Big Scary Monster by Thomas Docherty (Templar Publishing)

I do adore my daughter. She hastily skips by most of the books in the library that deal with fluffy fairies, cute animals and adorable pink princesses and if there's a book that makes the merest mention of monsters, she'll grab it straight away.

So I warned her. "Big Scary Monster could be scary!" I said, and of course when you're four years old you always know far better than your elders and betters. So we ended up with Thomas Docherty's book in our stack this week.

And it's an adorable book. You see, Big Scary Monster is exactly that. The king of the hill, throwing his weight (and his big scary roar) around and generally scaring the bejeezus out of the animals who share his  hilltop home.

Big Scary Monster, however, gets ideas above his station and decides to explore the world around him...

To say any more would potentially spoil the rest of the book, suffice to say that you may well see the end of this book coming a mile off, and even your toddler or child might also know what's going to happen. Nevertheless the journey is a fun one and Docherty's way of imbuing his characters with emotion helps to ensure that the book's message isn't list in amongst the hilarious consequences of the Monster's delusions of grandeur.

Charlotte's best bit - The monster's roar!

Daddy's favourite bit - Seeing a neat new twist on a fairly well-worn story.

Rating - 3 out of 5 stars