We've long been interested in fab books that successfully bridge the gap between picture books and lengthier chapter-based stories, and our Chapter Book of the Week this week is a cracking example of something that could almost end up being a genre all of its own.

"Max and the Midknights" by Lincoln Peirce is almost like a mini graphic novel spliced with an early middle grade reader, but essentially the sort of romping adventure that's perfect for newly confident solo readers who want to move on from illustration-heavy / text light picture books.

This is the opposite, but features glorious monochrome illustrations woven into every page, like some of the middle grade awesomeness we've seen in books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Dog Man (ironic then that the two cover quotes are from the authors of those books!)

So what on earth is it all about? A grand quest of course, undertaken by diminutive Max - who wants to become a knight more than anything else in the world.

But he's a tiddly little chap, and the adventure he's about to embark on might be too much for this little fellah - who soon realises he might need a friend or two along on a quest to defeat an evil king - King Gastley in fact.



The brave adventurers set off to free Max's awesome uncle Budrick, forming themselves into "The MidKnights", ready to rescue uncle, and restore Byjovia to its former glory, while putting King Gastley firmly in his place.

As you can see, the way the book is laid out is almost like a set of interlocking comic strips, instantly digestible by kids who are daunted by huge walls of text in their books - but with a ton of style and humour about them that makes them stand out. What a great idea!

Sum this book up in a sentence: A truly awesome romp for a new Knight-in-training and his gang of brave pals, tricked out in a format that makes it immediately accessible to a wide range of reading abilities.

"Max and the MidKnights" by Lincoln Peirce is out now, published by Macmillan Children's Books (kindly supplied for review).

Oh my, now we're excited! It's Christmas Eve and our penultimate Booky Advent Calendar door is open - and inside you'll find "The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland" by Carys Bexington and Kate Hindley.

This gorgeous mash-up sees what Alice encounters in Wonderland when the festive season arrives.

Lewis Carroll's classic Wonderland returns but this time instead of Alice, it's Santa's turn for an adventure down the rabbit hole. Join the Cheshire-Cat, the Mad Hatter, and the reindeer for a tea party with lots of festive fun!

The Queen of Hearts hates Christmas (what a surprise!)

Lord help us, the air is always thick with the smell of these glorious little brassicas at Christmas, and as we're getting nearer the big day, it will soon be time for the sprout to shine!

In fact why wait? Let's dive into "The Return of Sproutzilla" by Tom Jamieson and Mike Byrne, the follow-up to last year's christmas smash.

Mean, green Sproutzilla is back and he's determined to destroy Christmas. 

The tale of an unlikely friendship will be this year's big Christmas animation, so despite the fact this story isn't really a seasonal one, we thought we'd drop it into our Booky Advent Calendar anyway, as it's likely to be another superb piece of animation from Magic Light Pictures.

"The Snail and the Whale" by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler wasn't actually one of the J & A books we read to C as a tiny tot, but we re-read it to review and love the positive message that underpins Julia's gently rhyming story, replete with Axel's amazing colourful illustrations as we've come to expect from this amazing duo.

Snail is a seasnail and he's bored with sitting on his rock. He wants to see the world, and amazingly his wish is granted by an unlikely ally - a giant blue whale.

Soon they begin to cruise the oceans together, taking in the amazing sights and sounds - but when Whale is temporarily confused by some daft humans in their speedboats, he ends up stranded on a beach.

Can a tiny snail possibly help a gargantuan mammal back into the sea and safety once again?

A fab story of friendship, determination and one tiny mollusc's bravery, this is sure to find an appreciative audience in both book and animated form this Christmas.

"The Snail and the Whale" by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler is out now, published by Macmillan Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

Day 5 on our festive roundup of amazing children's books, and a new bouncy rhyming book from the genius team behind "Supertato"

"Oh Christmas Tree!" by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet is perfect for busy little ones who love a jape or two in the festive build-up.

It’s Christmas time and every tree on Sidney Street is beautifully decorated – except for one! 

This week's amazing Chapter Book of the Week is brought to you by a supreme talent in kidlit, a mighty storyteller and illustrator par excellence who brings a touch of style and dark humour to everything he creates.

"Guardians of Magic (The Cloud Horse Chronicles Book 1)" by Chris Riddell is very much cause for celebration, as is any new book Chris is involved in.

But it's his books as author and illustrator that have always garnered most of our attention - and ironically we had to put aside a re-reading of his thoroughly brilliant "Goth Girl" books to delve into this one.

The story opens with an atmospheric and immersive bookworld steeped in fantasy, reigned over by magical humans and mythical creatures. 

Time for a luxurious new edition of a set of stories that have thrilled and entertained children for generations.

"Aesop's Fables" retold by Elli Woollard with illustrations by Marta Altes takes the familiar tales and gives them a jolt in the arm with some brilliantly woven rhymes, to really bring these stories bang up to date - making them huge amounts of fun for little readers.

Along with Marta's gorgeous full colour illustrations, the well known - and less well known fables are stunningly brought to life.

Remember the tale of the boy who cried wolf?

How about The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse?

Each story is designed to be a quick read, but with messages that will stir the soul, and make you think long after you've closed the covers of this absolutely beautiful book.

Let's take a look inside at a sample of some of the stories...

Two Travellers and the Bear

Elli's rhymes are bang-on as usual, and Marta's illustrations (particularly her animal and character work) are sublime.

One of the best known fables of all - The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Sum this book up in a sentence: A fantastic collected version of some of the best-known Aesop's Fables in an edition with wide age appeal.

"Aesop's Fables" retold by Elli Woollard and Marta Altes is out now, published by Macmillan Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

We're celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the first Moon Landing with a whole week filled with books based on our love of Space Exploration.

Can you imagine how cool it would be to turn up to school knowing that you're off on a field trip to somewhere spectacularly out of this world?

Skip ahead a few years then for "Field Trip to the Moon" by Jeanne Willis and John Hare. A truly amazing day trip to a dusty destination is on the cards for a class full of kids.

One kid in particular finds the grey landscape a little less than inspiring, but up there in the dark inky black sky is a tiny blue and green orb - our own home planet, Earth.

A day trip to the moon? How cool would that be!

As the little girl sketches up a storm with her super-colourful crayons, the very worst thing happens. She's separated from her school group - who rocket off back to earth without her!

Lost and forlorn, the little girl soon realises that she's not alone...

ALIENS! Thankfully these are the nice kind!

Her new pals understand her plight, but thankfully the school realises it could be in serious trouble for leaving a pupil behind (don't teachers take head counts in the future?) and soon she's back on her way home - minus a few glorious colours from her crayon box.

This is whimsical, delightful stuff - again a fab inspiration for kids who look up at the moon and wonder what it would be like up there.

Sum this book up in a sentence: Brilliant rhymes, awesome illustrations and a fun jolly theme with wide appeal.

"Field Trip to the Moon" by Jeanne Willis and John Hare is out now, published by Macmillan Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

We're celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landings in style this week with a whole selection of awesome space-themed books.

This one's hugely important, as it chronicles the life story of one of the key figures in the space race, contributing a huge amount to ensuring that the Apollo missions went as smoothly as possible, even in one case keeping a cool head when disaster struck.

"Counting on Katherine" is a fantastic picture book all about Katherine Johnson, one of the human "Computers" whose maths skills and amazing level-headedness were vital to early space missions, calculating and projecting courses that spacecraft would take as they reached for orbit, and beyond to the moon.

Though she may not be as widely known as she should be, Katherine's contributions are lovingly detailed in this book, starting with her early life and her love of counting and numbers, through to difficult times as she struggled with racial inequality in America, before finally enrolling in college and being recruited as one of the "Human Computers" performing hugely complicated calculations as a contribution to the early NASA Space Programme.

There are some great moments in this book and of course Katherine's achievements are detailed - but I was very surprised that more wasn't made of her contribution to returning the three astronauts aboard Apollo 13 - the mission to the moon that nearly ended in disaster as an explosion on board the ship put their lives in peril. Katherine was tasked with plotting a course to bring the men home safely - something you won't see in the movie (which is annoying) but is redressed here in a fab picture book that's hugely inspirational and important for all space fans - and for all kids who love maths and want to know what they can do with their amazing numerical brains.

Sum this book up in a sentence: A fantastic lifestory of a woman who deserves far wider recognition, a pivotal figure in the US Space Programme.

"Counting on Katherine" by Helaine Becker and Dow Phumiruk is out now, published by Macmillan Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

We're kicking off a whole week of space-tastic reviews on the run up to the 20th July. This coming saturday will mark the official 50th Anniversary of the very first moon landing, and that one small step for a man turning into a giant leap for mankind.

In "The Darkest Dark" by Chris Hadfield and Eric & Terry Fan, find out what one little boy thought of the moon landings as he clustered around a television at his parents' island-based holiday home, along with many others to watch those first grainy pictures broadcast direct from the moon as Neil Armstrong took that final step towards an incredible and amazing achievement.

Cmdr Chris Hadfield was one of the first astronauts in the Canada Space Agency, and is one of the best ambassadors for space exploration and research. We've watched many of his broadcasts from the International Space Station in awe.

But can you believe that Chris, as a child, was afraid of the dark?

In this inspirational first fictional picture book from Chris, illustrated by the hugely talented Fan brothers (Eric and Terry) you'll learn how Chris overcame his fear, and was inspired by the moon landings to first learn to fly, then pilot fighter jets before entering the space program later in life.

For anyone watching those broadcasts from the moon, it must have been an amazing time to be alive.

I was a tiny little speck of a one year old human at the time, so it kinda washed over me - but it's become something of an obsession for our family with my wife and I, and of course C all absolutely nutty about space.

This book works on two levels, brilliant for space fans who want to get to know more about how Chris grew up to become an astronaut, and also a touching little story about what it's like to confront your fears, face up to a fear of the dark, and overcome that fear to become the person you really want to be.

A brilliant book to kick off our Space Week!

Sum this book up in a sentence: A neat little biographical story twinned with a message comforting kids who may be frightened of the dark themselves.

"The Darkest Dark" by Chris Hadfield and The Fan Brothers is out now, published by Macmillan Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

Here's a book with a core message I think we can all get behind, whether old or young, fit or not so fit.

The pace of life is crazy sometimes and in "Harry in a Hurry" by Timothy Knapman and Gemma Merino, you'll meet a hare who just can't slow down.

Harry whizzes everywhere on his scooter at top speed. He's not exactly careful about where he scoots either, and quite often bowls through his friends without looking back. Harry is always so busy seeing how fast he can go that sometimes he doesn't look where he's going.

Harry accidentally hurries his way into the local pond, and Tom the Tortoise fishes him out

Causing chaos Harry style!

Advice we could all do with taking. Slow down, enjoy the view and chill out!

The Gruffalo? The Gruffalo? It's 20 years old, don't you know!

Wow, is it really 20 years since Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's gigantic behemoth of a book redefined our expectations of what a humble children's picture book could turn into. The book sold by the bucketload, has been translated into many, many languages across the world, spawned a hugely successful animated film as well as a colossal tidal wave of book-related merchandise.

And it all began 20 years ago with a collaboration that has stood the test of time. Julia Donaldson's pitch-perfect rhymes and singsong story complimented perfectly by Axel Scheffler's bold bright and colourful artwork has ensured this mighty book's success for the last two decades.

It's a book that was one of the first titles we loaned from the library, before I finally relented and bought copies of "The Gruffalo" and "The Gruffalo Child" for C, just so we had our own copies to hand.

We've read it again and again, though in later years C hasn't demanded it as much. Perhaps there's room in the market for a Gruffalo middle grade book or two?

It's the story of a humble but extremely clever mouse, who uses his brains rather than his meagre brawn to successfully trick his way out of being eaten by various forest dwellers such as a fox, an owl and a snake.

Added fun with the anniversary edition as the cover slip folds out into a cardboard play scene. How awesome!

The looming threat of the mythical Gruffalo is enough to see off his attackers - until the delightful twist in the story that turns things completely upside down as The Gruffalo turns out to be very real, very big but thankfully pretty benign.

Kids love this book, parents love this book, and I'm pretty sure the publishers love its mighty sales too! One of the most important and influential picture books ever written, arguably and the 20th Anniversary Edition (with its fantastic cardboard play scene and new process drawings) is an absolute must.

Sum this book up in a sentence: A gigantic steamroller of a book that helped define what we've come to expect from modern picture books with a fantastically clever story, brilliant illustrations, perfect rhymes and a cast of awesome characters.

"The Gruffalo" (20th Anniversary Edition) is available today, published by Macmillan Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

Our Booky Advent Calendar Book of the Week book for Day 21 is actually just that! A Booky Advent Calendar featuring a gorgeous and heartwarming story, as well as 24 (and a half) brilliant activities and makes that your kids can get busy with as we get closer and closer to Christmas.

"How Winston Delivered Christmas" by Alex T. Smith is a really fantastic idea. As well as being a nice thick book perfect for a christmas read, with the most awesome story of a brave little mouse who helps Father Christmas, it's actually an activity and festive make book too - with loads of brilliant ideas for things to make and do to really get you in the christmassy mood (even though the weather's probably a bit drizzly and dark outside!)

Follow Winston the mouse as he sets out to deliver Oliver’s letter to Father Christmas on Christmas Eve. He has a lot of Very Exciting Adventures on this Very Important Mission and makes some wonderful friends along the way.

Like an advent calendar counting down to Christmas, each day also features festive things to make and do – you can write a letter to Father Christmas and make mince pies, Christmas cards, presents and decorations. 

Day 3 of our Booky Advent Calendar, and although this isn't strictly a festive book, the setting and themes make it perfect for snuggling up with at this time of year.

"Snowglobe" by Amy Wilson introduces daydreamer Clementine who discovers a mysterious house standing in the middle of town that was never there before

Clementine is pulled towards the house by the powerful sense of a mother she never knew.

The place is full of snowglobes, swirling with stars and snow and each containing a trapped magician, watched over by Gan, the bitter keeper of the house.

One of these is Dylan, a boy who teases her in the real world but who is now desperate for her help.

So Clem ventures into the snowglobes, rescuing Dylan and discovering her own powerful connection to the magic of these thousand worlds.

Vowing to release the magicians from the control of their enchantments, Clem unknowingly unleashes a struggle for power that will not only put her family, but the future of magic itself in danger.

A stunning fantasy novel full of magic and wintry atmosphere, it's a brilliant read.

"Snowglobe" by Amy Wilson is out now, published by Macmillan Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

This week's Chapter Book of the Week may not be new, but it's new to us - and we absolutely loved it so here we are with "Millions" by Frank Cottrell-Boyce...

Oh now THIS is a genius idea, in fact we're surprised no one had thought of doing this AEONS ago!

"This one's good! This one's good!" sing-songed Charlotte as we dug through our review pile. She's right of course, "Prince Ribbit" is very good indeed!

Here's an excellent idea to draw in reluctant readers, and serve up an original mix of dinosaurs, space adventures and pirates..!

More fab rhyming from Elli Woollard, this time teamed with ANOTHER of our favourite artists, the awesome Laura Ellen Anderson for a piratical tale with a difference...

Here's a funky new book from two blog favourites. Fusing peerless rhymes with glorious visuals, it's "The Dragon and the Nibblesome Knight" by Elli Woollard and Benji Davies.