Some of Maverick Publishing's greatest picture books will soon be available in a new format perfect for early readers cutting their teeth with stories and picture books and reading them on their own.

Maverick's new Early Readers range comes in a series of banded colours by ability and complexity, drawing on Maverick's awesome back catalogue of previously published picture books.

The initial range of titles includes:

"The Black and White Club" by Alice Hemming and Kimberley Scott

"A Scarf and a Half" by Amanda Brandon and Catalina Echeverri.

"Yuck said the Yak" by Alex English and Emma Levey

"Hocus Pocus Diplodocus" by Steve Howson and Kate Daubney

"Preposterous Rhinoceros" by Tracey Gunaratnam and Marta Costa.

Designed to be schoolbag-friendly, and perfect for class or home, these early readers introduce key stage reading concepts utilising Maverick's trademark colourful characters and engaging stories to make a range of early readers that are perfect for that difficult transition from listener to self-reader.

"The Black and White Club" by Alice Hemming and Kimberley Scott

"Yuck Said the Yak" by Alex English and Emma Levey.

Do you have a knitting nan or gran? Nan Webb was always the biggest knit(ter) in our family, she could hand-knit and crochet such amazing things in fact if anyone had asked her she could probably have knitted a Nuclear Submarine Cosy, she was that good!

Granny Mutton loves knitting so when Lionel Mutton (her grandson) is about to have a birthday, Granny gets busy and decides to knit young Lionel a scarf to keep his neck warm.

Granny can't reign in her enthusiasm, with needles almost on fire with the effort she knits the scarf to end all scarves - in fact it's a scarf and a half!

Lionel's birthday arrives, and he quickly rips open his present, thinking it's a new football - and is somewhat deflated when he discovers the world's longest scarf inside. It's huge, wraps around him so many times that he trips and stumbles, and falls face-flat in the mud. But can a scarf become the most awesome birthday present in the world after all, with a little imagination (and a good stretch?)

"A Scarf and a Half" is awesome, a rousing cheer for our wonderful grandparents (or for that matter dotty old aunties or mums who knit too!) and an awesome demonstration that a child's imagination through play can help any ordinary everyday object become something magical! A book and a half, this!

Charlotte's best bit: Lionel's scarf tug-o-war!

Daddy's Favourite bit: What a wonderful granny Granny Mutton is!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Maverick Books)