One thing we've noticed in ten years of book blogging is that huge success, and becoming a best-selling author also sometimes means that a particular author will end up being placed in the dock, accused of market saturation - their success almost being used against them as a blunt instrument to point out all the things that are wrong with the children's publishing industry.

I think Julia Donaldson has had her fair share of flak over the years, placed firmly in the centre of this over-critical vortex of ill feeling from other authors who feel that her books are often used as the default in any children's book marketing push, that her books automatically leap to the top of any best sellers list whenever their released, that her books are always favoured by TV companies looking to make a few extra bucks at Christmas by releasing a timely feelgood animation of a particular story, alongside a metric ton of accompanying merchandise.

Yes, all those things are true of Julia Donaldson's books (particularly those she collaborates on with Axel Scheffler) but there's no denying that kids absolutely LOVE these books, and the sometimes hateful and cynical bile against them largely comes from adults who should bloody well know better.

We picked up a copy of "The Gruffalo" swiftly followed by "The Gruffalo's Child" and these became bedtime book regulars. Julia's rhyming is pitch perfect, her use of repetition and clever observation and description of her characters immerses a child instantly in the story, and the fact that her rhyming meter is perfect makes these really easy / pleasurable to read aloud.

Ask any kid to describe The Gruffalo and they'll instantly remember the terrible claws, the terrible teeth, the nasty great wart on the end of its nose - and of course owl ice cream, roasted fox and scrambled snake!

We liked both Gruffalo books but it was actually "Stick Man" by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler that cropped up on the blog the most, with the most positive reviews.

There's just something about it - the atmosphere generated by Julia's descriptions and Axel's illustrations, the almost crisp christmassy feel to the story, and the whopping great big euphoric feeling you get right at the end of the book when Stick Man is reunited with his Stick Lady Love and his family, overcoming seemingly insurmountable situations in order to get back home to safety.

We also particularly loved Julia's collaborations with Rebecca Cobb (who we've already mentioned in our #Booky100Keepers list, as one of our all time favourite author / illustrators). JD has also worked with some of the greatest names in kidlit illustration from Charlotte Voake to Nick Sharratt, from David Roberts to Lydia Monks.

If there's one thing I really won't miss about our peripheral involvement in children's publishing, it's that hate-filled cynicism we constantly see on social media whenever a children's author or illustrator makes a massive success of what they do. It's rubbish, quite frankly - and it feels like it's something that we do way too much in the UK. Quite rightly JD took up the mantle of Children's Laureate and spoke of the importance of children's books, and how they're largely overlooked in the media. She spent her tenure as a vociferous spokesperson for the industry and the creatives who keep it alive, and yet still gets tarred with the 'saturation' brush.

Honestly, I really do not understand people sometimes.

Regardless of popular opinion, we've kept most of our Julia Donaldson books, purely because even though C has outgrown them, they're always the books demanded by her little cousins when they come over to stay - and we still think that there's room on the broom for a switch in opinions on JD. Being successful and prolific shouldn't be something we look down on.

Original review links: 

Wake up do, Lydia Lou! By Julia Donaldson and Karen George (Macmillan Children's Books)

Charlie Cook's Favourite Book (10th Anniversary Edition) by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (Macmillan Children's Books)

Departing Children's Laureate Julia Donaldson says "We don't take Children's Books seriously enough" - Oh but we do, we do!

"It's a Little Baby" by Julia Donaldson and Rebecca Cobb (Macmillan Children's Books)

What the Jackdaw Saw by Julia Donaldson and Nick Sharratt (With support from Life and Deaf children's charity) - Published by Macmillan Children's Books

Tales from Acorn Wood - Rabbit's Nap by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (Macmillan Children's Books)

The Scarecrow's Wedding by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (Alison Green Books / Scholastic)

Princess Mirror-Belle and the Dragon Pox by Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks (Macmillan Children's Books)

The Further Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat (Book and CD Edition) by Julia Donaldson and Charlotte Voake (Bloomsbury Publishing)

Joining a fantastic Blog Safari to celebrate the release of "The Ugly Five" by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (Scholastic)

"Spinderella" by Julia Donaldson and Sebastien Braun (Egmont Publishing)

Booky Advent Calendar Day 16: "The Snail and the Whale" by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (Macmillan Children's Books)

The Flying Bath by Julia Donaldson and David Roberts (Macmillan Children's Books)

Charlie Cook's Favourite Book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (Macmillan Children's Books)

Celebrating another important book birthday with the 20th Anniversary Edition of "The Gruffalo" by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (Macmillan Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's Festive Book of the Week - Week Ending 18th December 2015 - "Stick Man" by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (Scholastic / Alison Green)

Booky Advent Calendar Day 22 - "Stick Man" by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (Alison Green Books)

The Singing Mermaid (Special Edition with Mermaid Toy) by Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks (Macmillan Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's Booky Advent Calendar Day 13 - 13th December 2013 - "Stick Man" by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (Alison Green Books)

The Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson and Rebecca Cobb (Macmillan Children's Books)

The Troll by Julia Donaldson and David Roberts (Macmillan Children's Books)

A Squash and a Squeeze (20th Anniversary Edition) by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (Macmillan Children's Books)

Gruffalo Crumble and Other Recipes, based on "The Gruffalo" stories by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (Macmillan Children's Books)

Stick Man by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (Alison Green Books)

The Highway Rat

Fox's Socks

The Gruffalo

The Rhyming Rabbit by Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks (Macmillan Children's Books)

Julia Donaldson is the new Children's Laureate

Room on the Broom

Zog

The Gruffalo's Child

"Flights of Fancy: Stories, pictures and inspiration from ten Children's Laureates" by various authors / illustrators (Walker Books)

The Princess and the Wizard

As our #Booky100Keepers list nearly draws to a close, I had to cast eyes back over the entire list to make sure I hadn't already featured this one. Any children's book list of recommendations will have certain books that folk will firmly get behind, and "We're going on a Bear Hunt" by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury seems to have escaped the usual "We love it / we hate it now / we love it again / no we definitely hate it now and it's not cool any more" thing that book folk go through from time to time with beloved children's titles.

But let's face it, this book bounces along, it has an entertaining story, it has an imaginative twist or two in it, and it's just so filled with alliterative read-aloud fun that it's nigh-on impossible to resist.

We bought this way back in 2012 when C was still knee high to a grasshopper and it swiftly ended up being a bedtime favourite. Back then we probably used to read at least 3-4 picture books a night to her, and this was always somewhere in the mix.

A family jaunt out into the great outdoors is filled with swishy grass to wrestle your way through, squishy mud to wade through, trip-tastic forests to navigate and then at the end, a cave...but what's inside? Or more likely who...

Michael Rosen is usually quite quick to point out that this isn't his work entirely, and the rhyme existed long before the book did. He's also very quick to point out that a large part of the success of this book is down to Helen Oxenbury's utterly perfect illustrations, filled with energy and youthful vibrance and it's these that are always the biggest draw for me, marvelling at how her sparse lines and glorious watercolours depict a living breathing landscape for her awesome family of characters to inhabit.

This was one of the books that we used to read whenever we did read-aloud events (sadly that never turned into a regular gig, which is a shame as they were always so much fun to do but lacking any silly props or daft hats I guess no one wanted to book a baldy 50-something to read aloud to their kids). What always struck me is that kids who had never heard of the book before (and yes, there were a surprising number) always got quite scared at the bit at the end. The book goes silent, wordless as the chase between the bear and the family kicks off - with the bear chasing them right to the front door of their house. I found that quite interesting, that the dark twist elicited that response, but the 'damping down' at the end as the lonely bear trudged back off to his cave always brought those kids around and turned the bear from a menacing foe into something of a sympathetic character really.

Like / hate it (and I'll be brutally honest here, the animated TV version was pretty terrible and left us utterly cold due to the liberties it took with the original story) it is without doubt one of those revered and hallowed books that you really ought to have on your kids' bookshelves. A real classic.

Original review links and articles: 

Come to Discover for a brilliant Bear Hunt spectacular from October 2015

Don't miss out on the biggest "Bear Hunt" reading in history!

Three new fantastic books for lovers of nature and the great outdoors. Perfect for Spring and Summer - out now from Walker Books

ReadItDaddy Reads aloud - Mostly Books and Usborne's 40th Anniversary, the perfect time for storytelling fun!

We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury (Walker Books)

Oozing with talent from every pore, and a pair of creative geniuses who do something that you seldom see in the world of children's publishing or illustration - paying their awesome success forward by helping others with an awesome creative blog and sizzling set of tutorials.

What more can you say about Robin and Lorenzo Etherington, long-time contributors to the mighty Phoenix Comic (which we've already covered in our #Booky100Keepers list), and creators of many books that are almost set up in a mini-shrine on our shelves.

Lorenzo's truly fantastic "How to Think when you Draw" and Robin's utterly brilliant "How to think when you Write" are books that we both find ourselves dragging off the shelves on a regular basis, to pore over, dip into and consume nuggets of glorious golden advice from.

We're not just addicted to their tutorial books though. I really love the back-burner-bubbling "Stranski" stuff, something that feels like a long-term obsession for the guys that hasn't quite been worked up into a finished story / graphic novel, but feels like something the world needs - a glorious fusion of film noir, adventure, gangster movie and kick-ass lion-tailed ladies ready to take on the world.

They've taxed our brains with the awesome "Von Doogan" series, they've twisted the afterworld inside out in "Long Gone Don" and have made us giggle like goons with "Monkey Nuts". They've made a success out of going down the crowdfunded / self-published route for a lot of their books (including restoring Monkey Nuts to the original large graphic novel format it so richly deserves).

We were fortunate enough to meet the guys and were delighted that they knew who we were, and actually thanked us for all our support over the years. They really are the bees knees, borne out by the fact that every single thing we've reviewed of theirs has hit the "Book of the Week" slot. Pretty nice going, guys!

Original review and article links:

ReadItDaddy's Book of the Week - Week Ending 7th February 2020: "How to Think When you Write" by Robin Etherington and Lorenzo Etherington (Kickstarter / Self Published)

Fantastic comic creating fun with The Etherington Brothers - The Story Museum, Oxford

ReadItDaddy's Second Book of the Week - Week Ending 15th April 2016 - "Von Doogan and the Great Air Race" by Lorenzo Etherington (David Fickling Books)

Long Gone Don Book 1 by Lorenzo and Robin Etherington (David Fickling Books)

The Phoenix Presents "Von Doogan and the Curse of the Golden Monkey" by Lawrence (Lorenzo) Etherington (David Fickling Books)

ReadItDaddy's Second Book of the Week - Week Ending 2nd August 2019: "How to Think when you Draw Volume 2" by The Etherington Brothers (Self Published)

ReadItDaddy's Comic of the Week - Week Ending 23rd February 2018 - "Monkey Nuts (Volume 1 and 2)" by Robin and Lorenzo Etherington (Lulu Self Publishing Platform)

ReadItDaddy's Picture / Comic Book of the Week - Week Ending 6th January 2017 - "Long Gone Don Book 2" by The Etherington Brothers (David Fickling Books)

ReadItDaddy's Second Book of the Week - Week Ending 19th August 2016 - "The Deluxe Collection - Volumes 1 and 2" by Lorenzo Etherington (Lulu Self Publishing)

ReadItDaddy's Book(s) of the Week - Week Ending 24th August 2018: "How to Think when you Draw" and "Deluxe Collection Volume III" by Lorenzo Etherington (Lulu / Self Published)

ReadItDaddy's Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 28th July 2017 - "The Art of Stranski" by Lorenzo Etherington (Kickstarter / Self Published)

Russia has always fascinated me. There's just something about this amazing nation that draws you in from its often turbulent history, to its triumphant and successful space program, and its rich and diverse culture.

Finding books on Russia that aren't dry and boring isn't that easy but "The Apartment: A Century of Russian History" takes an entirely different approach to most non-fiction books that is so brilliant and ground-breaking I would dearly like to see it become 'the norm' for a lot of non-fiction subjects.

Inside the apartment, the lives of several families are chronicled over the space of an entire century, from the revolutionary Russia of the early 20th Century, right through to the present day.

As the apartment changes and evolves to meet the needs of each new set of tenants, we find out a little bit more about Russia in each decade, through the first and second world war, and through to the eventual fall of the Iron Curtain, and a relaxation and more ready acceptance of some of the western influences that have worked their way into Russian culture in later years.

Alexandra and Anna have done an amazing job here, packing in so much detail and so much anecdotal history that there's something new to discover every time you read this book.

We also absolutely loved the format of this. It's a huge hardback tome, the sort of book we describe in our reviews as being made for sprawling out on the floor with and we learned so much from it, from what Russian people ate and what they did during harsher times, through to their subversive counter-cultural reactions to some quite often harsh laws.

Like most of our keepers, this is something that is read again and again on a regular basis, and there's no surprise it was a book of the week and indeed one of our picture books of the year last year.

Original Review Links: 

ReadItDaddy's Second Book of the Week: Week Ending 1st November 2019 - "The Apartment: A Century of Russian History" by Alexandra Litvina and Anna Desnitskaya, translated by Antonina Bouis (Abrams Books)

Our Picture Book, Chapter Book and Comic / Graphic Novel of the year winners for 2019

We couldn't possibly miss these books off our #Booky100Keepers list, purely because A) they're so damned good and B) they almost give me hope that the children's publishing industry isn't going to collapse under a tsunami of samey books.

"The Murderer's Ape" by Jakob Wegelius is quite unlike anything else you'll find in the children's section of your local bookshop.

For starters, I doubt many kids would be that familiar with the whole 'film noir' genre, and certainly not many kids would have a clue who Humphrey Bogart or James Cagney were. Yet here, in this utterly mesmerising, huge and satisfyingly thick novel is a divine kid-friendly nod to all that stuff, centred around a character whose life has been tinged by tragedy.

It feels like Jakob has used a very similar story mechanism to Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events" - in that the story of Sally Jones, a big-hearted but often mistreated Gorilla, isn't the sort of flowery happy tale you can smile through every page at. In fact there are points during this where you become so enraged at how utterly rubbish humans are, it makes you ashamed to be of that species.

But hold fast, because there's hope in this tale too - and there's Sally's indomitable spirit and strength of character to cling to as you read about her utterly fascinating life.

Jakob later revisited Sally's back story in the second book (which is actually a prequel), made more illustration-heavy and more suitable for younger kids.

"The Legend of Sally Jones" is again not the happy jolly cutesy-pie picture book that folk seem (weirdly) drawn to, but is absolutely brilliantly told, and like "The Murderer's Ape", a book that highlights just how horrible we humans are to the planet, to its animal life and to each other.

"But why do kids need to have books like this in their lives? Surely kids deserve to be happy?" I hear you cry.

 That's just the problem in kidlit, there's an assumption (certainly here in the UK at least) that children's books only serve two purposes - to deliver a moral message or a piece of sage advice on how to make the reader a better person, or to educate or convey information that (quite often) is so blatantly obvious or so rooted in common sense you'd flipping hope that by the time kids get to the stage of reading on their own, they'll have picked up that stuff themselves either from their parents or from school.

Mini rant over - these books do tick those boxes, but they're also blisteringly good reads. Dark, deliciously descriptive and not shying away from some pretty 'grown up' concepts - and filled with a cast of characters who you'll hiss at or root for at every turn of the page. But Sally is undoubtedly the star, encapsulating everything you'd want from a central character in a book, put upon, troubled, sometimes brooding and thoughtful but with a big whomping heart and a love for those who befriend her and try to see her through to a better life.

Absolutely love these books to bits. No surprise at all that both nailed "Book of the Week" (and Book of the Year for "The Murderer's Ape".

Original review links: 

ReadItDaddy's Chapter Book of the Week - Week Ending 2nd November 2018: "The Legend of Sally Jones" by Jakob Wegelius (Pushkin Press)

ReadItDaddy's Chapter Book of the Week - Week Ending 18th August 2017 - "The Murderer's Ape" by Jakob Wegelius (Pushkin Press)

Our Blog Roundup for 2017 - All our book of the week winners, our Publisher of the Year, Picture Book(s) of the Year and Chapter Book(s) of the Year Winners 2017!

Oh dear, that whole "parental influence" thing again, responsible for C's absolute unending adoring love of all things Beano shaped.

The little miss and I were on a day trip to Brighton, strolling through the Lanes and looking through comic shops I'd been a regular visitor to when I lived down there.

One place had a huge collection of (surprisingly reasonably priced) old Beano annuals. I'd already given C the choice of buying any of the other comics or books in the store but she zoomed in on these, and we ended up picking up half a dozen of 'em.

The Beano has been in print since 1938, and is still going strong today, mostly because it's a comic that keeps true to its core set of characters but isn't afraid to respin and reinvent them from time to time (though we won't talk about the 'trendy' Dennis the Menace they tried in the early noughties, that was an unmitigated disaster).

With a fantastic pool of talent to pick from, the modern Beano (including the annuals of course) has now woven its way into our lives and our bookshelves, and it's very rare to find C scoffing breakfast without at least one of her annuals in front of her, even though she's practically read the print off them several times.

For a while we religiously bought the weekly comic as well, until we began to run out of storage space for them. Characters such as the Bash Street Kids, Minnie the Minx and of course Dennis and Gnasher are now such a colossal part of Brit comic pop culture, iconic characters that have ensured every new generation of readers that discover The Beano will find a fave character or strip to pin their colours to (C absolutely loves Calamity James when drawn by Tom "Tam" Paterson, purely because of the utterly ridiculous and hilarious jokes and details he weaves into every strip).

She's still collecting the annuals, and just like when I was a kid, they're an absolute must for her christmas stocking (do other parents still buy their kids annuals for christmas?) There's no finer thing when the house is busy and bustling with christmas preparations than being a kid who can escape the craziness by wrapping themselves up in a nice warm blanket with a copy of a Beano annual to escape into.

Original review links: 

ReadItDaddy's Booky Advent Calendar Dec 2nd: The Beano Annual 2014 - 75 years of Beano Brilliance! (DC Thomson)

Booky Advent Calendar: Christmas Eve - "ANNUALS!"

Nearly a century of mischief, mayhem and fun - Happy 80th Birthday to The Beano, the generation-spanning comic.

Well we've already mentioned Tintin in our #Booky100Keepers list so it would be incredibly unfair not to mention Asterix.

Again, these were books that were hotly sought after at school. The stories of the diminutive but powerful gaul Asterix and his menhir-lugging bestie Obelix are still a huge draw even today, under the new creative ownership of Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad, who inherited Asterix from Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo and continue to produce all new stories with uncanny accuracy and due homage paid to the original creators.

It's difficult to explain why these are so great. Kids love them because kids spend a lot of time in school learning all about the Romans, so anything that pokes a bit of gentle fun at the all-conquering Roman Empire is an instant draw.

Then there are the many in-jokes, pop culture references and just downright hilarious puns and japes that are woven expertly into every story. Even back as far as 2017 in "The Chariot Race" the mysterious masked charioteer for the Romans is called...Coronavirus. Yep, go check, it's all true.

C loved these from the moment I introduced them to her, and goes back to the books quite frequently. She did point out something weird about them though. She actually found that in nearly every story, poor Asterix ends up almost playing second fiddle to every other character in the story, almost like he's too pint sized to be taken seriously, and ends up being shouldered aside. This wasn't something I ever noticed myself, but in stories where the creators are juggling with so many different plot threads and characters, perhaps she has a point. That's no criticism though, these are fantastic stories and we've included links to original reviews below...

Original Review Links: 

Asterix and Cleopatra (Book 6) by Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo & Translated by Anthea Bell (Asterix Publishing)

Asterix and the Secret Weapon by Albert Uderzo (Orion Paperbacks)

ReadItDaddy's Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 8th December 2017 - "Asterix and the Chariot Race" by Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad (Orion Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's First Book of the Week - Week Ending 22nd April 2016 - "Asterix and the Missing Scroll" by Jan-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad (Orion Children's Books)

Asterix - A Whole World to Colour In (Orion Children's Books)

Back in primary and middle school, the "Tintin" books were always the most sought-after titles in the school library. You had to put your name down on a waiting list for them, and when your turn came, you'd end up with the most dog-eared copies (tsk, some kids just don't look after books and treat them with the proper respect).

Georges Remi Herge more or less jump started my love of comics and graphic novels (a term that didn't even exist back when I first started reading these). Tintin, the boy reporter with a nose for getting into hot water, his poochy sidekick Snowy, and the tipsy (well, some of the time roaring drunk) Captain Haddock and their adventures were a real cinematic treat, with Herge's gift for perfect panelling, superior draughtmanship (I STILL marvel at how many real-world vehicles you can recognise instantly in his stories) and of course fast paced action.

It goes without saying that I wanted to introduce these to C at the earliest opportunity, and we were lucky enough that our local library was extremely well stocked with Tintin books (and of course we ended up buying a load of them as well). They may have dated in places, and some stories have had to be sanitised a bit to remove some of the less politically correct elements that crept into them from time to time, but they still remain an absolutely incredible series to get kids interested in comics and graphic novels, and we still can't resist digging out our copies and reading through them a few times a year, just to remind ourselves how talented comic creators across the channel are. Weirdly, Tintin only crops up on the blog twice (I have no idea why we didn't review all the Tintin books we own) and those reviews are included below.

Original review links: 

Tintin in America by Georges Remi Herge (Egmont Books)

The Adventures of Tintin - The Cigars of the Pharaohs by Georges Remi Herge (translated by Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper)(Egmont Books)

We love non-fiction and we've been very lucky during our tenure on the blog to see the rise and rise of absolutely top quality non fiction titles shouldering aside fiction picture books to establish themselves as a force to be reckoned with in engaging young readers with a lifelong love of reading.

Wide Eyed Editions (a Quarto imprint) stunned us with their first set of releases some years back, and it's been a delight to see the range maintain those high standards, gorgeous presentation and of course a serious amount of writing and illustrative talent contributing to their amazing range of books, covering a massively diverse range of subjects.

"The School of Art" was an early title that impressed the socks off us, taking the approach of involving the reader in a love of art - and showing them how they can draw on (pun intended) their own skills with the help of awesome art tutors who pop up throughout the book. It's a dazzling little title this, and such a great idea because kids instantly gain confidence if a book takes the right approach in showing them how to tap into their own creativity and imagination.

The "Illumanatomy" book with its innovative use of a red lens to show multiple pictures in the same page spread was also an instant wow.

One thing we always look for in non-fiction books are books that can serve up a ton of facts and interesting information but do so in a 'wow factor' kind of way, and this certainly fits the bill. Though kids are often lured away from non-fiction books by a wide range of interactive apps on mobile phones and tablets, it's been great to see books clawing some of those readers back, and inviting more reader participation and interaction as they convey their information.

These books have always gone down really well on the blog, and they're often the titles people ask us about when they're searching out books for their kids (adults, it seems, are more inclined to pick up an interesting non-fiction title for a child relative than they are a fiction title, I wonder why that is?)

Wide Eyed Editions' range is so impressive we even found ourselves drawn to books that featured subjects we'd normally run a mile to avoid.

"The Big Book of Football" for example. We're not remotely football fans but thanks to some brilliant art direction and some excellent historical information and a ton of info about the modern game, this actually ended up being one of our favourite sport-based books, and an absolutely essential purchase for young footie fans who want to read even more about the beautiful game.

We've been fortunate enough to review so many Wide Eyed books and we're including all of our reviews below (be warned, there are a LOT of them!)

See if you can spot how many times they fetched up in the "Book of the Week" slot, definitely an honour for a non-fiction title and proof positive that their range is absolutely top notch.


Original Review Links

ReadItDaddy's Second Book of the Week - Week Ending 8th July 2016 - "Natural World: A Visual Compendium of Wonders from Nature" by Amanda Wood, Mike Jolley and Owen Davey (Wide Eyed Editions)

A perfect trio of engaging books to stimulate your imagination from Wide Eyed Editions

Two truly beautiful books for your tinies from Wide Eyed Editions - "Colours" and "One Thousand Things"

Creaturepedia by Adrienne Barman (Wide Eyed Editions)

Atlas of Adventures by Lucy Letherland (Wide Eyed Editions)

Celebrating iconic musicians and fantastic scientists with a pair of glorious new books from Wide Eyed Editions

A fantastic pair of infographic-styled books introducing legends of Rock Music and Ancient Greece (Wide Eyed Editions)

Two stunning new titles full of inspirational people in a brilliant new range from Wide Eyed Editions. "Fantastic Footballers" and "People of Peace"

ReadItDaddy's Second Book of the Week - Week Ending 9th March 2018 - "Destination: Planet Earth" by Jo Nelson and Tom Clohosy Cole (Wide Eyed Editions)

How To Look After Your Puppy (Pet Cadet Series) by Helen Piers and Kate Sutton (Wide Eyed Editions)

The School of Art by Teal Triggs and Daniel Frost (Wide Eyed Editions)

More mapping fun and a ton of activities in "Atlas of Adventures Activity Fun Pack" coming soon from Wide Eyed Editions

Field Guide: Creatures Great and Small - 35 prints to Colour by Lucy Engelman (Wide Eyed Editions)

Nature's Day by Kay Maguire and Danielle Kroll (Wide Eyed Editions)

"Wild World" by Angela McAllister and Hvass & Hannibal (Wide Eyed Editions)

ReaditDaddy's Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 20th October 2017 - "Illumanatomy" by Kate Davies and Carnovsky (Wide Eyed Editions)

ReadItDaddy's First Spacetastic Book of the Week - Week Ending 19th July 2019: "When We Walked on the Moon" by David Long and Sam Kalda (Wide Eyed Editions)

"What do Animals Do All Day?" by Wendy Hunt and Studio Muti (Wide Eyed Editions)

"The Big Book of Football" by Mundial, illustrated by Damien Weighill (Wide Eyed Editions)

ReadItDaddy's Book of the Week - Week Ending 7th June 2019: Commemorating the 7th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings with the stunning "D-Day: Untold Stories of the Normandy Landings" by Michael Noble and Alexander Mostov (Wide Eyed Editions)

"Maps of the United Kingdom" by Rachel Dixon and Livi Gosling (Wide Eyed Editions)

"Voyage Through Space" by Katy Flint and Cornelia Li (Wide Eyed Editions)

ReadItDaddy's Second Book of the Week - Week Ending 7th September 2018: "Curiositree: Human World" by A.J Wood, Mike Jolley and Andres Lozano (Wide Eyed Editions)

EtchArt: Forgotten Jungle by Dinara Mirtalipova, A.J Wood and Mike Jolley (Wide Eyed Editions)

Step inside a world of scintillating art with the new "Art Masterclass" series from Hanna Konola and Wide Eyed Editions

Two fantastic new books to help you get to know our planet (and beyond). Life on Earth: Ocean and Life on Earth: Space by Heather Alexander and Andres Lozano (Wide Eyed Editions)

ReadItDaddy's Second Book of the Week - Week Ending 16th February 2018 - "Young Gifted and Black" by Jamia Wilson and Andrea Pippins (Wide Eyed Editions)

The Hello Atlas by Ben Handicott and Kenard Pak (Wide Eyed Editions)

Atlas of Miniature Adventures by Emily Hawkins and Lucy Letherland (Wide Eyed Editions)

ReadItDaddy's Second Book of the Week - Week Ending 7th October 2016 - "Illuminature" by Rachel Williams and Carnovsky (Wide Eyed Editions)

3,2,1...Draw! Reimagine your world with 50 drawing activities By Serge Bloch (Wide Eyed Editions)

ReadItDaddy's Second Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 14th June 2019: "Planet Fashion: 100 Years of Fashion History" by Natasha Slee and Cynthia Kittler (Wide Eyed Editions)

ReaditDaddy's Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 3rd July 2020: "I Am Not A Label" by Cerrie Burnell and Lauren Baldo (Wide Eyed Editions)

ReadItDaddy's Book of the Week - Week Ending 24th January 2020: "Search and Find a Number of Numbers" by A.J Wood and Allan Sanders (Wide Eyed Editions)

ReadItDaddy's Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 3rd May 2019: "Boy Oh Boy" by Dr Cliff Leek and Bene Rohlmann (Wide Eyed Editions)

Plantopedia: Welcome to the Greatest Show on Earth by Adrienne Barman (Wide Eyed Editions)

"The Alphabet of Alphabets" by A.J Wood, Mike Jolley and Allan Sanders (Wide Eyed Editions)

"What Do Grown Ups Do All Day?" by Virginie Morgand (Wide Eyed Editions)

Dinosaur Detective's Search and Find Rescue Mission by Sophie Guerrive (Wide Eyed Editions)

"Stars Before Bedtime: A Mindful Fall-Asleep Book" by Dr Jessamy Hibberd, Claire Grace and Hannah Tolson (Wide Eyed Editions)

ReadItDaddy's Book of the Week - Week Ending 14th February 2020: "Everybody Counts: A Counting Story from 0 to 7.5 Billion" by Kristin Roskifte (Wide Eyed Editions)

"Poems Aloud" by Joseph Coelho and Daniel Gray-Barnett (Wide Eyed Editions)

"Atlas of Ocean Adventures" by Emily Hawkins and Lucy Letherland (Wide Eyed Editions)

"Queer Heroes" by Arabelle Sicardi and Sarah Tanat-Jones (Wide Eyed Editions)

"Sounds of Nature: World of Forests" by Robert Frank Hunter (Wide Eyed Editions)

"Step Into Your Power: 23 Lessons on How to Live Your Best Life" by Jamia Wilson and Andrea Pippins (Wide Eyed Editions)

"A Year of Nature Poems" by Joseph Coelho and Kelly Louise Judd (Wide Eyed Editions)

ReadItDaddy's Second Book of the Week - Week Ending 23rd November 2018: "The Dictionary of Dinosaurs" by Dr Matthew Baron and Dieter Braun (Natural History Museum Books / Wide Eyed Editions)

"Atlas of Adventures: Wonders of the World" by Ben Handicott and Lucy Letherland (Wide Eyed Editions)

"All Aboard the Voyage of Discovery" by Emily Hawkins, Tom Adams and Tom Clohosy Cole (Wide Eyed Editions)

"Illuminatlas" by Kate Davies and Carnovsky (Wide Eyed Editions)

"Sounds of Nature: World of Birds" by Robert Frank Hunter (Wide Eyed Editions)

"Spot the Mistake: Journeys of Discovery" by Amanda Wood, Mike Jolley and Frances Castle (Wide Eyed Editions)

Atlas of Dinosaur Adventures by Emily Hawkins and Lucy Letherland (Wide Eyed Editions)

A beautiful pair of activity books to bring out your artistic side. "EtchArt Hidden Forest" and "Etchart Secret Sea" by A.J Wood, Mike Jolley and Dinara Mirtalipova (Wide Eyed Editions)

ReadItDaddy's Second Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 15th September 2017 - "Pirates Magnified" by Professor David Long and Harry Bloom (Wide Eyed Editions)

ReadItDaddy's Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 5th May 2017 - "Spot the Mistake: Lands of Long Ago" by Amanda Wood, Mike Jolley and Frances Castle (Wide Eyed Editions)

The School of Music by Meurig and Rachel Bowen, illustrated by Daniel Frost (Wide Eyed Editions)

100 Steps for Science: Why it works and how it happened by Dr Lisa Jane Gillespie and Yukai Du (Wide Eyed Editions)

Labyrinth by Theo Guignard (Wide Eyed Editions)

Atlas of Animal Adventures by Rachel Williams, Emily Hawkins and Lucy Letherland (Wide Eyed Editions)

Man, we were properly obsessed with this book when it first turned up at ReaditDaddy Towers and you know what? Though our copy is pretty well mauled, we still use it today as there's no better way to pass a long boring school holiday than to delve into this exquisite book and start putting together a new game idea.

We're totally in love with board games (well, games of any description really) and Kevan and Viv have done such a great job of including absolutely everything you need to create your own awesome game ideas. All you really need to bring to the table is yourself, your besties or kids, and your imagination.

We read through the whole book before embarking on a project we'd had on the backburner for a long time - a strange board game of sheer chance where your aim is to make your way around a supermarket, snagging as many goodies as possible but avoiding the wandering grannies who inhabit the store, and will nag you to bits to go and pick their prescriptions up for them - thus robbing you of the chance of nabbing more groceries than your opponent.

We worked on several versions of the game, inspired in some part by horrible shopping trips we'd had in the past - and amazingly the game held together pretty well. So well in fact that we still dig it out from time to time to play it.

We devised several other board games and a couple of card games too. I firmly believe that there's no better bonding experience for a family than to tough it out designing a game, then of course playing each other at it.

Certainly a better way of deciding who gets to do the washing up than tossing a coin.

Original review links and articles: 

ReadItDaddy's Second Book of the Week - Week Ending 20th September 2019: "Board Games to Create and Play" by Kevan Davis and Viviane Schwarz (Pavilion Children's Books)

Building our own board game with "Board Games to Create and Play" by Kevan Davis and Viviane Schwarz (Pavilion Children's Books)

Sometimes we're left feeling a little sad by some of the entries in our #Booky100Keepers list. Some titles never quite gained the traction they so richly deserved and this is definitely one such title, the utterly original, brilliant and sublime "Mi and Museum City" by Linda Sarah.

Imagine an incredible cultural city populated by dozens and dozens of different museums. That is, of course, what you'll find in Museum City where each and every citizen takes it upon themselves to set up a museum about their favourite things.

Some are fantastic collections of the weird and wonderful. Some are so dull you'd swear they'd send you to sleep the moment you walked through the doors.

While exploring Museum City, Mi - a strange creature - hears the most gorgeous haunting music and immediately investigates where it's coming from.

Then Mi makes a new friend - called Yu - and the two embark on a journey of discovery as they begin to warm to the delights of the world they live in, and of course the strange and eccentric folk they share a neighbourhood with. Their aim is to change the world one museum at a time, encouraging folk to set up less museums about boring stuff, and more celebrating the amazing beauty in our world.

We were so inspired by this and it's funny that only last week we were talking about it again - imagining what it would be like to set up our own museums (originally C wanted to set up an ice cream and loom bands museum, though I think nowadays she'd opt for an Animal Crossing / Sims museum instead - Me, yeah I'd probably still go with a boring museum about pens!)

Linda is one of those folk who you just KNOW has music in her head all the time, and a zillion and one awesomely creative ideas, the sort of person you'd just love to share a coffee with and just talk, and talk with. This book really is something special. I've no idea if it's still in print but it's well worth hunting down a copy.

Original review link: 

Mi and Museum City by Linda Sarah (Phoenix Yard Books)

We'll probably be accused of some hideous bias in including two books by Michelle Vinall in our #Booky100Keepers list - after all this extremely talented artist illustrated our current blog header for us.

But there's something about Michelle's two self-published books that still has us waiting (hopefully not in vain) for her final book in the unconnected trilogy.

We used to regularly dip in to independently published titles from time to time, way back when we had so much more time - running a successful "Indie Pen-Dance" (terrible pun) Day, and delving into the huge sprawl of self published work available on digital platforms.

Michelle's "Hurricane Lane" is such a sublime piece of work. A young girl is tasked with a piece of homework - to think about the 7 ancient wonders of the world, then describe the seven wonders of her own modern world.

No easy task, even for a kid, but she embraces this project with gusto - and embarks on a journey of discovery, and a sense of wonder at just how amazing the world we live in can be.

Michelle uses her awesome illustrative skills and storytelling props to tell the story of how you are never really alone if you have an imagination, and your world can easily be shaped by the real and the surreal.

We also really loved "256 Postcards Ago" by Michelle...

Again this story centres on the imagination of a child, emarking on an amazing quest alongside his besties - the Anubis-like Ludo, a fluffy-cloud-elephant named Ollie and a cute green bug called Digit.

Together the four friends whistle through the town exploring, and their story unfolds gently with a minimum word count - letting Michelle's excellent anime-like illustrations take over, and of course allowing your imagination to join in and make the story anything you want it to be.

Michelle has mostly turned her attention to videogame art over the last few years but we secretly hope that one day she'll pick up her pen or stylus and polish off her children's book trilogy. We'll be there to read it, no matter what!

Original review links: 

Indie Pen-Dance Wednesday. Come with us on a journey through your imagination with "256 Postcards Ago" by Michelle Vinall (Amazon Self Publishing)

Indie Pen-Dance Thursday Part 2: Hurricane Lane by Michelle Vinall (Self-Published!)

Indie Pen-Dance Wednesday - An interview with super-talented Michelle Vinall, self-published author and illustrator of "Hurricane Lane" and "256 Postcards Ago"

 Michelle Vinall's "Hurricane Lane" iPhone / iPad story app launches today!

Unveiling our awesome new Blog Header image courtesy of Michelle Vinall!

I still can't quite remember what originally caught my eye about the fantastic work of Metaphrog. I think it was at a point where I knew C was becoming more and more interested in comics - even at a young age she seem drawn to them, drawn to the format of strips and panels as a way of conveying a story far more effectively (for her at the time) than mere words could manage.

It started with "Louis: Red Letter Day". John and Sandra - the awesome duo known as Metaphrog - might well be more famous now for their superbly dark retellings of classic fairy tales but the Louis books were just something else.

Children are far more willing to accept and enjoy surreality as a concept, which was definitely borne out by the Louis graphic novels. The story of a benign little chap who has a fairly mundane but happy life is tinged with moments that may sail completely over children's heads, yet they're still able to decode a lot of what Louis' stories are all about.

With his tweety sidekick FC, Louis is wholly accepting of his lot - even when teased and tricked by a pair of nasty spiteful little characters - a strange boss-like chap and his suck-up minion (shiny!) who seem to devote a colossal amount of time to messing with Louis' life.

I just loved the originality of these, the bits where you nod along thinking "Yeah, life's like that kiddo" but also we were both completely drawn in by how beautiful the books are, I mean just check out these set of panels from "Louis: Night Salad" - Gorgeous, gorgeous work!


Finding a publishing home at Papercutz, Metaphrog's work has gone completely stellar with their aforementioned treatments of classic tales, always given an original and glorious makeover in the Metaphrog style.

"The Red Shoes and other Tales" is a particular favourite, demonstrating how subsequent modern takes on these stories have always watered them down a bit - something Metaphrog are keen to address, and keen to put right. Each time they tackle a tale, they restore the original darker versions of the stories - and again kids are more than capable of coping with dark stuff (this is definitely something we've learned over the course of ten years of children's book blogging).

"The Red Shoes" tells the story of a young girl, orphaned at an early age but taken in with kindness by her aunt. The young girl spies a pair of red shoes in a shop and simply must have them! But these are no ordinary shoes, they're magic and the wearer is destined to dance until they die (quite literally!)

However the story in this collection that really caught C's eye was "The Doll". Like something out of an episode of "Tales of the Unexpected" it's the story of a young boy who takes refuge in a toy museum. He swears that one of the exhibits - a doll - can read his thoughts and understand what he's saying. She becomes his only friend - school friend bully him about his obsession and things are tough at home too. Finally the boy realises there's a way he and his new friend can be together forever...

It's really spooky but brilliant, and the trio of tales is polished off by one of the most heartbreaking versions of "The Little Match Girl" you're ever likely to read, again John and Sandra sounding out the plight of those who end up living below the poverty line, subtly but effectively.

Here's a brace of links to all our reviews of their fantastic work. Wishing John and Sandra all the brightest and best, as they are so supremely talented.

Original Review Links: 

#ReadItMD13 Comics and Magazines Week - ReadItDaddy interview the mighty Metaphrog!

Booky Advent Calendar Day 17 - 17th December 2013: "Winter's Tales" by Metaphrog (Metaphrog Publishing)

ReadItDaddy's First Book of the Week - Week Ending 25th September 2015 - "Hans Christian Andersen's The Red Shoes (and other tales)" by Hans Christian Andersen and Metaphrog (Papercutz Publishing)

ReadItDaddy's Second Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 26th May 2017 - "The Little Mermaid" by Metaphrog (Papercutz)

"The Photographs" by Metaphrog. A Graphic Short (published by Metaphrog / Glasgow Life)

Louis - Red Letter Day by Metaphrog (Metaphrog Publishing)

Louis - Night Salad by Metaphrog (Metaphrog Publishing)

ReaditDaddy's Comic / Graphic Novel of the Week: Week Ending 22nd May 2020: "Bluebeard: A Feminist Fairy Tale" by Metaphrog (Papercutz)

Get ready for an utterly awesome version of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Red Shoes" from Metaphrog and Papercutz

#ReadItMD13 Theme Week - "Getting Crafty with Children's Books" - Time for a book-themed make...!

Another creative mind worthy of inclusion in our #Booky100Keepers list is none other than Mr Alex T. Smith, creator of the fantastic "Claude" series, and of course a brilliantly funny middle grade author of the superb "Mr Penguin" books.

We were lucky enough to meet Alex at a book signing and he's a truly lovely guy but his work is something else.

With the "Claude" books, these were some of the early readers that C really took to when she began her solo reading journey. Breaking up chapter-length texts with superb (and quite often saucy) illustrations, Alex drives each story along beautifully. The stories of Claude - a pooch filled with a wonderful sense of joie de vivre - and his floppy sidekick Sir Bobblysocks, are always brilliantly funny, almost like a clean version of "Carry On" movies for kids. Claude seems to always end up at the centre of a weird mystery or bizarre theft, or sometimes just a baking competition or a talent show. But with his Tardis-like beret, packed for every occasion with anything an adventuresome pup might need in an emergency, he's like a more sassy version of Paddington, seemingly always in the right place at the right time for a grand adventure.

We also really loved the Mr Penguin books. You'll believe a diminutive black and white flightless bird could become a competitor to Indiana Jones, hurling himself into dangerous situations and crazy quests - not just for fortune and glory, but to make the world a better place.

These books are again perfect for readers who feel confident enough to read on their own but still like a good dose of illustration throughout their stories.

We've covered Alex's collaborations on the blog too, with such luminaries as Caryl Hart (another hugely talented and favourite author of ours), the late Richard Adams (he of Watership Down fame), and Anne Cottringer.

He's also a superstar on Twitter (let's face it, Bake Off wouldn't be Bake Off without ATS's tweet-alongs).

He truly has the midas touch when it comes to kidlit, so check out the links below for a metric ton of reviews of Alex's work (blimey, HOW many Book of the Week wins?!)

Original Review Links: 

Booky Advent Calendar Day 4 - "Santa Claude" by Alex T. Smith (Hodder Children's Books)

ReaditDaddy's First Book of the Week - Week Ending 6th November 2015 - "Claude Doodle Book" by Alex T. Smith (Hodder Children's Books)

A Jolly Booktastic Outing to London's 'Discover Story' venue with an awesome group of bloggers to see the truly brilliant Alex T. Smith

ReadItDaddy's First Book of the Week - Week Ending 10th June 2016 - "Claude All At Sea by Alex T. Smith" (Hodder Children's Books)

Chapter Book Roundup - March 2015 with Claude, Matilda and Kittens!

Claude in the Spotlight by Alex T Smith (Hachette Children's Books)

Foxy Tales - The Cunning Plan by Caryl Hart and Alex T. Smith (Hodder Children's Books)

"Princess Primrose" by Alex T. Smith (Scholastic Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's Chapter Book Roundup - August 2015 - "Monsters, Penguins, Bobbly Socks, Wild Woods, Dorks and Stone Circles"

ReaditDaddy's Second Book of the Week - Week Ending 11th March 2016 "Claude - Going for Gold by Alex T. Smith (Hodder Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's Book of the Week - Week ending 25th October 2013. "My Mum Has X Ray Vision" by Angela McAllister and Alex T. Smith (Scholastic Books)

"Claude: Anyone for Strawberries?" Based on the Claude stories by Alex T. Smith (Hodder Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's Third Book of the Week - Week Ending 9th November 2018: "Mr Penguin and the Fortress of Secrets (Mr Penguin Book 2)" by Alex T. Smith (Hodder Children's Books)

The Adventures of Egg Box Dragon by Richard Adams and Alex T. Smith (Hodder Children's Books)

ReaditDaddy's Chapter Book of the Week - Week Ending 6th October 2017 - "Mr Penguin and the Lost Treasure" (Mr Penguin Book 1) by Alex T. Smith (Hodder Children's Books)

Booky Advent Calendar Book of the Week - Week Ending 21st December 2018: "How Winston Delivered Christmas: An Advent Story in Twenty-four-and-a-half Chapter" by Alex T. Smith (Macmillan Children's Books)

Foxy and Egg by Alex T. Smith (Hodder Children's Books)

Foxy Tales - The Road to Fame and Fortune by Caryl Hart and Alex T. Smith (Hodder Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's Chapter Book of the Week - Week Ending 29th November 2019: "Mr Penguin and the Catastrophic Cruise" by Alex T. Smith (Hodder Children's Books)

Eliot Jones, Midnight Superhero by Anne Cottringer and Alex T Smith (Scholastic Children's Books)

Bella and Monty in "A Hairy Scary Night" by Alex T. Smith (Hodder Children's Books)

Some author-illustrators make our hearts almost sing with joy whenever they release a new book. One such gifted individual is Helen Hancocks, whose picture books are an absolute delight, striking the perfect balance between being gloriously involving and entertaining, and as clever as a Vixen who went off to Fox University and got her degree, doctorate and PhD.

Cats are a thing for us. You will probably see it as a recurring theme on the blog that we coo, and cheer every time a book comes along that features a devilishly smart feline and Helen's glorious "William" series is an absolute delight.

In "William and the Missing Masterpiece" the International Moggy of Mystery is hot on the trail of a mysterious art theft in the cool and cosmopolitan city of Paris.

It doesn't take long before William uncovers clues that lead straight to the thief. What we really loved about this book (apart from William) is Helen's gorgeous nods and references to famous works of art, all given her own unique storytelling and artistic touches to fit in with the story - and for me a great place to start off C's own interest in art and artists, showing her the real-life paintings which Helen based her own versions on.

William's second adventure "William Heads to Hollywood" is equally glorious, this time tapping into the whole Hollywood scene in such a fantastic way, and again working in dozens of fabulous characters, references and just utterly brilliantly clever stuff as William is hot on the trail of another devious miscreant, who this time has made off with all the annual awards.

Teaming up with glamour-puss Audrey Mieowski, William is quite the cat about town as he rubs shoulders with Hollywood royalty before nabbing the naughty award thief.

Helen draws on so many influences that tick all the right boxes for us, producing a book that feels like Roman Holiday - and a really fab read that's full of sunshine and colour, like most of Helen's books.

Lastly we wanted to mention another of Helen's cat books, well - cats are in it but the star is a rather strange goggle-eyed little chap...

"Penguin in Peril" is a fabulous chase-romp featuring three naughty cats who are so hungry they turn to a life of crime. Their plan: Kidnap the best fish-nabber in the business, making off with a poor Penguin from the local zoo.

Thankfully penguins are pretty slippery customers so as the cats make off with their captive, the penguin escapes - leading to a hilarious chase through the city until a helpful bird comes to the penguin's rescue, and sees those three naughty kitties tucked up safely behind bars.

Once again there are so many brill little details in this, and who could fail to love a book about cats AND penguins!

We've included review links to all the books we've featured by Helen, and look how many times she's fetched up in our Book of the Week slot..! Wow!

I like clever stuff that comes along just at the right time to tap into C's interests. Just as she was beginning to embrace the world of Rainbows, Brownies and Guides I spotted the cover of "Lumberjanes Volume 1: Beware the Kitten Holy" and knew it would be a big hit with her. 

Moving from one excellent witchy series to another in our #Booky100Keepers list, the "Winnie the Witch" books by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul were early favourites of C - and that rare thing, a series of books that she discovered herself without any prodding or cajoling from me.

Back when our blog first began, I started trying to keep a list of the books we regularly borrowed from our local library, mainly to try and avoid C picking the same books every week. I was lucky enough to be working flexibly at the time, getting every wednesday off. So wednesday became library day and that's how this whole thing started out.

Trying to discourage a 2 year old from picking the same books isn't as easy as it sounds, and in fact these were nearly always in our pile, and thankfully by the time we started blogging there were plenty of excellent Winnie the Witch books to choose from.

The huge appeal of these books for C were largely down to Korky Paul's scritchy scratchy illustrations, and this set out a pattern we'd see again and again in the books that we ended up loving (and keeping). There's so much detail in there, everything from little jokes and nods at popular culture, to cameos from Korky's other books, even to cameos for Valerie and Korky themselves.

Of course no book is just about the illustrations. Valerie's stories were always funny and she never ceased to amaze us with how many different ways she could cook up to get Winnie and Wilbur into trouble (and thankfully out again).

As much as kids love to read about themselves in children's books, they also absolutely LOVE to read about adults stuffing up - and Winnie isn't some masterful mistress of magic, in fact most of the time her spells go awry, her house is a mess, and poor Wilbur is usually on the receiving end of misplaced spells or other chaos in each story.

One of C's early favourites was "Winnie in Winter" - a tale that sees Winnie tinkering with the seasons themselves as she and Wilbur get fed up with the constant cold and snow.

But when she tinkers with bringing summer early to her garden, the poor creatures who live there don't know whether to hibernate or stay up, and soon everyone wants a piece of the sunny action - and Winnie's garden ends up looking like every green space does at the moment as we watch hordes of crazy people ignoring the COVID-19 lockdown and social distancing stuff.

Winnie has no choice but to restore the balance of nature, bringing the wintry weather back again. At one point we were borrowing this book every week for about a year, that's how popular it was.

It's testament to how popular these books are that our second most accessed review on the blog was an article about Winnie's 25th birthday with over 1800 unique hits (not too shabby for a book blog done in our spare time).

C once met Korky and was delighted when she mentioned her blog and he knew exactly who we were. I think it went to her head a bit as she would constantly talk about how 'famous' we were. Ah if only that were true!

I've included a few other Korky Paul reviews (he really has worked with some of the best writers in the business) as well as the Winnie books, as they're all well and truly brilliant and worthy of your attention.

Original review links

ReadItDaddy's Second Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 25th May 2018: "Winnie and Wilbur: Seaside Adventures" by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul (OUP / Oxford Children's Books)

Snails Legs by Damian Harvey and Korky Paul (Frances Lincoln Children's Books)

The Rascally Cake by Jeanne Willis and Korky Paul (Picture Puffin)

ReadItDaddy's First Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 29th September 2017 - "Winnie and Wilbur: The Naughty Knight" by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul (Oxford Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's Book of the Week - Week Ending 23rd May 2014 - "Sir Scallywag and the Deadly Dragon Poo" by Giles Andreae and Korky Paul (Picture Puffin)

Winnie's Midnight Dragon

Booky Advent Calendar Day 10: "Winnie and Wilbur: The Santa Surprise" by Laura Owen and Korky Paul (OUP / Oxford Children's Books)

A Rocketful of Space Poems by John Foster and Korky Paul (Otter-Barry Books / Frances Lincoln Children's Books)

The Very Noisy House by Julie Rhodes and Korky Paul (Frances Lincoln Children's Books)

It's Friday the 13th! What better day to celebrate Winnie the Witch's Birthday!

The Duck with No Luck

Sanji and the Baker

The Dog who could Dig

Professor Puffendorf's Secret Potions

A Cat Called Scratch

Winnie At the Seaside

Winnie Flies Again

Winnie in Winter

Happy 25th Birthday, Winnie the Witch!

Happy Birthday Winnie!

Winnie's Flying Carpet