Florentine and Pig and the Spooky Forest Adventure by Eva Katzler and Jess Mikhail - Recipes by Jess and Laura Tilli (Bloomsbury Children's Books)

Charlotte always demands spooky and scary books, and so any book that contains the word "spooky" in the title is guaranteed to make her curious. Florentine and Pig are the stars of their own book series by Eva Katzler and Jess Mikhail. Can this seemingly ordinary little girl and her best friend pig satisfy Charlotte's taste for the mildly macabre?

It's an adventurous story sparked by Florentine settling down to sleep as usual one night. On hearing a spooky noise from outside, Florentine decides to confront her fear and seek out the source of the spooky noise. So the next night Florentine and Pig embark on a camping expedition to see if they can trace the spooky noise to its source.

Tapping into a child's psyche is quite a neat trick if you can pull it off. Eva obviously can, and in tandem with Jess's fabulous colourful artwork, the tale builds tension nicely until Florentine and Pig figure out what they think is making all the hullabaloo at night. Have they got it right though?

Charlotte claimed that the story wasn't quite spooky enough for her, but I did notice that she pulled the covers up a little further than normal after a bedtime read of this.

Oh and by the way, this book is rather special in that it comes with some scrummy and superb recipes by Jess and Laura Tilli. So when you're planning your own spooky camp-out in the forest, prepare some luscious and tasty goodies to scoff while you're out there!

Charlotte's best bit: A satisfying twist of a payoff at the end of the story!

Daddy's Favourite bit: A rather engaging duo, Florentine and Pig! We look forward to reading more of their adventures in their other books.

(Kindly sent to us for review by Bloomsbury Publishing)