The "I Love My" books were definitely a staple of C's early years, with the brilliant bright illustrations and bouncy text making them a jolly good read for tinies.

"I Love My Teacher" by Giles Andreae and Emma Dodd is the latest book in the series, perfectly timed for those last few days of school, whether you're a junior or a senior, a pre-schooler or a nursery kid, there's lots of lovely sentiment in this one that shows just how brilliant and amazing our teachers and TAs are.

We'd certainly endorse this over a certain other book doing the rounds at the moment, as a nice little end-of-term gift for the teacher you love!

Sum this book up in a sentence: A brilliant addition to the well-loved series, celebrating our amazing teachers, and all they do for our kids.

"I Love My Teacher" by Giles Andreae and Emma Dodd is out now, published by Orchard Books (kindly supplied for review). 

Out today, and full of positivity, energy and loads of fun, it's "Happy to be Me" by Emma Dodd.

If there's one thing that kids really enjoy above everything else, it's finding a picture book that they can really relate to and identify with, perhaps even find 'themselves' in.

We hear this again and again from authors and illustrators, who look to reflect the diversity and amazing individuality of kids in their books.

"Happy to be me" captures this perfectly in a ticklish funny rhyming book celebrating bodies of all kinds.

Emma Dodd, famous for her brilliant "I love My" series of books has come up with a really lovely heartfelt story for kids of all kinds, with a truly lovely pay-off at the end.

A fab book for building positivity, confidence and self-esteem.

"Happy to be me" by Emma Dodd is out today, published by Orchard Books (kindly supplied for review). 

Do you love birthdays? Do you love books? Then you're going to love this awesome board book version of Giles Andreae and Emma Dodd's "I Love My Birthday"...

A fabulous little cuddle-up title or two, just to show Grandad and Grandma how special they are? Yes indeed, that's a FABULOUS idea!

We still love a tickly tiddly picture book that's great for tiny toddlers and we've been taking a look at a couple of beauties coming soon from Hachette / Hodder Children's Books.

First up is another book in the hugely popular "I Love My" series by hugely talented duo Giles Andreae and Emma Dodd.

"I Love my Birthday" is a glorious celebration of glorious celebrations, and tells the story of a very special birthday indeed!

There are presents to open, lots of good things to eat and party games to play. Can you picture your perfect birthday? I bet it looks a lot like this...

Blueberry pancakes and kisses from mum? Pretty much perfect!

"I Love my Birthday" by Giles Andreae and Emma Dodd is out now, published by Orchard Books.

If there's one thing kids love as much as their birthdays, it's their cuddly toys and our second book comes from "Kipper" superstar Mick Inkpen, introducing us to a new lovable character.

"Threadbear" may be a bit old and worn at the seams, but he's still a beloved toy. One thing that's never been right with him is his tummy squeaker. It's never, ever worked but perhaps a bit of magic from a certain red-clad white-bearded gentleman renowned for working magic and giving presents might help?

"Threadbear" by Mick Inkpen is out now, published by Hodder Children's Books. 

We're going to do it, we're going to break our "Christmas Book Reviews" duck early this year with a cuddly corker of a book in the much-loved "I Love You" series by Giles Andreae and Emma Dodd.

"I Love You Father Christmas" is a fun look at the man in the white beard from a child's perspective. He's jolly, he has the world's most infectious laugh, a sleigh packed with presents and of course he has some awesome reindeer friends too.

We love these books for the 'family friendly' feeling they exude, and it's the perfect time to start thinking about books as stocking fillers (you do get all your christmas shopping done early don't you? Of course you do!)

A good sturdy board book and a great place to start if you're looking for a neat little festive treat for your young ones.

"I Love You, Father Christmas" will be out well in time for the festive season, on October 3rd 2013.

Charlotte's best bit: Santa's big black stompy boots!

Daddy's Favourite bit: Charming and lovely. We're not quite at the stage of planning Christmas yet but we'd love one like the one in this book!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Orchard Books)

Giles Andreae, legendary rhyme-meister and Emma Dodd, fabulously talented illustrator, have collaborated on quite a few "I Love" books and there's a special seasonal one on the way very soon too (watch out for an upcoming review when things start getting a bit more festive!)

In "I Love You", we see things from a child's perspective - a tantalising glimpse of their world and the things in it, and why they like them. Mummy, Daddy, beloved pets and of course chocolate (who doesn't like chocolate? Oh that's right, Grandad but he does like cake!)

These books make great little gifts and they're also nice as a snuggle up book just before bedtimes.

We Love Giles and Emma!

Charlotte's best bit: I Love Bunnies!

Daddy's Favourite bit: A great little early reader, perfect gift for a loved one to read to their youngsters!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Hachette)

It's still a little early for Father's Day yet (in the UK it's on Sunday June 16th Folks, but various territories have it on different days). Nevertheless, it's never too early to celebrate dads (and mums) so here's a charming little book from two giants in children's picture books.

Giles (Pants) Andreae and Emma (Cinderelephant) Dodd are an awesome match, and this book celebrates all the things that are great about dads, and being a dad.

Shoulder carries, water fights, lulling you to sleep with a story (sounds familiar!) or perhaps tuning up the air guitar for a rock-out marathon on a sunday afternoon when mum's out of the house, it's brilliant being a dad and just so mums don't feel completely left out, there's an accompanying "I Love My Mummy" book by this immensely talented duo too!

Brilliant for younger children, but also very much appreciated by Charlotte (and her daddy of course!)

Charlotte's best bit: Daddy's terrible singing and air guitar playing (very much like ReadItDaddy's!)

Daddy's favourite bit: Nice to see 'being silly' being celebrated. This happens a lot at home!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Orchard Books)

On our recent trip to Mostly Books in Abingdon, we spotted Emma Dodd's Cinderelephant and with Charlotte's love of all things pink (and Cinderella-ish) we thought it would be a fantastic addition to our haul.

It's certainly a book that has been getting plenty of critical praise and rave reviews so we were looking forward to a novel twist on the 'Cinderella' story.

But (and it's a big but!) here's the thing. We see a lot of children's books where authors and illustrators put their own unique stamp on a well-worn story, and make it their own. In "Cinderelephant" it feels a little bit of a let down that the only real novelty here is that Cinderella is an Elephant, Prince Trunky is an elephant and the "Furry Godmouse" is a mouse (wait, don't elephants hate mice? Wouldn't Cinderelephant stomp her Fairy Godmother flat?)

Both The Strolling Mum and Me felt a bit deflated by Cinderelephant and wished we'd have given it closer scrutiny as it follows the original story so closely (and we have so many versions of Cinderella at home) that it doesn't really warrant another telling, even in grey wrinkly form.

However, Charlotte absolutely loved it, particularly the sparkly slippers Cinderelephant wears.

Perhaps we're being too harsh. We both commented that we were expecting some novel twist and it just wasn't there, the book was nicely presented but didn't really bring anything new to the table other than anthropomorphised animals replacing the human characters. When it boils down to it though, Charlotte's opinion is what this blog is about and she gave it a right royal thumbs up.

Charlotte's best bit: The Furry Godmouse

Daddy's favourite bit: People dancing round their handbags at the Royal Ball

What Pet to Get?

Written and Illustrated by Emma Dodd

Amazon Link: £4.49

Published by Templar Publishing





At one point or another, every parent must dread the words "I want a pet!" coming from their child's mouth. I'm absolutely convinced that when the time comes for us, we'll end up with a scraggy moth-eaten cat which will inevitably be named "Wilbur" whether we like it or not. 

In Emma Dodd's book 'What Pet to Get?' a little boy weighs up the pros and cons of every possible animal from polar bears to elephants through lions through to giraffes and rhinos before deciding on something a little less exotic. Emma Dodd's artwork is big, bold and colourful and the story may be fairly unoriginal but it's executed in a neat way with a great payoff at the end. 

Charlotte's best bit: The crocodile, Snap Snap!

Daddy's favourite bit: Mummy's super-long curly eyelashes. 

Rating: 3 out of 5