"Oh Help, Oh No! It’s A Toddler Claiming He No Longer Likes The Gruffalo!"

In which I almost forgot World Book Day

Welcome to Baby Brain, a space where I - Charlotte, hi! - write about family life with three small children - Poppet (m, 4 years), Pickle (m, 2 years) and Peach (f, 5 months.) Those are not their real names. These are real stories from our days.

My favourite place as a child was the local library. 

I grew up in a traumatic environment, raised by two people in a toxic relationship with first each other, and then other people. I don't know if I was miserable or if I just accepted it, but I do recall relating to one Matilda Wormwood, a voracious reader like myself brought up in an unhealthy home. Matilda had a power that brought her through to the other side - telekinesis. My own power was, I would later realise, denial.

Denial, and the reading ability of someone much older than I actually was. Denial, and a library card.

My first visit to the local library was not a memorable one - I know that because I don’t remember it - but many of the visits after are still locked in my mind. I would be…