Every week, without fail, we used to go to the Library. I was lucky enough to get a day at home with C back then - and it was always our favourite destination.
The rest, as they say, is history - but without a doubt books like Oliver Jeffers' sublime "Boy" series helped C to develop her love of books and stories, and they were always in our library pile.
We read "How to Catch a Star", "Lost and Found","The Way Back Home", and "Up and Down" many, many times - and Oliver Jeffers fast became one of our favourite author-illustrators.
Though his style has been adopted (most would say 'copied') many times by many different folk, his books are still the most amazing modern classics - so seeing them here with some glorious process sketches and story planning is a real treat indeed.
HarperCollins has gathered these stories together with the sketches in a beautiful hardback that's just in time to make your christmas shopping list.
The stories are blissfully simple, yet their messages are delicately conveyed - and Oliver's illustrations are colourful and meticulously planned considering how 'simple' they might look.
Reading through his process notes and the way stories changed, it's actually a genuine delight to be given an insight into a master creative's work in this way. We'll even forgive him for basically doing a 'best of' compilation rather than an entirely new story, but we're prepared to wait - this dude isn't done telling stories yet!
This really is a thing of beauty though - and whether you're in it just to collect those gorgeous books all in one place, or whether like us you really want to know what makes Oliver tick, this is a complete delight.
"The Boy, His Stories and How He Came to Be" by Oliver Jeffers is out now, published by HarperCollins Children's Books (kindly supplied for review).