Our Picture Book of the Week this week neatly covers two subjects very dear to our hearts - dad and daughter books, and lovely lovely libraries..!

Day 22 on our Booky Advent Calendar and the big day is SO CLOSE now..!

I know, I know! Christmas isn't even out of the way yet but we're already looking forward to another bumper book year in 2016.

Four new titles coming up in January and February 2016 have arrived at ReadItDaddy Towers and we can't wait to tell you about them!

First, a re-issue of a book that should definitely be top of your wishlist for the new year, written and illustrated by one of our top Twitter pals Dan Santat. "The Adventures of Beekle - The Unimaginary Friend" is the story of a lovely little cuddly fellah who lives in the realm of mysterious imaginary beasts, waiting for a child to 'imagine' them into existence. There are many fantastic creatures in this fantasy land but poor Beekle always seems to be overlooked.

It's time to take matters into his own hands, and so Beekle decides it's time to visit the big city - and find a friend of his own! Will Beekle succeed?

It's gloriously illustrated and such a wonderful little story that we couldn't help but fall head over heels in love with it straight away. It helps that Beekle looks a lot like Eugene from Evil Emperor Penguin, one of our fave strips in The Phoenix Comic!

Next in our Andersen Press pile, a hilarious book that's been wowing tinies over in the US, now heading for our shores (hooray!)

"Wolfie the Bunny" by Ame Dyckman (who is also a Twitter superstar btw!) with illustrations by Zachariah Ohora is a hugely funny tale of Mr and Mrs Rabbit finding a rather peculiar 'present' sitting on their doorstep. It's a little baby but this little baby doesn't have cute floppy ears and a twitchy nose. This little baby has rather sharp teeth, a long bushy tail and a long nose!

Little Rabbit sees straight through this guise and thinks that the whole family will end up as rabbit pie - but is Wolfie the Bunny more inclined to search for more healthy fare such as crunchy juicy carrots instead of bunny burgers?

Wildly funny and entertaining, you'll be able to see what all the fuss is about in February.


We're getting slightly obsessed with feet for our next two books...

"Where my Feet Go" by Birgitta Sif is a rollicking riot in book form, as we join a little Panda's adventures seeing where his feet will take him.

Do feet love the feel of grass, or a sandbox or the prickly wooden branch?

When you're tiny your feet can take you just about anywhere in this bouncy read-along fun story. Fabulous characters and a great story will make this one very appealing to fidgety energetic little ones so check out this book when it arrives in February 2016.

Let's stick with the subject of feet for our final look ahead to 2016 and a book from a particular 'fave' of ours here at ReadItDaddy Towers...


Splendid socks are the starts of "Odd Socks" by Michelle Robinson and Rebecca Ashdown. Let's meet Sosh and Suki, a perfect pair of snuggly warm socks who have all sorts of adventures - but woe befalls poor Suki when she develops a loose thread which turns into a nasty little hole.

Poor Suki is distraught and decides to run away before she's thrown in the bin, but Sosh is determined to track her down. Perhaps there really can be a life after stinky feet for Sosh and Suki!

Brilliant rhymes, colourful illustrations and a hugely original and entertaining tale, you are going to love this one loads!

We'll be featuring big and proper reviews of each of these titles nearer release. Don't they look fab though?

Though Christmas has long since passed, and the last vestiges of the christmas turkey have long been shotgunned into space, we're sort of missing the ability to lazily pick chocolates off the christmas tree and dream that somewhere between the frequent rainstorms we'd get a bit of snow so Santa's sled could run a little easier on Christmas Eve (Note to parents - any awkward questions from your little ones about how Santa's sleigh works without snow? It flies of course!)

Chris Van Allsburg's utterly brilliant "The Polar Express" is our book of the week, and was one of our Christmas Stocking books. I remember seeing this when my (now big and lanky) brother was just a toddler but for some reason we never picked it up for him.

Now Charlotte's old enough to appreciate the difference between books and movies I thought I'd give this a go. You see, she absolutely loves the movie to pieces (and quite rightly so) but the two are light-years apart, save that same cosy atmosphere that comes across in both.

Personally though, I prefer the book. Why? Because Chris Van Allsburg's illustrations and the lilting text of his story beats any CGI render farm, or any crazed scenery-chewing vocalisations from Mr Hanks. With the aid of some amazingly beautiful painted panels and such descriptive scene setting, you feel like you're lazing in your most comfortable armchair listening to someone telling you the story of how they still believe in Christmas, and why.

A few reads through and Charlotte managed to start distancing this from the movie (and stopped asking where the little girl and the kid from the wrong side of the tracks were) and started to appreciate it in a similar way to me. It's so atmospheric, so beautifully produced and as satisfying as the rich chocolatey goodness you imagine those children enjoying as they guzzle their hot chocolate in the restaurant car and speed towards the north pole on the Polar Express itself.

There's probably a good fistful of blog posts in what happens when a well-loved children's book gets turned into a movie or TV adaptation and that's definitely something I'll have to do at some point. But for the time being, having this cosy and utterly brilliant reminder of the magic of Christmas as a book of the week in wet January has made me really crave mince pies and mulled wine again.

Charlotte's best bit: The panel with the wolves. For some reason she's fascinated by this and wants to know what the wolves are up to and why they are chasing the train!

Daddy's favourite bit: I love the cynical kid, he's me - but most of all I love the way Van Allsburg paints a more vivid, colourful and atmospheric picture in my head through his book than Hollywood could ever manage.

A new David McKee book is always something to shout about. A new Brett and David McKee book (Father and Son) is even better, as the two work so well together that you can barely see the join. "George's Invisible Watch" has all those wonderful characters in it that you expect from anything David McKee gets involved in. The hero, a young lad named George, becomes the town's preferred timekeeper when he's found to have an uncanny knack for knowing exactly what time it is.

At first his friends and parents scoff at his ability, but time and time again he's proved right so people begin to actually believe that he really does wear an invisible (and highly accurate) timepiece.

Of course, McKee's books are renowned for containing a rather neat little moral tale woven tightly into the plot, and the moral of this story is a lesson in what happens when you take something (or someone) for granted.

George is an endearing character (despite actually being fairly naughty at the end!) and I just can't get enough of McKee Senior's drawings. So great to see he's still producing such brilliant stuff for kids, generations on from Mr Benn.

Charlotte's best bit: The idea of an extra-long playtime.

Daddy's favourite bit: David McKee's various cool and colourful character drawings are so utterly brilliant (and the barking dog page split thing is just awesome).

A busy, fizzing whizz-bang of a book that has nothing to do with shonky 80s electrical goods retailers, "Rumbelow's Dance" is proof positive that Quentin Blake's energetic scribbly drawings can turn just about any children's book into an instant classic.

The man behind the fantastic illustrations of Roald Dahl's timeless children's books is on top form. The story, about a young boy named Rumbelow who cheers up travellers making their way to market by encouraging them to "dance, dance, dance to market" is the children's literary equivalent of a good bum-wiggling tune. It's so easy to get caught up with the rhythm of the story and it's a real joy to see how children react to Rumbelow's effervescence.

John Yeoman's rhyming text bounces as much as Blake's drawings, to make a really pleasing little book discovery nestling amongst the shelves in Abingdon's extremely well stocked library.

Charlotte's best bit: The flower lady ("She's me" said Charlotte).

Daddy's favourite bit: Blake's flowing, scribbly but absolutely perfect drawing skills.

Apparently, I can be quite grumpy at times. When behind the wheel of the car, yes I'll admit I'm grumpy. When the cistern on one of the loos breaks for the umpteenth time, yep that would most certainly make me grumpy. When the local woodpigeons or bees decide to wake me up at 4.30 in the morning by cooing stupidly or buzzing like a buzzsaw. Yeah that would do it.

But I've got nothing on Misery Moo, the main character in Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross's book. Misery Moo always finds something to moan about. In the winter it's too cold and rainy. In the summer it's too hot and sticky. Despite her constant moaning and groaning, Misery Moo ends up with a rather lovely friend - who can see past her downtrodden exterior through to her heart of gold.

But when Misery Moo's friend, the lovely sheep, disappears one day, what happens next?

Of course you'll have to read the book to find out. We thought we'd done a really good job of hoovering up all the Jeanne Willis / Tony Ross books but just when we think we've read them all, another one pops out of the woodwork. Misery Moo tells a touching tale of friendship, and why it's not always ideal to go around with a face as long as a fiddle. Your mood may rub off on others! So I'm committed to trying to be the less grumpy of the seven dwarves, I'll happily trade for dopey instead :)

Charlotte's best bit: Misery Moo's happy go lucky sheep friend

Daddy's favourite bit: Misery Moo's expressions, no one does 'miserable' like Tony Ross!

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Mashing together classic stories can go one of two ways. You can end up with something that's alright, but doesn't quite match up to the original stories it derives from, or you can end up with something like Ken Brown's "What's the time, Grandma Wolf?" which feels fresh, funny and original despite borrowing from classic fairy tales and nursery rhymes.

A gaggle of cheeky noisy animals take turns to 'tease' Grandma Wolf as she wakes up in the morning and prepares for her day. Again, like "CREAK! Said the Bed" this book builds slowly but surely towards a satisfying conclusion - but ah! Right at the last minute it snatches the picnic blanket out from under you and you end up with a tale that is delightful and and amusing in equal measure.

I also loved Ken Brown's illustrations. Anyone who collected the Ladybird Books containing classic fairy tales like Red Riding Hood or Rumplestilskin as a kid will instantly bond with Ken's beautiful painted panels.

And so, despite a lot of fuss and argument, this is our book of the week.

Charlotte's best bit: Grandma Wolf cleaning her (very big) teeth. Like a good wolf should!

Daddy's favourite bit: The double switch end. How I loved that!

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars, Book of the Week

There are a thousand and one ABC books on the market, but Satoshi Kitamura brings his own quirky style to "What's inside?" 

Each page precedes the next two letters of the alphabet, with lots of objects in each illustration for inquiring toddlers to wrap their developing brains around. Kitamura's scratchy illustrations are chock full of detail so don't expect the usual A is for Apple, B is for Bear stuff here. 

We've read quite a few of Kitamura's books which are always a delicious mesh of westernised urban life suffused with an underlying current of pure fantasy. 

A novel approach to getting your young ones to learn their ABCs. 


Charlotte's best bit: I is for Iguana, J is for Jack in the Box. 

Daddy's favourite bit: The rat's cute little house. 

Every now and again you happen across a kid's book that makes you think "Wait, WHAT?"
Skimming through the library boxes for new books, I stumbled across The Great Dog Bottom Swap and instantly thought "Well, no, it couldn't possibly be about...er...dog's bottoms could it?"

My initial fears were compounded by a quick flick through the book. In fact I don't think I'd like to spoil the surprise for other parents too much, suffice to say that you'll get to the end of this book and say "Oh, so THAT'S why dogs do that!"

Peter Bently's excellent nonsense rhymes are coupled with Mei Matsuoka's rather too literal drawings but the whole book is a treat. It's just a bit...well, you know. Unsavoury? But if you've got kids at home who think blowoffs, poo and wee jokes are the very nadir of humour, they'll laugh themselves to bits over this book, as we did. 


Charlotte's best bit: The emergency doggie contingency plan for dealing with fires. 

Daddy's favourite bit: The slow realisation that I'm never ever going to eat cheerios ever again. 

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A topsy-turvy view of the world from the perspective of a bat is the subject of "Daft Bat", an entertaining children's book by Jeanne Wills and Tony "Little Princess" Ross. 
All the other animals can't understand Bat's rather bonkers approach to her surroundings but is she crazy or just seeing things differently? 

Wise owl helps sort out the confusion and mess and soon everyone understands exactly what "Daft Bat" is on about. 

Charlotte's best bit: Elephant almost drowning upside down. 

Daddy's favourite bit: Saying "Daft Bat" in a broad Yorkshire accent. 

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A superb and touching book, The Robot and the Bluebird mixes simple but extremely effective illustrations with a heartfelt story of a robot with a broken heart, feeling that his place in the world is on a scrap heap until he finds he is needed by a lost and lonely bluebird, struggling to migrate for the winter. 

If you're a hard-hearted type, you might not find it as emotionally engaging as a big old softy like me, but the end is beautiful and Charlotte loved the main characters. A lovely little parable beautifully told and wonderfully illustrated. 

Charlotte's best bit: The robot in winter

Daddy's favourite bit: The excellent illustration style. Quite unique but really well drawn. 

Rating: 5 out of 5

Though it's now almost impossible to read the Little Princess books without putting on Jane Horrocks' squeaky regional accent when reading out the Princess bits, the books are still hugely enjoyable and well loved by Charlotte.

The Little Princess has her heart set on winning a goldfish at the local fair. Things don't go according to plan, but thanks to some timely intervention by The Queen, The Little Princess ends up having a fun day anyway (aww wouldn't we all like a mum like that?)

Great stuff as ever and thoroughly recommended if your toddler's a fan of the TV series.  

Charlotte's best bit: The Queen "going upside down!"

Daddy's favourite bit: Yep, would have to agree with the Queen flashing her undercrackers as being quite funny.


Rating: 3 out of 5