Boing!

Boing! What does the world's bounciest stuntman do on his days off? Trains and practices of course, but when a little over-enthusiastic exercise goes wrong, The Great Elastic Marvel (five times world trampolining champion) has to rely on his flexible limbs and quick wits to save him from imminent doom.

This book is excellent, not just because of Bruce Ingman's child-friendly artwork (Anyone familiar with his work on The Pencil and The Runaway Dinner will know why kids love his drawings so much), but because of the build up of anticipation and excitement just before it looks certain that The Great Elastic Marvel will come to a sticky end.

It's almost impossible to keep your child still while reading this, so if you're reading it at bedtime, expect them to do a triple salco and somersault before landing comfortably back on their pillow ready to snuggle.

Charlotte's best bit: The Great Elastic Marvel bouncing off the canopy of a cafe.

Daddy's favourite bit: Some great scribbly drawings that just plain work beautifully for a book like this

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Mike the Knight Adventures - Meet Mike!

Mike the Knight is a new CBeebies TV series currently airing and becoming extremely popular in a relatively short space of time. Simon and Schuster recently contacted us to let us take a look at their upcoming range of official Mike the Knight books and the first of these is "Meet Mike!", a book that offers background details on Mike himself, the land of Glendragon, and all the wonderful characters that live there.

Mike's catchphrase "Be a Knight, do it right!" is rapidly becoming something you'll hear kids uttering as they gallop around the playground pretending to be Mike or his magical sister Evie.

"Meet Mike" is a great introduction to the series if you haven't already encountered it on TV. Mike is a galant little fellow, looking after his kingdom while his father is away on various quests. Mike uses his useful "Knight in Training" handbook to get him out of all sorts of sticky situations and with his trusty steed Galahad, and his two best friends Sparkie and Squirt, a pair of lovable dragons, he's always on the lookout for adventure.

The Simon and Schuster book series officially launches on March 29th 2012, with further books in the range to follow later in July including more paperback titles ("Mike the Knight and the Mighty Shield" and "Mike the Knight and the Scary Dragons") as well as a sticker book and fun noise book too.

The paperbacks are a little on the expensive side (£5.99 rrp) but are glossy and nicely presented with plenty of pages and content to keep young Mike fans happy. The main suggestion my daughter made was that there really needs to be a book purely dedicated to or focussing on Evie, Mike's magical sister. Hear hear!

Charlotte's best bit - A couple of pages explaining how Evie's spells don't always go according to plan

Daddy's favourite bit - Having to explain about "Favours" and what they are (I'm wondering if any bright spark out there is thinking of marketing a Mike the Knight reward sticker chart with 'Favour-shaped' stickerss as rewards!)

Rating - 4 out of 5 stars. 


(Our thanks to Simon and Schuster for providing this book for review: http//www.simonandschuster.co.uk)

Happy 25th Birthday, Winnie the Witch!

It seems incredible to think that Winnie the Witch, the timeless children's classic is a mere whippersnapper. 25 years ago, the perfect combination of Valerie Thomas' quirky stories, and Korky Paul's sublime scratchy ink and colour work came together to give children (and a lot of adults!) one of the greatest characters ever to adorn a book.

We love Winnie the Witch to bits and look forward to reading her latest adventure "Winnie Under the Sea" very soon.

Frog and a very special day

The "Frog" books by Max Velthuijs are nice, simple and fun books featuring engaging animal characters, simple illustrations and always have a happy ending. So when Frog feels lost, lonely and forlorn when all his friends seem busy and preoccupied, you know things will turn out alright eventually.

Max Velthuijs has a knack for putting an emotional spin on Frog's simple little life, but it's a great book with characters that stand the test of time.

Charlotte's best bit: Frog crying and being sad

Daddy's favourite bit: Great simple illustrations

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars. 

Down the Back of the Chair

I don't know about you, but when I read whimsical books written in rhyme to Charlotte, it's almost impossible NOT to adopt a sort of 'sing-song' voice.

Case in point: Down the Back of the Chair by Margaret Mahy and Polly Dunbar. It bounces along, telling the tale of woe of a poor family scraping their last few pennies together to fix Daddy's broken down old car. Does the answer lie down the back of the chair? Will fortune and glory be but a shuffle, a squeeze and a delve away?

Well I'm not going to spoil it for you but this is a happy book full of surreal and crazy antics with superb illustrations that give children plenty to look at and find.

Charlotte's best bit - Finding a birthday cake down the back of the chair (ew!)

Daddy's favourite bit - Identifying with the daddy in the story, tearing out his (nearly non-existent) hair at all the bills arriving at once.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars. 

ReadItDaddy says "Make a Bookstart Pledge Today!"

Bookstart is celebrating its 20th Anniversary in grand style. Anyone who has been the recipient of a Bookstart pack knows the magic of opening up the box, the bag or the books and discovering something new.

I've made a pledge at ReadItDaddy to share 20 books this year (just 20? Aww you know it'll be far more!) so here's your chance to do the same. Go and make a pledge now. Bookstart is vitally important, more than ever, so give your child a good start in books. It's an adventure that will last them a lifetime.

http://www.booktrust.org.uk/bookgifting/bookstart/bookstart20/pledge-wall/#make-your-pledge

Cheer up your Teddy Bear, Emily Brown

Emily Brown (ably assisted by her pet rabbit Stanley) has lots of wild and whacky adventures, but when a drip-drip-dripping noise comes from her Toybox, Emily Brown discovers the saddest toy in the world.

A lost, lonely and rather morose teddy bear is the subject of the latest Emily Brown book from Cressida Cowell and Neal Layton. As Charlotte has loved "That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown" (in fact we ended up bringing THAT home from the library for about the 100th time) we figured that "Cheer up your Teddy, Emily Brown" would be a pretty safe bet.

The formula feels like it's worn a bit thin though - and as great as Neal Layton's child-like illustrations and collages are, the book feels like it falls a bit flat in comparison to previous Emily Brown books.

Still quite entertaining though and Charlotte still calls her toy rabbits "Stanley".

Charlotte's best bit: The teddy bears picnic

Daddy's favourite bit: The wild and whacky situations Emily Brown "imagines" herself in.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

The Pirate Cruncher

Jonny Duddle loves pirates, which is quite fortunate because pirates are probably quite high up most children's 'favourite literary characters' lists. There's infinite scope for japery and all sorts of salty sea-dog tales, so it's not surprising to find that The Pirate Cruncher is a complete delight.

I'm familiar with Jonny Duddle's work through the FX Magazine "Digital Art" series of books. Duddle works in the digital domain (something I've dipped a toe in recently, see my other blog PeejArtist to see how I'm struggling!) and he's got a real way with rich bright colours, and of course cheeky pirate characters.

"The Pirate Cruncher" takes a pretty well-worn nautical cliche and turns it into a thoroughly entertaining tale. A wizened old fiddle player tells the story of great treasures (and great danger) on an island far out at sea. Catching the ear of the great pirate Purplebeard, the saucy cove rounds up his raggedy crew and sets sail to claim the treasure for himself.

You can imagine that things don't quite go according to plan, and though adults will see the end of the story coming a mile off, the way Duddle works so many tiny colourful little details into each page spread (including one huge foldout spread for the end of the book) will charm and delight children of all ages.

Charlotte's best bit: The naughty parrot

Daddy's favourite bit: Duddle's artwork, just sublime, wish I could paint like that!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The Tunnel

Anthony Browne's books dance with the surreal and often sometimes quite disturbing worlds where the ordinary and the everyday meet the fantastical and deeply mysterious. In "The Tunnel", Browne weaves a fairly simple tale of sibling rivalry (anyone with a younger sister (like me) would probably instantly identify with the boy in the story!) but then dips the whole thing in the deep dark inky stygian well of the slightly disturbing.

The Tunnel uses Browne's powerful illustration style to shunt a child's imagination into overdrive. Quite unlike the gentle humour and situations in Browne's "Willy" books, The Tunnel is actually fairly harrowing, and definitely NOT a book to read just before tucking your little ones into bed.

But you're a parent. You'll know that there's something about books like this that makes them intoxicatingly attractive to children, in fact I expected this book to be shoved firmly to the bottom of our library pile this week, yet it's been the book Charlotte has most requested.

The sister in the story is the focal point of the message Browne is trying to get across here, and though it's easy to get completely lost in his beautiful Magritte-like paintings, ignoring the fairly lightweight text, that message is delivered more effectively than if it were dressed up in more flimsy and carefree surroundings.

If Stephen King wrote kids books, this is probably the sort of tale he'd be itching to tell.

Charlotte's best bit: Can't tell you because it would spoil the book but "Stone"

Daddy's favourite bit: There's one illustration panel of a group of trees. You could quite happily spend a whole week looking at that panel and picking out the hidden objects in it. Anyone familiar with Rene Magritte's work will fall completely in love with the book.

Rating: 5 stars out of 5, Book of the Week

Gorgeous George and the Giant Geriatric Generator

What have an inquisitive schoolboy, a mad bagpipe-playing trumping granddad and an insidious power company all got in common? The answer lies in the fabulous book "Gorgeous George and the Giant Geriatric Generator" from indie publishers My Little Big Town. As we've previously mentioned in this blog, My Little Big Town handle the majority of publishing tasks in-house and GGatGGG is one of their flagship titles.

Though it's aimed at older children than my busy four year old (Four today! Happy Birthday Charlotte!), she had a lot of fun listening to me read extracts of the book, looking at Calvin Innes' quirky and humorous illustrations, and of course giggling like a drain at the trump-tastic gags in the book itself.

"Gorgeous" George is an ordinary everyday schoolboy who dotes on his slightly eccentric mad Scottish Granddad, Jock. When Granddad Jock mysteriously goes missing, leaving an enigmatic note behind, it's up to George and his new best friend Allison to try and solve the mystery.

Evil forces are at play in the sleepy town of Little Pumpington, and an evil power corporation, led by an insane, evil (and very wobbly) tyrant called Mr Watt, (aided and abetted by his strict schoolteacher wife and a grumpy janitor), have a great deal to do with the nefarious goings on.

A great romp peppered with plenty of plopping, farting and evil doings courtesy of Stuart Reid's fantastic imagination. Perfectly complimented by Calvin Innes illustrations which are great fun too, this is the sort of book that deserves to become a bit of a children's cult classic.

To compliment the book's launch, Stuart has been visiting schools to introduce children to the world of Gorgeous George, a fantastic idea that's sure to win the book many more fans.

As mentioned before, it's a great introduction to the My Little Big Town ethos, and definitely means we'll be keeping up with what they do in future. As to how the book ends, you'll have to delve into the world of Gorgeous George yourself!

Charlotte's best bit - Giggling about Grandad's trumping and bagpipe music

Daddy's favourite bit - The wonderful slow-burn build up of tension and the story to the fantastic conclusion (which I won't spoil).

Rating - 4 out of 5 stars