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 love Marta Altes' books (check out our review of her wonderful doggy tale "No!" for instance!). They're funny, uproariously well observed but most of all they're usually quite messy.

"I am an Artist!" might be the sort of book that will have parents throwing up their hands in horror, after all you really don't want your little darlings emulating the genius would-be artist in this book. You see, the young lad just can't help being creative and sees inspiration everywhere. He can't contain his creativity, so it (quite literally) spills out, mostly all over the family home.

His long-suffering mum doesn't quite share his enthusiasm for art (though, as pointed out in the book, she's rather artistic herself!) but the young boy's passion for painting is too explosive to contain.

All through the book, Charlotte giggled and snorted as the boy daubed on the walls, painted over beloved family portraits, even dabbed a cool Salvador Dali moustache on himself.

As we said, we'll be keeping a close eye on the crayons and paints at home, lest they end up all over our pristine walls!

Awesome book, awesome fun!

Charlotte's best bit: The boy's poor cat, who always manages the perfect 'hang-dog' expression in each page spread.

Daddy's Favourite bit: Wonderfully funny, messy, creative and brilliant - Just how we love our art and our artists!

We've got a veritable cornucopia of wonderful Child's Play books to share with you this week but we're going to break things in gently with this fabulous and fun story of a little dog called...now wait a second, there seems to be some confusion here.

The dog's name? Well the dog thinks it's "No!" because every time he tries to do things to please his 'humans', they say his name.

When he digs up the garden, they shout "No!"

When he rather thoughtfully warms up their beds for them (after digging up the garden) they scream "No!"

When he tries their dinners for them just to make sure they're OK, they bellow "NO!!!!"

So what's a poor little dog to do? Marta Altes' book is such fun and whether you're a dog owner or not (or certainly, whether you've seriously considered renaming your children "No") you'll love this book. Great bold doggy illustrations and text that's a boon for early readers beginning their sounding out and phonics, there's a neat and satisfying twist in the tale (or should that be 'tail') at the end.

Charlotte's best bit: When the dog snaffles people's dinners sneakily.

Daddy's favourite bit: The great little doggy characterisations on the inside front and back covers (which Charlotte also loved because - well - there's a couple of things there that dogs do a lot of that children find eminently hilarious. You'll see what we mean!)

(Kindly sent to us by Child's Play International Ltd for review)