There's something really comforting in knowing that folk see the worth of comics and graphic novels as a really neat inroad into other books, particularly for younger kids who want a great combination of fab visuals but a fun and engaging story.

The superb "Narwhal and Jelly: Peanut Butter and Jelly" is Ben Clanton's third book in this winning and charming series.

This time, Narwhal has a new obsession . . . peanut butter! Yes indeed, that glorious comestible that's never in short supply at ReadItDaddy Towers is now Narwhals most favourite food. In fact he's so obsessed by the roof-of-the-mouth-stickiness, and subtle smokey flavour of the stuff that he's changed his name to -  Peanut Butter! 

The world's grumpiest and most unlikely mythical creature is back for a second chapter book outing, with tons of fun illustrations and loads of laughs.

"The Naughtiest Unicorn at Sports Day" by Pip Bird reintroduces Mira and her new UBFF (Unicorn Best Friend Forever), the surly but hilarious Dave, for a new set of challenges as school sports day is announced.

The winning team is up for fortune and glory, winning a shiny medal and the chance to embark on a magical rainbow quest. WOW!

Needless to say, Mira is fizzing with enthusiasm and energy for the upcoming day. Dave, however, is less than enthused.

Can Mira somehow convince her unicorn bestie to buck his ideas up and partake in a high jump or two?

Pip's series taps into the (seemingly endless) Unicorn craze that C and her classmates are bubbly about, with a pair of brilliantly funny characters, and of course a ton of relatable school-based fun with a twist.

Great for emergent solo readers, but also quite good for surly 11 year old non-unicorns too!

Sum this book up in a sentence: Another brilliant addition to the "Naughtiest Unicorn" range of stories, worth collecting them all for your own unicorn-obsessed kids!

"The Naughtiest Unicorn at Sports Day" by Pip Bird is published by Egmont (kindly supplied for review). 

Our Chapter Book of the Week this week tapped right into C's two areas of interest. Unicorns and sweeties!

Meet possibly the naughtiest mythical creature you'll ever go to school with in "The Naughtiest Unicorn" by Pip Bird and David O'Connell.

Mira has just started Unicorn School and she just can't WAIT for her first day. Her big sister already goes to the same school and won't shut up about how fantastic it is. 

We see a lot of animal books on the blog. A huge number, and normally they follow a pretty strict formula of presenting facts dotted with photo plates or illustrations, perhaps a glossary etc.

As lovely as they all are, we've felt for a very long time that we'd love to see an animal book that's a tad more playful, perhaps something that kids can more readily relate to and perhaps even play around with a bit...

It comes as no surprise to us that Sophy Henn is the author / artist to absolutely nail the sort of book we meant in her new picture book "Lifesize".

Kids really love anything that's relatable to themselves, and what Sophy does is to show them just how they measure up to some of their favourite animals. Literally measure up, as each life-size illustration shows just how small, large, weird or cute each animal's identifying characteristics are.

How big is a squid's eye, for example? Almost as big as your head (perhaps bigger for tiny tiddlers!)

What would you look like with a Toucan's beak? (Pretty funny actually!)

What would it be like to high-five a polar bear? You'd probably be knocked for six, they have some pretty big paws for a very good reason.

Sophy's book is a playful exploration of animals for younger readers who love books that have an element of interaction with them (and this book really does deliver in that regard, not only does it look brilliant but you can really mess around with it and see what you look like holding a panda face up in place of your own).

What an utterly brilliant work of genius!

"Lifesize" by Sophy Henn is out now, published by Red Shed / Egmont (kindly supplied for review). 

Oh my, we're very late to the party with this one so we're dashing around playing catchup on Adam and Charlotte Guillain's fantastic series featuring the world's cheekiest little green critters...

Sometimes a picture book text just flows over you, like the gentle lapping of a stream's cool currents or the whisper of a summer breeze. So it is with our second picture book of the week this week, "The Night Box" by Louise Greig and Ashling Lindsay.

Every single year without fail from about the age of 0 to about the age of 15 I got an annual for Christmas...

Not many books can claim that they squeeze in the entire Island of Sodor between their pages...

Star Wars Mania is about to explode in just a few short weeks as Episode 7 debuts. There's never been a better time to take a look at brilliant new Star Wars books so let's dive into an absolute cracker!

Like a super-exploding box of TNT this absolutely STUNNING book exploded through our letterbox and caused a huge amount of fuss. Egmont's "Minecraft: Blockopedia" is no ordinary Minecraft book, it's a block in itself and has to be a real contender for "Book Design of the Year".

Clad in a black monolithic box that screams Stanley Ku-brick (see what we did there?) at you, it's a real treat for the eyes before you've even opened the cover (and the whole forced perspective design has royally messed with your senses.

So what's inside? A block-by-block breakdown of the world's most popular game. Kids love it, adults secretly run off and play it when the kids are asleep, and it's become something of an obsession as the game has spawned merchandise, Lego (which is a real head flip - a game about building spawning a bunch of sets for building things with) and of course lovely lovely books.

Open up this fantastic book for deep knowledge about Minecraft's world. Ice? Nice!

There are two schools of thought when it comes to learning all the intricacies of Minecraft (and it is a game that looks deceptively simple, don't be fooled by the graphics - inside the game beats the heart of a living breathing world that's just waiting for you to shape it in whichever way you choose). Some folk stick to learning their 'craft online, with the various wikipedias, youtube videos and other sources of info. That feels a bit too much like cheating to us. So with the Blockopedia you'll get the inside track on every type of block and material in the game, plus a few you may not have even encountered yet (so be warned, there may be spoilers ahead but they're well posted!) but won't necessarily be shown the best methods of how to short-cut the game (aside from one tiny instance of learning a very quick way to make stone which is absolutely ingenious!)

We'd never even seen a daylight sensor before. Now we know what they're for and how to use them!

Charlotte seized this book and that was the last I saw of it for a while, as she'd tuck herself up in bed at night with it (and her torch - though thankfully not the Minecraft 'flaming' kind) teasing nuggets of information the next morning that 'silly old daddy' won't know. I was petrified that the book might get damaged as the hexagonal pages are a bit tricky to get hold of as you're flipping through, but the book is beautifully presented and made of sturdy stuff so it'll last a lifetime if treated right.

Really though, it's all about the detail in this - it's exhaustive, knowledgeable and authoritative, a real "must buy" for your own little Minecraft obsessives. Perfection comes at a price though, but hunt around for a good deal on this one and you'll find lots of retailers lopping a tenner off the hefty £30 RRP. Put it this way though, it's not just a book it's a real collector's item in its presentation box, so if you want something that's going to really up your game as well as be something that looks utterly gorgeous laid on your coffee table fooling people into thinking you've left a real life minecraft block there, then this is definitely for you!

If you'd like to see more from Egmont's amazing Minecraft book range, do check out our Minecraft Theme Week for more!

Charlotte's best bit: Charlotte is obsessed with The Nether at the moment, and loved learning about the best ways to stay alive in that particularly inhospitable environment thanks to this awesome book!

Daddy's Favourite bit: Utterly amazing, beautiful, stunning - we almost ran out of superlatives for this one. It's like "The Knowledge" for Minecraft fans, wrapped up in a truly jaw-dropping book design. Whoah!

(Kindly sent to us for review by those awsome folk at Egmont UK - our deepest thanks!)