Babbit by Lydia Monks (Egmont Books ltd)

"Silly daddy! It's Rabbit!"

"No it's Babbit, look, that's a B there!"

"No Daddy it's Rabbit! It's a rabbit!"

Or so went the conversation when we picked up the first of Lydia Monks' rabbit adventures from last year. This one she wrote and illustrated, the other one (following along shortly) was written by Julia Donaldson. But let's look at Babbit first.

Babbit is the beloved rabbit of "the small one" and the small one doesn't look after Babbit very well. So when nasty types kidnap Babbit and tie him to a tree, it's up to the small one and her big sister to save him.

Here's the thing. We love Lydia Monks. We love her illustrative style and we love her characters, but for some reason Babbit failed to grab either of us (I expected Charlotte to love it to pieces, she is mildly rabbit-obsessed after all).

Perhaps it's too personal a story or too personal a set of characters to appeal to other children (but it probably delighted the little girls it was written for / about), though I would admit to liking the 'naughty seat' method of justice and punishment meted out in the book.

Charlotte's best bit: Babbit suggesting that carrots would taste better than his ears

Daddy's favourite bit: Divine justice in the form of the naughty seats

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars