It's amazing to think that two fantastic things happen on the same day every year.

International Book Giving Day and Valentine's Day coincide annually and we reckon that books make the most romantic presents to give to your loved ones.

There are, of course, as many children's books about love as there are songs about the moon (and if you get that reference, you can be in my gang) so let's have a look at a few beauties from recent years that we truly genuinely love to bits ourselves.

First is "I Love You Stick Insect" by Chris Naylor-Ballesteros. It's the adorable tale of a stick insect who seems doomed to be alone, until he meets the object of his desires.

His friends are a little embarrased though and don't want to point out the obvious - that his new lady love is, in fact, a stick.

The story hinges on the perfect awkwardness of seeing someone so blissfully happy in their ignorance that their friends don't know if it's the right thing to do - to break the spell, to tell the poor lovesick individual the truth. You know what it's like when you're the friend of someone who is so recklessly intent on their love that they do not see disaster ahead.

"I Love You Stick Insect" by Chris Naylor-Ballesteros is out now, published by Bloomsbury. 

Next, a book we loved to absolute bits when we first encountered it.

"Sardines of Love" by Zurine Aguirre is a heart-meltingly beautiful story of two loved-up old folk (and that reminds me, here is the perfect example of a children's book about adults with no supporting child characters in it - AHA!)

They have their differences - in fact Grandad Lolo loves nothing better than scoffing Sardines (bleugh!)

Grandma Lola isn't quite as easily won over by these (extremely good for you but nevertheless gross) culinary delights. But when Lola decides to stock up on her hubby's favourite food on a fateful fishing trip, she goes missing.

Trapped in an Octopus's tummy, Lola soon realises that she'll starve unless she eats the one plentiful supply of food to hand. Yep, you've guessed it, sardines!

There are so many deft and wonderful little touches in this book, and it's utterly and completely romantic too.

"Sardines of Love" by  Zurine Aguirre is out now, published by Child's Play


More highly original and romantic loveliness now in "When an Elephant Falls in Love" by Davide Cali and Alice Lotti.

Ah, unrequited love. Is there any greater pain to be in as a hopelessly romantic soul? (I speak from experience - NO!)

Elephant is in love but sadly the object of his affection doesn't even know he exists, so he spends a lot of time staring at the clouds in the sky, writing terrible poetry, making sure he's clean and tidy and dressed to the nines (that all sounds horribly familiar).

As you can see, there truly is something for everyone. Check out our mini chapter book reviews of "Future Ratboy and the Invasion of the Nom Noms" and "My Gym Teacher is an Alien Overlord" to see what Charlotte thought of them!

November is "National Non-Fiction Month" and this week's editorial is inspired not only by the upcoming celebration of children's Non-Fiction titles - but by a fairly innocent looking Tweet from author Nicola Morgan: https://twitter.com/nicolamorgan/status/657296292671000576









It's been widely reported many, many times that reluctant readers - particularly boys but definitely both boys and girls - are quite often more interested in non-fiction than fiction. I can't quite remember how it first came about that we made huge efforts to stimulate Charlotte's reading with a good mix of fiction and non-fiction titles but it was certainly quite soon after we'd joined our local library for the first time.

For children, libraries can often be the only place they'll be exposed to 'learning books' outside of school but for most kids, it's also the place where they are in direct control of what they read - and what non-fiction titles they pick up alongside story and picture books.

That's hugely important, and from the outset it's really quite something to see a child going through the non-fiction section in a library's stacks and seeing what they pull out.

Charlotte's love of history and science stems directly from the way we gently coaxed her towards digging out books in the non-fiction section - often gloriously illustrated and packed full of facts, these books tell their own stories to children and definitely in the case of history books, are often as full of amazing characters and 'plot twists' as any story book you can name.

I doubt many teachers would actively discourage a child from reading non-fiction for pleasure (so I'm rather intrigued by the background to this tweet). After all, a huge part of a teacher's role is to engage their class with the subject matter at hand - so if a child displays enough interest in the subject to want to explore it outside school as well, what's not to love?

Unless...there's some bizarre theory that non-fiction should not be 'dumbed down'. It should be wholly academic, perhaps some might say even 'dry' so it does not muddy the message it's trying to impart. Perhaps it's that we're now so petrified that our children won't learn if they're having fun that children's non-fiction is somehow frowned upon?

If that's the case, again I'd have to disagree and point out that you'd have to search high and low to find a non-fiction title these days that 'dumbs down' its subject - simply because kids will not put up with that in their non-fiction reading matter just like they won't put up with poorly written (or illustrated) fiction (and gawd, how many times do we have to point this out to would-be children's writers - that children are not there to be babied or patronised with hollow stories that don't inspire them or satisfy their curiosity?)

It does seem that it's long been the belief that a certain amount of 'talking down to' is required when you're broaching certain topics and subjects with kids (again whether in fictional or non-fictional titles) and I'd have to once again vociferously argue that this truly is not the case. Kids are like hungry sponges when it comes to facts and figures. You wouldn't try to wash with a sponge that was only given a tiny drip of water would you?

Do celebrate National Non-Fiction Month again this November as many book folk will be doing so! Mix it up a bit in your own children's reading materials for that month and I promise you, you'll be very pleasantly surprised by the results! Go seek out brilliant books by publishers like Usborne, Flying Eye Books, Wide Eyed Editions, Thames and Hudson, Chronicle and so many others who are truly producing the brightest and best non fiction books for kids these days.

As the scales begin to tip firmly in the favour of chapter books for Charlotte, it's almost inevitable that there'll be a crossover point where she will spot books on our shelves and want to read them herself or have them read to her.

The Harry Potter series is one such set of books, which have held Charlotte's interest after watching one or two bits of the early movies (and only the early ones, mind you - the later ones really need to wait a few more years before I'll let her loose on them). She wanted to know more about the books and so recently we started to read them at bedtimes.

Charlotte is 7 - and really this editorial sneakingly broaches a subject that absolutely bakes my noodle. The subject of age ratings on books, which quite often make no sense to us whatsoever. "Here's a great picture book series for ages 5-8" a press release will proclaim. When we dive into the book we very quickly realise that the age group 5-8 is one hell of a long time and possibly the time in a child's life where their reading ability rapidly changes and develops the most.

Age ratings seem to be used to describe reading ability, and again I take issue with anything that tries to neatly pigeonhole a child's ability to fully engage or soak up a book's content, or to struggle with it not through non-recognition of the words or intent that make up the story, but purely because it's really not for them. I've seen Charlotte (who I believe has a very good level of reading ability and skill) struggle with a book that she should be breezing through - only for me to take a closer look at the book and find it the most turgid load of tummy rubbish imaginable. No fault of the child's reading ability, but entirely the fault of the editor or publisher that let it loose in the first place (I would say author but the assumption for a commercially published book is that an editor would have correctly gauged a book's suitability for publication if it was aimed at a specific reader level).

Age groupings on books for children (groupings rather than ratings) that follow the national curriculum recommendations or perhaps a reading scheme's framework can be frustrating to follow for readers with ability, yet they are structured to ensure that the gradual process of learning to read and learning to cope with the complexities of the English language are appropriately tested and matched. We don't often see this happen in books that children read for fun, so it makes me wonder why books below a certain threshold have any sort of age groupings at all?

How old should a child be before they're let loose on J.K. Rowling's works? The real answer is "When they're emotionally well equipped enough to deal with the story's content" - which for Charlotte is certainly at her age for the early books, and maybe 5-6 years for the last 3 or 4.

Having the chance to revisit the books through her eyes (having read them many many times myself independently) it has been a hell of a buzz to experience the sheer joy of getting to know a set of book characters who have (in no small part) been responsible for a colossal upsurge of interest in learning to read for sheer pleasure amongst children and teens. Rowling got the balance so absolutely right, ensuring that the Harry Potter books contained plenty to engage children across all genders, classes and races. Her characters are not perfect in any way, they have human frailties and flaws. Her good guys and gals are good but not beyond breaking the rules when they feel they need to. Her bad guys and gals are thoroughly rotten, but there's always the faint hope that underneath their dark exteriors they've got an unshakeable faith that they're doing the right thing. Her truly bad guys and gals make you understand that sometimes evil serves no greater purpose than being the measure of darkness that a story requires to set the baseline against.

You know you're doing something right as a parent when your child can spend an entire Saturday carrying around a twig they've found on the ground, pausing momentarily to shake it at a tree shouting "Expelliarmus" or "Expecto Patronum" but you really know you've done the right thing as a parent when another person (in this case an adult) can walk up to them and say "Is that your wand?"

In answer to the question posed in the header of this editorial, the right time is when you as a parent think your child is ready to deal with the highs and lows of a true rollercoaster of a story, not when an age rating tells you otherwise.

Edit: There's an absolutely brilliant book-by-book guide to the Harry Potter series and their suitability for school grades on Mrs N's highly educational and fantastically written blog. Go check it out!

Stop right there before reading any further if you think this is a heavy hint disguised as a ReadItDaddy editorial. We're delving into the often controversial subject of blogger remuneration and it's going to be a bit like walking through a minefield carrying a sack of hyperactive hyenas while wearing roller skates.

Most book bloggers reach a point in their blogging where they consider ways and means to make the blog start earning a crust. After all, it's been sitting around consuming your time for years so it's about time the lazy wretch earned its keep.

Of course, monetising your blog to the point where it's actually worthwhile isn't easy, and though we're often entertained by stories in the media about beauty bloggers nailing six figure sums to talk about lippie, or foodie bloggers somehow reaching the stratospheric heights of negotiating lucrative cookbook deals off the back of their sticky toffee pudding recipes, it's very rare to see a book blog that achieves similar success.

Though this isn't the focus of today's editorial. The focus is on you, as a blogger, being lucky enough to be asked to write content or produce articles for others - specifically publishers, organisations or other individuals who want to use your content on their own sites, promotional materials or perhaps even their own books.

The sticky tricky subject of blogger payment assumes that the majority of book bloggers already DO receive payment - in that they get to read, review and eventually keep the books that they're sent by publishers and PRs and - from our perspective - that's perfectly acceptable, in fact I think it's rather generous when you consider what books cost and how much you would be shelling out per year if you bought the books you received for review.

Any blogger charging for critique is (purely in my opinion) not only cheating their audience, but they're also cheating the person whose work they're reviewing. There are exceptions of course, there are folk who have spent a long time in the children's publishing industry who quite rightly charge for crits and consultancy - but these are folk who have the experience, the qualification and the background to be able to give a structured and professional opinion.

Most blogger who review books will (like us) stick to a rigid set of blogger ethics, reviewing books they want to review and giving a good solid and honest opinion of those books regardless of their net worth, and they'll also make a point of mentioning when a book was sent to them for review by a publisher or author. This definitely helps offer a level of transparency to your intended audience and is definitely worth considering.

But again we're getting bogged down in the critique side of things, I'm trying to get around to the subject at hand - the business of making a living from your writing when you're producing exclusive content that offers a (hopefully) informed and interesting article or opinion drawn from your own experiences when writing a book blog.

In the few cases where we've been asked to provide content like that, the subject of payment or remuneration is never broached. Obviously there's the inferred 'lure' of a magical boost in your blog's readership off the back of being featured somewhere that gets a few more hits than you do, but be honest, has that EVER worked out for you if you've been in a similar situation?

Freelance writers will usually have a ready-prepared tally of charges if they're already well established, so perhaps one approach is to see if you can contact a few and see what a reasonable rate is for an article with a specific word count. It's also important to consider the legality of making a living from your writing when it comes to the dreaded 'T' word. Thoroughly research the convoluted rules and regulations about how much you're allowed to earn before paying tax on what is effectively an income (in fact this is the very thing that puts me off bothering to badger for payment for writing or other stuff I do in my spare time, it hardly seems worth the hassle unless you're suddenly flooded with tons of freelance writing gigs that are lucrative and viable (and again, be honest, how many times does a blogger get a lucrative writing gig?)

It would be nice to not be considered the 'bottom of the barrel' when it comes to writing from time to time. I've seen a lot of rather harsh and unfair criticism levelled at bloggers by artists and authors who prefer professional critique (Read: Newspaper or Magazine articles) and entirely discount blogger reviews (or for that matter Amazon reviews but I can pretty much see why they're not big fans of the latter).

They're in the minority though, and quite often they may feel this way purely because they may assume that book bloggers are ten-a-penny and that anyone with an internet connection and a laptop can set up a blog, nip to the library, grab a stack of books and start ranting about them.

Perhaps then this is where the perception that blogger writing doesn't deserve payment ultimately comes from. I'm sure most of the lovely folk we've met through this blog (and the ones we haven't) all get that slightly weird sideways glance from other folk when they tell them that they write about children's books for fun.

But by and large we're passionate folk. I don't think I've met any book bloggers who are doing it 'purely for the freebies' and I've never met any who just copy and paste the same review over and over again, changing the names of the books or authors to suit. We do this in our spare time because we like doing it, we do this in our spare time because our kids love books and we do this in our spare time because once in a while someone says something nice about something you've written or an opinion you've offered and that feels damned good.

Sorry, this has gone on and on so will respect anyone who just comments TL;DR and skips to the end. To summarise, please don't ask a blogger to work for 'free' if you're asking them to provide unique content for your own publications, it does feel a bit like a slap in the chops and even the shortest article will still be eating up a bit of their most valuable resource - Time.

Get your best jungle hollers prepared - Tarzan is returning!

In the centenary year of Edgar Rice Burrough's enduring "Tarzan" stories, a new movie will once again revive the Lord of the Jungle for a whole new audience. "Tarzan" arrives in cinemas on May 2nd and you can join in with the fun with us.

Check out Andy Briggs' new Tarzan books at his Website.

It's not exactly new, this 'gender stereotyping in children's books' thing...

"Max from the Planet of Cool" is now available through the Max 'n' Me website and through the Amazon Kindle Store.

By April we were wondering when the nice weather was going to start. Thankfully you don't need a baking hot day to enjoy books so we snuggled down to take a look at 16 corkingly good reads.

We re-reviewed Helen Cooper's utterly essential "The Bear Under the Stairs" - a book which has probably been one of the most demanded "read it again, Daddy" requests over the past year, and a worthy "Book of the Week" on its second outing on the blog. When we first took a look at it, I uttered some silly nanny-like concerns over its content, thinking it was probably a bit too sinister for children and definitely shouldn't be read anywhere near bedtime. Despite this, Charlotte loves it and I think it's because it really does blur the lines - is William really imagining the bear, or is he sometimes imagining it and sometimes it's real? Or is it just real and hiding out in the under-stairs cupboard.

Charlotte doesn't care - basically she keeps asking for this one for several reasons. 1) The brilliant artwork (spotting as many hidden bears as you can is almost a game in itself) 2) I think she secretly likes it being a bit scary and a bit dark and disturbing and 3) She seems to like the daft gurgling voice I give the bear when I read this. We finally got round to buying a copy from Mostly Books (and finally got recognised in there after several incognito trips!) and it still regularly finds a place in our reading roster.

Elsewhere in April we checked out "The Worst Princess" by Anna Kemp and Sara Ogilvie, one of the first books that Publishers sent us for review (we're still a little bit shellshocked that this happens, but we couldn't be more grateful, really we couldn't!) A great alternative take on the traditional "Princess" tale, The Worst Princess isn't anyone's fool. She doesn't need pretty dresses or being locked up in a tower, she wants to have fun and adventure just like any girl should. Hooray and amen to that! Charlotte loved Princess Paula to bits!

The fantastic Babette Cole made her second appearance with Doctor Dog and quite rightly won "Book of the Week" again with "A Dose of Doctor Dog" - We hear from the good lady herself that more Doctor Dog is being planned. Will we get to meet Mrs Doctor Dog after all? Best wait and see what happens in 2013 I guess!

We also took a look at Bruce Ingham and Allan Ahlberg's brilliant "The Runaway Dinner". Fast paced and fantastic, another classic that keeps being demanded in our reading schedule and one I'm always happy to dive into. Such a brilliant book.

We couldn't possibly follow up such a remarkable line up in May could we? Well we did try! First out of the traps in May was "We're going on a Bear Hunt" by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury. I couldn't quite believe we hadn't reviewed it before - as it's a book that's been read to Charlotte ever since we was a tiny baby. It's a book that ratchets up the tension as the happy carefree family wade through snow, mud and rivers to get to a deep dark cave. I'm sure you know the rest but it's very easy to see why we had to bestow a book of the week award on this one.

May the 4th was with us but we didn't do anything Star Warsy, instead we re-reviewed Doctor Ted, a book that is brilliantly written, superbly illustrated and is full of the sort of cheeky irreverent stuff that children just can't get enough of. Again it's probably one of the most demanded books on our reading roster and Charlotte absolutely cannot get enough of it. We keep meaning to pick up the rest of the 'Ted' books by Andrea Beatty and Pascale Lemaitre, better stick them on the list for 2013 methinks as Doctor Ted is brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!

Eerie spooky coincidence in May. We pulled Maurice Sendak's meisterwork "Where the Wild Things Are" out of the library stacks in the same week Maurice died. It was a book I'd been meaning to show Charlotte for a while so it was a bit strange (and quite a bit sad) to think we'd never see another Sendak book. Hunt out "Bears" as well if you're looking to catch up with the great man's work.

Late to the party, we finally caught up with local boy David Melling's brilliant bear in "Hugless Douglas" which got 4 out of 5 stars back when we rated books (which on reflection was a bit of a daft idea, how can you possibly give a score to children's books really?) We're slowly hunting down the rest of Melling's books, we absolutely love his inky illustrations.

Another book of the week in May was Frieda Wishinsky and Neal Layton's utterly brilliant "Jennifer Jones Won't Leave Me Alone" and this is also a book that is constantly in demand whenever it's spotted in the library stacks (we really ought to get our own copy). Along with Cressida Cowell's superb 'Emily Brown' books, Neal's work has become a firm favourite and he's also a jolly nice bloke on Twitter too.

More brilliance in May with "When Martha's Away" (hey, that almost rhymes!) from Bruce Ingman, telling the story of the secret lives of cats. What do they do when you close the front door and head off to school / work? Rather more than you can possibly imagine. A brilliant brilliant book, not just for cat lovers.

Our last book of the week in may was "What's the Time, Grandma Wolf?" by Ken Brown. One of those delicious and cheeky reworkings of a classic fairy tale that has lots of unexpected twists and turns, and a fantastic ending. Want to know how it ends? You'd better go and track down a copy yourself.

Our thoughts turned to summer and flaming June. It wasn't actually too bad, but the rain made sure we had plenty of time for book reviews and despite having a brilliant week off at Disneyland Paris, we still managed to squeeze in 14 great little books.

First up in June was the rather disappointing "Socks" by Elizabeth Lindsay and Nick Sharratt. We'd loved Pants and More Pants, Socks felt like a book too far, felt forced and unfunny with some pretty appalling rhymes. It's not often we gave a book a 1 out of 5 star rating but this was one of the instances where a book got a pretty hefty thumbs down from Charlotte. She's harsh but fair. We did like the sock submarine but it just couldn't live up to its predecessors, or indeed Nick Sharratt's other brilliant books. Oh dear!

We took a look at scary French children's books and this was the first time we encountered "La Visite De Petit Mort" by Kitty Crowther. A book we've since managed to get a copy of, and have found isn't actually that scary. It's really rather cute. Check out the article though, they really do things differently across the channel and vive la difference at that!

Fresh from our trip to Disneyland Paris we picked up a couple of the brilliant Walter Foster "Learn to Draw" books to see if we could learn how to draw Disney Princesses. I still can't get Rapunzel's awesome hair flick right! Great books though and a great and very memorable holiday.

Our final book of the week for June was Peter Bently and Simon Rickerty's agile little monster "The Yoga Ogre". Brilliant knockabout fun and a book we're glad to see mentioned in people's "Best Children's Books of the Year" lists. Hooray!

Tune in again tomorrow for more of our yearly roundup as we edge nearer to starting school and take a look at July, August and September.

Ahoy Jim Lad! What on earth could ye do on 'Talk Like a Pirate' Day if ye be a keen book swabbing blogger who sails the seven seas of children's books in search of booty?

Well you could stop talking silly and publish a lovely list of essential piratical books to tickle the fancies of any scurvy coves who pass by your blog. So that's exactly what we're going to do!

1) Pirate Girl by Cornelia Funke and Kerstin Meyer (Chicken House Books)


A young girl sets sail to visit her grandmother, and falls foul of the stinkiest, nastiest pirates ever seen. They soon put her to work swabbing the decks, darning their stinky socks and cooking for them in the galley. But the girl is smart, and has a secret plan to escape. For she is no ordinary girl, she is Pirate Girl.

An absolutely lovely little tale showing pirates as the rather daft, rather stinky and rather inept coves they really are.

ReadItDaddy Review Link to Pirate Girl



2) The Pirate Cruncher by Jonny Duddle (Templar Books)


Jonny Duddle is a past master at drawing pirates and now there's even a movie based on Pirates vs Scientists. We love The Pirate Cruncher though, mostly due to Jonny's fantastical pirates and creatures beautifully and deliciously painted in this book.

The Pirates band together to search out lost treasure (this tends to happen a lot in pirate books, unsurprisingly). But there's a sting in the tail of this tale, as the treasure is not what it seems, and the hapless pirates soon meet up with....(Dramatic drum roll) The Pirate Cruncher! ARGHH! Such a superb book!