It's Not Fair by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

We bought an iPad. I've quite fancied one since they came out, but the real Apple fanboy in the family - almost-8-year-old Harry - has been desperate for one. So we finally bought one and Harry described it as a "dream come true."

We've downloaded quite a few picture book apps, which I'll write about another time, but the first actual picture book we downloaded was Amy Krouse Rosenthal's I'm Not Fair.

I love Rosenthal's books - particularly Yes Day, which is also illustrated (beautifully) by Tom Lichtenheld (who, I just realised, also wrote and illustrated the wonderful E-mergency!) - and It's Not Fair is another treat, written in rhyme (which doesn't always work without an American accent!), children and more complain about how life isn't fair. You know, like children do ALL THE TIME.

But the most successful part of this book was the following:

'Why can't I have curly locks?'
'Why can't I have my own box?'
Why now, chicken pox?!'

Since I was reading it to 3-year-old Joe, who is indeed suffering from chicken pox. He was so excited to see it in the book, it was hilarious. (The book also features a 'Complaint at Law in the Circuit Court of Fairness' that I'm sure many parents will appreciate.)

One thing I will say is that after spending the day playing with book apps, a plain old book seemed a bit, you know, limited. This is, I know, ridiculous, since I've been reading books for 40 years and, at the time of reading It's Not Fair, had had the iPad for about four hours, and yet I found myself tapping the picture and expecting it to do something. Sigh. You can, however, zoom in, which was great for looking at the chicken pox up close and is also good for isolating particular words or parts of pictures.

E-mergency! by Tom Lichtenheld & Ezra Fields-Meyer

How would you manage if you couldn't use the letter E? Not very well, I'd imagine. (I've used it ten times in this post already.)

In E-mergency, the letters of the alphabet all share a house and, one morning, E falls down the stairs. ("Eeeee!") The other letters all rally round and once the "EMTs" have "rushed in with an IV, ready to perform CPR", she's rushed to the ER.

They letters get together and nominate O to replace E while she recuperates. On TV, there's a "Spocial Bullotin" to announce the news. D and C go to Washington to alert the government. The other letters go on the talk shows (including O). But for some reason, E just isn't getting better. But then they realise. One person is still using the letter E and it's the narrator of the book...

This book is such good fun to read (although also quite tricky), plus it's crammed with so many jokes, that I still haven't read them all (we particularly love the letter P in the bathroom). My boys both love it and because I'm holding some of the gags back, I know we'll continue to enjoy it for a while to come.

Thanks so much to Tina of ABRAMS & Chronicle Books for sending it.