We must admit we hadn't heard of Sir Quentin Blake's "Three Little Monkeys" series but here the amazingly talented artist and storyteller puts down his pencils and lets another giant of kidlit take the reins for a whole new version of these cheeky busy little tales.

"Three Little Monkeys Ride Again" by Sir Quentin Blake and Emma Chichester-Clark sees those naughty little monkeys causing absolute havoc on a mini holiday.

Hilda Snibbs takes her three mischievous monkeys to visit her mother in the country.

But what is supposed to be a calm and peaceful holiday is soon filled with chaos and hilarious havoc!

Every time Hilda and her poor mother leave them alone, those simian troublemakers completely trash the place - often with hilarious results. But after such naughty behaviour, how can they possibly redeem themselves?

A fab story for little ones who just won't be able to resist those naughty antics, beautifully illustrated by "The Chich", drawing up beautiful scenes of serenity punctuated by utter destruction in such a hilarious way that you just can't help laughing at those monkey antics.

Sum this book up a sentence: A collaboration between two utter legends in kidlit, resulting in a fabulous book for little ones fizzing with energy, chaos and mischief.

"Three Little Monkeys Ride Again" by Sir Quentin Blake and Emma Chichester-Clark is out now, published by HarperCollins Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

We just can't get enough of the amazing books that have arrived, Autumn is definitely our favourite time of year for book releases - and there are just so many books that deserve top honours. So with that, here's a book that pulls rather a nice little bait-and-switch on you as you begin reading.

In "The Misadventures of Frederick" by Ben Manley and Emma Chichester Clark" you'll meet the titular young boy who lives a life of quiet and protected bliss. At first you might be mistaken for thinking this is a book about over-protective parenting. But as you read, and re-read this one you pick up the delicious visual clues that tell you that Frederick is, for want of a better way of describing him, a happy go lucky klutz (see if you can spot the crutch propped against a wall, or even the big blaring clue on the cover of Fred penning a letter and spilling ink all over everything).

Frederick's mother tends to like to keep an eye on him to ensure he doesn't get into more trouble. So the poor fellah spends a lot of time mooching around in his room, making his own entertainment.

That is, until, a little girl comes along who loves to play outdoors, go on adventures, and wants a friend to join her in her games. She spies Frederick while playing, and comes up with an ingenious way to catch is attention, inviting him to come outside.

Frederick knows though that his mother would definitely NOT approve (and sure enough she very quickly puts the kybosh on Frederick's plans to escape).

Frederick is SO bored though. Why should he spend all his time indoors, leading a sheltered life when there's so much more to do outside - and a new friend to play with?

Frederick's mum is a bit over-protective to say the least (ooh, almost a cameo from Plumdog there, has he changed colour?)

All the toys in the world can't make up for being stuck in the house without a friend

The eternal and ever-present popularity contest between dogs and cats is always rich subject matter when it comes to children's books...

I know you'll probably accuse us of playing favourites on the blog from time to time. Certain authors and illustrators hit our Book of the Week slot with consummate ease and Emma Chichester-Clark recently found her way into our hearts with her awesome "Plumdog" book.

We're currently marvelling at her latest children's book which is just so good that once again it's deserving of our Book of the Week accolade. In "Bears Don't Read" we meet a rather large but thankfully quite placid grizzly bear named George who isn't really satisfied with his life. "Is this all there is?" he muses as he stares out across the wonderful scenery of the valley where he lives, watching his brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews all seemingly happy with their grizzly bear lives.

Everything changes when the bear finds a book that someone has lost in the forest. A book, showing the most wonderful things - and suddenly the bear realises that there is indeed more to life, and more books out there. From that moment on, George is determined to track down the owner of the book and see if they will teach him to read too. His family think he's crazy and sadly wave George off as he embarks on the long long journey into town to find people, and hopefully a willing teacher.

The next scene, once George hits town, is Charlotte's favourite spread in the whole book. You can imagine the scene as a giant grizzly pops up. Poor George doesn't know why everyone's running (including a couple of very familiar looking dogs that made Charlotte quite literally clap with glee!) - but he manages to ask a passer by where his book might've come from. The school, of course the school! The school is attended by a little girl, Clementine. Could she hold the key to fulfilling George's dearest wish, to learn to read himself?

I'm trying not to gush about the rest of the book, there are scenes in this that are so expertly handled by Emma - for instance when George is confronted by a rather menacing set of riot police, the scene is actually quite scary for little ones. Thankfully there are no guns, no violence - and in reality the rather loud and pompous police chief might not be such a bad egg after all.

OK no more spoilers. This book celebrates the sheer joy of reading, the possibilities it opens up - and one bear's ultimate wish to join those of us who know the greatest pleasure of wrapping ourselves up in fantastic books - books such as this in fact - and losing ourselves in their brilliant worlds.


Charlotte's best bit: That fabulous scene where George hits town. Look very closely to see a few rather special canine guest stars!

Daddy's Favourite bit: Love the twist, the brilliant brilliant twist - and George is just such a wonderful creation. If your children already love Blue Kangaroo they are going to REALLY love this. Utterly and completely sublime, and we cannot wait for you to read it!

(Kindly sent to us by HarperCollins Children's Books)

Time for a truly gorgeous book, and one that's once again meant we've needed to double up on our awesome "Book of the Week" nominees. We've been following the awesome adventures of Plum for ages, via Twitter and directly on the awesome Plumdog Blog. Emma Chichester-Clark, aided and abetted by Plum, writes and paints a fantastic visual blog from a doggy perspective following the adventures of her intrepid Whoosel (That's part whippet, part poodle, part Jack Russell, whew!)

Now, we'll readily admit we're predominantly cat-people here at ReadItDaddy but Plum is truly irresistible, and for a long time we wondered how Emma managed to see things from Plum's point of view so perfectly.

Well the answer is obvious, Emma and Plum share a doggy-human psychic link the like of which we haven't seen for a very long time. In fact here's the thing, Plum's musings and Emma's expert storytelling and illustrative eye reminded me of a book I was given as a child - a book that has sadly disappeared in umpteen house moves and is virtually untraceable aside from this paltry offering via the internet...

Cold Noses by C.B Poultney.

C.B Poultney and Emma Chichester-Clark both have the enviable knack of being able to convey their dog's thoughts in a way that makes them completely irresistible to us mere mortals. C.B wrote about a brilliant Scottie called Sir Roderick Dhu (and Patrick, his rather aloof and sneering moggy friend). Both Roderick and Plum became narrator, storyteller and star of their own wonderfully crafted fables (in fact it's quite eerie comparing the two at times, I'd love to imagine that Rod and Plum would be firm friends).

But Plum is the star of this particular show. Plum delights us by engaging in all manner of dog behaviour (including a lot of rather unsavoury 'rolling in things that pong') but talks to us - through Emma's exquisite gift of expression and scene-setting - in a universal language that young, old and canine will utterly want to devour in one huge sitting.

We've followed Plum through doggy misbehaviour - un-stuffing stuffed toys, or leaping headlong into pongy, smelly or very wet things, through heartache (when Rocket disappears to France - the cheek of it!) and when a nasty dog injured Plum (I distinctly remember almost bursting into tears on Twitter when I heard about this). It's become essential reading and I'm very happy to report that Plum continues to blog almost daily, hooray!

Collecting together the blog posts is an absolute stroke of genius and for ages we'd secretly hoped it was going to happen. Now it has, we're greedily hoping for a volume 2 (and 3 and...oh you get the picture) because it's such a fantastic read (in fact on the day it arrived, I sat down meaning to quickly leaf through before letting Charlotte loose on it (advisable as there's a single tiny sweary s-word moment I recalled from the blog that parents might want to stick a sticky label over in the book before letting their little ones leaf through) and nearly made myself late for work cackling out loud at some of Plum and Emma's antics!)

It's definitely not just for the dog lover in your life, but for anyone who truly loves seeing someone doing what they really enjoy the most - telling stories and painting gorgeous scenes that make us want to leap headfirst into the book and live there alongside Plum, Emma and Daddy. Of course, the real stroke of genius is Emma rather neatly seeing herself (and other humans) through Plum's canine gaze. It's so mesmerisingly well observed.

Take our advice, put it on your 'to-buy' list now. Just do it, you really do not want to miss out on Plum's doggy booky debut.

"Plumdog" by Emma Chichester-Clark, came out yesterday (2nd October) from Jonathan Cape Publishing.

Charlotte's Favourite Plum Adventure: She loves the one where Esther comforts Plum after a nasty incident with a snarly dog threatening to 'bite her stupid face off'. She liked the "crazy native mother nature" snowman (blush!) but most of all she LOVED Plum meeting mouse superstar Maisie and not being fooled for a second :)

Daddy's Favourite Plum Adventure: I am with Plum's daddy on the 'going for long walks' thing. I do that too (gradually slow down until I'm about ten miles behind everyone else!) Also laughed out loud about Plum being told "bad girl, bad dog" but hearing "la la la la" in her head instead (Charlotte does this too!)

(Kindly sent to us for review by Jonathan Cape Publishing)

Here's a fantastic book that fits in rather nicely with our #ReadItMD13 theme week about fantasy realms.

Having loved Emma Chichester-Clark's recent collaboration with Michael Morpurgo, bringing "Pinocchio" to a whole new audience, I heartily approve of more fantastic classics being given new life by one of the most talented children's illustrators in the world.

For me, Alice Through The Looking Glass has always been the 'darker' side of Alice in Wonderland. I remember we covered both "Alice in Wonderland" and "Alice Through the Looking Glass" at school and there being a heated classroom debate about what happened to Messr. Dodson between the two books!

Emma Chichester-Clark's masterful adaptation has given Charlotte a point of reference to a book that would, otherwise, have been off her radar for quite a few years. She knows who Alice is (though mostly knows the Disney version of "Alice in Wonderland") so having a thoroughly modern Alice in this version of Through the Looking Glass has been awesome.

Here too are the supporting cast of characters, rendered in Emma's fabulous style, given more depth and dimension than Disney could manage. Charlotte loved that she could more wholly relate to Emma's Alice, and felt that the blending of old and new here - for instance, some of the more contemporary touches the book uses to lend it that approachability for this generation's children really sit well compared to a reading of the original Carroll text.

As you'd expect, the visual richness of the story's illustrations helps bucketloads (though naturally I love the original ink drawings in both Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through The Looking Glass - they were a tough sell to Charlotte). A vibrant colourful world, with The Queen of Hearts, the Mad Hatter, The Mad March Hare and the Walrus and The Carpenter taking centre stage as Alice once again finds herself embroiled in the surreal dream-like world of Wonderland.

The darkness isn't as prevalent perhaps, and that's likely to be a blessing for a version aimed at Charlotte's generation who shouldn't miss out on classics purely because of tone or composition feeling slightly outdated. Here though, "Through the Looking Glass" is rainbow-hued and utterly fabulous. Wonderful work, Emma!

"Alice Through the Looking Glass" is out tomorrow, 7th November from HarperCollins Children's Books.

Charlotte's best bit: Alice as Queen, all little girls should get that chance (says she!)

Daddy's Favourite bit: I loved the original but I have to say, this has impressed the socks off me - taking a fairly dark and in some ways fairly unapproachable (for some) children's classic and turning it into something that feels fresh, vibrant and full of colour. Lovely!

(Kindly sent to us for review by HarperCollins Children's Books)

With an eye-catching cover, we couldn't resist picking up "Amazing Mr Zooty!" on our recent library trawl. We really love anything Emma Chichester-Clark is involved in (her Plumdog Blog is required reading and I keep hoping it's going to end up turned into a book collection one day. I'd buy it in a heartbeat!)

Here though we're not concerned with dogs, but cats. One particular cat, in fact - The Amazing Mr Zooty!

What's so amazing about him (aside from his eye-popping yellow jersey with a big Z on it, and his eye popping yellow eyes!) He's a little bit magical, in the line of Willy Wonka, with a subtle soupçon of Mr Majeika too.

When he sees a poor family, dressed in ragged clothing, feeding the ducks in the park, Mr Zooty decides to act. Dressing himself as a down-on-his-luck fellow, Mr Zooty asks them if they have any spare change. All the children have are the three leaves they have gathered, but they still happily give them to the poor moggy to bring him luck.

Zooty pretends to pass out, and the family, concerned for his well being, drag him all the way back to their little shabby flat (We actually thought Mr Zooty was a bit mean here, expecting the poor family to haul him all the way up a huge flight of stairs on a clapped out pushchair before telling them who he really was!)

Mr Zooty grants the family three wishes (well three-ish, Mr Zooty has a habit of 'thinking of things' to add to each wish) and soon they're eating delicious pancakes, gaining a magical purse and then the little girl lucy's wish is granted...

...but we'll leave you to discover that one yourself. "The Amazing Mr Zooty" is pure fantasy, beautifully told and illustrated, and such a feelgood book that you'll feel like cuddling it at the end. We love discovering obscure books like this in our library. Look out for Mr Zooty in yours!

Charlotte's best bit: Mr Zooty's pancakes. So yummy looking!

Daddy's favourite bit: Emma's illustrations are always an absolute treat. Zooty is brilliant!

We love following the exploits of her wonderful dog Plum on The Plumdog Blog (if you haven't discovered it yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!) so any new books from Emma Chichester-Clark are always cause for celebration.

We're relative newbs and green around the gills so you'll have to forgive us for never coming across the Blue Kangaroo books before. We are so happy we have now though, as they're fantastic - and in this tale "Come to School Too, Blue Kangaroo" - Kangaroo's owner Lily is off to a new school for the first time.

She decides to take Blue along with her. Blue is very excited about school and all the things there are to do, new faces to meet, and new experiences but Lily is rather worried that blue might be frightened, might get bored, might be too shy to say hello to anyone.

Soon Lily is wrapped up in the busy school day, and Blue rather thoughtfully watches from the windowsill as Lily enjoys painting, playing and (the best bit of any school day) story time.

When hometime comes, Lily is so excited about her day that the unthinkable happens. Poor Blue Kangaroo gets left at school all on his own. But not to worry, Blue is happy because now he'll get to do all the things Lily did during her fantastic school day!

We'll leave the rest for you to discover, but we're absolutely committed to checking out the rest of the Lily and Blue Kangaroo adventures. I loved the way Lily 'spoke' through Blue, expressing her own fears and anxieties about starting school but shifting them onto Blue (who, rather jauntily, wasn't worried about any of those things at all!)

We've seen many 'first day at school' books on the blog but this is by far the best of the bunch. Beautifully drawn (we expect no less from Emma, she rocks!), beautifully told - a really classy book all round. More Blue Kangaroo soon please!

Charlotte's best bit: She loved matching Blue's paintings to the children who were in Lily's class.

Daddy's favourite bit: Blue being very brave about his first day at school.

(Kindly sent to us for review by HarperCollins Children's Books)