Stamps from Poland, India, England and USA

In June we participated in the ‘international postcard swap’ for families, kindly arranged by Zoe Toft, who writes a blog Playing by the Book.

As a result, we received mail from children living in 5 different countries. It is up to each family what they send, but all included one or more book recommendations. We thought others might enjoy seeing what was recommended to us:

Diya & Uday from India (Delhi) suggested “Blue Umbrella” by Ruskin Bond.

Kuba & Antek from Poland suggested “The very noisy night” by Diana Hendry & Jane Chapman

Shira, in the United States (Virginia) enjoys “Fairies”.

Jack & Lucy from Waltham (United Kingdom) suggested something we have also read and enjoyed – “Swallows & Amazons” by Arthur Ransome. Their other suggestion was “The folk of the Faraway Tree” by Enid Blyton

Alicia in Australia (Adelaide) enjoys:
“Farmer Brown and his little Red Truck” by Jean M. Cochran and Daryl Enos
“Hat” by Paul Hoppe
“Hand, hand, fingers, thumb” by Al Perkins & Eric Gurney
“Diary of a Wombat” by Jackie French & Bruce Whatley
“Heads” by Matthew van Fleet
“Ladybug Girl” by David Soman and Jacky Davis
“Where is the green sheep?” by Mem Fox & Judy Horacek

We will endeavour to track some of these down, though our libraries are not at their best, due to the earthquakes.

And we *greatly* enjoyed the cards, bookmarks and writing that the various children had included. Thanks to all the families that sent mail to us.

We looked up all the addresses on a map, and enjoyed finding a few pictures of each place, and guessing details, such as which nearby parks the children might like to use.

We also sent 5 postcards round the world; to Australia, United Kingdom, Montenegro, Japan and the United States.

Below are the books we recommended:

The Mousehole Cat – Antonia Barber


Dinothesaurus – Douglas Florian


Amos and Boris – William Steig


Moonshot – Brian Floca


Finn Family Moomitroll – Tove Jansson (and the audiobook)


Goodnight Moon – Margaret Wise-Brown


Just So Stories – Rudyard Kipling


Olive, the other reindeer – Vivian Walsh and J Otto Seibold


Comets, stars, the moon and mars – Douglas Florian


Babar visits another planet – Laurent de Brunhoff


The Secret Staircase (and other Brambly Hedge books) – Jill Barklem


Swiss Family Robinson – Johann David Wyss


Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome