Loud is the word here, in a busy and energetic little book from a hugely talented author-illustrator.

"I Don't Want to be Quiet" by Laura Ellen Anderson centres around a little girl who, just like my daughter, seems to make an awful big din for someone so diminutive.

She loves stomping up and down stairs. STOMP STOMP STOMP!

She loves drumming with spoons! CLATTER BASH CRASH!

Silence is not her bestie, and all mum wants to do is get on with some work, but this little miss has other ideas.

How about some nice, quiet, gentle HUMMING instead!

A hilarious gag-filled story that'll have most parents nodding tiredly along in recognition of the observations made here. For all those of you (like us) who get to the weekend and wonder why the house suddenly sounds like a cacophony of noise, this is a brilliant little read.

Sum this book up a sentence: A little girl's noisy life depicted perfectly, in a story that kids will absolutely love reading again and again.

"I Don't Want to be Quiet!" by Laura Ellen Anderson is out now, published by Bloomsbury (kindly supplied for review). 

Coming from a family where nearly everyone else is lanky and over 6ft tall, it hasn't always been easy being Hobbit-esque in stature.

Blog favourite superstar Laura Ellen Anderson is back with another brilliant picture book, this time tackling the subject of being pocket-sized in "I Don't Want to be Small"

The central character is a little boy who is fed up with being really little. 

Our Comic of the Week this week is like a nitrous boost for those of you who have yet to experience the stupendous Phoenix Comic...

Combine two of the finest talents in children's books and great things are bound to happen...just ask George!

The Scholastic Laugh Out Loud book awards are EXACTLY the sort of awards we can firmly get behind.

We love a good laugh, and we've been checking out two books - one in the 6-8 yrs shortlist category, and one in the 9-13 yrs shorlist category.

First up, we're dipping into Jim ("Barry Loser") Smith's intergalactic space epic and meeting possibly the world's most unlikely science fiction hero.

It's "Future Ratboy" the pointy-nosed hapless hero who, zapped by a bolt of lightning, was thrown millions of years into the future and turned into a half boy, half rat, half TV!

(Yes we know, you can't have three halves - well, you can if you're dealing with funny books!)

With new superkeel powers and a real life sidekick in Not Bird, Future Ratboy was born. He's defeated gruesome robot grannies, but what can he do against the evil Nom Noms? Something tells us that he's going to need more than a greasy cheesleburger to win this one!

In this new adventure, can Future Ratboy and Not Bird save Shnozville from the bitey little insects that are turning everyone into zombies? Will they defeat the evil Mr X? And how will they ever find their way home?

From Charlotte: "This is actually better than Barry loser - It's funny and completely silly but I couldn't stop reading it!"

High praise indeed. "Future Ratboy and the Invasion of the Nom Noms" by Jim Smith is published by Jelly Pie and is out now. 

Nominated for a Laugh out Loud award in the 6-8 yrs category so if you want to vote for it, vote NOW at the Scholastic Lollies Web Site.

We also dipped into the 9-13 years category, and read "My Gym Teacher is an Alien Overlord" by David Solomons and Laura Ellen Anderson...

This time we're talking about kids with superpowers in the stunning follow up to "My Brother is a Superhero". 

He's black (and white, and sort of orangey) he's mean, and he kicks butt! Our esteemed Book of the Week this week is, of course, "Evil Emperor Penguin Strikes Back" by Laura Ellen Anderson...

There seem to be a great many books about regal Prince George and his...er...toilet habits

More fab rhyming from Elli Woollard, this time teamed with ANOTHER of our favourite artists, the awesome Laura Ellen Anderson for a piratical tale with a difference...

Hi Cerrie / Laura, thanks for joining us at ReadItDaddy. Can you
tell us a little bit more about yourselves and your new mighty girl
Harper!


CERRIE: Hello 'Read it Daddy' fans I'm Cerrie Burnell , writer, presenter and mummy. Some of you might know me from CBeebies, but I'm also a children's author. My picture books (also with the lovely Laura) include Snowflakes, Mermaid and Ballet Dreams. My first chapter book- which I'm super excited about is called Harper and the Scarlet Umbrella. It follows the story of Harper a girl with a rare, musical gift, whose beloved cat Midnight goes missing. Together with her three best friends, Liesel- a girl who wishes she was a mouse, Ferdie - a serious boy, with a serious scarf and Nate - a boy with mist-coloured wolf, she sets out across the City of Clouds in her flying scarlet umbrella to rescueMidnight and the other disappeared cats.

LAURA: Thanks ReadItDaddy! I'm an author/illustrator by day, and Batman by night. (Ed: We always suspected as much!)

Illustrating Harper and the Scarlet Umbrella was an absolute joy. I've illustrated many other children's picture books and fiction series, and loved every single one. I count myself very lucky.

I'm also the creator of Evil Emperor Penguin, who's first book was released at the beginning of October! Mwahahahaaaar! And I have my very own debut picture book being published early 2017, so watch this space! I love my job and wouldn't want to do anything else, other than perhaps go to Hogwarts and make spells.


Can you tell us a little bit about the books you loved as children?

CERRIE: As a child I couldn't read myself until I was 8 as I'm dyslexic, so my mum read to me, night after night, gently enriching my world with stories. The books I loved best were The Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll which my grandma read to me, and I also loved Matilda by Roald Dahl.

LAURA: I was (and still am) a huge fan of the Worst Witch series by Jill Murphy. I loved the illustrations and they inspired me so much. The Twits and The Witches by Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake have always been favourites of mine too. Hilarious and wonderfully illustrated!


We love the format of "Harper and the Scarlet Umbrella", was it a
conscious decision to include more illustrations in the chapter book
format? (It's definitely a format we've seen more and more of recently
and one we definitely approve of!)

CERRIE: I really wanted Harper to be full of illustrations. It's quite a detailed story with a whole world of characters, so beautiful, fun drawings add to the magic. I'm delighted with the result!

LAURA: It's certainly a format I, as the illustrator, am extremely fond of and love to see in a chapter book. The text and illustrations in Harper & the Scarlet Umbrella go hand in hand and compliment each other well, which is why Cerrie and I work so well together :)


(To Cerrie) Are Alex, Andy and Sid as cheeky as they seem?
CERRIE: Yes Andy, Alex and Sid are most definitely as cheeky as they seem on screen. When we’re filming it’s normally a ten or eleven hour day- so you have to be yourself, and all of us like to fill the day with fun.

(To Laura) Can we please have another Evil Emperor Penguin collection
sometime soon?

Cerrie Burnell

Laura Ellen Anderson

He's short, he's portly, he smells faintly of herring but he's the most evil despotic villain in the universe (and we love him!) Our second Book of the Week this week is "Evil Emperor Penguin Book 1" by Laura Ellen Anderson

Cerrie Burnell may well be known for her awesome TV work but she's also a bit of an awesome children's author as well. Her last children's book "Snowflakes" was a brilliant and inclusive book full of seasonal joy and wonder. Teaming up with Laura Ellen Anderson once again, Cerrie and Laura's latest book "Mermaid" traces the story of a young boy named Luka who lives by the sea. He longs to swim but doesn't know how to, his family are a bit apprehensive about him learning to swim too but the boy is determined that one day he'll dive and paddle along with the best of them.

When out walking along the beach one day, Luka sees a young girl diving and splashing amongst the waves. Luka soon finds out that the girl's name is Sylvia and very kindly she offers to help Luka learn to swim.

Luka also finds out that Sylvia is a new girl at his school so he helps her fit in, telling everyone about her amazing swimming abilities. Children want to know why Sylvia is in a wheelchair, and Luka points out that it's because she's actually a mermaid! How cool is that?

Writing a fabulous inclusive story that taps into a child's sense of wonder and simultaneously relates a tale that helps children deal with their own inner fears and also a child's natural curiosity about children who are different from themselves is a heck of a neat trick, achieved brilliantly here thanks to Cerrie's thoughtful storytelling and Laura's dazzling and sparkly illustrations. Though Charlotte claims to be "over the whole princess thing" she still has a gigantic soft spot for mermaids, and it's really wonderful to find a hugely original story that helps with Charlotte's own fears of learning and trying new things too.

Charlotte's best bit: Luka introducing Sylvia to all his curious and inquisitive classmates at school.

Daddy's Favourite bit: A hugely positive and joyous book from a very talented twosome!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Bloomsbury Children's Books)

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"Snowflake" by Cerrie Burnell and Laura Ellen Anderson (Bloomsbury Publishing)

This book isn't actually out for another week (shhh! We're probably not supposed to be telling you about it) but it's so good, we wanted to make sure we got in early so that you could sneak it onto your christmas lists.

"Snappy Birthday" from Mark Sperring and Laura Ellen Anderson (the utter GENIUS behind the Phoenix Comic's Evil Emperor Penguin) starts off with a relatively serene scene of a bunch of ragtag kids who receive a mysterious birthday invite from one of their neighbours. This neighbour usually isn't a sociable type, so they're curious enough to pop along.

The neighbour isn't quite what they expected though. It's a huge, bombastic, snappy-toothed, green, scaly, monstrous crown-wearing CROCODILE! EEP!

He politely states that he absolutely can't wait to have them for tea (this is the bit where Charlotte snorted out loud and said "I bet he means actually eat them for tea!" and she's right!) There's only one thing on this crocodile's mind. Scoffing each and every one of his party guests without so much as a please or thank you!

Those kids can think quick on their feet though and so they come up with a plan, a delicious plan to head off Crocodile's appetite steering him in the right cake-shaped direction instead! HOORAY!

This is uproariously good, from the hilarious expressions on the poor children's hapless moggy's face (as it realises that the perfect party host would probably scoff moggies as a side dish) to the calamitous catastrophe of cake-gnashing that happens at the end.

Charlotte's best bit: Definitely the perfect birthday tea at the end, which is really how we ought to celebrate our birthday next year - with a huge CAKE FIGHT!

Daddy's Favourite bit: We love cake, we love crocodiles, and we love smart-as-heck kids who are great at talking themselves out of trouble. This is a hilarious treat by a dynamic duo we really hope work together again! Superb stuff, Mark and Laura!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Bloomsbury Children's Books)