Our Chapter Book of the Week is a gorgeous sequel to a book I must admit I haven't read in years, possibly 43 years to be precise...!

Roaring engines, shifting dirt, we never get fed up with books about diggers...!

We're hosting a rather special guest post from an author who has written an utterly spellbinding and brilliant new book based on the works of Anna Sewell's "Black Beauty".

In Lou Kuenzler's "Finding Black Beauty" you'll meet a young girl called Josie who is forced to masquerade as a boy to keep her dream job as a stable hand. She falls in love with Beauty, a gorgeous black horse - and vows to follow Beauty to London when he's sold off one day.

Lou is here to share with us her influences and favourite childhood books, so take it away Lou!

What's worse than having a fussy eater at home to have to cater for? Having TWO fussy eaters...

Lou Kuenzler (Photo Credit - Danny Wilder)

Today we're saying a huge ReadItDaddy "Hello" to an author who has been tickling Charlotte's funny bones over the last couple of weeks. 
Hi Lou, and thanks for stopping by our blog. Tell us a little bit about yourself!

First of all, thanks so much for inviting me. I love talking about my writing - one of my favourite things about being an author is going to schools or festivals where I can chat to young readers about my books. When I am not doing that, I’m sitting at my big red desk talking aloud to myself as I write. I always talk when I’m writing. My children and my husband think it is hilarious - and I get some pretty funny looks from my dog (Willesden) and my two cats (Pingu and Chicken) - but I really find talking (and reading) aloud helps me to think. I can hear how my characters voices sound too, which is always really useful.

When I was young, I grew up on a very remote sheep farm in Devon. There weren’t many other children to play with so, whenever I was bored, I started telling myself stories (out loud, of course) and sometimes writing them down too. I am dyslexic, so it was often tricky to get the words down on paper, but I always loved the feeling of finishing a story I was really pleased with. I still get that same lovely buzz now when I finish writing one of my books.


Congratulations on your two new titles for Scholastic, Princess Grace and Shrinking Violet Loves Ancient Egypt. Can we have a quick summary of the books for our readers to bring them up to speed?

The inspiration for Princess Grace came from what I imagined it would be like if I had ever had to go to princess school. She is the clumsiest princess in the world! While all the other pupils at Tall Towers Academy are learning complicated dance steps and spinning around the ball room, poor Grace is tumbling down the stairs with her ballet shoes on the wrong feet. That is exactly what I am like! There are two Princess Grace books out now. First Term At Tall Towers sees one calamity after another as she learns to love the school. Best of all, she is given an adorable unicorn to ride. In Second Term At Tall Towers, Grace adopts a fire breathing dragon pup (never a good idea with all those yummy princesses for him to eat!)

Shrinking Violet Absolutely Loves Ancient Egypt is the latest in my series about an ordinary girl who shrinks to the size of a fish finger. It was great fun to imagine all the miniature adventures daredevil Violet would have on holiday in Egypt amongst the ancient tombs and spooky mummies. It turns out there is a chilling mystery she needs to solve and a cat she has to save ...


We love funny stories and humour for children - there’s nothing more satisfying than hearing a child giggling and snorting away while reading a book! What sort of thing influences your writing for children?

I absolutely love writing funny books. I agree, it is wonderful to see someone snorting with giggles as they bend over a book. I like the way that nobody else has any idea what they are laughing about - like it is a private joke between the reader and the characters in the story. I think that can really help to bring writing alive for children - adding plenty of giggles is something I always try to do in my own work. One of my favourite writers when I was little was Roald Dahl … and you don’t get funnier than that!


Charlotte is just beginning to stretch her reading ‘wings’ by reading books like Princess Disgrace and Shrinking Violet on her own. Do you think it’s important for parents to continue reading with children once they’ve started to become more independent?

I do think it is important to keep reading to children for as long as you possibly can. I think that special time - sharing a story - is something children miss if it is suddenly taken away (almost as if they are being punished for learning to read). Once children have discovered the joys of reading for themselves, it is great to continue sharing books that they will enjoy but that are perhaps too complicated for a new reader to tackle alone. If you are reading a slightly older story together there will always be plenty of things that come up for discussion. Reading is tiring when you first learn too and, sometimes, there is still nothing nicer that snuggling up and being read to at the end of the day.


We love picture books on the blog - any plans for stories or books for younger readers?

Yes! I just have written a funny colour-illustrated early reader called Princess Pip’s Perfect Party. It is coming out with Scholastic in October and tells the story of Princess Grace’s little sister. When Grace goes off to Tall Towers, Pip decides she ought to have some princess fun of her own. She begins to plan the perfect party but her father’s hairy warriors and his herd of smelly yaks are no help at all! When I had a sneak preview of the adorable funny illustrations for this book, I couldn’t stop grinning from ear to ear.

My first picture, Eat Your People, is also coming out soon with Orchard books - watch out for some seriously hungry monsters!

A couple of questions from Charlotte...


Who is your favourite princess? (Fictional or otherwise!)

It has to be The Princess And The Pea - especially in the wonderful Lauren Child picture book version of the story. I just love the hilarious idea of trying to catch someone out by putting a tiny vegetable under their bed. The Pea Princess doesn’t stand for any nonsense though ...



I want to be a writer when I grow up! Any good advice?

Practice! Practice! Practice! Keep a notebook so you can remember all your good ideas … Oh, and talk out loud when you’re writing, of course!

As Charlotte stretches her fledgeling reading wings, we're slowly but surely finding that chapter books are making their way into our review schedules. We still love picture books, but Charlotte likes to read 6 pages of wordier stuff before bedtime until she feels sleepy - which is a great way to cram in even more booky goodness into her busy little schedule.

As she's currently favouring a great mix of different stories and styles, it was great to hear her chuckling away at two books recently, "Princess Disgrace: Second Term at Tall Towers" and "Shrinking Violet Absolutely Loves Ancient Egypt" by Lou Kuenzler.

We've previously encountered Lou's work through an awesome anthology of bedtime animal stories we reviewed a year ago, so it was great to catch up with two of her most popular characters and their latest adventures.

Princess Disgrace is our kind of princess. She's not prim, perfect and if truth be told she's a little bit clumsy, haphazard and her hair looks like she combed it with a hedgehog (I am already beginning to see why Charlotte loves her so much! Catching up with Princess Disgrace's second term at Tall Towers, a school for princesses, we find Princess Disgrace preparing for the school's talent contest. No easy task when you feel like you're completely hopeless at everything, eek!

In "Shrinking Violet Absolutely Loves Ancient Egypt" Charlotte was instantly drawn to this tale, loving the idea of a miniscule girl who can shrink down to the size of a lipstick or a fish finger, and her crazy adventures but loving even more the heady and exciting mix of riddles in the sand, scary egyptian gods and thoroughly rotten rotters! Violet, Anthony (her cousin) and her gran are off on a Nile cruise - but danger lurks at every corner. Can Violet use her rather spectacular superpower to good effect to solve the strangest mystery ever?

Both books got a huge thumbs up from Charlotte, and she's currently juggling both (no mean feat for a six year old!) It's a sheer delight to hear her giggling away!

Charlotte's best bit: "Daddy, who's Bastet?" - Er, OK that took some explaining! Thank goodness for the Ashmolean Museum's awesome Egyptian collection!

Daddy's Favourite bit: Corking summer reads from Lou, perfect for kids who love adventure, excitement and a few giggles!

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

A rather wise book person I once met described certain books as instantly feeling like "the future family heirlooms - passed from generation to generation". "Magical Animals at Bedtime" is one such book, a collected anthology of animal stories from Lou Kuenzler, Sandra Rigby and Andrew Weale with utterly gorgeous illustrations throughout. Like the fabulous Aesop's Fables, or many other collected animal stories, "Magical Animals at Bedtime" collects together short stories that also help a child deal with the issues surrounding them on a daily basis.

Charlotte's particular favourite - the story of a princess and a unicorn - dealt with the subject of kindness and sharing. The mean and rather demanding Princess who is all too used to getting her own way loses her temper and storms off into the forest when her stable boy won't let her ride her favourite horse. Through her silliness, she's soon lost and starts to panic but a beautiful Unicorn is on hand. Guiding her back to safety, the Princess realises how silly she has been and how right the stable boy was to stop her from riding her poorly steed.

Moral tales can be preachy but with each story comes a discussion point at the end to help children understand the story themes.

There are so many brilliantly written tales in this utterly gorgeous book that it is definitely something you and your children will want to return to again and again. Stories that deal with subjects as diverse as shyness, adapting to change, even learning the true value of friendship.

Each child will undoubtedly find a favourite story here, perhaps even one based on their favourite animal (we thoroughly loved the Giraffe story in here too).

As we mentioned at the top of the review, this is the sort of book that you will read to your children perhaps imagining bouncing THEIR children on your knee to read it to them one day too. Wonderful stuff!

"Magical Animals at Bedtime" will be released on 5th September, 2013

Charlotte's best bit: The grumpy and rather demanding princess learning her lesson!

Daddy's favourite bit: A beautiful book that is not only filled with great stories but could well contribute to your child's moral development too. Really lovely book.

(Kindly sent to us for review by Watkins Publishing)