I think the very first book series that both Charlotte and I truly fell in love with back when we began our book journey together was the Winnie the Witch books.
That perfect combination of stories with a touch of magic, brought together with deliciously detailed illustrations completely won us over.
I've often wondered whether Charlotte would still love these books as much, now she's becoming a picky tweenager so it was awesome to be sent a copy of "Winnie and Wilbur: The Naughty Knight" by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul.
Once again bringing Winnie and Wilbur back into their picture book beginnings, Valerie and Korky have once again come up trumps with a time-travelling tale of nasty knights, damsels in distress and brave feline sires ready to do battle to restore honour to the kingdom.
When Winnie and Wilbur spy an old ruined castle from atop their broomstick, they decide to weave a bit of magic to travel back in time to the castle's heyday.
Once there, they realise that a rather mean bully of a knight holds sway over the kingdom, and definitely needs bringing down a peg or two.
This braggardly cove thinks he's too mean and tough to be jousted against. But Winnie and Wilbur (and a cat-sized suit of armour) have other ideas!
As ever, this is an utterly perfect picture book from Valerie and Korky who seem to have a gift for devising stories with broad appeal for such a huge age range. Yes, even Charlotte at 9 years old loved this story - this time for more or less the same reasons as me, it's a great little romp and those gloriously detailed drawings from Korky really bring Winnie's world to life (though one of these days I'm going to have to sit down and properly translate some of those cyrillic messages Korky hides in his pics!)
Fabulous!
Charlotte's best bit: Wilbur the Knight, poor mite can hardly see over his visor (but is that all for the best?)
Daddy's favourite bit: Such a thoroughly entertaining tale. I never get bored of Korky's illustrative style, and Valerie's storytelling is just as smile-making as ever it was. Destined to become a well-loved children's classic alongside the rest of the Winnie the Witch books.
"Winnie and Wilbur: The Naughty Knight" by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul is out now, published by Oxford Children's Books. (Kindly supplied for review)