I wonder how many parents will be high-fiving each other at the gate this morning as we take a look at one of our favourite 'back to school' books of yesteryear, which is presented in a shiny new paperback version by Hachette.

Lauren Child's "Charlie and Lola" series is superb, and never better than in "I Am Too Absolutely Small for School".

Lola is a bit nervous. She's starting "Big School" and is also trying to convince everyone - even Soren Lorenson - that she's not quite ready yet. But Charlie, her big brother, is there to tell her all the fun things that she will get to do once she arrives.

Suddenly school doesn't seem so bad at all! In fact with all the busy things Lola gets to do, the day whizzes by so quickly.

This was a book I remember reading to C way back when she was starting juniors. Now she's starting Seniors it was fun looking back and remembering what it was like going into Reception classes for the first time!

Superb stuff from Lauren.

"I Am Too Absolutely Small for School" by Lauren Child is out now, published by Hachette Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

Charlie and Lola are timeless characters with endless appeal so it's great to see a fab range of board books getting a dust-down and republish, courtesy of Orchard Books...

The timeless appeal of Charlie and Lola continues in this fantastic counting book for younger children. Just in time for the move up to 'big school' here's "One Thing"...

It seems amazing to think that this wonderful book is celebrating its 15th birthday. We'd actually like to imagine what Clarice Bean would be like at 15. Would she be like her older sister, always painting her toenails or looking at posters of boys - or like her older brother Kurt, a bit of a grump with a slight whiff of socks accompanying her wherever she went? We suspect the former!

Charlotte grew up loving Charlie and Lola (and I think Soren Lorenson is a stroke of genius and by far my fave Lauren Child creation other than Batcat) but let's talk about Miss Bean and her crazy chaotic life.

Clarice's family is huge. There's Mum, Dad, older brother and sister (as we mentioned), grandad, the family moggy and oh we'd better not miss out Minal Cricket though he's possibly the most annoying little brother on the planet (nothing a plate of spaghetti hoops on the head won't sort out though!)

Clarice longs for a moment of peace and quiet, but is there truly only one way to achieve silent bliss? Being naughty enough to be sent to your room to "think things over" ?

We absolutely positively loved this book to bits. Also helps that I have a massive book-crush on Lauren (and probably on Clarice's mum too). A timely reprint of an utter classic. It does make you wonder what on earth publishers were thinking about turning this down so many times before Lauren hit paydirt with it.

Charlotte's best bit: She giggled like a drain at dad's description of Clarice as "Not exactly flavour of the month, young lady!"

Daddy's Favourite bit: An awesome snippet of family life from the perspective of a six year old. Thoroughly timless, hugely funny and something we'll undoubtedly read again and again!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Orchard Books)

Lauren Child, the genius behind Charlie and Lola and Clarice Bean has come up with yet another brilliant children's picture book - and we have a comfortable prediction to make...

Everyone is going to fall in love with Elmore Green.

"The New Small Person" is the story of Elmore, and life is pretty sweet when you're an only child. You get a room to yourself, you have everyone's attention - and every little thing you do is seen as pretty special. Most importantly of all though, NO ONE ever messes with your jelly bean jar (or steals your favourite ones, the orange ones).

I was wondering how Charlotte would relate to this book - you see she's an only child and is likely to remain one, so when the book changes tack half way through - and Elmore is confronted by "The New Small Person" the focus shifts from Elmore to his new little brother. Little brother now gets all the attention. Worse still, little brother eventually moves into Elmore's room and plays with his things, borrows them without asking AND dips into that jelly bean jar as well.

Elmore is at a loss until one night something happens that entirely changes the way Elmore looks at "the new small person" - and changes Elmore's entire way of thinking for the better.

Lauren Child makes it look easy to produce a book that wraps the reader (and the read-to) tightly in Elmore's life. The "something" that happens part way through the book is almost an air-punching moment of brilliant bliss.

Charlotte loved this book, and we talked a lot about why she's so utterly special to us (for complicated reasons we won't go into, we always wanted more than one child but the one we have is brilliant, bright and fantastic and we're utterly overjoyed to have her in our lives). So though she's unlikely to ever have to worry about a little brother or sister re-arranging her Barbies, pulling her books out of the book case (and putting them back in the wrong place), or pinching her dressing up clothes, she loved this book to bits.

I loved this book because it heavily reminded me of the great Ezra Jack Keats, not just for the obvious reasons (the reasons that this book should and will receive a lot of praise and attention for - deservedly so!) but because of the absolutely pitch-perfect observations of childhood, the timing of each story point, and just that gorgeous essence of 'coolness' that you always found in Keats books, reproduced by Lauren here. So we'll underline that. It's a durned cool book!

Charlotte's best bit: Charlotte was quite taken by Elmore's favourite game, arranging his things in a huge line that stretched all around his bedroom right down to the front door (helped by the new small person who donated some of his things to help with the line!)

Daddy's Favourite bit: Lauren Child makes it look SO EASY to produce a book that is this cool, with a solid message at its heart and a look and feel that should ensure it becomes something of a modern classic - rightly so!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Picture Puffin)

What better way to kick off #worldbookday than with a review about saving OUR world. The Charlie and Lola books and TV series are so universally loved by children and it's great to see this particular book following one of Charlotte's favourite episodes of the programme.

Charlie starts to teach Lola about 'going green' - no, not hulking out and smashing things but learning how to recycle, and how to respect and look after our beautiful planet. After all, it's the only one we've got.

Lola decides to send for a fabulous 'eco-tree' sticker and poster, for every piece of recycling the tree gets a leaf and soon the fun begins as Lola gets the whole class at school involved.

Without sounding too preachy or too much like an ecology pamphlet, it's an entertaining little story that has a huge amount of worth if used as the jumping-off point for classroom (or even home) activities based around green issues. It would be very easy to reproduce the idea of having a huge 'eco tree' for children to contribute to, and turn this into an activity for everyone to join in with.

We do our bit at home as much as we can (our recycle bin is always ridiculously full - which also comes in handy for those moments when you need to dive into it for crafty stuff!) Join Charlie and Lola on their eco adventures, and create your own too!

Charlotte's best bit: Lola going recycling mad, recycling things that haven't even been used yet!

Daddy's favourite bit: Quite inspirational for kids. There are a few bits where the book sounds a bit 'middle class' but as someone pointed out to me, Charlie and Lola ARE middle class kids.

(Kindly sent to us for review by Puffin Books)

Kids go absolutely wild for Charlie and Lola - mostly thanks to the brilliant TV series, but of course also due in no small part to the great books that preceded the TV treatment. Things have now gone full circle and there are books now based on stories from the TV episodes, including this one - "But Excuse Me That is MY Book"

Lola enjoys going to the library with her dad (sounds familiar) and her brother Charlie of course.
Lola always seems to pick out the same book (also sounds familiar, I think I've lost count of how many times we've borrowed Dr Ted!) but when she pops down to borrow it again, it's missing!

Charlie tries to console her by describing all the other books she could borrow instead. Books about knights, dragons, adventures (typical boy!) or even more books about nature similar to the one Lola fixates on.

Things come to a head when Lola spots another girl with HER book.

There's a lot to love about this, and there's also a few odd little things that could seriously do with ironing out. It would've been cool to see the library in the story absolutely thronging with kids - or even depicted as looking a bit more kid-friendly (most libraries have a vibrant kid's section, always far more comfy and welcoming than the shelves of books in the adult bit).

Charlotte also spotted a problem with the book that I hadn't picked up on. It was subtle, but it was there. She spotted that the other girl in the book was from an ethnic minority (oriental in this particular case) - a tiny point that would be completely overlooked if it wasn't for the fact that the girl (in some children's eyes) was perceived as the 'baddie' of the story (she's not really, she's just a child borrowing a book). It sparked an interesting discussion that highlighted just how careful you have to be when you're involved in any aspect of children's fiction, even things that target very young kids.

We love any book that celebrates libraries and the message here is loud and clear, that there's a world of books out there to enjoy - not just the ones you're familiar with.

Charlotte's best bit: The cheeky monkey book!

Daddy's favourite bit: A wonderful pro-library message. Needs some tweaking though!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Puffin Books)