Where's Mrs T-Rex?

"There are lots of books to choose from in this series. I tend to veer towards books that go against stereotypes, because I think it’s really important that we don’t put stereotypical images in front of young children all the time. They pick up these messages so quickly from nursery, from the media, from the things they see in books. So I’ve gone for Where’s Mrs T-Rex? because animals in books are often male, especially if they’re strong animals. If you think about books that feature lions, they’re not lionesses. I know a lion looks wonderful with his mane, you can do lovely illustration with them, but we don’t have many books with lionesses even though they’re the ones who hunt. To get away from stereotypes, for me this baby book pick was a toss up between Where’s Mrs T-Rex? and Where’s Mr Unicorn? This is a small board book, which is ideal to start babies off with because when you’ve got a baby on your lap you haven’t got a lot of room. Sometimes it can be quite a juggling act to have a bigger book and the baby reaching out, because they all want to touch the book. So this is ideal for when baby is sitting on your lap and also for babies to hold themselves. It’s got flaps in it. Very little children, from a few months old, soon learn that if you lift the flap you’ll find something underneath. A lot of flap books tear after a few times of handling, and then you lose that excitement of lifting the flap, but in this series the flaps are made of felt so they won’t tear. At the end of the book there’s a surprise – a mirror – and of course babies love to see themselves in mirrors. Yes, another thing I like about these books is that they’re very colourful, and the drawings are simplistic. So that’s really nice for very small babies whose vision is developing. It’s brilliant."