"I'm not a Mouse" by Evgenia Golubeva (Child's Play)

Sometimes I really do feel sorry for our daughter. Even before she was born we (OK, I) had a nickname for her. We called her Filbert because when we first saw her she was the size of a hazlenut (on an early scan).

Later when she was born I used to call her Doidy (because she used to sip from a Doidy cup), and later on I started calling her "Trubshaw" after "The Trubshaw Baby" in Boxtrolls. Poor kid. It's a wonder she's not traumatised.

In "I'm not a mouse" a little girl called Olivia is mighty sick of her mousey nickname. It leads to all sorts of trouble and misunderstandings, because Olivia really isn't like a mouse at all. She's brave, brainy and tries to think up as many ways as possible to stop her mum from using that hated pet name.

Evgenia Golubeva comes up with a thoroughly original way to show how children deal with self-identity and self-worth, in a book that has many wry observations, subtle gigglish moments and a scene-stealing cat that just wins us over every time.

Sum this book up in a sentence: A fantastic book for kids who perhaps struggle with their own sense of identity, particularly as they're growing up and yet parents still insist that 'they're their babies'

"I'm Not a Mouse" by Evgenia Golubeva is out now, published by Child's Play (kindly supplied for review).