"Lula and the Sea Monster" by Alex Latimer (OUP / Oxford Children's Books)

Kindness can't be overrated. Kindness towards others, towards animals, there's a lot to be said for any book that makes kindness its central theme.

But there's a lot more than that to unpack in "Lula and the Sea Monster" by Alex Latimer.

This beautifully woven and illustrated tale begins with the titula Lula, who loves her seaside home.

Sadly her home won't last forever. Greedy developers are intent on flattening it to build a new coastal highway, and Arthur-Dent-Like Lula would quite like to stop them. But what can a little girl do against a crowd of bulldozers?

Consoling herself, Lula takes a seaside stroll, and discovers an odd little creature being picked on by a nasty gull in a rockpool. She rescues the little mite, and gives it a bit of her packed lunch, vowing to return next day to see how the little fellah is doing.

When she returns, she realises this isn't just any ordinary sea creature, this is something else. Lula's new friend grows and grows, and is soon polishing off the contents of the larder as Lula brings her new friend lots of food to make him grow big and strong.

But when her new friend disappears one day, Lula's blue funk returns and she realises that it's the day of destruction for the family home...however, someone else has other ideas - and Lula might just have found her initial kindness paying off in a big way. A colossal way in fact.

This is really lovely stuff, original and compelling storytelling for wee ones, tucking the message of kindness neatly between the folds so that it's not battering kids around the head too much, as so many 'message' books do.

Yes, we love this one.

Sum this book up in a sentence: A really original and beautifully told / illustrated tale of kindness and looking after others.

"Lula and the Sea Monster" by Alex Latimer is out now, published by OUP / Oxford Children's Books (kindly supplied for review)