I did not receive payment of any kind to write this post and purchased all products reviewed myself.
Author/s: Janet & Allan Ahlberg
No matter how hectic a process it has become, bedtime is still my favourite time of day. It is not just because that is finally the time of day when you achieve that combined sense of satisfaction and relief unique to parents around the world, as you realise you have successfully navigated another day alone with your child without killing or mentally scarring anyone but you. It is also good to know you are on the home straight and a whisper away from a chilled glass of wine but I mostly enjoy it because in our house it means bedtime story time. Since the Little Chap was six months old, OH or I have read him at least one book pretty much every single night. He has requested many of them time and again but I’ve made it a personal mission to ensure we cover as wide a range as possible – old and new classics, great rhymes, fairy tales, adventure stories, quality prose and quirky picture books, our own copies and library books alike. We have done touchy-feely and lift-the-flap, hardbacks and paperbacks of every size. I therefore thought it would be a good idea to start posting regularly my thoughts and recommendations on which are the best, which are ok and which I wish I had left on the shelf.Janet & Allan Ahlberg was a new and unknown writer/illustrator duo to me when I bought Peepo! I cannot remember exactly where I read the recommendation but it wowed me with its rave reviews of its charming illustrations and easily rhyming text.
© Mayfair Mum, 2012
This little hardback book won me over utterly, as it also did the Little Chap. He was probably about 18 months old when I bought it for us to read together. A time when I wanted to engage him in books with plenty of visual interest for him to explore as he listened to the repetition and pattern of the language.
Peepo! is essentially a poem, with each chapter dealing with a different element of baby’s day – waking up in his parents’ room, eating breakfast with the family, sitting in the garden in his pram, going out in the buggy to the park, having a bath and finally, going to bed. The routine and easy rhyming text goes hand in hand to familiarise your little one with a sense of time, as day becomes night. Its closing pages dealing with the end of the day also make it perfect for bedtime.
The pictures are indeed charming, harking back to a kind of 1950s working class utopia. Further, engage your little one in the wonder of each new scene, as they “peep” through the hole in each page at the next scene to answer the repeated question “…what does he see?”
We loved Peepo! so much, we took it on holiday to ensure the Little Chap settled better for the night and at one point, I had read it so many times I could recite the poem without the book!
Definitely a worth keeping for the grandchildren in my opinion. Have you read it? What did you and your little one/s think?
© Mayfair Mum, 2012
Mayfair Mum 
Peepo was one of my favourites – and I think the kids liked it too! Very nostalgic.
Me too – glad to have brought back fond memories Ellen x
Oh my goodness! I *loved* Peepo as a kid. I can also HIGHLY recommend The Jolly Postman by the same authors. I think that was pretty much my all time favourite book at that age. I’m enjoying some of the new ‘classics’ like the Gruffalo but you just can’t beat some of the old ones. I have been blog stalking from twitter and I’m so glad to have stumbled over this post. My son is just 10 weeks old and currently only responds to the black and white book we’ve got but I really can’t wait for when he gets as excited about bedtime stories as me. Wonderful blog! x
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