We've been lucky enough to see so many new and emerging talents begin their careers and achieve stellar heights of fame and popularity while we've been  reviewing books here.

Almost four years ago, "The Bear and the Piano" by David Litchfield caught our eye. I'm a sucker for any book that is visually stunning the moment you clap eyes on the cover, and is even more visually stunning once you get into the story itself.

This book doesn't prepare you for the good solid whump to the heart it delivers as you read the tale of a bear who discovers a strange object in the wood.

He approaches it, and discovers that it can make sounds. The most beautiful sounds imagineable. From there on, Bear falls hopelessly in love with the piano and the music that he plays - though rough and ready at first - soon becomes a beautiful sound to all the creatures who live in the forest.

Fame beckons the bear, and though he soon achieves the dizzy heights of stardom, he remembers who he is, and where he comes from - and once again returns to the forest to play for all his family and friends.

I swear that when we read this book aloud for the first time, the book is so immersive that you could almost hear music as you read. The illustrations glow with David's trademark gift for filling his scenes with colour, atmosphere and light, they are works of great beauty, helping to convey his gentle storytelling style in a truly impressive often heart-wrenching way.

We also really loved David's "Lights on Cotton Rock". This time the story reminded me of my own UFO-obsessed youth. I'd get wrapped up in reading the books of Erich Von Daniken, or magazines like "The Unexplained" so this gentle story of a young girl's quest to be visited by extraterrestrials, waiting her entire life if necessary, really struck a chord.

Again it looks so good, and it's the sort of book that perfects a similar trick to most Pixar movies - simultaneously allowing you to wholly identify with its central character, and feel for them as their life's wish is fulfilled. It's a truly beautiful, beautiful book.

Original Review Links of David's fantastic books and collaborations with others: 

ReadItDaddy's Second Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 7th April 2017 - "Grandad's Secret Giant" by David Litchfield (Frances Lincoln Children's Books)

"When I was a Child" by Andy Stanton and David Litchfield (Hodder Children's Books)

ReaditDaddy's First Book of the Week - Week Ending 6th May 2016 - "The Bear and The Piano" by David Litchfield (Frances Lincoln Children's Books)

A fabulous "This or That" interview with the creators of "The Marvellous Moon Map" published today by Red Fox Picture Books. Over to you Teresa and David!

ReadItDaddy's Book of the Week - Week Ending 7th September 2018: "The Bear, The Piano, The Dog and the Fiddle" by David Litchfield (Lincoln Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's Third Book of the Week - Week Ending 6th September 2019: "Lights on Cotton Rock" by David Litchfield (Frances Lincoln Children's Books)

ReaditDaddy's Second Book of the Week - Week Ending 6th October 2017 - "The Marvellous Moon Map" by Teresa Heapy and David Litchfield (Red Fox Picture Books)

Today's #Booky100Keepers entry was recently re-read and both of us were completely rapt with how beautiful this book is - both how it looks but more, the story it tells.

"Pandora" by Victoria Turnbull arrived at ReadItDaddy Towers long before the avalanche of 'eco' books, with the story of a lonely fox living in a strange post-apocalyptic world that reminded us heavily of "Wall-E" at times, but with a level of warmth and charm to it.

But also loneliness. The fox at the heart of this tale makes the best of life amongst the discarded rubbish of a long-departed civilisation. But one day she rescues a small blue bird with a broken wing, and nurses it back to health.

Pandora enjoys the company - and the way that the bird changes her life. But it's a brief interlude, for all things that fly must never be bound to earth, and soon the blue songbird whistles off into the sky once more.

But that's not where the story ends, of course...!

We've seen a few children's picture books with a similar theme (in fact one will also be cropping up in our #Booky100Keepers list very soon, see if you can spot it) but the way Victoria draws up a stark world which her character lives in, then weaves that into a more warming heartfelt tale is just sublime. We've spent hours looking at the illustrations in this one too, with exquisitely detailed page spreads complementing one of the loveliest foxes you'll ever meet in a children's story.

Original Review Link: 

ReadItDaddy's First Book of the Week - Week Ending 4th November 2016 - "Pandora" by Victoria Turnbull (Frances Lincoln Children's Books)

Here's a novel take on natural history, and a close look at the animal kingdom and a bunch of creatures who may have (unfairly) been tarred with the 'bad guy' brush.

"The (Not) Bad Animals" by Sophie Corrigan is a fabulously presented book that aims to give those poor critters a bit of a PR boost.

Inside you'll find detailed descriptions and brilliant factoids about animals you may have heard (bad things) about, and a whole stack of others that you may never have heard of before.

For example Sharks - They don't quite deserve their killer rep. More people die from using faulty toasters every year than are killed by sharks.

Dung Beetles. We would probably be neck deep in the stuff if it wasn't for the fact that these awesome little critters recycle, reuse and repurpose large quantities of animal poo (and they also eat it too - though we obviously wouldn't recommend you do that at home).

With fun illustrations and loads of interesting nuggets of information, it's worth a closer look inside so let's dive in!

Spiders! Scary? Nah, they're cute once you get to know them.

Black cats. Unlicky if they cross your path or lucky? We can never remember!

Sum this book up in a sentence: A brilliant and innovative way to increase your knowledge of the animal kingdom!

"The (Not) Bad Animals" by Sophie Corrigan is out now, published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

Your brain is an amazing thing. No really, it is. Sometimes you might not think so, but the human brain is a complex and dynamic organic machine that is capable of some truly wonderful things.

Following on from their successful books about our bodies, our families and our world, "The Great Big Brain Book" by Mary Hoffman and Ros Asquith once again takes a colourful and diverse look at our amazing brains in a bumper book filled to the brim with brainiac facts about our grey matter.

Think of all the things it allows us to do - most of which we take for granted - and you'll find them in this book, everything from the day-to-day functions of our bodies that our brain largely controls automatically, to the more fanciful things that our brain is capable of.

Our dreams, our imaginations, our creativity and our cleverness are all down to that wrinkly grey thing we keep in our skulls!

Let's take a closer look inside this wonderful book!

Your amazing brain can do all these things and more (look out for that scene-stealing cat on every page!)

Poor cat! Might be a tiny brain but they still rule the internet

Different areas of the brain do different things, even from left to right!

Sum this book up in a sentence: Another brilliant, colourful, fact-filled and characterful book by Mary and Ros, cooking up a superb slice of non-fic all about our amazing brains!

"The Great Big Brain Book" by Mary Hoffman and Ros Asquith is out now, published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

The cutest biography series on the planet begins its 2020 run with the 40th book (wow, 40? Really?) in the series - and a very special chap who has become a national treasure, as well as a respected elder statesman and spokesman for the conservation movement across our ailing planet.

"Little People Big Dreams: David Attenborough" by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara and Mikyo Noh chronicles the life of the amazing broadcaster, presenter and ecologist whose eloquent and rich voice has underpinned many of the wildlife programmes and conservation movements that have made us sit up and take notice of the state of our blue planet over the last few decades.

David grew up in Leicester on the campus of a university, where his father was a professor. 

On the twelfth day of our Booky Advent Calendar, our postie gave to us...a classic tale from Hans Christian Andersen, given a thoroughly modern and gorgeous makeover.

"The Little Fir Tree" retold and illustrated by Christopher Corr delves deep into the forest where a tiny lone pine tree grows.

The pine tree has ambitions to see the world, and when the tree is taken to town at Christmas, it feels like all his dreams have come true.

But what will happen the day after Christmas?

As the story of the little fir tree unfolds – brought to enchanting life with the colourful, folk art–inspired artwork of acclaimed author / illustrator Christopher Corr – so does a touching lesson on appreciating what we already have and a hopeful message of rebirth.

"The Little Fir Tree" by Christopher Corr is out now, published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

Greta Thunberg's "Strike for Climate" has been one of the most inspirational things to emerge from the veritable train wreck of 2019. Understandably, her voice is shaping the way people think about the climate, their own efforts to help preserve it, and what big companies should be doing to offset their carbon footprint.

In "Greta and the Giants" by Zoe Tucker and Zoe Persico, Greta is the inspiration for a brilliant character facing off against giants who are ruining the forest for all the people and animals living there.

Greta loves nature, and though she's small, she's determined to stand up to the giants, make her tiny voice heard, and enlist the help of others to make a stand against the ruination of the natural world around her.

Presented here as a story for younger readers, both Zoes have pulled all the stops out to make this book as attractive, compelling and alluring as possible without diluting the core message - that the natural world deserves our protection and we should do all we can to preserve it.

Let's take a look inside at the gorgeous page spreads in this amazing book:



Sum this book up in a sentence: A beautifully woven story taking Greta Thunberg's epic climate battle as the inspiration for a fictional story around preserving nature and the environment.

"Greta and the Giants" by Zoe Tucker and Zoe Persico is out today, published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

The fantastic "Little People, Big Dreams" range from Frances Lincoln Children's Books is a real blog favourite but when we heard about this particular title, we just could not wait to get our hands on it.

"Little People Big Dreams: Mary Shelley" by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara and Yelena Bryksenkova is probably our favourite of the range yet, and it's perfectly timed for arrival just as we're preparing for Halloween.

After all, what better way to indulge our darker gothic and spooky side by learning about the woman who pretty much started it all.

Mary Shelley's early life was tinged with tragedy, losing her amazing mother at 11 days old, and finding little solace in her new step-family - but eventually becoming very close to her stepsister.

Mary's imagination was incredible, and she loved to hear stories told by her father's many creative friends - including Percy Bysshe Shelley, who she later married.

But without a doubt her fame comes from her most divine creation, "Frankenstein: or the Modern Prometheus" - a book that lit a fire under me as a youngster, and a book that Mary dreamed up while on a retreat with her husband, her stepsister and their influential circle of friends.

An early life tinged with tragedy that would lead Mary to write a masterwork of horror, love, life and death

When first published, her identity as the author was hidden for many years before it was revealed. Now, rightly, she is recognised as one of the most influential and inspirational writers ever.

If it's even possible to have a historical crush on someone, I've got one for Mary Shelley.

This book is brilliant, summarising Mary's life brilliantly, with suitably dark and gothic illustrations to underpin Mary's story, and a ton of brilliant facts about "Frankenstein" and the many iterations of the story that have appeared in books, movies and TV.

It's made me want to read the book all over again (as I have done many, many times). Truly brilliant stuff from Maria and Yelena.

Sum this book up in a sentence: A truly fabulous summary of the life of Mary Shelley, one of the most important writers ever to take up a pen and the perfect book for a bit of halloween reading!

"Little People Big Dreams: Mary Shelley" by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara and Yelena Bryksenkova is out now, published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

Oh we're complete and utter suckers for books like this, and so this week's second book of the week is none other than "Strange but True: 10 of the World's Greatest Mysteries Explained" by Kathryn Hulick and Gordy Wright.

Mostly through my influence, C has latched on to books about the unexplained, strange phenomena, ghosts, UFOs, bigfoot and the like.

It used to be difficult to source books for kids on these weird and 'out there' subjects, but it's got a lot better in recent years, with publishers swiftly realising theres gold in them thar unexplained hills after all.

This book is superb, going into fine detail about a huge and diverse range of subjects from alien abductions, strange disappearances, zombies, monsters of the deep and of course what book about mysteries would be complete without a Sasquatch or two.



Using real-life accounts, brilliantly detailed illustrations (no grisly photos though, boo hiss! Most kids books seem to miss out on the photos these days) and a thoroughly researched scientific attempt to explain each case, this is scintillating reading and the perfect entry point if you've been struggling to find kid-friendly books that aren't too gruesome, grisly or disturbing but cover the world's greatest weird phenomena.



Sum this book up in a sentence: Truly mind blowing mysteries ready to be cogitated over in this fab book for kids.

"Strange but True" by Kathryn Hulick and Gordy Wright is out now, published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

Story anthologies really seem to be making something of a comeback, which actually delights us no end - as for me these were the sort of books I grew up with, and for C it means you get way more stories than usual in a nice large format hardback.

"A World Full of Spooky Stories" by Angela McAllister and Madalina Andronic is a peerless collection of 50 tales from right across the world. Tales that dance with the dark side of myth and legend, introducing beautiful heroines, mighty heroes, and all manner of strange creatures and dark magic.

Some tales will be familiar to you, but others feel fresh and original, and are deftly reworked by Angela with glorious characterful artwork by Madalina.

From the fearsome witch Baba Yaga to the slithery serpent woman from Spain, the rescue of Tam Lin from the bewitching Queen of the Fairies to the story of how Father Death gets caught in the Enchanted Apple Tree.

The usual September bookapocalypse has descended on us with mighty force, meaning that this week we just had to squeeze in one more extra-special "Book of the Week" winner. A book that quite literally took our breath away.

"Lights on Cotton Rock" by David Litchfield once again proves that just about everything David turns his hand to ends up being kidlit gold.

In fact, this book might well have usurped "The Bear and the Piano" as our fave DL book yet.

The story begins with a young girl, who (rather like me as a kid) spends a lot of time gazing up at the night sky. Is there anybody out there in the inky void of space? Are we truly alone in the universe?

Heather believes there are others out there, and maintains a nightly vigil. One night she uses her torch to blast signals out into the night sky, and it seems someone was watching - as a vast colourful spacecraft descends into the quiet forest glade - something Heather has wished for since she was a little girl.

But despite this world-shattering event, it's all over far too soon - and the spacecraft leaves once again. Will the spaceship ever come back? And if it does, will Heather be ready to leave everything she has on earth behind?

Where to start with this one. I mean, you could start with the amazing expressions on Heather's face as her deepest wish comes true - only to be cruelly taken away from her, leaving her wondering if she'd dreamed the whole thing.

You could continue as Heather lives out her earth-bound life...continuing on despite the amazing thing that happened to her. Growing old, having a family of her own, but still gazing up at the stars and hoping.

You could also talk about "that bit" - which we really don't want to ruin for you - where Heather makes a decision that underlines and underpins the whole point of the story in such a beautifully emotive and heartfelt way.

Or you could just go on, and on, and on, and on about how utterly stunning and beautiful this book is. I don't think there are any other illustrators working in children's picture books who have such a delicious and brilliant artistic way of working with light and dark the way David does, and his character expressions are just *chef's kiss*. It's like a gorgeous homage to movies I loved as a kid, spliced perfectly with a bang-up-to-date core message about the things that end up meaning more to us than the things we sometimes break ourselves in half wishing for.

Just so, so good!

Sum this book up in a sentence: Honestly, picture books like this don't come along very often so grab this one with both hands, it's truly out of this world.

"Lights on Cotton Rock" by David Litchfield is out now, published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

There's just something so appealing about stories that feature tiny little folk, and anyone who's loved "The Borrowers" will utterly fall in love with "Flock (A tree keeper adventure)" by Gemma Koomen.

It's a daydreamy and magical little story of the folk who look after and maintain our trees. Mostly silent and hidden, if you look carefully enough amongst the branches you might just spot them at work and at play.

The story centres around a young tree-keeper, Sylvia, who loves to let her imagination soar.

Sylvia prefers to be alone rather than play noisy games with the other Tree Keepers. 

Have you ever read through a dictionary for fun? No? OK it's just me that's a bit weird then - but I've always been fascinated by words and the origins of them, and love passing on that fascination to my daughter.

So "The Dictionary of Difficult Words" by Lexicographer Jane Solomon, with illustrations by Louise Lockhart is absolutely perfect.

Not only does it increase your word (and brain) power with a ton of tongue-twistingly brilliant new words, it illustrates them with whimsical and humorous drawings to accompany the language.

Prepare to amaze and bamboozle your teacher and your friends with a QI-Busting selection of amazing new words to add to your own vocabulary.

Celebrating language has never been more fun, let's take a look inside this fabulous book then...!

We are definitely Ailurophiles at ReadItDaddy Towers

Each of the terms is provided phonetically, so you can learn how to say them as well as spell them.

Not just a dictionary, but a fascinating compendium of complex words!

What an absolutely brilliant idea for a children's book!

Sum this book up in a sentence: Time to increase your word power with a brilliant reference book that's actually an enjoyable cover-to-cover read too!

"The Dictionary of Difficult Words" by Jane Solomon and Louise Lockhart is out now, published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

Sometimes it's the simple things in life that make it worth living. Like finding a quiet spot (quite a quest in itself) to laze in a grassy field, listening to bird song and watching butterflies flitting between flowers.

Two new books are perfect for nature lovers who want to know more about these fascinating insects.

Starting with "The Butterfly House" by Katy Flint and Alice Pattulo, over 100 species of butterflies and moths are presented in exquisite detail, with tons and tons of interesting facts and nuggets of information about each species in turn.

Coupled with beautifully hand-drawn illustrations of each butterfly and moth, you'll soon get up to speed identifying some of our more common butterfly species, and perhaps even some of the rarer ones as you enjoy some time out in the summer sunshine.

Not just a book for country dwellers, you'll find that butterflies are everywhere, and moths have staked out a claim in many of our urban environments too.

Authoritative and detailed, this is a fantastic resource to dip into during the warmer months.


"The Butterfly House" by Katy Flint and Alice Pattulo is out now, published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books.

There's also "How to be a Butterfly" by Laura Knowles and Catell Ronca.

Should a butterfly be big or small? Should it be bright and bold, or perfectly pale? A joyous, imaginative, yet informative non-fiction picture book about what it takes to be a butterfly – body parts, behavior and life cycle – with the underlying message that diversity is a wonderful thing and that, in fact, there are 20,000 ways to be a butterfly!

Not only beautiful to behold, butterflies provide an opportunity to introduce a variety of environmental topics. Serving as key indicators of biodiversity and healthy ecosystems, they face threats of extinction due to climate change and habitat destruction – all vital subjects for children today.

With stunning illustrations displaying a colourful array of different butterfly species, each labeled with its scientific name, and fascinating details about their anatomy and life cycle, there is plenty for young nature lovers to spot and explore time and again.

Imagine having a time machine that would let you travel through the breadth of human history, to chart our amazing progress as a species.

That's the idea inside "The Story of People: A First Book about Humankind" by Catherine Barr, Steve Williams and Amy Husband.

Designed as a brilliant entry-level book for inquisitive kids, "The Story Of People" helps kids answer some of the most poignant questions surrounding humanity.

When did the first humans live?

How did humans spread all over the world?

How has science and technology changed the way we live?

And what will happen to humans in the future?

The team behind The Story of Space and The Story of Life present a first book about the human world for very young children, looking at how humans evolved and the history of humanity up to the present day.

Would it have been cool to be a caveman?

With fabulous characterful illustrations to accompany the text, kids will be instantly drawn into the story of humans and how they evolved.

Science!! Imagine being at the forefront of amazing scientific discoveries!

There are so many excellent spreads in this book that help bring the subject to life perfectly.

Sum this book up in a sentence: A fantastic journey through history to chart the amazing achievements humans are capable of, with a nice open question at the end to what our future may hold.

"The Story of People" by Catherine Barr, Steve Williams and Amy Husband is out now, published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books (kindly supplied for review).

Life? Don't talk to me about life. Actually, no, do talk to us about life - because life is for living and here's a brilliant book that celebrates all the amazing aspects of our lives that we may take for granted.

"The Great Big Book of Life" takes us on an astonishing journey from cradle to grave.

In this glorious, diverse celebration of human life, from birth to death, Mary Hoffman and Ros explore every stage of human life. 

Our Picture Book of the Week is extremely difficult to describe without starting to sound like a gushing fanboy and fangirl for any publisher who has the sheer moxy to get behind a book of such amazing scope and breadth.

"The Lost Book of Adventure" by The Unknown Adventurer, edited by Teddy Keen weaves an air of mystery around a set of 'found journals' and sketches, lost in the middle of the Amazonian Rain Forest and rediscovered by editor Teddy.

Pulling together a story of high adventure, excitement, danger and survival amidst the backdrop of the deep and forbidding environment of the Amazon would have probably garnered our interest, if it wasn't for the fact that this book also urges you - the humble reader - to think about how you would set out on an adventurous pioneering journey of your own.

The first thing you'll notice about this book is the glorious illustrative nature of it. The second thing you'll notice is that this isn't just some "Done in 32 pages" picture book - this is a colossal tome that will keep you utterly gripped and enthralled throughout its 192 pages. Yes, you read that right, 192 pages in a children's picture book? UNHEARD OF!!!

But oh, what a journey, what detail, what an exquisite project pulled together in such an utterly amazing way. Let's take a look at a couple of excerpt spreads from this stunning, stunning book.

Wow, can you imagine what the night sky looks like from the deepest depths of the Amazon? Utterly amazing!

The presentation is just sublime, wrapping together so many amazing snippets of knowledge and information alongside atmospheric and glorious little sketches and illustrations in a journal-like style.

I can't help bursting into cackling fits of laughter about this book, that someone FINALLY "gets" that kids (and adults) absolutely love big thick content-rich stuff like this.

We've always been drawn to outdoorsy-type stuff, and this is always something both my wife and I feel is a hugely important part of our daughter's development. But we've never quite seen anything like this, that takes the whole notion of getting outdoors and having an amazing adventure, and runs with it to the point where it truly feels like absolutely every aspect of being out in the wild has been thought of and included in here.

How to make a survival tin. As C pointed out, just needs more chocolate really

I love the air of mystery set up around this book too, made to feel like a 'lost footage' movie but in book form.

I think the most exciting aspect about this is that out there, right now, there will be kids who will read this. Maybe kids like C who love the outdoors and want to take it to the next level. Kids perhaps who are doing their Duke of Edinburgh awards. Kids who are interested in conservation, wildlife or perhaps who just want to go out there and find a new path in our huge colossal planet and boy oh boy this book will utterly blow them away just as it has us.

Frances Lincoln / Quarto have to be thoroughly applauded for this. What an utterly amazing book and "Book of the Week" just doesn't seem a grand enough reward for something this durned good.

Told you we'd be gushy about it!!

Sum this book up in a sentence: A mysterious and utterly brilliant outdoorsy adventuresome book idea that perfectly promotes something we've always believed in - that kids can cope with huge thick books that are packed with content like this - Wow, just wow!

"The Lost Book of Adventure" by The Unknown Adventurer and Teddy Keen is out now, published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

This is something really special, a children's picture book about the toughest challenges faced by folk aiming to settle the land along the Oregon Trail...

Out today, and already making us hungry. Who's the coolest hot-dog in the bun?

Catherine Barr and Hanako Clulow are back with more fantastic animal facts in a new set of "10 Reasons To Love" books, this time with added bears and whales!