I may be in the minority here, but I always loved getting at least one annual for Christmas. Big thick and weighty hardback versions of my favourite comics all wrapped up and ready to be chipped away at when christmas toys had run out of batteries, and the Queen's Speech was on telly.

Charlotte loves annuals too and we were absolutely over the moon to be able to take a look at the new Official Lego Annual for 2015. This is the rather 'boy-centric' annual rather than the official Lego Friends annual, but nonetheless it was very well received by a little girl who is still head over heels in love with The Lego Movie - and often goes straight for our huge box of generic lego over the more 'girly' stuff.

As you'd expect from Ladybird Books it's jam-packed with content, and if your child already receives the Lego Club Magazine (which is free to sign up for, by the way), this is a really cool annual bringing together the same sort of content. Build ideas, great comic strips, fun puzzles and activities and a whole bunch of Lego Movie goodness to keep you building well into 2015 and beyond. Once you're done with the book you can even dig out the little lego strips provided on the front cover and see how many different things you can make from those!

Charlotte's best bit: She has her eye on the new Polar Explorer Lego (we'll have to see what Santa brings!)

Daddy's Favourite bit: An awesome annual for budding builders!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Ladybird Books)

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle - Very popular puzzle fare!

This week we're looking at all sorts of aspects of book merchandise, products spawned by some of the most successful children's books and perhaps even some we'd really love to see.

Thanks to an excellent suggestion by the awesome Damyanti Patel (who has a brilliant book blog - MeanBoyFriend - which you really ought to go and visit!) we thought we'd take a look at games and puzzles based on popular children's books.

What better place to start than perennial creepy-crawly favourite "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle which is the sort of book that just BEGS to be turned into all manner of merchandise (in fact you name it, you can probably get it with The Very Hungry Caterpillar emblazoned across it).

One of the very first book-based pieces of merchandise we bought was a VHC floor puzzle. Jigsaw puzzles are great for children, improving their manual dexterity and of course giving them the reward of piecing together a huge picture to enjoy before they get the immense satisfaction of trashing the puzzle (often to start all over again).

The puzzle we bought was nice and chunky, and all importantly, had pieces that stayed put when put down - even on carpeted floors (how many times have we bought puzzles and watched Charlotte's frustration as the pieces all lift as each new piece is laid down! Gah!)

Think of a popular book or book series and you can bet you'll find a jigsaw puzzle of it here or here

Moving on, if board games are your thing (and there really is no electronic ipad game that can knock getting out a proper board game on a wet sunday afternoon in our opinion) again you're spoilt for choice. Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's books seem to be popular book-to-boardgame conversions, for instance there's the awesome Gruffalo Hide and Seek game for really young children:

Spin and play, what do you know! There is such a thing as a Gruffalo!

For slightly older children there's also a Gruffalo mix and match memory game and an awesome Gruffalo themed snakes and ladders game.

So best sellers do pretty well when it comes to games, but how about the more obscure children's books? How well does a book have to sell before it becomes worthy of being turned into a brand or merchandising opportunity?

For instance, we always thought that the Richard Scarry books would be a brilliant basis for a whole range of Sylvanian Family-style action figures and vehicles - and indeed you can buy some (just check out that pickle car, it is just SO CUTE!)

Brrm! Brmm! Burp!

Lego fans fare slightly better but we think that most of the book-based Lego (for instance the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings / Hobbit stuff) is more spawned by the movies based on the books than the actual books themselves.

The Lego Hobbit Goblin King playset. J.R.R Tolkein would've played with this, fo sho!

Looking at the Lego Cuusoo programme (where lego fans can submit and suggest new ranges for lego to put into production) I'm always surprised not to see more book-based submissions appearing but there are one or two:

Nancy Drew Lego anyone? How awesome!

Nancy Drew Cuusoo Submission

The awesome Dawn Treader from The Chronicles of Narnia

The Chronicles of Narnia Cuusoo Submission

So perhaps there is more book fan demand for awesome lego-ness than we thought (this Tintin stuff really does need to be made, pronto!)

We've seen some brilliant suggestions from folk on twitter (including some potentially wallet-busting ones from the awesome Zoe at PlayingbyTheBook) but if you've got any more, pop them in our comments box below, we'd love to see them.

With Lego Friends quickly establishing itself as one of Lego's most successful ranges of all time, it's great to see a range of accompanying books in the 'Brickmaster' range complimenting the other sets. If you're unfamiliar with the previous 'Brickmaster' books (such as the Ninjago or Lego City ones) you're in for a bit of a treat.

The fairly huge box contains enough Lego (and a couple of the Lego Friends figures) to act out the various scenes and stories in the book - so as children read they can build the mini models from a pretty generous collection of bits.

We picked this book up for just under £10 and it seems prices vary wildly and a lot of reviews seem to moan and grizzle that there aren't enough bricks or enough variety in the models. We've seen various other Lego Friends sets for the same price and we strongly disagree. For the price, this is an excellent value product which encouraged Charlotte to build the models herself and get used to following Lego plans for the first time (previously we've always built the models for her but since she went through this book on her own, she's become quite an adept Lego builder - even better than Daddy!)

I'd be the first to admit that it's not a literary work of genius, and I'm sure a lot of parents will think the Lego Friends range is a horrid travesty - why should girls have to have a range of cutesy girl characters specifically designed for them when most of them have been quite happy playing with 'normal' Lego for years?

Yet, I do think the Lego Friends range has a certain something - great design flair (the buildings and vehicles are every bit as stylish and cool as the 'boy' equivalent) and some positive role models for girls (no footballer's wives here, though some parents might baulk at things like the Pet Pampering Salon or the Pop Star set). If you spot this book-and-brick set for the same price, snap it up, it's a bargain!

Charlotte deep in concentration, these castle ruins won't build themselves!

Charlotte's best bit: Building the various items of furniture at the start of the story, and a great introduction for her to the wider world of building with lovely lovely lego

Daddy's favourite bit: Actually thought this was awesome value and a great addition to the Lego Friends sets Charlotte already has.