ReadItDaddy's First Book of the Week - Week Ending 8th April 2016 - "Nibbles the Book Monster" by Myrtle E. Amat, er I mean Emma Yarlett (Little Tiger Press)

We don't want to be accused of embarrasing fanboism but Emma Yarlett (AKA Rama Telmet) really has made the "Book of the Week" slot her own...

In her first book for Little Tiger Press, she has pulled out practically all the stops there are to pull to create something truly hilarious and original - literally pulling apart the medium of the children's picture book to spin, fold and mash together stories in a hugely entertaining way...

...and then there's Nibbles. Nibbles is a monster but an utterly adorable one. He does, however, have a rather bad habit. Nibbles likes to eat things. He'll eat soap, he'll eat your furniture (if you let him) but most of all, Nibbles loves to devour books.

No, not in the sense we devour books - he actually likes to chew 'em up and swallow them so no one's library is safe from this little yellow scamp. After munching his way through his very own book and escaping, Nibbles finds himself in a whole LIBRARY of books and can't wait to munch through them too!

We paused for a moment at the spread where Nibbles sees the whole library stretching out in front of him, just to gaze in awe at the lovely mentions of all our favourite books and many many more (Emma's superb eye for detail really comes to the fore here - I sympathise with anyone who had to draw and paint that many book spines!!)

Now Nibbles is on the loose, he soon finds himself barging into familiar stories. Goldilocks has a lot of explaining to do as the bears come home, find not only that their porridge has been scoffed and their beds have been slept in - but also that Nibbles has completely trashed the place and scarpered! EEP!

He also noshes his way into Red Riding Hood (with hilarious consequences - the bit with the wolf's new body made us cackle with glee!) and Jack and the Beanstalk (watch out for Emma's awesome author anagrams, which will make you laugh as much as the fate of some of our best-loved children's story characters when they meet this insatiable little beast!)


As the story wraps up, and Nibbles is (seemingly) back where he belongs, you'll have been on a rip-roaring book-scoffing journey of fun and hilarity with a truly adorable character (who actually arrived along with our review copy of the book, much to our chagrin as we wondered whether we'd wake up to a mess of tattered pages and chewed covers the next morning! Charlotte even took Nibbles to school, I hope he behaved himself!)

Emma's books are so full of adorable little details, in-jokes and the BEST characters. It's awesome to see something new every time you dive into this brilliant book (and you and your little ones will want to read it again and again, the true mark of a book of the week for us is just how many times Charlotte demands to read it).

Sheer brilliance in book form. Watch out for Nibbles, he'll charm you to bits (but he really can't wait to meet your book collection!)

Charlotte's favourite bit: The wolf's svelte new body once Nibbles has gatecrashed "Little Red Riding Hood"

Daddy's favourite bit: The hilarious author anagrams (Tamely Tamer anyone?), the fantastic attention to detail, the utterly ADORABLE (but very naughty) central character himself, there is a huge treat in store for anyone picking up this truly fantastic book. Emma has done it again!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Little Tiger Press)

"Nibbles the Book Monster"

Written and Illustrated by Ratty La Meme

Published by Little Tiger Press

Publication Date (Hardback): 7th April 2016