Opening Door 2 of our Booky Advent Calendar, we find a delectable selection of gorgeous seasonal stories with a cute cast of wonderful animals. Let's take a look at "Tales from Christmas Wood"...

Life can be sweet when you're a sheep, particularly when you're part of a large family who live in a swanky mansion, Downton Abbey style. But Little Sheep isn't satisfied. She longs for excitement, adventure, perhaps even the chance to blow a few houses down. To put no finer point on it, Little Sheep wants to be a wolf.

Her beleaguered parents give in to her whims (It's just a stage she's going through dear!) and make her an absolutely fantastic and extremely convincing wolf suit, and pack her off to wolf school to see how it suits her.

Little Sheep does very well at wolf school, in fact her enthusiasm and friendliness mean that she quickly makes friends with little wolf - and the two become inseparable.

Problems arise though when little wolf invites his new sheep-wolf friend round to dinner. Can a vegetarian possibly convince ravenous wolves to change their ways? Particularly when there's a real twist to what's on the menu!

There are so many delightful scenes in this story, and it feels wholly original and entertainingly told. Bob Hartman's gift for storytelling is to keep you guessing. Coupled with Tim Raglan's utterly superb illustrations, wrought in a sort of 'olde english' line and painted style, are also really great (we particularly loved his expressions for the poor nervous looking sheep in each scene).

We suspect that given the choice, Charlotte would quite like to be a wolf for the day but I don't think she'd like to sit down to a huge plate of roast lamb either.

"The Sheep in Wolf's Clothing" by Bob Hartman and Tim Raglan is released today (20th June 2014), from Lion Hudson Books - and it's bloomin' brilliant!

Charlotte's best bit: The wolves being rather nonchalant about the fact that they have bits of the farmer stashed away in their freezer, including his head. Ewwwww!

Daddy's Favourite bit: A superb fish-out-of-water tale with more twists and turnarounds than a twisty-turny thing! Love it, love it, LOVE IT!

(Kindly sent to us by the awesome Hattie and her furry office fellows at Lion Hudson)

If I asked Charlotte what her favourite animal was, she'd immediately say "Polar Bear". This is despite watching them recently scoffing seals and generally being very uncuddly on wildlife programmes! Thankfully the beautiful cuddly bears in "The Biggest Thing in the World" are just the sort that Charlotte would love to snuggle up to.

After sleeping for exactly 97 and a half days, an inquisitive little polar bear cub wakes up to the crispness of winter and the big wide world.

Parents will identify with little snow bear's constant questions, and soon he gets onto the subject of the biggest thing in the world.

Is it the sea? Is it the mountains? Is it that rather portly walrus over there?

Mum knows best (as mums always do) and in this delightful little tale you'll find out too.

Such a beautifully illustrated and snuggly book absolutely perfect for wintry bedtime reading and that anticipation that as the temperatures drop, we might get some snow (c'mon, bring it on!)

Charlotte's best bit: Little Snow Bear - "He's so cute, I want to cuddle him!"

Daddy's favourite bit: Such an atmospheric and truly lovely story with beautiful furry bear illustrations and a crisp white world to explore. Sublime!

(Kindly sent to us by the wonderful Harriet (and Polly and Leo, of course!) at Lion Hudson)

As the Christmas shopping mania kicks in, it's very easy for children to lose sight of what Christmas is truly about, and to miss the stories behind why we celebrate on December the 25th. As Charlotte learns about the nativity at school (and is about to star as an angel in the school nativity play, wowsers!) it's great to be able to show her the story in books and even learn a little bit about the historical times and places the nativity is set in.

"My Own Little Christmas Story" is a nicely presented little book for younger children who are just finding out about the story of Jesus' birth and the nativity story. Thoughtfully illustrated by Amanda Gulliver and nicely retold by Christina Goodings, this book is perfectly priced (and sized) as a nice little stocking filler to hopefully give children a flavour of christmas that isn't tainted by crass commercialism and brand-led merchandising.

We're not particularly religious (my wife is slightly more in tune with a belief system than I am, I'm about as religious as your average garden rock) so it's going to be interesting as time passes to see what discussions come about from books like this, and the nativity story in general. Lion Hudson do produce some of the best nativity books on the market though, and this is particularly good if you're looking for a book for children to be able to relate to.

Charlotte's best bit: She really loved Amanda Gulliver's animal illustrations. Not too fuzzy or cuddly, just nicely done.

Daddy's favourite bit: Thoughtfully retold nativity story, immediately approachable and digestible by very young children. Fab!

(Kindly sent to us for review by the lovely folk at Lion Hudson)

Lion Hudson publish some of the best nativity books for a children's christmas stocking but we think this is the best of the lot. A rather unique look at the nativity story, from the perspective of a rather sly and inquisitive fox who discovers that there's far more to the world when out hunting one night.

He spies a speckled lamb lying in a field, bleating plaintively for its mother but before he can steal it away, the field is filled with light, and the mysterious presence of 'men with no scent' - Angels, who come down to tell a tale of a new born king to the shepherds as they tend their flocks.

The fox wants to see this new born king for himself, so begins a journey that pads velvety-footed through the Nativity story until we meet Baby Jesus himself.

Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen's warm and novel take on the nativity is marvellous for children of all ages, and though at first the fox seems a bit of a bad egg, we warm to him in the end as the story unfolds.

The greatest story ever told, given a rather neat makeover. Brilliant stuff!

Charlotte's best bit: Seeing the baby speckled lamb with Baby Jesus. Awww!

Daddy's favourite bit: We've seen so many nativity stories, but this one really is truly special, even if you're not particularly religious or filled with the true spirit of what Christmas is about.

(Kindly sent to us for review by Lion Hudson and the fantastic Harriet, Leo and Polly!)

"So Today we're going to build a barn!"

It's not often a humble daddy blogger gets to utter those words but the superduper folk at Lion Hudson sent us one of their innovative 'build it' titles with a christmassy theme.

"Build your own Christmas Stable" combines the nativity story with a press-out-and-play barn.

The good thing is that no glue, scissors or fussy crafty bits are required (though sometimes that can feel a bit disappointing for children, who love any excuse to get covered in glue, paint and messy glitter).

As your child reads the story, you can start to build the stable piece by piece. Younger children might need an adult helper to extract the barn pieces but it's nice and chunky and durable, so anyone with sharp nails should manage quite nicely.










We've taken a look at several nativity scenes before (even some excellent Lego and Playmobil ones) and what we rather liked about this one was the fact that all the bits slot back neatly into the book once you've finished playing with them or once Christmas is over. Very good idea that!

The traditional story of Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem, and finding shelter in a stable where Baby Jesus is born is quite magical for children even if (like us) they're not particularly religious. The story is dealt with quite sensitively and in a way that isn't overtly 'bible-ified'.

Charlotte particularly loved the animal characters, and of course the star to stick on the roof of the barn too.





The only real criticism we had was that sometimes the slots for each piece are a bit tight. I don't know if you can see it well enough in our photo of the completed stable but we had real problems fitting the roof on, and in the end we had to flip it and fit it with the straw facing inwards and the boards facing up! Not really too much of a problem as it still looked great, but it would've been quite difficult to get things to fit without perhaps enlarging the slots or risking damaging the pieces.

As you can see though, once it's all together it looks great and there's even a crib and baby jesus to use with the set.

Charlotte also discovered that it was the perfect size for her Playmobil figures and (rather irreverently) decided that her families of Playmobil folk would rather like to set up home in the stable (and a Playmobil baby would like Baby Jesus' crib more than he would! Eeeek!)


"Build your Own Stable" is nice and sturdy, with an attractively presented story, great illustrations and of course the thrill and challenge of putting together the puzzle-like pieces to build something 3-dimensional that can spur a child's imagination to tell the nativity story, and make up stories of their own.

Charlotte's best bit: Kidnapping the Stable and moving Playmobil families in!

Daddy's favourite bit: Aside from a few bits (like the roof) the stable slotted together beautifully and looks great when built.

(Kindly supplied for review by Lion Hudson Children's Books)