BROWN BEAR, BROWN BEAR, WHAT DO YOU SEE? BY BILL MARTIN JR + ERIC CARLE

Over the years we have received about three or four copies of The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle as a gift. And while it's a story that I remember from my childhood, and was enjoyed by my son as a toddler, it does not compare with the response that my 18-month-old daughter has had to Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See by Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle.

It is a book that she enjoys reading together as there is a lot of word play on animals and colour, although she always wants to flip to the back page. This is where we engage in a question and answer scenario - her trying to find the animals that I'm talking about. But she has also started to ask to take the book into her cot at night. Last night she even woke during the middle of the night asking for it. This gives you an indication of how much of an impact it has made on her.

The book was published in 1967 and while it has no plot, the narrator asks a series of animals what they see, which is usually another animal. There are three spin-off books: Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do Your Hear? (1991), Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do Your See? (2003) and Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? (2007).

images the indigo crew