There are very few perfect picture books, but "My Big Shouting Day" by Rebecca Patterson is one of them, successfully pulling off a neat balancing trick between being as much fun for the adults reading it to their kids as it is for the kids themselves.

Meet Bella, she's a bit like a cross between Minnie the Minx and The Incredible Hulk. A toddler force to be reckoned with, and today she's going to have a big shouting day.

Rebecca begins her razor sharp observations of toddler behaviour with something that so many parents will identify with - how quickly a simple mealtime can 'go south' if your little darling's food isn't quite to their liking.

Here we see Bella's mum adopting the most brilliantly depicted 'hassled mum face' you'll ever see in a children's book and Rebecca's colossal talent lends itself well to more of those expressions (not just from Bella's mum but from practically everyone who encounters this miniature force to be reckoned with throughout the book).

Bella's hapless little brother Bob (who C loves to little bits, because he reminds her of her little cousin) can only sit by patiently and watch the queen of toddler tantrums go through her day.

Parents, does this spread not seem eerily familiar to you?

Why, WHYYYYYY do kids do this when they're having a strop?

It gets better of course, and by better we mean 'more terrifying than you can possibly imagine'...


C, of course, even now devours this book with abject glee - now older and fully able to understand that she too once held the unstoppable power of an energetic disagreeable toddler, though teens, of course, revert to very similar behaviour once they hit double figures (so we've noticed anyway).

Rebecca followed up Bella's shouty debut with a follow-up book...

...and although we do like "My Busy Being Bella Day" (in particular Bob's brilliant subtle little bit of baby signing which takes my wife and I RIGHT BACK to teaching C that very gesture back in the day) it's nowhere near as effective as the original (sadly we never got to catch up with any of Rebecca's other books though I'm pretty sure they're awesome, she just nails her observations and illustrations so well).

In  the follow-up Bella is off to nursery for the day, and muses on what her little brother might be getting up to in her absence - and though she's wrapped up in her own busy day, she can't help thinking she might have got a raw deal compared to Bob.

The payoff in this one is a little bit schmaltzy but it's once again brilliant purely because even in this 'better behaved' story, Bella is still an individual force to be reckoned with (why SHOULDN'T Pasta pictures of sheep have 6 legs!)

Absolute smashers these two, you most certainly will not be disappointed with the first but pick up both so you get to see even more cuteness from Bob.

Original Review Links:

ReadItDaddy's Book of the Week Part 2: C's Choice - "My Big Shouting Day" by Rebecca Patterson (Jonathan Cape Ltd)

My Busy Being Bella Day by Rebecca Patterson (Jonathan Cape PB Ltd)

Wow, what a treat for Bronte-sauruses such as us - a graphic novel that doesn't just dish up the usual stale old biography of the Brontes, but delves into their storytelling psyche in a completely unique way.

"Glass Town" by Isabel Greenberg digs into the backstory of Charlotte, Emily, Branwell and Anne. Living in a tumbledown house in the middle of a remote moor had an early effect on the adventuresome imaginations of the four children. Though their life was tinged with early tragedy and the loss of two siblings, the four developed a deep bond through their love of storytelling.

In particular their dreamed-up world where the four would often cook up narratives, plots and characters that would undoubtedly influence their later lives and in particular Charlotte and Emily's writing careers.

Isabel perfectly captures the often stark bleakness of their young lives, and how that completely contrasted with Glass Town and the world they wrote about, drew and mapped out as the four would play together.



But she goes a step further - this is Isabel Greenberg we're talking about after all, and soon the characters of Glass Town begin to seep into the real world lives of the four as the characters beg to tell their own stories.


As you'll discover once you dip in, the four (often contrasting) personalities of the Brontes fed directly into the evolution of their imaginary world, and the friendships and conflicts of the imaginary folk they populated it with.

Sum this book up in a sentence: Sumptuous, darkly delicious and gothic, and at times quite uplifting and heartwarming, this is an absolute must for every Bronte fan who's ever wondered "What if Glass Town was ever developed into a story in its own right?"

"Glass Town" by Isabel Greenberg is out now, published by Jonathan Cape PB (kindly supplied for review). 

Cor, it feels like it's been AGES since we had a really great monster book...

I have no idea why I kept humming David Bowie's "Starman" all the way through reading this book with Charlotte...

Here's a fab, cheeky and energetic little book celebrating a bit of sisterly love - "My Sister is Bigger than Me" by Kate Maryon and Lisa Stubbs...

Would you let a cheeky dog drive your car? Meet "Motor Miles" - a very special and talented pooch with his paw to the pedal of his very own car!

The eternal and ever-present popularity contest between dogs and cats is always rich subject matter when it comes to children's books...

What happens when a little dragon hatches out of her shell and feels rather peckish? We run, that's what happens!

This week's editorial is actually a sneaky excuse to re-review a book that was a Book of the Week winner way back in 2012.

The reasons we wanted to trumpet about this book all over again are numerous but there's one very important reason why even now, some four years on and with Charlotte rapidly moving on from picture books and moving towards more independent reading on her own, we just cannot get enough of Rebecca Patterson's sublime "My Big Shouting Day".

It is, without a doubt, the greatest children's book in the world to read out loud.

Loud being the operative word here, because Rebecca's acute observations of toddler behaviour are brutally spot on. Bella, the little girl in this story, is like a mad ogre on the rampage. Waking up one morning and definitely getting out of bed the wrong side, Bella proceeds to spend the entire day like a seething ball of rage.

Bella is having what we parents often politely describe as "A mare of a day"

Nothing is right for Bella, everything is wrong. Her food is wrong. Her little baby brother's seemingly innocent behaviour is wrong. Shoes are wrong. Going shopping? WRONG! Bella makes no bones about telling the entire world AS LOUDLY AS POSSIBLE just how wrong everything is.

There are so many genius observations in this that you almost want to cuddle the book and cuddle Rebecca for recognising all the things that parents put up with when their toddlers are on the rampage. Mum in the story somehow (mostly) remains an ocean of calm, quietly and patiently dealing with Bella's behaviour. Bob (probably the most adorable younger sibling in children's picture book history) seems completely bemused by Bella's behaviour, an innocent bystander wondering just what all the fuss is about.

Other peripheral characters are also rather amusingly drawn into the story as Bella's boiling point is swiftly reached and we get to one of the greatest spreads in the book...

This is the point where grandparents usually make a helpful comment like "Ooh, someone's tired!" - NO KIDDING!

I love reading books out loud to Charlotte, and we read this one an awful lot. I just can't help it - as a piece of performance art, stepping into Bella's shoes (assuming you can find them after she's thrown them off in disgust) is cathartic and soothing. Getting just the right balance of shoutiness and anger into your reading is ridiculous fun, and of course it helps serve as a bit of a guilt trip for your children if they suddenly recognise that at times, they are Bella and they have big shouting days of their own (Charlotte does virtually every saturday morning at the merest mention of going out for the day, or at any time piano practice or maths homework is mentioned).

Rebecca followed up "My Big Shouting Day" with another book featuring Bella ("My Busy Being Bella Day") and has written many other children's books that are brilliant and well observed. But for us, "My Big Shouting Day" is that perfect example of a children's book that just works on so many levels that you just can't help - well - shouting about it!

"My Big Shouting Day" by Rebecca Patterson is published by Jonathan Cape Picture Books.