines. 

I'd never realised how hard it is to actually keep a book pointing the right way to an audience, reading it side on - or even sometimes reading it upside down - and of course turning pages without them sticking together or you skipping ahead, eek - but I guess perfection comes with practice. 

We rounded off our half an hour (which seemed to go so quickly - I could've quite happily carried on all afternoon but I think the kids would've got very fidgety!) with the fabulous "We're going on a Bear Hunt" which was being read in the picture in our header above - to much joy and participation, which was utterly brilliant to see. 

We had a lot of fun, the children and their parents were wonderful - and we can't wait to do this again sometime soon. 

Huge thanks to Mark at Mostly Books for having us, thanks to the parents and kids who came along to listen to story time and thanks to Usborne for having such a brilliant 40th Anniversary day with lots of goodie bags on hand!