A wonderful flight of imagination in a book that eases a child's fears about starting school for the first time. As Ruby and her mum walk to school, Ruby imagines all the amazing things that she sees out of the corner of her eye. Something floating down the river as she crosses a bridge - crocodiles perhaps? An old abandoned house with flapping curtains - home to a crew of friendly ghosts?

Kathryn White and Miriam Latimer have come up with a brilliant and imaginative story as Ruby tells her mums about the things she sees, and mum gently points out what those things probably really are. Secretly though we love Ruby's version of events far more!

Charlotte's best bit: A ghostly haunted house, or is it? (Charlotte says when she grows up she wants to live in a haunted house!)

Daddy's Favourite bit: A lovely gentle imaginative tale to assuage fears young children might have about starting school or fears of the unknown.

Sunday morning is shopping day at ReadItDaddy towers. For parents with youngsters in tow it can be a trial trawling around the supermarket, trying to find new and exciting things to eat for the week. But secretly I still like to try and turn it into a fun activity. Trolleys are great for skidding down the aisles with, and throwing random things in when @TheStrollingMum isn't looking (and trying to get away with it) can also be fun.

I am, for want of a better word, a shopping dad!

So it's great to be able to dip into a book all about a fun-loving shopping dad - courtesy of Barefoot Books. A rhyming story that starts with a bizarre shopping list, and finishes with a calamitous crashing of cans.

Like most Barefoot books, "Shopping with Dad" by Matt Harvey and Miriam Latimer is not only beautiful to look at, and great fun to read, there's actually a nice little moral tale tucked between the pages. A little girl learns that telling the truth and making sure that you take the blame if you're done something wrong is always for the best.

It's a whacky story really nicely drawn and written (I rather liked the 'stay at home' mum drawing the final panel as the final panel unfolded around her) so if you feel burned out with the weekly trip to the supermarket, make shopping fun with "Shopping with Dad!"

Buy "Shopping with Dad" from Barefoot Books!

Charlotte's best bit: Mum's crazy shopping list

Daddy's favourite bit: Loved that final panel

(Kindly sent to us for review by Hilary at Barefoot Books)

We've come to the end of our exploration of 'daddy' books to tie in with our #ReadItMD13 theme week of "Celebrating brilliant dads in books" and so it seems fitting to make our book of the week a book that we've enjoyed immensely since it arrived, and will dive into for years and years to come.

When I was a child, I remember story collections like Aesop's Fables, and big fat volumes of deliciously written and illustrated Grimm's Fairy Tales. It's nice to see something of a revival in books like these, and this is no exception.

Amongst the familiar stories that you've seen told and adapted so many times, there are translated stories from around the world that are all new, utterly scintillating and just the right length to snuggle down with just before tucking your daughter (or son!) into bed at night.

We started with the stories we knew, like "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Frog Prince" before exploring our particular favourite - "The Invisible Grandfather" which is a real belter of a tale full of twisting fortunes, supernatural happenings and with a solid moral underpinning the excitement.

This book has now been reprinted (it was originally published in 1997) and it's beautifully illustrated and presented.

Several folk have criticised its heavy reliance on standard fairy tale cliches, young women wowed by good looks and good fortune, evil step-parents, wicked magical folk but I feel that the stories were never meant to be a lifestyle guide - and you could argue that historically, our legends and tales passed down through generations will never really be pure to their source if we mess around with them too much and politically correct them at every turn.

As you'd expect from Barefoot Books though, you will find that each treatment of a traditional tale is sensitive, and always with the child who is reading (or having it read to them) in mind. The language is as vibrant and multi-hued, and multi-cultural as the beautiful painted illustrations and so this is definitely a book to treasure and keep, and tell and re-tell whether you're a dad, a mum, boy or girl.

Charlotte's best bit: "The Invisible Grandfather" and "The Bear in the Woods" - both very similar stories but each with deliciously rich character descriptions.

Daddy's favourite bit: Also really enjoyed "The Invisible Grandfather" and "The Frog Prince" (we came to the conclusion that the princess who married the frog was actually the baddie in the story, not the goodie!)

(Kindly sent to us for review by Barefoot Books)

Kicking off our #ReadItMD13 week-long celebration of daddy bookishness we thought we'd limber up with some exercises. Now, I know some of you probably can't touch your toes (some of you may not even be able to SEE your toes) but if you fancy shifting some of those pounds put on from secretly scoffing those left-over Easter Eggs, now's the time.

"My Daddy is a Pretzel" is a beautifully written and illustrated story that also just happens to be a cool Yoga manual too. A young child talks about their classmates and what their parents do - but that's nothing, because their daddy can be a tree, a dog, or even a pretzel! If you've never encountered any Yoga moves before, here's a fantastic way to learn some of the basics and also some fairly limb-twistingly complicated Yoga poses too.

We've previously used the "Yoga Pretzel" cards from Barefoot Books, and they're also great fun - used in varying degrees of difficulty and also - like this book - much better when turned into a group activity for dads AND mums (yes mum stop sniggering from the sofa, you can join in too!)

It's a book that's effortlessly cool and tremendously good fun. Find yourself a nice sunny spot while the weather is glorious, lay down a mat and see if you can be a pretzel too!

Charlotte's best bit: I have no idea how she does it but she can actually touch the back of her head with her feet while doing the Down Dog.

Daddy's favourite bit: I don't feel quite as unfit as I used to, I can (alarmingly) still stand on one leg without falling over. Just.

(Kindly sent to us for review by Barefoot Books)

That moment when you realise that you've borrowed a book from the library about 50 billion times, and have never reviewed it? Yep that. I frantically searched through the blog earlier, absolutely convinced that we'd looked at "Bear on a Bike" before, even made it Book of the Week (as it probably should be but something just a smidgeon better nudged it aside this week!) but nope, couldn't find it at all.

So here we are then, a book that Charlotte has loved since she was tiny - and still loves now. Barefoot Books publish some of the most colourful and delightful children's books and the "Bear" series by Stella Blackstone and Debbie Harter deserve a place in anyone's children's book collection (including ours, something we'd better remedy as soon as possible methinks in case we wear Abingdon Library's copy of this out!)

"Bear on a Bike" is a singsong tale with the friendliest bear on the planet and his friend, a young boy who is always included in his adventures. When I first started reading this to Charlotte, I played it straight and just read it. As the years have passed by, the little boy has somehow transformed into "Small" from Big and Small (complete with that slightly annoying high pitched brummie voice) and Bear is a plummy, quite loquacious fellow who dreamily describes his current mode of transport, and where he's going on it.

Debbie Harter's illustrations are utterly mesmerising, eye catching for younger children yet still packed with exquisite detail for older children. Stella Blackstone's rhyming text weaves the tale beautifully and feels like it should be set to music.

We like what Barefoot Books do (we're still somehow hoping that Santa will drop one of their fantastic illustrated atlases down the chimney for us this christmas) and this is deservedly one of their best known and best loved books. Bear on a Blog. As Happy as Can Be? Where are you going Bear? Please write for me!

Charlotte's best bit: The ball! Oh my yes, the ball - and the method of transport the bear uses to get there.

Daddy's favourite bit: A beautiful book that is such massive fun to read aloud, and will wow kids right from the beginning of their book journey. Utterly perfect.

We're big fans of these rather cute and beautifully put together Barefoot Books. Stella Blackstone and Clare Beaton's combination of rhyming couplets and superbly detailed sewn felt pictures compliment each other perfectly. 

In this tale of a youngster dreaming all about dinosaurs, the story gently takes us through various dinosaur 'breeds' and their jolly japes. Dappy about a Diplodicus? Partial to a Pterodactyl? Then there's plenty to see in this book, and let's face it, what kid of any age doesn't love Dinosaurs (except, as Charlotte points out, the robot dinosaur at the Natural History Museum in London - Far too scary!)
Charlotte's best bit: The Terrible T-Rex

Daddy's favourite bit: The superb sewn-felt pictures

Rating: 4 out of 5