ghoti_mhic_uait

There are a lot of Tv programmes and books that I occasionally think 'oh, we haven't had that for a while, that's kind of fun' but would only ever read or watch if the children happened to be watching. Things like Special Agent Oso or Handy Manny I miss occasionally if they haven't been on. The thing about children's TV is that it tends ot be a lot more diverse than adults. More equal gender balance, more people of different ethnicities, more disabled characters *who just happen to be disabled rather than because it's immediately plot necessary*.

Whenever a program goes big among adults it seems that the exact same themes I see all the time are what makes it big, so from that pov, almost any programme will do! My boyfriend, for example, likes, er, that one on the Disney channel that's the same as a Nick programme and a lot like all the other Disney channel progs too. We aren't quite old enough to be spending a lot of time on the Disney channel yet, so I forget its name, but I think that makes my point. I personally like Phineas and Ferb (two stepbrothers join forces to not be bored, universe resets at the end of the episode) the best, and would generally recommend it, but if you like Steven Universe or House of Anubis or Totally Spies (set of spies who want to save the universe without messing up their makeup - a big source of imaginary play in our house) or Super Hero High or any of the similar teeny things, it's probably worth taking a punt on the whole gamut. I rather like Super Hero High, btw, which is an online show about teenage super heroes, focussing on the women. Wonder Woman is adorable. (I looked it up - it's Gravity Falls that J likes.)

Similarly, my children love the 80s revival stuff - MLP, Care Bears, Transformers, Strawberry Shortcake, etc. I personally like Care Bears the best of those, but there's a lot of similar new animation too, Littlest Pet Shop, about a pet shop with a volunteer teenager who can talk to animals, Little Charmers (weird pastel witches) or Lego Friends, a soap about teenagers made of lego, are Andreas' favourite, I quite like Shimmer and Shine, which is about genies who try their best but sometimes misinterpret wishes and have to fix the mess they make.

For things that I would choose to watch by myself, though, there is a theme - they tend to be fairly scientific or at least educational.

So I love Octonauts which is about marine biology, and Go, Diego, Go which is similar but mostly land animals of South America. Both of them have a story with an anthropomorphised animal, in which the facts are generally true, and end with a summary of facts about the animal, and a photo.

Mouk, which is a French cartoon about two children cycling around the world and learning as they go. It's joyful, it's fun and yes, I learn stuff.

I quite enjoy Team Umizoomi but mostly for the theme tune 'With their magic math powers, you can call them any hour' 'You can help us you're so clever' and there's a language one too, Superwhy.

Honourable mention here to Blaze and the Monster Machines, which has too much of the hero/antagonist dynamic for me to enjoy, but I love how much the kids have learnt about physics from it.

Not fitting any of the characters, but I always enjoy Zou, about an adorable zebra and his family.

I seem to have spoken mostly about TV, but the question was about books too. So, I just want to mention Debi Gliori. My favourite is Stormy Weather, in which parents of all sorts cuddle their children in a scary storm at night. The children both like No Matter What best, which is about unconditional love, the child starts out feeling 'grim and dark' and violent, and the parent slowly fixes things, especially the feeling, in a respectful way.