On a Dark Dark Night by Simon Prescott (Little Tiger Press)

Nope, this book has absolutely nothing to do with a mouse scurrying up Batman's leg, but Simon Prescott's ethereal atmospheric little book "On a Dark Dark Night" is a lovely bed-time read. A little mouse takes a perilous journey in search of food, through the dark dark streets, through dark dark gardens and into a dark dark house.

I recently read an article where the value of repetition in children's stories was questioned, and whether rhymes could help a child learn to read. Our take on this, here at ReadItDaddy is that both have a place in children's books and repetition (and beginning to learn the familiarity of letter and word 'shapes') definitely has a great deal of value when it comes to a child's first faltering steps into the bookworld.

Simon Prescott's book may feel repetitive and probably won't win any prizes for the deepest of plots, but it does help a child to recognise the repeated words, the themes and also aids their comprehension of a story tenfold.

Entertaining and atmospheric when read to a child, but also a really good start for children who are almost busting their britches to learn to read.

Charlotte's best bit: Mouse's scurry up the drainpipe

Daddy's favourite bit: Prescott's lovely use of a limited palette of colours and superb light/shadow to give the book a metric ton of nocturnal atmosphere.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars