Two of the funniest folk in the business combine their considerable talents for our Christmas Eve Booky Advent Calendar entry. By now you're probably hopping from foot to foot with excitement in anticipation of tomorrow, right?

Well imagine if your feet were slightly bigger than everyone else's!

In "There's a Yeti in the Playground" the very worst thing has happened to young Izzy.

The frisson of excitement at seeing snow falling heavily while everyone's tucked up in the warm at school swiftly changes to disappointment as the snow falls so heavily that Izzy and her friends find themselves snowed in.

Worse still, they're not alone.

Somewhere out in the playground, someone discovers a whopping great big footprint - and it definitely doesn't belong to a teacher.

Teachers don't walk around barefoot in the snow after all, do they?

From Blue Peter Award winners Pamela and Thomas comes a brilliant story that has just a pinch of festive wintry awesomeness about it to make our Booky Advent Calendar list.

And that's the last entry in this year's Booky Advent Calendar. We'll be taking a break till later in December when we'll be back for our annual New Years Eve Booky Roundup of all the awesomeness of 2018.

See you then!! Have a Happy Christmas from us, and a prosperous and very booky new year!

Wow, it's getting closer! Here's Day 22 on our Booky Advent calendar - and a delicious little book that describes one of the best things about the run-up to Christmas...

In "Pick a Pine Tree" by Patricia Toht, with illustrations by mega-talented illustrator Jarvis, every single atmospheric page spread is sizzling with the joys of Christmas, and in particular the grand tradition of decorating the centrepiece of any Christmas celebrations - the Christmas Tree itself.

With gentle and very clever rhymes, and the most beautiful colourful and characterful pictures, this one is as inviting and absorbing as a deep-filled mince pie covered in whipped cream. YUM!

Kids will absolutely adore the clever lilting way the story trips off the tongue, as well as all the tiny little details Jarvis has worked into each page spread.

It's a true christmas treat!

"Pick a Pine Tree" by Patricia Toht and Jarvis is out now, published by Walker Books (kindly supplied for review). 

Day 20 of our Booky Advent Calendar and a really brilliant little book that once again shows just how amazing Pikku's catalogue of titles really are.

"Albi visits the Dentist" by Mikko Kunnas and Markus Majaluoma is the hugely original story of a snowman who has the most amazing coal-black smile.

He's such a happy chap that everyone in his home town smiles at Albi whenever they see him

Albi is off to the dentist. He always brushes his teeth and is pretty sure he's going to get a clean bill of health. But the dentist takes a dim view of Albi's black toothy-pegs - and decides to swap them out for bright gleaming white ones.

But poor Albi doesn't quite feel the same. No one smiles at Albi any more. Can you guess why?

This is such a lovely little book, so brilliantly illustrated and though the story sounds pretty simple, it's so wonderfully written that kids will demand this again and again, and Albi is such a great character (though in some scenes his supporting cast of adorable little characters steal the show a bit!)

"Albi visits the Dentist" by Mikko Kunnas and Markus Majaluoma is out now, published by Pikku Publishing (kindly supplied for review). 

Day 18 of our Booky Advent Calendar and we're ensuring that older kids get a look-in as well, with another fantastic middle grade book to tempt you during the festive period.

"Hamish and the Terrible Terrible Christmas" is a special festive-flavoured outing for Danny Wallace's reluctant hero.

Hamish soon discovers that even though every single shop is playing "Merry Christmas Everybody" by Slade, and all the ad breaks are showing holiday or rotten perfume ads, the task of saving the world hasn't gone away just because there's a smattering of snow on the ground.

In this three-story compendium, Hamish Ellerby and his friends in the PDF will have to deal with rotten sweetie salesmen with a hidden agenda, unexpected christmas eve visitors (don't you just HATE those!) and some nefarious creatures who want to put Starkley on the map - of DOOM!

Written in Danny's blisteringly paced and brilliant humour (psst, don't tell David Walliams but C actually prefers Danny's books to his!) this is a christmas corker that's even better than an ugly christmas sweater in the 'coolness' stakes. 

Day 17 on our Booky Advent Calendar and as the big day gets closer and closer (8 sleeps to go!) we're digging deeper into our Christmas Book Sack to bring you some absolutely brilliant books.

Like "How to Hide a Lion at Christmas", the fourth book in Helen Stephens' whimsical and delightful series.

Iris and her lion go absolutely everywhere together (if you are familiar with the series, you'll know exactly what happened when Iris and the Lion first met, went to school and had an eventful time at Grandma's house!)

When Christmas comes, the family are going away but Mum says the lion must stay behind. After all, you can't take a lion on a train.

Luckily the lion has other ideas. He sets off on a festive, snowy adventure to find Iris - and almost bumps into Father Christmas!

Our Booky Advent Calendar entry for Day 9 might have the very loosest connection to Christmas (well, Turkeys and Thanksgiving) but it's still a hugely impressive piece of work and well deserving of inclusion in your christmas book shopping list.

We've loved Nguyen and Fridolfs' take on the Bat-Universe for ages, reinventing awesome DC characters for the "Fort Solitude" series - and showing that there are far better ways to wean your kids on DC's unfathomably complex comics universe without exposing them to tons of dark stuff.

Nguyen and Fridolfs have achieved something I never thought we'd be able to put our stamp of approval on. They've taken characters we know and love from the Bat-Universe here, and turned them into the most adorably playful scamps you can imagine.

The compilation here works through several holidays, including Robin's take on a Halloween parade, and what happens when The Penguin takes on a one-peng crusade to free tasty turkeys from imminent doom on the dinner table.

Just LOVE Robin's 'study' face here. That's C after her holiday homework assignments!

Purists might get a tad upset at the thought of a kiddified character assassination of their fave heroes, but we really love these - and despite the many, many other attempts there have been (and are still ongoing) to give kids a taste of DC's greatness, this is by far the best.

"L'il Gotham Volume 1" by Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs is out now, published by DC Comics / Scholastic (self purchased: Not provided for review)

We're cheating a little bit with Day 7 on our Advent Calendar - again although this isn't a Christmas book per se, the crisp snowy landscapes and gorgeously cuddly little story of a wilful wolf called Wilf will tickle and entertain you.

"The Way Home for Wolf" by Rachel Bright and Jim Field sees the talented duo tell the tale of young Wilf the Wolf.

Wilf might look cute and adorable but he's as strong and independent as a wolf cub can be. 

Wilful Wilf the Wolf. Try saying that with a mouthful of Christmas Pudding!

What a truly beautiful book. That there Jim fellah is very talented!

Booky Advent Calendar Day 4 is the second entry on our list from Brian Wildsmith, and another brilliant cloth-bound foil embossed title reissued from OUP.

Brian's version of the classic nativity story is given a new lease of life in this special gift edition.

Once, a long time ago, in a town called Nazareth, a little donkey was born. 

Day 3 of our Booky Advent Calendar, and although this isn't strictly a festive book, the setting and themes make it perfect for snuggling up with at this time of year.

"Snowglobe" by Amy Wilson introduces daydreamer Clementine who discovers a mysterious house standing in the middle of town that was never there before

Clementine is pulled towards the house by the powerful sense of a mother she never knew.

The place is full of snowglobes, swirling with stars and snow and each containing a trapped magician, watched over by Gan, the bitter keeper of the house.

One of these is Dylan, a boy who teases her in the real world but who is now desperate for her help.

So Clem ventures into the snowglobes, rescuing Dylan and discovering her own powerful connection to the magic of these thousand worlds.

Vowing to release the magicians from the control of their enchantments, Clem unknowingly unleashes a struggle for power that will not only put her family, but the future of magic itself in danger.

A stunning fantasy novel full of magic and wintry atmosphere, it's a brilliant read.

"Snowglobe" by Amy Wilson is out now, published by Macmillan Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

We're not just covering picture books in our #BookyAdventCalendar this year. Oh no, this year we're pleased to open up the field to cover festive chapter books.

Comedians seem to be natural shoe-ins for producing hilarious and entertaining middle grade fiction (and that's not said as any kind of insult, writing for middle grade is as TOUGH as heck).

So a new contender has arrived. One Ben Miller, yes he of Armstrong and Miller fame.

Turning his comedy props to a new festive chapter book, gorgeously illustrated by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini, here's "The Night I met Father Christmas".

Jackson has always wanted to meet Father Christmas. He knows all about the reindeer, he knows about the elves and the secret North Pole workshop, he knows about the magic that allows Father Christmas to deliver presents around the world in just one night, but there's one thing he doesn't know

Oh yes indeed, it's that time of the year again, a couple of dozen sleeps until Christmas - and once again we're wheeling out an awesome selection of christmassy titles for our December review schedule. Some brand new and never seen before, some well loved classics that have always been in our reading pile around this most wonderful time of the year.

Bring on...

THE BOOKY ADVENT CALENDAR!

And bring on the book behind Door Number 1 as we take a look at a gorgeous cloth-bound new edition reprint of Brian Wildsmith's timeless version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" - out now from OUP / Oxford Children's Books.

The perfect gift for every day of Christmas, Brian takes us on an enchanting journey through The Twelve Days of Christmas (a rhyme that we somehow still manage to get wrong, so it's rather handy to have a gorgeous book to refer to so we can sing it right at last!)