Again we look at the subject of loss and grief and another rare jewel amongst children's books, a book that deals with the subject not just sensitively - but actually quite joyfully too.

"Rabbityness" by Jo Empson is one of those books we've recommended to so many people over the years, and still continue to do so to this day.

It begins as the happy story of a rabbit who loves to do lots of rabbity things, but also loves to do quite a lot of distinctly un-rabbity things, like paint, or play music, or dance.

Mid way through the book there's a thud - the sound of your heart breaking as the rabbit passes on - but leaves behind a legacy for its fellow rabbits - a huge collection of all the non-rabbity things for them to discover themselves.

That way they'll always remember their rabbity friend and all their wonderful non-rabbityness too.

There's such a lot of layers to this book, and the way it can be used to help children understand loss and grief, but also to help them remember loved ones - even pets - they've loved and lost.

Jo set out here to produce a book that did away with the usual sombre messages you'll see in any books that deal with the death of a loved one, instead imbuing her glorious artwork and beautiful storytelling with huge dollops of joyful colour and a real vibrancy that makes this book stand out, and feel way ahead of its time even now.

We'll go on thinking about Rabbityness any time anyone asks us for a book on this subject. Geniunely one of the most amazing books we ever got to cover on this blog.

Original Review Links (with some more excellent work from Jo): 

ReadItDaddy's Second Book of the Week - Week Ending 26th February 2016 - "Little Home Bird" by Jo Empson (Child's Play)

Chimpanzees for Tea by Jo Empson (Picture Puffin)

Never Ever by Jo Empson (Child's Play International PLC)

Charlotte's Book of the Week - Rabbityness by Jo Empson (Child's Play International Ltd)

Wow, we're feeling very lucky this year as we've had two brilliant and awesome Jo Empson books so far.

Our second Book of the Week this week is so chock full of atmosphere and wonder that we couldn't resist its charms. The stunning "Little Home Bird" by Jo Empson

"A Scribble of Illustrators" (Click image above for the full details!)

Join in with workshops, art sales and rub shoulders with the likes of Jo ("Rabbityness") Empson, Steven (Princess Daisy and the Dragon and the Nincompoop Knights) Lenton and Joe (Hubble Bubble Granny Trouble) Berger and a whole host of other astonishing and amazing scribblers.

More details can be found on the event's Facebook page via http://goo.gl/SoXi0k

Come along and meet some enormously talented folk and join in with your little ones too!

"MUMMY, DADDY! I'M BORED!"

How often have we heard this plaintive cry echoing around ReadItDaddy Towers. Charlotte sitting in a room full of toys, with a shelf full of books - or walking through some of our brilliant local countryside as we drag ourselves out of the house for a much-needed walk.

In Jo Empson's follow up to the utterly divine ReadItDaddy Book of the Week "Rabbityness" Jo successfully taps into the psyche of a little girl who claims that "Nothing interesting ever happens to me, Never Ever!"

As we follow the little girl's journey through the story, it's fun to see how oblivious she is to all the things going on around her. Seeing Charlotte's delight as she sees the events in the story unfold was magical, and there's an utterly brilliant "snap" towards the end of the book that made her audibly gasp (in fact, that section - which I won't spoil for you - was definitely Charlotte's most favourite bit of the entire story!)

On our first read through, we were a bit "all at sea" with this because Rabbityness is such a very tough act to follow. But as we read and re-read it (and it was asked for several times by Charlotte - always a good sign), I think she recognised a bit of herself in the little girl in the story - and I definitely did. Jo's brilliant  way of getting behind the eyes of a child makes this something rather special, and the constant surprises and reveals throughout the story (including a fantastic fold-out end!) are a real joy.

Charlotte's best bit: I can't tell you, it'd spoil things too much - but near the end things get a bit dark :)

Daddy's favourite bit: An absolutely brilliant observation of child behaviour with a surprising and immersive little tale. Love it!

(Kindly supplied to us for review by Child's Play)

As we mentioned in our "The Flower" review, we simply could not choose between two books so we've rather slyly chosen a book each for "Book of the Week" this week. Again, this book came as a recommendation from Beth Cox (who is either going to develop a big head or a complex if we keep mentioning her but she is awesome!) after a discussion about a worry that inclusive books would be a bit 'grey and boring'.

The description 'grey and boring' couldn't be further from Rabbityness. Though it starts off fairly monochrome, with some lovely inky drawings of a Rabbit doing - well - rabbity things, it soon explodes into an ocean of colours as we discover that our rabbity friend loves doing unrabbity things too.

He paints, he dances beautifully, he plays music, and he soon fills the forest where he lives with beautiful colours and sounds.

It's infectious stuff so all the other rabbits soon discover that they love what he does too!

Then one day Rabbit disappears. No one can find him, all that is left is a deep, dark hole...

At this point in the book - when we first read it together - Charlotte stopped, and a look crossed her face that I'd never seen before. A look of absolute and complete sorrow. As parents we're probably quite used to seeing our children upset, crying, having tantrums - sometimes over the most trivial things, but I hadn't seen this - it was actually fairly upsetting and made me cuddle her close as we continued with the book.

I feel we're meandering into spoiler territory here so please - stop right now if you want to experience the book unsullied by our review or our opinions - but we should carry on and tell you that Rabbit doesn't just leave a deep dark hole - he leaves a legacy behind, a legacy of sharing his unrabbityness, his delicious infectious enthusiasm for colour and music and fun and laughter with his friends in the forest.

We've seen a few books that deal with loss and grief in a fairly rudimentary (and sometimes outright clumsy) fashion, but nothing that deals with it as delicately but also as triumphantly as Rabbityness. It is quite unlike anything we've come to expect from children's picture books but I'll let you into a secret - this is exactly the sort of thing that Child's Play do, and make it look so durned easy too.

Charlotte's best bit: The one frame where Rabbit is tucked up snugly having a snooze. So...rabbity!

Daddy's favourite bit: That moment where the book's tone momentarily changes and the impact (and I do mean impact) it had on Charlotte. Even when we re-read this, it had a similar effect - simply because to a child that feeling can be so wholly unfamiliar and seeing how she dealt with it was absolutely amazing.

(Kindly supplied to us for review by Child's Play International Ltd)