I remember well reading to my children when they were small and I was able to tell which the good books were as they liked repetition. They liked me to read the same story, and I knew that the best children’s books were always a pleasure to read out loud. However some of them that they liked I did n’t. I never changed a word of Maurice Sendak’s books and they always went down well. Postman Pat was another matter, I could not help but re-write as I went along with armed robbers on the loose and Mrs Goggins as an evil loose woman on the prowl. It usually got them off to sleep and made the books ever so slightly more bearable for me.
