Once a series like Maisy takes off and becomes a feature in every discount and department store, it’s easy to forget what made you love her in the first place.

And while the monopolisation of series like Maisy in chain store aisles undoubtedly takes shelf space away from the huge variety of other creative and talented authors out there, it is nice to know that there is a quality children’s book available very accessibly.

I love Lucy Cousin’s bold colours in all her books and the clever use of concepts that appeal to babies and toddlers. In the pop-up and lift-the-flap editions of Maisy in particular, the illustrations are always a little bit quirky, and reveal something unexpected.

Rowan knows ‘Maisy’ as ‘Mimi’ ‘cos he has a Maisy DVD where you can select the language, and I’ve only ever played it to him in French. (One day he’ll get me back for doing things like that…) I know some mums who find the character dialogue in the Maisy animated series annoying. But what I only just discovered is that the character voices and sound effects were recorded in London by Australia’s own comedy duo, The Umbilical Brothers. That puts it in a new light!

For Melbourne Maisy lovers, Readings stores have a promotion this month, giving away a mini Maisy plush toy with every hardback Maisy book purchase. (We bought Maisy at the Farm, pictured here.)

And speaking of oldies but goodies, check out this lovely post on Media Macaroni titled Why Charlie and Lola Makes Me Want to Procreate.

A guest post by Trudy, 30-something-year-old first-time mum to Oscar, 15 months.

What is it about animals that kids find so interesting, actually what is it about animals that I find so interesting? Is it their shape, the noises they make, the colour of their skin, fur or feathers? Yes you guessed it, Oscar, Matt & I made a recent trip to the zoo. I am not sure who was more excited, Oscar, his dad pointing out all of the wonderful animals, or me watching the expressions on both of their faces.

Ever since our adventure to the zoo last week, we have had even more fun with our vast array of animal books at home. I actually didn’t realise how many animal books we have got!

Some of the books have already been reviewed by Lou & Katie [Dear Zoo (Rod Campbell), Zoo! (Lori Froeb) and Dog (Matthew Van Fleet)] but I have included another favourite to share with the weheartbooks.com family.

Animal Babies A to Z: A Pop-Up Book by Chuck Murphy

Open the front cover and you are taken aback by the most beautiful bold black and white letters. The anticipation of what’s behind is too much for Oscar as he grabs at a letter. [He needs to be reminded again that it's a special book and we need to be careful! He is learning slowly.]

A = Antelope B = Baboon C = Chameleon. The bright colours of the Chameleon against the black shiny background is truly amazing and the pop-out three-dimensional branch which holds the Chameleon and its five offspring is like the real thing.

As you work your way through the alphabet, you are greeted with wonderful pop-outs or lift the flaps to see who may be behind that wonderful letter. The range of animals is just amazing and it’s always nice to see some Australian classics such as the koala and wallaby (what a clever man to put a wallaby, but I guess when you’re confronted with “k” for kangaroo and koala you have to think a little more laterally).

Most of the classics such as the gorilla, elephant, snakes, tigers and lions are in there. I was disappointed that the giraffe couldn’t squeeze into the book but when you see the family of gorillas you forgive him for the oversight! We then move to some of the more obscure animals including the okapi, numbat, quetzal, urial and vicuna - all very interesting to say the least.

I have shared a couple of our favourite pages below so you can see how wonderful the illustrations and pop-outs are. (Forgive some of my photography skills but it’s a tricky book to capture.)