"Princess Disgrace: Second Term at Tall Towers" and "Shrinking Violet Absolutely Loves Ancient Egypt" by Lou Kuenzler (Scholastic Children's Books)

As Charlotte stretches her fledgeling reading wings, we're slowly but surely finding that chapter books are making their way into our review schedules. We still love picture books, but Charlotte likes to read 6 pages of wordier stuff before bedtime until she feels sleepy - which is a great way to cram in even more booky goodness into her busy little schedule.

As she's currently favouring a great mix of different stories and styles, it was great to hear her chuckling away at two books recently, "Princess Disgrace: Second Term at Tall Towers" and "Shrinking Violet Absolutely Loves Ancient Egypt" by Lou Kuenzler.

We've previously encountered Lou's work through an awesome anthology of bedtime animal stories we reviewed a year ago, so it was great to catch up with two of her most popular characters and their latest adventures.

Princess Disgrace is our kind of princess. She's not prim, perfect and if truth be told she's a little bit clumsy, haphazard and her hair looks like she combed it with a hedgehog (I am already beginning to see why Charlotte loves her so much! Catching up with Princess Disgrace's second term at Tall Towers, a school for princesses, we find Princess Disgrace preparing for the school's talent contest. No easy task when you feel like you're completely hopeless at everything, eek!

In "Shrinking Violet Absolutely Loves Ancient Egypt" Charlotte was instantly drawn to this tale, loving the idea of a miniscule girl who can shrink down to the size of a lipstick or a fish finger, and her crazy adventures but loving even more the heady and exciting mix of riddles in the sand, scary egyptian gods and thoroughly rotten rotters! Violet, Anthony (her cousin) and her gran are off on a Nile cruise - but danger lurks at every corner. Can Violet use her rather spectacular superpower to good effect to solve the strangest mystery ever?

Both books got a huge thumbs up from Charlotte, and she's currently juggling both (no mean feat for a six year old!) It's a sheer delight to hear her giggling away!

Charlotte's best bit: "Daddy, who's Bastet?" - Er, OK that took some explaining! Thank goodness for the Ashmolean Museum's awesome Egyptian collection!

Daddy's Favourite bit: Corking summer reads from Lou, perfect for kids who love adventure, excitement and a few giggles!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Scholastic Children's Books)