Thanks to Michelle Robinson, we already know what to do if an elephant stands on our foot but mammoths? Oh, they're an entirely different ball game.
Like most parents do from time to time, we asked Charlotte what her ideal pet was. No, it's not a Mammoth thankfully, it's a guinea pig but imagine the scenario when a little girl brings home the Pliocene era's poster pachyderm. Those things don't exactly look like the most fragrant creatures in the world so Michelle lovingly describes the ideal process for prettying up your new hairy friend.
Bathing any pet is a challenge. Bathing a pet that could turn you into a pizza if it sat on you takes cunning, verve and forward planning. Thankfully the book tells you absolutely everything - from the best mammoth beauty products to choose (what, you mean you haven't seen that section in Boots? It's next to the depilatory creams), to the best implements to use to scrub your mammoth to a high sheen.
Hairstyles are also important, and this was easily Charlotte's best bit in the book. Would your mammoth look best with a mammoth-sized mullet? Or perhaps a dinky topknot?
Our huge crush on Michelle Robinson continues, and coupled with Kate Hindley's wonderful illustrations this book is a hoot from start to finish.
We must admit that we feel absolutely no more confident in our ability to be able to wash a woolly mammoth (particularly, as Charlotte points out lovingly in homage to a certain Ren and Stimpy episode, when it comes to cleaning where the sun doesn't shine - EEK) but we had a huge mammoth-sized guffaw at this book and we know you will too.
Charlotte's best bit: Mammoth Hair Styles. No mention of the Hoxton Fin but double plus bonus points for a Mammoth Mullet!
Daddy's favourite bit: Just the right side of cheeky, and definitely the right side of fun. We love it!
(Kindly sent to us for review by Simon and Schuster Children's Books)