The Sardines of Love by Zuriñe Aguirre (Child's Play)

Let's be perfectly honest, Sardines aren't normally the sort of thing you associate with Valentine's Day, or a love story. Yet here we are on the day when the card industry goes completely crazy, florists gambol up and down their shops with reckless abandon and every restaurant for 10 square miles around where you live is booked solid, extolling the virtues of a glorious children's book about those super-gross little fish.

Grandad Lolo LOVES Sardines. He loves them baked, fried or quite possibly even raw. Grandma Lola absolutely hates sardines. The smell of them, the look of them and most definitely the taste of them. Like Jack Sprat and his wife, Lolo and Lola lead a merry existence in blissful acceptance of each other's dietary habits.

One fateful day, Lola realises that the little sardine shack is all out of sardines and there's nothing for Lolo's dinner. Being a bit of a dab hand (pun intended) with a fishing rod, Lola sets out to catch Lolo some supper - but due to an unfortunate nautical mishap, Lola ends up flying straight down the throat of a friendly octopus! EEK!

Trapped in the Octopus's belly, Lola realises that the place is like a little house, complete with a stove and furnishings but the one thing it doesn't have is any food - other than (yep, you've guessed it) Sardines! Loads of sardines, here there and everywhere!

Lola's tummy rumbles, and she realises that she's so hungry that she'll try anything. She holds her nose and gulps down one sardine, then another, and then before long she is actually enjoying these fishy little treats. She sets to work making all sorts of Sardine-based comestibles (Sardine pizza anyone? Actually that pizza made US want to try sardines!)

Lolo comes home and wonders where poor Lola has gone. Can Lolo find his missing missus?

Adorable from wonderful kissy heart-shaped fish-tail endpaper to endpaper, we utterly devoured "Sardines of Love" and realised something - love stories like this don't feature enough in children's books! What a blissful book for valentine's day (and hey it's also international book giving day too, so why not give someone a treat by buying them a copy of this!)

Charlotte's best bit: Charlotte loved the ever-present Octopus (and wanted to know why he had a window in his tummy!)

Daddy's Favourite bit: What an adorable tale, a wonderful love story that might even convince you that sardines are the food of love!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Child's Play)

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