Silly Doggy by Adam Stower (Templar Publishing)

Adam Stower, the genius behind one of our favourite books of the last few years, the sublime "Troll and the Oliver", preceded his troll tale with this story of a little girl and her...er...her dog.

This is a tough review to write because we don't really want to give away too much, but do want to tell you how hilarious the central theme of this story is. Dealing with children's perceptions of the world around them (and the animals in it) and that mania for owning a pet that all children possess for the early parts of their lives (when mummy and daddy do all the feeding, cleaning up, training and mucky stuff while children breeze in and tickle their beloved dog or cat behind the ears).

Lily (the girl in our story) finds 'Doggy' wandering around and decides to adopt him. But is Doggy quite what he seems? Doggy certainly doesn't seem that keen on all the things doggies usually love. What on earth is wrong with him? And why is he so...big!

As I said, it's so difficult not to give away too much (we notice that even the cover of this book makes you want to dig in and reveal the story's secrets - no bad thing in a children's book!) so we'll leave it at this: Laugh along with Lily's antics, and be extremely pleased that it's very unlikely your little one will bring a 'Doggy' home (unless you're one of our stateside / Canadian / Russian readers, in which case, beware!)

Charlotte's best bit: Lily excels herself when 'Doggy' is reclaimed by his 'owner' and then brings something else home instead (you'll have to find out what by reading the book!)

Daddy's Favourite bit: Adam Stower excels at producing children's stories with a twist in them, and this is no exception. It's brilliant!