Charlie Cook's Favourite Book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (Macmillan Children's Books)

We've made a point of trying to read as many of Julia Donaldson's books as possible, particularly when she teams up with Axel Scheffler for an entertaining story romp. With the usual pitch perfect rhyming, here JD celebrates stories as several crash together in a rather novel way. The story begins with one Charlie Cook reading his favourite book, and as he reads all about pirates, the pirate captain is reading all about goldilocks...who has fallen asleep reading a book all about a brave knight...who in turn reads a book about an awesome frog...and so on, and so on.

I initially thought the idea was quite a good one, flowing stories into one another in this way - but it didn't really strike as much of a chord with Charlotte as I expected it to.

Perhaps in some ways it's a little bit too clever for its own good and children prefer something that doesn't dance around several different themes before looping back on itself at the end.

Still thought it was quite entertaining to read nonetheless, thanks in no small part to Julia's ability to wring a rhyme out of the trickiest situations with consummate ease.

Charlotte's best bit: Is that a Gruffalo picture on Charlie's wall?

Daddy's Favourite bit: Immense fun to read aloud, as are all JD's books!