"Arty! First Artist in Space" by William Bee (Pavilion Children's Books)

Taking a break from all things vehicle-shaped for a moment, here's William Bee's latest adventure for his fabulous artist character Arty Farty.

In "Arty! First Artist in Space" NASA has a problem.

Try as it might it can't recruit any famous artists to volunteer for the space programme. There's an awesome opportunity to paint amongst the stars, but no one quite fancies being strapped into a rocket and shot off into the stygian void.

Arty Farty doesn't really like the sound of it either, but his agent can't miss an opportunity to make a fast buck off the back of an amazing PR opportunity like this, so signs Arty up.

After some rather stomach-churning training, it's time for Arty to don his special art-supply-laden spacesuit and roar off into space.

First stop: The Moon!

Can you imagine being a colourful and inspirational artist and fetching up on a grey dustball like that?

Sacre Bleu! No way are we going into space, sayeth these famous artists. 

Arty soon has plans though, plans to change space forever - through the medium of ART!

Arty's super-pushy agent Mr Grimaldi can't wait to sign Arty up for a seemingly impossible mission

This is a hilarious adventure from a hugely talented storyteller and illustrator, which made us chuckle loads (we loved that spread with the famous artists!)

Not the most inspiring landscape to paint, right?

Sum this book up in a sentence: Where no frog has gone before, where no artist has gone before, where no book has gone before!

"Arty! First Artist in Space" by William Bee is out now, published by Pavilion Children's Books (kindly supplied for review).