We’ve finished: A Helping of Horrid Henry

This bumper edition of Francesca Simon’s Horrid Henry tales gave us a neat, complete short story at bedtime for many nights.

The stories certainly didn’t disappoint Toby who despite being familiar with most of them through the TV version still drew great delight from hearing them read to him once again, regularly finishing off some of the sentences!

What we’re reading: A Helping of Horrid Henry by Francesca Simon

So our next bedtime read was all Toby’s choosing. I have to confess that to date I’ve very much steered the book choices but Francesca Simon’s Horrid Henry franchise is something that Toby has discovered for himself, so it is his turn to educate me.

He was first introduced to Horrid Henry at school, and has since become a fan of the cartoon version that runs regularly on CITV and can also be found on YouTube. He absolutely loves these cartoons and can now perform a fairly accurate rendition of the theme tune.

We’ve finished! The Witches

I picked Roald Dahl’s The Witches as a story to read with Toby as it was one that had lingered in my memory from childhood.

I remember well feeling frightened reading it but not so frightened that I didn’t want to keep turning the pages. As Toby enjoys the thrill of scary stories I thought it was a story that would grip him. However, I had no idea that it had been heavily criticised at its time of publication for encouraging misogyny.