I think it's fair to say that a great many of the books that have ended up on our #Booky100Keepers list have been "keepers" for far longer than we've been running this blog.

It's almost inevitable that book-loving parents will try to get their kids enthusiastic about the books they loved themselves in their youth, and that was the case with "The Adventures of Harold and the Purple Crayon" by Crockett Johnson.

I have a sharp memory of these books being in our junior school library, mostly ignored in favour of "Clifford the Big Red Dog" but they caught my eye because Harold is a kid who draws, who lets his imagination take him for a walk, and whose adventures are born from the simple linework and doodles he cooks up with the aid of the best drawing tool on the planet, the purple crayon.

Harold's adventures begin fairly simply with a journey, but soon he goes on a more magical quest to save a kingdom from a wicked witch, and even further onwards to become the star turn at a magical circus.

Johnson's genius is to keep the running theme of the crayon line as the pulse of the book, the reader is led through the story by the line and the doodles, and young readers love musing over whether Harold's purple crayon is in fact magic, and bringing the things he draws to life, or whether his imagination just takes over and the stories exist purely in his head (or on his long-suffering parents' walls!)



It's well worth seeking out the edition shown above (this is the copy we own after a fairly fruitless search, finally finding one in a secondhand book store) though there are separate stories too (this volume just collects them all together).

I also have a strong memory of an animation produced around the time the books were popular, but the magic is kinda ruined a bit when you're not the one driving the narrative with your own imagination.



Original Review Link: 

The Adventures of Harold and The Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson (HarperCollins Children's Books)

These books are almost like family heirlooms! The late great Dr Seuss, one Theodore "Ted" Giesel himself is a master crafter of bouncy rhymes, outlandish characters and of course truly bad behaviour that kids absolutely cannot resist seeing in their picture books.

We started off reading these books fairly early on, hoovering up as many as we could clutch to our chests on our library visits, then later picking up three "keepers" ourselves.

The first we read and the first we bought was, of course, "The Cat in the Hat", the story of two children stuck in on a rainy day (shades of lockdown, anyone? Very surprised no one cashed in on redoing a version of this for lockdown tbh!) and a strange visitor who insinuates his way into their lives once their mother disappears to the shops.

The Cat in The Hat has some great ideas to stave off boredom. Unfortunately most of the ideas involve trashing the house or personal property, with only the family's pet fish acting as a voice of wisdom amidst the chaos. All the brilliant signatures of Seuss are here. Peerless pitch-perfect rhymes that tickle and dance off the tongue when you're reading this aloud. Outlandish characters, terrible calamities and inventive machines (the Cat's "tidy up" machine is still a marvel, we would dearly love a real one thanks very much!).

We also couldn't resist "Green Eggs and Ham" which was my fave Seuss book as a kid. This time Sam (I Am) finds himself fed up to the back teeth at the insistence of a friend that he tries the bizarre titular dish. How about in a box? With a fox? With some goats? On a boat perhaps?

The scenarios become more and more surreal and crazy as the book ramps up to a frenetic explosive chaotic finish before Sam decides it'd just be flipping easier to try the dish in question.

....and what do you know? He likes green eggs and ham after all (the lesson most parents will try and get their kids to take away from this book is that spinach, as gross as it looks, probably isn't really that bad so just give it a little lick!)

One thing about this book that always made C laugh were the strangely dead eyed expressions on the characters as their boat literally sinks out from under them after being hit by a train (it's a long story). As with "Cat" this one's a true joy to read aloud.

Then we come to our final Seuss "Keeper" which is NOT a joy to read aloud but I still relish the challenge anyway...

"Dr Seuss Makes Reading FUN!" claims the cover. No, actually Dr Seuss will make your mouth turn to mush, your tongue twist over itself, as you try to read "The Fox in Socks" out loud.

It used to be something of a challenge from C to me - to see how fast I could rattle through this book without making any mistakes. That is, of course, an impossible task particularly when you begin to talk of tweetle beetle battles in a bottle in a puddle, with a poodle and a paddle in a muddle.

Oh god, I can almost feel my anxiety rising...

Don't be put off though, this is still one of the best of Seuss many, many books and we've included a link to a few more below...

Original Review Links: 

ReaditDaddy's Second Book of the Week - Week Ending 11th October 2019: "Dr Seuss' Horse Museum" by Dr Seuss and Andrew Joyner (Penguin Books)

The Lorax by Dr Seuss (HarperCollins Children's Books)

The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss (HarperCollins Children's Books)

"...and to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street" by Dr Seuss (HarperCollins Children's Books)

I Can Read With My Eyes Shut by Dr Seuss (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Booky Advent Calendar Day 12: "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (60th Anniversary Edition) by Dr Seuss (HarperCollins Children's Books)

The Fox in Socks by Dr Seuss (HarperCollins Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's Book of the Week - Week ending 21st June 2013 - "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr Seuss (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Where would we be without Bookstart / Booktrust? For those who don't know, this is an amazing organisation that aims to put a book in the hands of every child in England and Wales - and C was the lucky recipient of "Splat the Cat" by Rob Scotton as her Bookstart book.

Back in the earliest days of the blog when we relied heavily on our local library for books, C actually having a book of her own was vitally important - there's nothing quite like having a shelf of books which you know are yours, and you can read at any time.

As you can probably imagine, the original "Splat the Cat" got read time and time again as a bedtime book, always turned into something of a performance piece because I could not resist doing a ton of really silly voices for Splat (who came out sounding like Lenny Henry's squeaky brummie accent), his Mum (a softer more understanding voice) and his teacher Miss Wimpydimple (A quavery-voiced old dear with the best intentions).

Splat is about to go to 'big school' for the first time, and his tail is wiggling with worry. He decides to bring along a friend, his long-suffering mousey companion Seymour who ends up tucked into Splat's lunchbox.

Splat isn't keen on school at all until he realises that maybe it's not quite as scary or as bad as he first thought - and perhaps Splat might even be able to teach other cats that mice are NOT food, they're friends!

Rob carried on with the series in a whole collection of books that are hugely popular with young readers, largely thanks to his fantastic illustrations and simple entertaining stories.

We were always a little puzzled by what happened by the time "Splat the Cat: Fishy Tales" came out.

With the books rebranded as "Based on the creation of Rob Scotton", we always wondered if there had been some sort of titanic 'falling out' between Rob and his publisher, as they demanded he serialised Splat stories rather than working on other stuff (Rob also created the Russell the Sheep books, which we never quite got round to reading alas).

"Splat's Fishy Tales" is also in our keepers pile regardless, and still a ticklishly entertaining tale based around Splat's school trip to an aquarium - and Splat's rather coy infatuation with 'the love of his life' - his classmate Kitten - and his rivalry with class bully Spike.

These are still fantastic little books. One or two are a bit hit and miss ("Splat Says Thank You" is a bit too saccharine for us but still has some wonderful illustrations in it). But back to the top of the review and that whole Bookstart thing, we really don't realise how lucky we are in this country to have such a wonderful organisation promoting reading for fun with kids, rather than basing their reading material and curriculum on academic achievement and fronted adverbials (which is just a rubbish way to encourage kids to love books IMHO).

Original Review Links: 

Splat the Cat

Splat the Cat - Fishy Tales Based on the Creation of Rob Scotton (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Splat Says Thank You! by Rob Scotton (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Secret Agent Splat by Rob Scotton (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Love, Splat

Booky Advent Calendar Day 8 - 8th December 2013 - "Merry Christmas Splat" By Rob Scotton (HarperCollins Children's Books)

We must admit we hadn't heard of Sir Quentin Blake's "Three Little Monkeys" series but here the amazingly talented artist and storyteller puts down his pencils and lets another giant of kidlit take the reins for a whole new version of these cheeky busy little tales.

"Three Little Monkeys Ride Again" by Sir Quentin Blake and Emma Chichester-Clark sees those naughty little monkeys causing absolute havoc on a mini holiday.

Hilda Snibbs takes her three mischievous monkeys to visit her mother in the country.

But what is supposed to be a calm and peaceful holiday is soon filled with chaos and hilarious havoc!

Every time Hilda and her poor mother leave them alone, those simian troublemakers completely trash the place - often with hilarious results. But after such naughty behaviour, how can they possibly redeem themselves?

A fab story for little ones who just won't be able to resist those naughty antics, beautifully illustrated by "The Chich", drawing up beautiful scenes of serenity punctuated by utter destruction in such a hilarious way that you just can't help laughing at those monkey antics.

Sum this book up a sentence: A collaboration between two utter legends in kidlit, resulting in a fabulous book for little ones fizzing with energy, chaos and mischief.

"Three Little Monkeys Ride Again" by Sir Quentin Blake and Emma Chichester-Clark is out now, published by HarperCollins Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

Our Picture Book of the Week this week hails the return of a true megastar in the world of children's publishing, a guy who really has the midas touch when it comes to producing the most amazing, original and utterly gorgeous children's picture books.

We're of course talking about Oliver Jeffers, who has come a long way since first writing and illustrating books about young boys and penguins, and in "The Fate of Fausto" Oliver is in full-on 'cleverclogs' mode with a story that is both timely and necessary at the moment, particularly if you're the sort of person who follows the complete craziness going on in the political world right now.

Fausto is the sort of person who you really wouldn't want to be stuck on a bus with. Not that he'd ever take a bus, you see Fausto is hugely successful, and believes that everything in the world belongs to him, or should bow down in deference to him.

Fausto begins to travel the world in search of new things to own or dominate.

Just like every overbearing boor of a character in a book, you're almost willing Fausto to fail - and of course things don't always go his way.

Ooooh couldn't you just slap him!

Jeffers has a gift for producing gorgeous understated artwork and pared down stories that are nonetheless completely absorbing, and as the story of Fausto unfolds, you really begin to dislike the moustached moron...

Bah! If I'd been a tree, I'd have fallen on Fausto!

But of course Fausto has a purpose as a character, to show that sometimes even though you're an overwhelmingly unpleasant bully of a man, you can't always win - and you might think you have the wisdom of the ancients, but sometimes simple logic will rule in the end.

So when Fausto gets into a boat and tries to make the sea obey him...



...well you can probably imagine what happens in the end, but we won't spoil it for you. This is a rare thing, a children's book that feels like a work of art, but also feels cleverly composed to deliver a message that (sadly) is so needed right now, as we daily see people like Fausto on the news and speaking in public.

Perhaps a small boat trip for Mr Johnson? Anyone care to arrange it?

Sum this book up in a sentence: a gorgeous little fable wrought in Jeffers' utterly sublime painterly style, with a moral that everyone will be all too familiar with right now.

"The Fate of Fausto" by Oliver Jeffers is out now, published by HarperCollins Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

Rob Biddulph is back, and this time he's brought a whole classroom of kids eager to show off their amazing objects in the hilarious "Show and Tell".

A story of one-upmanship, of competitiveness but ultimately of enjoying the simpler things in life sometimes.

When Mr Lumsden urges his class to bring in something for Show and Tell, little does he know he's going to trigger a complete avalanche of amazing things as Class 2L rise to the challenge.

All the kids are out to impress and at first things start out relatively simply, with a humble plant seed.

But soon it turns into a competition to see who can come up with the most spectacular mega-tastic object. Kids wheel in everything from Big Ben to THE ACTUAL MOON!

It all gets a bit crazy for a while, but how on earth will Mr Lumsden possibly choose a winner.

As we all know, teachers are both wise and kind - so we won't spoil what Mr L chooses, but it's a lovely surprise and adds to the rather neat message the book imparts.

Love Rob's brilliant and diverse class full of kids here!

We love the way the book just escalates until it gets to quite dangerously crazy levels of the kids out-doing each other!

Yikes, an actual alligator? EEEEEEEEEEP!

With some fantastic little nods and in-jokes here in Rob's trademark illustrative style, it's a fun story that echoes those awesome school days where we'd all do exactly the same as 2L (I think I remember taking a Geode to school once but being completely out-done by a kid who managed to bring in a working steam engine, bah!)

Sum this book up a sentence: A fun romp with a class full of cool kids, and a rather sweet message at the end.

"Show and Tell" by Rob Biddulph is out now, published by HarperCollins Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

 If there's one thing we both like it's a rip-roaring mystery with a mighty girl character basically sticking her nose into a curious situation, and coming up trumps.

Meet Agatha Oddlow, star of the fantastic "Agatha Oddly" stories from Lena Jones with book one ("The Secret Key") and book 2 ("Murder at the Museum") out now, and book 3 ("The Silver Serpent") coming along in September.

So who is Agatha? She's bright, inquisitive and alongside her geek chic sidekick Liam Lau, she's all set for adventures ranging from saving London (no small deal, saving an entire city) to solving the mystery of the disappearance of a famous scientist.

Together Agatha and Liam set up "The Oddlow Agency" - a detective agency with a difference.

Living with her dad at the Warden's Lodge in Hyde Park (what a cool address, I'm sure you'll agree) these London-based adventures
are absolutely perfect for kids who love middle grade / early YA stuff like "Murder Most Unladylike".

Agatha is super-stylish with her love of vintage clothes, and her inspirational heroes such as Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes mean that she never backs down from a puzzle or an enigma.

We've been reading the first two books for a few weeks now, and what instantly struck me was just how fresh these feel - considering the colossal number of kid detective stories there are out there.

There's just something about Agatha herself. Smart, stylish and extremely well read.

As the cover blips say, "No case too odd!" for Agatha and Liam

Get set for more adventure with the release of "The Silver Serpent", the highly anticipated third case
for Agatha Oddlow!

"Agatha Oddly: The Secret Key" and "Agatha Oddly: Murder at the Musem" are both out now in Paperback, with "Agatha Oddly: The Silver Serpent" set for release on 5th September 2019. 

Grab your magnifying glass, fingerprint kid and your best horn-rimmed specs! You're going to need them!

(all books kindly supplied for review).

Regular ReadItDaddy readers will know that both C and I are absolutely bonkers about space.

We've just come back from what we consider the "Mecca" for all Space fans, Kennedy Space Center in Florida - so we were delighted to find this book in our to-do pile when we got back from our lovely holiday.

"Odd Science: Spectacular Space" by James Olstein is the latest in this fascinating and fun fact-packed series, this time taking you on an out-of-this-world journey into zero gravity, with a whole Saturn V rocket full of amazing facts and anecdotes from Space and beyond.

For example, did you know you can't cry in space because of the lack of gravity? Or that the planet Saturn could actually float in water (assuming you could find a bathtub big enough! Someone had better call Galactus!)

With a nifty cloth-bound cover, and brilliant illustrations throughout, let's have a look at some example pages from this brill book.

Wi Fi on the moon? That's good to know!

No bawling aboard the ISS!

Got time on your hands? How about an 800 year long flight to Pluto!

Each fact is presented with a fun illustration, this is definitely a fab book for space fans like us, we've really enjoyed leafing through this one.

Sum this book up in a sentence: Another brilliant addition to the "Odd Science" series, with a ton of amazing space facts presented in a really engaging way.

"Odd Science: Spectacular Space" by James Olstein is out today, published by HarperCollins Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

The genius behind "The 1000 Year old Boy" and "Time Travelling with a Hamster" is back with our first Chapter Book of the Week for 2019, and it's an absolute belter...!

Our first Picture Book of the Week this week harks back to our very first forays into reviewing children's books...

Our Chapter Book of the Week this week fuses together a whole stack of our favourite elements to create a stunning new fantasy series that really draws you in with magic...

Our first Book of the Week this week is a stunning debut by a new author illustrator who weaves the most amazing storyscapes...

I think we were totally unprepared for the sheer impact this week's Chapter Book of the Week had on us both...

Our Chapter Book of the Week this week is a truly glorious tribute to the sort of OAP we absolutely adore...

Rob Biddulph is back with a fantastic new series for younger readers - meet the Dinosaur Juniors!

Our Chapter Book of the Week this week - once again, it's that man Walliams - he seems unstoppable, just like Queenie!

Our Booky Advent Calendar second book for Day 12 is truly something special.

Very few books can claim to have filtered their way into popular culture to the extent of Dr Seuss' amazing "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". Even on this side of the pond, you sometimes hear people being referred to as "A Grinchy-Poo" rather than Scrooge, and it's amazing to think that this stunning book is 60 years old.

To celebrate, HarperCollins have prepared a really amazing version of the book, clad in a gorgeous foiled cover and slip case, giving the whole thing a real air of luxury.

The tale itself, of a heartless creature who truly hates Christmas - and wreaks a terrible revenge on the innocent "Who" folk one year when he's had just about enough of their festive shenanigans - actually ends up being one of Seuss' most impressive stories (and that's saying something for one of the most prolific and consistently excellent children's authors ever).

In case you haven't encountered this story before we won't ruin the ending, suffice to say that the influence of this book on so many generations of stories to follow is easy to observe, so treat yourself to a truly sumptuous version to keep for your kids and grandkids, you really won't regret it!

"How the Grinch Stole Christmas" by Dr Seuss is out now, published by HarperCollins Children's Books (very kindly supplied for review).

I'm pretty sure just about every book blogger out there is going to kick off their review of our Picture Book of the week this week with "We need to talk about Kevin..."

There's always cause for celebration when a new Benji Davies book arrives in all its splendour...

Wow! Our first David Walliams review, which seems absolutely incredible considering how many books this talented fella has now written...and it nails Chapter Book of the Week for this week...