Hungry? Mouth watering? In dire need of CAKE? Well this book may have you suffering from all three by the end...let's meet Dylan!

Dylan the Dog is back with a joyous join-in story for little ones.

Phew! Is it really 15 years since Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees' brilliant book "Giraffes Can't Dance" first strutted its funky stuff across our bookshelves? I guess it must be because here's the anniversary edition of this timeless book. One that has somehow evaded our beady eye up till now but we're very happy to 'meet' it!

Gerald the Giraffe is tall, slender and we'd love to finish this sentence off by saying "graceful" but when grace was being handed out, poor Gerald was at the back of the queue. Despite his stature, Gerald really cannot dance. He stumbles, trips and lollops around in a quite ungainly fashion.

The annual animal dance championships are in full swing, and poor Gerald can only look on as all the other animals take to the stage to bust their best moves, dancing with style and energy.

Will poor Gerald ever be able to join in? Perhaps it's not a case of skill but a lack of a friendly helping hand that has held our Gerald back. So when an unlikely friend whispers some sage advice to Gerald, maybe things will change.

We've often described the sheer pleasure that some books can give when you read them aloud. Giles Andreae always has a way of producing the most pitch-perfect flowing stories as we learn Gerald's plight and follow him through his dance debut.

Guy Parker-Rees' gift for illustrating animal stories comes to the fore and he can really go to town, producing charming and engaging characters (not least of all Gerald himself!) and a multitude of brilliant expressions as the story unfolds.

We're extremely glad we've caught up with this book in its 15th year. Don't leave it too long before you check it out too!

Charlotte's best bit: There's one really lovely spread in this as Gerald slowly begins to find his groove. Such a beaut!

Daddy's Favourite bit: A charming story that's truly lovely to read aloud, and a great core message delivered expertly by two of the best in the business!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Orchard Books)

Claude is on the case (Images © Alex T Smith)

Discover Story's "The Big Write – Stories Remixed" festival opens this week. Starting on 6th March and running till the 16th, you can join in with a fantastic set of events during March.

The festival includes a spectacular programme for all ages with authors, illustrators, visual artists, popstars and comic makers joining us for all that is best and brilliant about writing and stories.

Some of the big names in this year’s guest events include Korky Paul (Winnie the Witch), Axel Scheffler (The Gruffalo), Nadia Shireen (Good Little Wolf), John Hegley (I am a Poetato), Cerrie Burnell (CBeebies) and Guy Parker–Rees (Giraffes Can’t Dance).

You can also create a pop song with Boogaloo Stu and enjoy a pop gig with Catherine Bennett Live!

Discover Story's fantastic events programme runs throughout 2014. More details can be found on the Discover Story website.

www.discover.org.uk

Check out some of the brilliant event pics below:

Axel Scheffler (Photo: © Discover / Tim Mitchell)

Codename Comic Maker! (Photo: © Discover / Tim Mitchell)

The divine Sarah Mcintyre (Photo: © Discover / Tim Mitchell)

The Big Write! (Photo © Discover / Tim Mitchell)

Troll-taming genius Adam Stower (Photo © Discover / Tim Mitchell)

We're back for a second look at Guy Parker-Rees' fantastic Tom and Millie books. This time Tom and Millie aren't on a Great Big Treasure Hunt , they're wondering what they'd like to be when they grow up (depressingly, I put the question to Charlotte while we were reading this and she said "I want to work in a shop!" and I said "A bookshop?" and she replied in stern tones "NO silly, Co-Op!" - eep!)

Tom and Millie decide to visit their relatives and friends to find out what jobs they do, and how much they enjoy them. Mum works at the hospital and loves it to pieces. Auntie is in charge of a building site, and Uncle drives a recycle truck!

As with Tom and Millie's Great Big Treasure Hunt, this book encourages children to find lots of different things in each busy and detailed scene - and threaded throughout the book is the challenge to find a tiny little ladybird who features in each double page spread (we particularly loved the GIANT version in the museum, hehe!)

Lots of people have compared the Tom and Millie books to the works of the late great Richard Scarry - which would be a heck of an honour for anyone indeed. But I think Guy has carved out a neat little pair of books that are absolutely perfect in their own right, and great books for spurring a child's imagination, creating great discussion points and of course playing "I-Spy" as children search for their favourite characters in each scene (as well as that elusive ladybird), play counting games in some of the panels and enjoy the story too of course, mean that you end up with a nice multi-faceted book to read and re-read again and again. Top work Mr Parker-Rees!

Charlotte's best bit: The dinosaur museum (and the naughty kid hiding in the dino eggs! Tsk!)

Daddy's favourite bit: Love the Scarry-esque anthropomorphised animals, but love the different approaches you can take with this book (and The Great Big Treasure Hunt too, of course). Stunning stuff!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Guy / Orchard Press)

The super-talented awesome Guy Parker-Rees (the genius illustrator of "Giraffes Can't Dance", by Giles Andreae) got in touch with us to ask us if we'd like to take a look at his new Tom and Millie books.

For the uninitiated, Tom and Millie are a playful pair of perfect pussycats who live in a vibrantly coloured animal world, and along with their many friends embark on all sorts of adventures.

This time, Tom and Millie embark on a great big treasure hunt! Each page is preceded by a clue, and it's up to your busy little bees to find the clues on each beautifully detailed page spread, along with Tom and Millie and their friends.

We liked the fact that the inside covers of the book show all the different characters you can meet along the way - and children will always want to pick their favourites. Charlotte loved Sophie the Raccoon (because she has a friend at school called Sophie) and loved trying to find her in each part of the story if she cropped up.

The book's cover proudly claims that there are "100s of things to hunt for" and there most certainly are. Each wonderfully illustrated page is crammed with busy little things going on, brilliant for children who love observation games or just love to hunt for the funny little incidents Guy has illustrated so perfectly here (a huge guffaw from me when I spotted a pig with "that suncream expression" on his face, as mum dutifully applies the Factor 50 - All parents will know that face so well!)

Tom and Millie were an instant hit with Charlotte, and we'll be taking a look at "Tom and Millie's Whizzy Busy People" very soon too.

Charlotte's best bit: Finding Sophie throughout the book and talking about all the crazy antics the animals get up to

Daddy's favourite bit: That suncream piggy. So funny!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Guy Parker-Rees / Orchard Books)

C's appetite for spooky stories is insatiable and once again I'm being constantly badgered to come up with spookier and spookier stories of our made-up character "Merlin the Happy Pig".

Thankfully I can temper trying to work out how to make stories spooky but not scary with great books like Spookyrumpus, by Tony Mitton and Guy Parker-Rees.

As the clock strikes 12, all the monsters, ghoulies, ghosties, trolls, witches and scary folk gather together for a right rotten rumpus! Singing, dancing, clattering their bones, mixing spells and playing spooky hide and seek. It's quite a sight to behold.

Like "Tamara Small and the Monsters Ball", Spookyrumpus lets us take a look at what monsters get up to when they're not wandering around graveyards moaning or clanking their chains.

Great rhyming text, and a super fast pace (which is great if you want to read something quick - but not too scary - before bedtime), Spookyrumpus is a monster treat!

All this talk of monsters has made us crave pickled onion monster munch! Nom!

Charlotte's best bit: The cackling witches, eeek!

Daddy's favourite bit: Ghoulies and ghosties, who ya gonna call?