Books For (Big) Kids

This is the one kind of shopping that I view very kindly- I've been tasked to buy children's books on this trip. "Not the fluffy ones," the friends instructed. "We want the darker ones. The ones with humor please." Doh. So very difficult to buy books for their children! They don't seem to like anything offered in our bookshops. What do children read nowadays anyway?

I wonder why Amazon isn't enough for their shopping needs. They certainly don't need me to 'vet' the book! They can do it all by themselves. If they decide that the books aren't suitable for the younglings, they'll just steal it for their own bookshelves!

London has plenty of very interesting (and cheap) children's books with plenty of colorful concepts that aren't exactly widely available in our part of the world. I found many that met the friends' criteria. Lots of activity books bought. Of course I'm not lugging them back in my suitcases. There're at least a hundred books. At the onset, the friends have said shipping's on them. Heh. I love our arrangement.

Aside from the many children's books packed into the cartons, I also got these 2 books for the adults who have a really quirky sense of humor and would want to read them- Poo: A Natural History of the Unmentionable by Nicola Davies and illustrated by Neal Layton, and The Dangerous Alphabet by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Gris Grimly. Heeeee. With excellent authors, dry humor and frighteningly brilliant illustrators, I'm quite sure they'll enjoy the read.

So, about the alphabet. Let me give you an example by Neil Gaiman. He says "D is for diamonds, the bait on the hook." and "V is for vile deeds done in the night".