The Little Factory of Illustration by Flore Saint-Val (Tate Publishing)

Wow, now this is a book that is practically guaranteed to help out substantially with the long, long drawn out school summer holidays. If you have a budding artist at home, a talented doodler, a maker and doer, then you're going to have a lot of fun with "The Little Factory of Illustration" by Flore Saint-Val.

Introduced by the master artiste himself, the awesome Artful Sketcher, we're taken on a whirlwind tour of The Little Factory of Illustration and the colourful characters who dwell within its walls.

Welcome to reception! It's a little bit busy!

Each page spread opens up a wealth of art prompts, activities and fun to be had as The Artful Sketcher introduces us to The Doodler, Roxy, Bob and Jojo - all lifelong artists at work at LIFIPO - here to help you get the most from your artistic imagination.

The Doodler comes up with some cracking designs for you to colour or collage

Even when your little ones have run out of crayons and are all doodled out, you can dive to the back of the book and find a handy wallet tucked into the back cover containing games and other items that can be used with the book.

The only criticism I have of this utterly fantastic book is that it's such a thing of beauty, that we didn't want to deface it. Though it positively invites you to scribble all over it (something that we "just DO not DO daddy!") we came up with lots of ingenious ways to trace and copy the pages so that we could leave the book intact. After all, no one wants to work in a messy factory do they?

Absolutely marvellous and thoroughly recommended if your little ones are kicking their heels around bored with the long hot summer - or (chance would be a fine thing) if the weather turns nasty and you need something to keep 'em busy on a rainy day.


Charlotte's best bit: Scribbling designs and patterns along with The Doodler and making a fantastic collage fashion statement

Daddy's Favourite bit: So many things to see and so much to do in this book, blissful peace and quiet while your little ones get busy with a multitude of activities and fun in this one!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Tate Publishing)