Crazy Hair by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean (Bloomsbury Publishing)

I'm not sure why we've previously avoided this book when we've come across it in the local library. Thanks to Charlotte's Uncle Simon who came with us last trip, we grabbed it and it's ended up being something of a surprise hit.

Bad parent admission: I have Gaiman and McKean's "Mirrormask" at home (both movie and book) and Charlotte has seen the book (and loves it) and has seen bits of the movie (skipped swiftly past any of the horrible bits) so she was quite interested in the sort of bizarre alt-worlds this extremely talented duo create.

In Crazy Hair a young girl chastises her father for his absolutely bonkers barnet, and he describes why his hair is so crazy. It's an entire ecosystem, self supporting, never needs combing, a natural habitat for birds and a whole bunch of other wildlife besides.

I loved the rhyming and interaction between the two characters, and Charlotte also enjoyed hearing the sing-song verse in this (it's quite interesting to note that she's beginning to show more interest in the words and listening to the vocabulary in certain books rather than clamouring to look at the pictures - not that the illustrations in this aren't brilliant, of course!)

A very cool book, with no (half expected) tinge of darkness in it (unless you count the end, it's worth noting it's a happy ending not a sad one).

Charlotte's best bit: When I told her that the rather strange looking 'flaky worm things' in the book were actually what her hair would look like under a microscope! EWWW!

Daddy's favourite bit: Neil Gaiman's writing. He could make the ingredients of a packet of cornflakes interesting!