ReaditDaddy's Book of the Week - Week ending 20th September 2013 - "Beware of Girls" by Tony Blundell (Picture Puffin)

I love it when a book is so funny that it makes Charlotte cackle like a tiny little blonde witch. Cackle, roar with laughter, giggle, snigger and snort - and also endlessly quote the funny bits for days afterwards.

There really is no more joyous a sound in life than a child's laughter. So thank you very much Mr Tony Blundell for producing a book that made both of us laugh so loudly that Mummy wondered what on earth was the matter as we read it over the weekend!

A hungry wolf is inspired by the story of Little Red Riding Hood (we're guessing the wolf didn't read until the end of the book, otherwise he might've known what was going to happen!)

With a rumbling tummy, Wolf hops round to a little girl's house for a quick snack (the girl being the snack, of course). As we all know, little girls are smart and cunning so she comes up with a plan to make Mr Wolf work for his supper.

Through an ever-increasingly complex set of demands, poor Mr Wolf is soon run ragged trying to pretend to be the little girl's granny. Does the wolf succeed? We'll let you find that one out for yourself.

What made us laugh is the Wolf's frenetic efforts to pretend to be Grandma. Reminding us of the sheer effort that Wile E. Coyote used to exert in order to bag himself a fairly lean chunk of road-runner-steak, spending millions of dollars on Acme products when he could've probably nipped round to the local burger joint and picked himself up a square meal.

But the bits that made Charlotte really laugh out loud - and the bits that had her sneaking off to read this book to herself (which again gets a huge 'THANK YOU' from us, you genius Tony!) are the bits where Wolf completely mixes up his descriptions of what he's wearing / doing. Sticky dresses, feathery toffees, high heeled cakes. The mere mention of these phrases has Charlotte completely broken up in giggles.

I realised we have previously covered Tony Blundell's other "Beware of" book, "Beware of Boys" on the blog and that was also a book of the week! No surprise then that we loved this to bits too. It's a complete hoot!


Charlotte's best bit: Wolf mixing up descriptions of the goodies he's trying to bestow on the savvy little girl - and the girl's dog trying to warn her about the wolf.

Daddy's Favourite bit: Love the fact that Charlotte would sneak off to read this on her own, laughing the whole time. Lovely!