Oh dear, look at this fellow, I mean just from looking at the cover of our Picture Book of the Week this week, the truly brilliant "Gnome" by Fred Blunt, you can guess the sort of demeanour the central character in this hilarious children's story has.

He's grumpy. He excels at being grumpy, and all he wants to do all day is be in a constant grump about pretty much everything.

So when a witch politely asks this grumpy bearded grumbler to stop fishing in her pond, you can guess what his response is.

A firm "NO!"

In fact parents at this point will probably cock a wry eyebrow, particularly if their kids are like our daughter at the moment, and automatically say "No" as their default answer to everything.

Fred brilliantly captures the comeuppance of this curmudgeonly fellah with a truly satisfying (and quite brilliantly 'dark') pay-off at the end, in a story that is filled with gigglish humour from start to finish.

Sum this book up in a sentence: A brilliant cautionary tale for would-be sourpusses, that grumpy ways and saying "NO!" can backfire on you quite spectacularly!

"Gnome" by Fred Blunt is out now, published by Andersen Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, they said...

Oh how we love this book, well when I say "we" I actually mean my wife and I - C is not too impressed at all...

Oh yes indeed, we were cheering and hooraying at the core theme of this book. If there's one thing we can't stand it's drippy princesses!

Thankfully Fred Blunt is not only an extremely talented illustrator, he's also a flippin' brilliant storyteller. Introducing us to his very first picture book, Fred Blunt has come up with a pirate captain called Captain Falsebeard, singular master of "The Pretty Polly" with a fearless crew and a ton of parrots.

He's been on a lifelong quest to find The Crossbone Treasure but he has some competition, in the form of dastardly no-gooder Admiral Swinetoes.

When Captain Falsebeard joyfully finds his long-searched-for booty, he might have trouble keeping it from his evil nemesis who comes up with a corker of a plan involving a rather...er...unique mermaid!

Will the Captain win the day? He might need a little help from his brave crew and an awesome flying flotilla of poopy parrots too!

We love Fred's work, his illustrations grace many children's books so it's great to see him putting together his first title for Puffin with such expertise, weaving not only a highly funny and original pirate yarn but a booty-ful book too! Yo ho ho and a passel' of poo!

Charlotte's best bit: The beautiful mermaid who has a rather, er, interesting 'secret'

Daddy's Favourite bit: Tons of little details made us giggle in this. Fits the bill for the sort of pirate book we can really get behind! Fabulous stuff!

"Captain Falsebeard in: A Very Fishy Tale"

Written and Illustrated by Fred Blunt

Published by Puffin Books

Release Date: 2nd July 2015

(Kindly sent to us for review by Puffin Books)

What steps do you take if you're ever chased by a dragon? Very big steps - preferably in the opposite direction! Unless of course it's the reluctant dragon, Kenneth Grahame's rather sweet and harmless scaly beast.

In this retelling of Grahame's tale, the poor dragon's peaceful and rather carefree existence is under threat. Folk really don't like a big lizardy fire breather living on their doorstep - but it takes a rather diminutive and diddy knight to come up with a plan to save the dragon, and restore peace to the kingdom.

Normally we frown on anyone messing around with classic books too much but this is so beautifully rewritten, presented and illustrated. Fred Blunt's humorous art style is an utterly delicious fit for the book, making it accessible and above all a huge amount of fun (It'd make such a brilliant animated film in our opinion!)

Fantastic stuff - there are quite a few different versions of "The Reluctant Dragon" around for younger readers but this is definitely the best we've seen.

Charlotte's best bit: The crazed antics of the townsfolk when they find out there's a dragon on the loose

Daddy's favourite bit: A nice meaty children's picture book that has a really broad appeal across a range of ages. Particularly brilliant if your kids are looking for knight-and-dragon themed books.