Our second book of the week was pretty much a shoe-in for a BOTW win. How could we possibly resist "The Big Book of Rockets and Spacecraft" from Usborne...

Come and take a new look at this delightful monster tale, now reprinted by Maverick Publishing. Step out and join a ghoulish party with Tamara Small...

Back in the mists of time, Giles Paley-Phillips (who is easily one of the nicest chaps you could ever converse with in the book business) let us take a sneaky early peek at one of his books, "Tamara Small and the Monster's Ball". We're still a bit techno-luddite-ey here at ReadItDaddy Towers so it was great to take a second look at the book in paper form rather than flicking through the preview PDF when Giles kindly sent us a copy recently.

Quite rightly, "Tamara Small and the Monster's Ball" has been receiving rave reviews from bloggers, journalists and parents and it's not difficult to see why.

Telling the story of Tamara Small whose blissful sleep is interrupted by a monster one night, you might mistakenly think the book sounds a little bit sinister at first but it's a fantastic and joy-filled zany look at what monsters get up to when they're not prowling the neighbourhood roaring, eating things they shouldn't eat, and generally nestling under people's beds or in their wardrobes.

Understandably, Tamara Small is a little scared at first but when the monster whisks her off to the premiere social event of the monster calendar, the Monster's Ball, she's soon grooving with ghoulies and ghosties, spinning on her head with werewolves, and having a monstrously good time.

As regular blog visitors will already know, we love a good monstery tale here at ReadItDaddy and along with 'Fearsome Beastie', Giles and Gabriele are fast becoming the dream team for toddler-friendly monster books (Still not entirely sure about that axe-chopping bit in Fearsome Beastie myself but it doesn't phase Charlotte in the least so maybe I ought to take a leaf out of her book!)

Fantastic, fun-filled and utterly groovy. If you haven't already got a copy, what on earth are you waiting for?

Charlotte's best bit: Unsurprisingly it hasn't changed, she still wants a lime-green cake for her 5th birthday next year.

Daddy's favourite bit: Great rhyming text, fantastic illustrations and I love the subtle way the story changes part way through from something that appears initially a bit sinister and dark, to a complete chaotic zany party! Brilliantly uplifting!

(Kindly supplied to us for review by Maverick Books / Giles)

Fresh from reviewing "The Fearsome Beastie" we were extremely lucky enough to get a sneaky peak at Giles Pale-Phillips and Gabriele Antonini's excellent followup, "Tamara Small and the Monsters' Ball".

As you know, we like a bit of monstrous stuff here at ReadItDaddy and Charlotte makes a bee-line for anything monstery. She loved "The Fearsome Beastie" but a book with a little girl as the central character and not just one monster but a whole plethora of monsters was always going to be very popular.

Tamara Small wakes up one night when a monster steals in through the window and whisks her off. But don't panic just yet, Tamara is in safe hands as the monster is taking her to the infamous Annual Monsters' Ball. What do monsters do at a ball? What do they eat and drink? What will become of Tamara? Well you're going to have to wait until October 1st to find out but we think Giles and Gabriele have managed to trump "The Fearsome Beastie" by some considerable margin.

We're now glued to Maverick Books website to see if they can keep up this fantastic streak of quality children's picture books. So far they're knocking it out of the park, and we've already noticed that Julie (Mrs MacCready) Fulton and Jona Jung have another book coming out (Tabitha Posy was Ever So Nosy) too.

You'll most definitely like Tamara Drew though, betcha!

Charlotte's best bit: Cake made of... :)

Daddy's favourite bit: Without a doubt, the breakdancing Werewolf.

(No rating as this is a preview)

The lovely folk at GPP PR and Marketing tweeted us @readitdaddy recently to ask if we'd like to review some books. Lo and behold, four lovely books arrived in the post yesterday and this was the one Charlotte instantly seized on.

Worry-wort parents might want to look away now.

Because, oh my...oh my oh my....

 ....this is a tricky one to review.

"The Fearsome Beastie" is the sort of book my lovely other half @thestrollingmum blanches at whenever we bring home monstrous books from the library. A recent winner of The People's Book Prize, this book really doesn't pull any punches (or axes!). Most monsters in books are rather pleasant folk who start off shouting, gnashing and snarling and end up rather placid, even friendly. The fearsome beastie in this book isn't like that at all. He prowls at night, he likes to eat young children and he thinks nothing of tricking them into trusting them before he gobbles them all up.

There's a message here though, and it's a very strong stark message about 'monsters' that's woven between the gently rhyming text, and the (sometimes rather graphic but beautifully done) illustrations.

Personally I wouldn't recommend this as a bedtime read (in fact I wouldn't recommend this 8 hours either side of bedtime or nap time) and I'm gobsmacked that one particular picture panel made it through editing intact but Charlotte wanted to read it again as soon as we'd finished. If you don't baulk at the thought of your children reading something that feels like a 'warts 'n' all' classic children's fairy story, this is very much cut from the same cloth.

Maverick Books are definitely a force in Children's Publishing to keep an eye on though. Superb high quality book beautifully presented.

Charlotte's best bit: Of course she liked the 'shock' bit the best (and I'm sure your kids would too!)

Daddy's favourite bit: The fact that this doesn't shy away from letting a monster be monstrous, menacing and downright nasty.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars