As Charlotte's reading ability grows and grows, and her love of books grows along with it, she feels confident enough to tackle early chapter readers, and will often closet herself away in her room with the "Frozen" soundtrack tinkling away in the background, reading some of her favourite books.

"Dragon Gold" by Shoo Rayner. (Dragonfly)

Imagine getting a science project to build your very own fire-breathing flying dragon. That's exactly what happens to Harri (we'd love to go to a school where you were given projects like this!). For once Harri is in with a chance to one-up school's 'model pupil' Ryan. You see Harri has a secret. He's already got a real, live dragon of his own.

"The Flying Bedroom" by Heather Dyer and Chloe Douglass

This indie-published title popped through our letterbox unannounced and though we usually get a bit grumpy about unsolicited books, we couldn't really be grumpy about "The Lonely Crow" by Paul Stillabower.

Ex-banker Paul has turned his talents to writing a rather touching and heartwarming story about a crow looking for somewhere safe to roost for the night. His wings are tired, his legs are old, and he just wants to find that warm snuggly spot to get a few hours sleep before the first rays of morning appear.

It's not as easy as it sounds, finding somewhere to sleep in the sprawling metropolis but flying over Regents Park, the lonely crow spies a nest.

Unfortunately a rather rude (and quite menacing) owl is already there, and does not take kindly to a crow crashing in on his pad.

Poor crow is forced to look elsewhere. Surely there'll be somewhere safe to sleep at London Zoo?

Wild animals convince the lonely crow otherwise, and it really does look like the poor feathered friend is going to collapse from exhaustion before he finds a comfy place. But there's one more option. Could this be the perfect snoozing spot? But just then, a dark shape hovers overhead...

This is a brilliant and accomplished piece of writing, and Paul's 'Disney-esque' artwork hits the spot nicely too. Charlotte loved the gentle rhymes and felt so sorry for the crow, but loved the way the book ends on a rather cosy note (we won't give away the ending, naturally!)

Charlotte's best bit: A lovely heartwarming end - which we'll keep quiet about, go read it and find out what happens!

Daddy's Favourite bit: Really nicely written, great illustrations, an indie treat!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Book Guild)

I can imagine what it must've been like for Dom Conlon as a kid. Born around the time when space still held infinite possibilities, when NASA were still sending gallant astronauts into space, before the Space Shuttle gave us a glimpse of the sort of space exploration we'd all dreamed about or seen in science fiction movies.

It's a very different world now and Dom's one man mission is to make sure that children today don't forget that space is out there, and hopefully one day they might even get to rocket out to the stars themselves.


Kids absorb poetry like hungry little sponges so it's with great pleasure that we read Dom's poetry anthology where he brings together his love of writing with his love of space, in a brilliant collection that travels around our solar system and beyond.

Dom creates a poem for the stars, for the planets we know, with his trademark humour and wistful wonderings - what if any of us were given the chance to explore space, how would it affect us and what would we write about it?

Charlotte loves poetry - not because we push it on her, but because poems and rhymes exude a cleverness with the language that kids actually admire, and then most deliciously, begin to want to emulate. Sometimes it's fun just to hear Charlotte speaking in rhyme and as her vocabulary expands from the tons of books we consume every week, her rhymes become more complex.


Inspiration comes from many places, and we really loved Dom's collection - as we're complete space nuts ourselves. Charlotte loved the poem about Mars, blushing with embarrassment from the huge cosmic joke of fooling us into believing that one of our nearest neighbours was crawling with little green men.

I had many favourites but loved the homage to astronauts, and the imagery of Saturn spinning on its eternal potter's wheel.

Jools Wilson's brilliant illustrations are a perfect fit for the collection too (and of course kids can more readily absorb a poetry anthology if there are fantastic pics to go along with it). To further inspire kids, Dom has come up with a collection of activities and ideas for ways to explore space from the comfort of your own living room.

"Astro Poetica" as a digital download received some rave reviews, but we're strictly old school and the delight of actually being able to read tangible copies of Dom's work is a bit of a treat.

Look out for "Astro Poetica" available from the Inkology website very soon. In the meantime you can pick up "Astro Poetica" and Dom's other brilliant books on the iTunes Book Store

Charlotte's best bit: Mars - red and blushing.

Daddy's Favourite bit: Astronauts getting a thumbs up and Saturn the eternal potter's wheel

Welcome to today's Indie Pen-Dance slot, and we've a real treat in store with a look at an eye-catching and imaginative book from a supremely talented artist and writer.
Michelle Vinall's "256 Postcards Ago" is a dreamy voyage through a child's imagination, turning the ordinary everyday world into a scintillating and exciting dreamscape.

256 Postcards Ago. (Image © Michelle Vinall)

With his best friends in tow, the amazing Anubis-like Ludo, the fluffy cloud-like elephantine Ollie and a cute green bug called Digit, a young boy called Nicholas embarks on a quest to touch the stars.

Presented in sumptuous illustrated spreads with rhyming couplets, the story really caught our eye and reminded us why we love dipping into self-published books so much.

Michelle has woven a world that simultaneously feels both dream-like and familiar. Though at times some of the rhymes are tricky to read aloud and don't quite 'flow', the story doesn't suffer for that at all - in fact keeping the word count to a minimum has the double benefit of allowing Michelle's visuals to do the talking, and means that children can more directly engage with the tale, weaving their own stories around it as Ludo, Ollie, Digit and the boy make their way through the sleepy seaside town.

Time for a race through the town! (Image © Michelle Vinall)

"256 Postcards Ago" is available from Michelle's Website - http://www.hurricane-lane.com 

Tweet Michelle on Twitter! @256ChimeLane
Please stop by Michelle's inspirational website for more of her glorious artwork and stories.

Charlotte's best bit: Ludo, the Anubis-like character who is effortlessly graceful, leaping across rooftops

Daddy's Favourite bit: Glorious artwork, and a story showing that even the everyday and mundane can be turned into an adventure, if you only let your imagination off the leash for a while

(Very kindly sent to us for review by Michelle Vinall)

Bears make brilliant characters in books, and just when we think we can't bear (ha ha) any more bear-based stories, a new one comes along and wins us over.

Though we're a little late with our Indie Pen-Dance day post (we wanted to make sure we read it and gave it a thorough going over but it arrived a little late to slide into our Wednesday review schedule) we still wanted to shout about this book, because it's seriously good knockabout fun.

Bear stumbles, trips and falls - but instead of bursting into tears (as you or I would do) he tries to remember what his mum told him. He can remember the beginning of the line which goes something like "If you ever stumble, trip, fall..." and can remember part of the last line which goes "You will know you are home when you land..." but can't recall the rest, no matter how hard he tries.

Not a nice thing to trip over, a whoah!

Falling over an owch, tumbling on an arrgh, Bear clumsily makes his way home, meeting lots of other animal folk on the way who offer good advice.

With each trip, he remembers a little more of his mother's wisdom - but will Bear ever find his way home?

Poor mole. He hadn't even set an extra place for dinner!

With fantastic artwork that doesn't over-egg each scene (quite reminiscent of Jon Klassen's lovely work), and an entertaining story that slowly builds to the climax at the end of the book, this is a fabulous story that works on many levels, for both younger and older children. It's also a great book to get children joining in with as you read aloud, and they will enjoy piecing together Mama Bear's wisdom as Bear remembers a little bit more with each accident.

Absolutely brilliant!

You can find Stumble Trip Fall on Amazon...

http://www.amazon.com/Stumble-Trip-Fall-Robert-Scully/dp/0988858916/ref=sr_1

Or on Robert's Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/StumbleTripFall

Or Robert's Twitter Page
https://twitter.com/RobertScully

Or Robert's Pinterest Page
http://www.pinterest.com/robertscully/stumble-trip-fall/

And finally on Robert's Website
http://www.robertscully.com/