Booky Advent Calendar Day 14: A Child of Books by Sam Winston and Oliver Jeffers (Walker Books)

Once again we're recommending a non-festive book for our Advent Calendar selection, but this one should find its way onto many a christmas list.

Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston have combined their colossal creative talent to write the perfect love letter to books.

Charlotte nodded as soon as she saw the cover of "A Child of Books" because she instantly recognised herself there. She is, indeed, a child of books and in this whirlwind journey you're joining the young girl in the story - just as you've joined Charlotte over the 6 years we've been writing this book blog - to discover the amazing worlds tucked between the pages of a really good story.

Mixing text from classic stories in with the book's minimalist but beautiful illustrations is a stroke of genius, concrete poetry for kids and what a great idea to do that (particularly in the end papers where we read through the massive list of stories there, noting which we'd read and hadn't read).

We were both children of books too...so how could we fail to love this story!

Gathering up a friend to join her on her book journey, the girl whisks him away to lands afar, to challenge beastly monsters and explore distant castles. To rest a moment in a word-scape and calmly survey an amazing scene or two...

Our favourite page spread, just LOOK at that scary beast!

We both loved the contextual use of text in each page spread, delving into stories I love but Charlotte has yet to discover (but fingers crossed one day she will love Dracula and Frankenstein as much as I do!)

It's a feast for the eyes for sure, and a beautifully told homage to stories.

"A Child of Books" is out now, published by Walker Books (Kindly supplied for review)