We've been fans of Jeanne Willis' peerless rhyming for a long time, she has a knack for making the most read-aloud-friendly lyrical stories that just flow off the tongue. We're also huge fans of Lorna Freytag's work, she seamlessly blends photography into fantastical scenes to produce the most scintillating illustrations for children's story books. So put this mighty duo together and what do you get?

In "Wild Child" you get a brilliant heroine, a child who lives by her own rules, is free to wander wherever she wants - sleep under the stars, swim with the fish and cuddle up with animal brothers and sisters as the cold nights draw in.

Wild Child warns us of "The captured ones" - Children who were once wild but have been indoctrinated into our ways, losing their wild streaks and becoming slaves to conformity.

Each scene is beautiful to behold so if the cover hasn't won you over the minute you see it, the things that Wild Child gets up to in the space of this book most certainly will.

Charlotte wanted to be her, dressed in rabbit skin (ok, faux rabbit skin!) and with the most gorgeous husky as a playmate.

A fabulous flowing and glowing book that leaps to life in your hands. There's a little bit of wild child in all of us, even haggard old grown ups like me!

Charlotte's best bit: Cuddling up with Wild Child's lovely husky

Daddy's Favourite bit: Wonderful to read, and with some exquisitely composited illustrations. Absolutely fabulous!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Lorna Freytag / Walker Books)

Just who IS that devilishly cute little toothy monster who loves nothing better than dining on our socks? Well he's Sock Monster, and he's the star of a new app (and also a print book - hooray!) from Lorna Freytag. If you've missed Lorna's sumptuous and luxurious illustrative work for books like "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and the utterly sublime "Wild Child" - which we STILL haven't managed to snag a copy of yet - then you've definitely missed out.

Sock Monster is her latest creation and he's absolutely crazy about socks. Fat fluffy woolly ones, thin stripey sporty ones, ankle socks, walking socks, socks with tassels - you name it, Sock Monster will probably munch on it (though he draws the line at stinky socks, they only give him tummy ache - poor thing!)

But what if all the socks disappear? What can be done? Is there any way that Sock Monster can be saved?

Thankfully Sock Monster's loving owner knows just where to dig up a gigantic pile of socks that will keep Sock Monster munching all day long.

This interactive story app is fabulously presented, easy to navigate (with self read or 'read to me' options, voiced over in a lovely lilting accent). Children will love triggering all the little animations and funny Sock Monster bits (Charlotte got quite obsessive about the washing machine - "WAIT till the lights go on, Daddy! WAIT!")

Sock it to me, baby!

Sock Monster is available now from iTunes.

Charlotte's best bit: Freshly washed socks from the washing machine taste divine!

Daddy's Favourite bit: A lovely and cute little app, loved Sock Monster's frantic excited wagging tail!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Lorna at Junoberry)

There's a huge surge of interest in the definitive works of L Frank Baum this year. I'm referring, of course, to his amazing stories of Oz and with new movies on the way courtesy of Disney (a rather dark looking movie treatment at that), and new stage productions and even an animated tie-in too, there's plenty of Oz goodness to enjoy.

On the book side, there's this rather neat "pop up" book that mixes utterly beautiful artwork with photography to re-tell the most famous story in the series - Dorothy's first adventures in the magical land of Oz and her first meeting with some of the most well known characters in children's fiction. The Tin Man, The Scarecrow, The Cowardly Lion and of course the Wizard himself. Not forgetting the wicked witch of the east and her terrifying flying monkey soldiers.

Charlotte loves the Oz stories but is more interested in the fairly slimmed-down versions that have previously been available. This was a perfect book for her, with great interactive paper engineering complimenting the story. Unfortunately she managed to rip one of the parts where the paper mechanics were quite fragile but a spot of glue and a quick fix and all is once again well.

Stella Gurney retells the tale very well, and Lorna Freytag's illustrations are excellent too. Lots to love here so if your children go completely Oz crazy this year, this is a very good book to grab as a tie-in.

Charlotte's best bit: Dorothy's trip along the Yellow Brick Road and her meeting the Tin Man

Daddy's favourite bit: It's a heck of a year for Oz stuff and it's good to see a nice big beautifully presented version of the story retold in such a way. Excellent stuff.

(Kindly sent to us for review by Carlton Books Ltd)