Books for 4 year olds

G.'s birthday is approaching which means Bill and I have entered our customary book-buying frenzy.

Does anyone have any recommendations for good books for 4-year-olds (I'm particularly looking at ladyofastolat here)? G. likes books with a bit of a story (although she seems to find ladybird fairytales retold a little complex) but short enough to be read in one sitting (mind you she was keen on "Fantastic Mr Fox" but I've not had any success with other longer books such as "The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark" or "Miss Happiness and Miss Flower" but this might mean that we should get hold of a few longer stories for later in the year).

She's right on the edge of being able to read (knows all the letters recognises a few "key words" (cat, dog, G., the, and) by sight and can puzzle out simple phonics (three letter words with a short vowel sound in the middle mostly)) and is interested in the concept of the Peter and Jane books but, I think, finds them both a little dull and a lot of hard work - something which perhaps had bits for me to read and then simple bits for her to read might be good, if anyone knows of such a thing, so that the pace and interest was maintained alongside some reading practice.

She also appears fond of poetry (She has a poetry book mostly aimed at much younger children of which she is fond, but she also likes Old Possum's book of Cats).

Suggestions?

Chilled Summer Treats

One of the things we rather miss about Edinburgh is the Festival and so it was nice of Manchester to celebrate our arrival by instituting a Festival of its own. That said we have dismally failed to arrange to see Monkey, Journey to the West. However, since both B. and I were working from home today we decided to try out Heston Blumenthal's Chilled Summer Treats. Braving wind and rain we arrived at the Festival Pavilion to discover these were ice cream. We beat a hasty retreat to a nearby Italian restaurant. Some time later we were warm and well-fed, and the rain seemed to have stopped, so we felt more up to incredibly expensive ice cream.

It must be said I have never, in the past, had to purchase a ticket from a box office (including providing my surname) in order to be allowed to buy ice cream. So it was a novel experience. 10 pounds poorer we took our tickets outside to the brightly coloured ice cream booth and sympathised with the sou chefs on the weather and poor turn-out. B. had mushy pea sorbet with mint sauce and candied bacon. He said it was nice but he was expecting it to be a bit more in your face pea-y. I had a chocolate wine slushicle (I've never heard of a slushicle before but it looked like a popsicle, complete with plastic packaging you squeezed it out of and could then drink the left-over juice from) with a gold-leafed, chocolate topped shortbread. It was very nice, distinctly good dark chocolatey with a hint of wine - despite being a dark red colour so I'd expected a more prominent wine flavour. According to my napkin it was based on a recipe from 1710 when Chocolate Wine was considered an aphrodisiac. We sat in a specially built little wooden faux beach hut (complete with canned wave and seagull sound effects) and peered out at the wind-swept vista of Manchester's financial district. Actually it was remarkably reminiscent of childhood visits to the sea-side having that flavour of "we will enjoy the beach despite the rain and the gale".

We've been vaguely considering booking a meal at the Fat Duck for our 10th wedding anniversary (over a year a way, but it never hurts to plan). We're still vaguely considering it. The Sorbet and Slushicle were fun, distinctive and tasty but hugely expensive which probably sums up the Fat Duck's Tasting Menu.