The Usborne Book of Drawing, Doodling and Colouring by Fiona Watt, Katie Lovell and Erica Harrison (Usborne Books)

Happy New Year! Let's kick off 2013 with a cracking review of a fantastic book, one of Charlotte's christmas presents (thanks Uncle Graham!) - and a bit of a sad tale. You see, this book is not only very absorbing - it's also quite absorbent as we found out to our cost during a rather unfortunate car-sickness incident.

So although it's no longer with us (it was too ruined to salvage, alas), it was brilliant fun for the short time we had it.

With a mixture of fantastic themed pages covering drawing, doodling and colouring (as the title suggests), children and adults alike will find plenty to do. One minute you can be drawing fantastic hats and hairdos on funny little characters, the next minute you can be designing the perfect robot - or better still, the most horrendous monster ever created!

It's testament to how brilliant this book is that even the artistically challenged (like Charlotte's Grandad) found themselves drawn (quite literally) to it. This plus a pack of coloured pencils / pens and from time to time a bit of adult help for younger children guarantees hours of fun and stimulation. Just make sure you don't use it in the car after a huge bowl of coco pops and some impromptu dancing on a windy Devon road with no lay-bys.

Charlotte's best bit: Drawing happy / sad / frightened expressions on the 'face drawing' bits.

Daddy's favourite bit: Designing the perfect robotic companion