With a cover more sparkly than a pair of well-brushed gnashers, today sees the release of the truly brilliant "Tooth Fairy in Training" by Michelle Robinson and Briony May Smith, a creative dynamic duo par excellence.

If you think being a tooth fairy is easy, just a case of a quick 'bait and switch' coin-for-tooth under a kidlet's pillow, think again!

Tate is the titular tooth fairy in training, and her big sister May is taking her out for the first time on a mission that's going to be a tad more dangerous than both fairies expected.

Not all teeth are tucked under pillows in quaint comfortable urban surroundings, so Tate and May will trek across steamy jungles, deep-dive into the oceans or shiver their timbers in the icy frozen wastes of the arctic.

...and it's not just humans who expect a reward for their polished loose gnashers. Crocodiles and snakes? Oh my!

Exquisite rhyming, beautiful illustrations and a theme that will appeal to all kids, whether they have a sweet tooth or not! What a brilliant team Michelle and Briony make! (Look out for the line about Melissa - it's a corker!)

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, they said...

Two of our absolute children's book HEROES have combined mighty forces for a whole new take on that classic nursery rhyme...sizzling stuff!

Here's a madcap race and chase across town with a dizzying array of crazy characters, and one lovable chap called Zack...

Enter the world of a child's imagination, find a rich tapestry of storytelling, and meet one mischievous mouse...!

Michelle Robinson and Tom McLaughlin are back with their adorable little chick hero who's expecting a new arrival...!

Know what we love? Seeing kids as excited about space as Charlotte gets. Space is that mystical place that only a select few get to explore, but it holds children's attention and fulfils their fantastic imaginations like nothing else...

It's not easy being a tiny little chick, as Nugget (the adorable hero of today's story) finds out. How can a tiny fluffball possibly be brave?

Cast your eyes over any "Top booky books of all time" children's book list and I bet you at least 3 of the 'top ten' will be bear books...

Once again a book has recalled the days when cereal choices were made not on nutritional content, amount of sugar and salt or whether you could feel good about your 5-a-day intake when scoffing a bowlful of something that looks like it's been scraped out of the back end of your hoover bag. No, when we were kids, brekkie was chosen purely because of the free gifts or ludicrously convoluted token-collecting offers on each pack. I remember a story of two kids who genuinely saved up enough bottle tops or tokens to get their own Harrier Jump Jet (a joke offer made by one company back in the 80s who never expected that kids would have the moxy to actually save up or scrape together a million items to send off for one! WRONG!) I wondered if it was the inspiration for this tale!

The two boys in Michelle and Jim's story, two mischievous brothers, come up with a plan to buy 100 packets of cornflakes. Why? Well, because if you collect 100 tokens from the packs, you can send off for your own, your very own LION!

Despite incurring the wrath of mum and dad (and being forced to eat the spoils of their ill-fated plan) the boys post off their coupons dutifully, and wait.

And wait....

And wait...

(Again I remember the hilarious days when "Allow 28 days for delivery" was an optimistic outside bet - sending off for things nearly always involved waiting for half a year for your goodies to turn up!)

Everyone else in the neighbourhood seems to have got their lions and parade them around the park. This is one of our favourite parts of the story as you see all the kids parading around with their new pet Lions, who are up to all sorts of japes and tricks. We really loved the skateboarding lions and of course Charlotte laughed her head off at one lion cocking his leg up a tree much to the disgust and horror of his little girl owner!

The boys are still waiting when a package finally arrives. But there's no lion inside, just a rather surly grizzly bear. WHO WOULD WANT THAT? A letter of complaint is sent, but instead of a grizzly bear the cornflake company send out a crocodile (who is a notorious bathroom hog).

This is no good either, and one more frenzied phone call results in the company sending a Gorilla - that promptly trashes dad's fabulous Ford Anglia (nice one, Jim! LOVE that car and even Charlotte recognised it, possibly because it's what Ron and Harry drove in the second Harry Potter movie!)

Frustrated and annoyed, the boys enlist some help from dad and soon they're off to the company to complain in person. Will they come home proud owners of a lion after all?

This story is a hoot from start to finish. It's almost like a delicately constructed farce that touches on the optimistic views of children who think owning a particular pet will always be idyllic, and it's also a fantastic dig at our consumerist society and the way certain companies (who shall remain nameless) play fast and loose when it comes to not quite delivering on their product promises.

Ultimately though, we think Michelle and Jim are a heck of a team. Michelle's comic props are laced with cheekiness and hilarity and at times absolute chaos (we love a good dose of chaos in children's books). Jim's art is perfect and I lost count of the amount of times his details and touches made us giggle like idiots (that pastiche of a certain well loved children's book right towards the end of the story did not go unnoticed Jim. Fan-flipping-tastic!)

We're very pleased we caught up with "There's a Lion in my Cornflakes" - it's a riotously funny and brilliant book!

Charlotte's best bit: So many bits made her genuinely laugh out loud but she loved the scene in the park as the kids are all showing off their lions

Daddy's Favourite bit: Cheeky humour, tight writing, gloriously funny illustrations and a story that is as satisfying as a huge bowl of cornflakes splashed with ice cold milk. Wonderfully hilarious stuff!






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

Like this? We think you'll love these too!

"How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth" by Michelle Robinson and Kate Hindley (Simon and Schuster Children's Books)

"Ding Dong Gorilla" by Michelle Robinson and Leonie Lord (Orchard Books). Who ate all the pizza!

Two of our previous "Book of the Week" winners have just arrived in paperback format for the first time, courtesy of Orchard Books.

First up is "Ding Dong Gorilla" by Michelle Robinson and Leonie Lord. The sad tale of a young boy, a cross-dressing Gorilla with a penchant for chaos, and a pizza, it's a hilarious book that's sure to have your young ones giggling.

You can read our original book of the week winning review right here!

From one big hairy beast to another, in a neat little segue...

"Beauty and the Beast" by Ursula Jones and Sarah Gibb (Orchard Books). Just beautiful!

Ursula Jones and Sarah Gibb have delivered probably one of the most beautiful retellings of the classic fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" - A book that found its way into Charlotte's christmas stocking last year and has been loved to bits ever since. Deservedly, it became our first book of the week for 2013. Wonderfully told, the illustrations are just brilliant so if you've been putting off picking up this gorgeous book, there's no excuse now!

You can find our original review of Beauty and the Beast right here!

(Review copies kindly sent to us by Orchard Books)

Thanks to Michelle Robinson, we already know what to do if an elephant stands on our foot but mammoths? Oh, they're an entirely different ball game.

Like most parents do from time to time, we asked Charlotte what her ideal pet was. No, it's not a Mammoth thankfully, it's a guinea pig but imagine the scenario when a little girl brings home the Pliocene era's poster pachyderm. Those things don't exactly look like the most fragrant creatures in the world so Michelle lovingly describes the ideal process for prettying up your new hairy friend.

Bathing any pet is a challenge. Bathing a pet that could turn you into a pizza if it sat on you takes cunning, verve and forward planning. Thankfully the book tells you absolutely everything - from the best mammoth beauty products to choose (what, you mean you haven't seen that section in Boots? It's next to the depilatory creams), to the best implements to use to scrub your mammoth to a high sheen.

Hairstyles are also important, and this was easily Charlotte's best bit in the book. Would your mammoth look best with a mammoth-sized mullet? Or perhaps a dinky topknot?

Our huge crush on Michelle Robinson continues, and coupled with Kate Hindley's wonderful illustrations this book is a hoot from start to finish.

We must admit that we feel absolutely no more confident in our ability to be able to wash a woolly mammoth (particularly, as Charlotte points out lovingly in homage to a certain Ren and Stimpy episode, when it comes to cleaning where the sun doesn't shine - EEK) but we had a huge mammoth-sized guffaw at this book and we know you will too.

Charlotte's best bit: Mammoth Hair Styles. No mention of the Hoxton Fin but double plus bonus points for a Mammoth Mullet!

Daddy's favourite bit: Just the right side of cheeky, and definitely the right side of fun. We love it!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Simon and Schuster Children's Books)

In complete contrast to Charlotte's choice of Book of the Week, I chose "Ding, Dong, Gorilla" for giving both of us a heck of a lot of laughs during the week and putting a huge smile on our faces for one particular panel (think: lemon yellow dress!) that just completely broke us up every time we saw it.

But on with the story, and Michelle Robinson has come up trumps with the tale of a young boy who answers the door one evening expecting a Pizza Delivery Boy and instead comes face to face with a huge, gigantic, hairy and rather ill-mannered Gorilla (we liked calling him Uncle Graham because he's the spitting image of Charlotte's Unc!)

Gorilla sits anywhere he likes (where does a 500 lb Gorilla sit? Aw you heard that one eh?), he's got dubious taste in fashion and gets bored very easily. He's also a bit on the clumsy side. Vases (and windows) get broken, and walls get scrawled on.

Any parent will probably twig quite early on that it's pretty unlikely you're going to get an evening visit from one of our nearest simian relatives, and that things that happen around the house are usually down to the person making up such feeble excuses - but the delicious (literally) twist at the end is worth staying for.

If a book leaves you with such a sense of joyous naughtiness and hilarity, does it not deserve book of the week? Of course it does! Well done Michelle and Leonie, top work!

Charlotte's best bit: The dress bit. Too funny for words.

Daddy's favourite bit: Ditto, oh and of course the twist!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Orchard Books and the rather smashing Michelle Robinson)

OK everybody stay calm, DON'T PANIC! Michelle Robinson and Peter H. Reynolds are here with some handy hints if you find yourself stuck in the jungle. First of all, don't panic! Second - do not, repeat, do NOT lose your copy of "What To Do If An Elephant Stands On Your Foot" otherwise things are only going to go from bad to worse (or verse!)

This brilliant book is part instruction manual, part story, and part laugh-a-minute as a young girl finds out just how dangerous the roaming plains of the savannah and the steamy leafy jungle can be. Elephants are just one of the dangers you might encounter. You might tick off a Tiger, create havoc with a crocodile or get snacked on by a snake. Thank goodness for books like this to ensure we steer clear of such dangerous places and sticky situations by following them to the letter. Or do we?

Loved this hugely funny and entertaining book with great 'preventative' measures described in jocular detail, and with fab animal characters generally looking like they'd either like to make dinner of or squish the poor little explorer lass.

Charlotte's best bit: Cuddling the rescue monkeys, awww!

Daddy's Favourite Bit: Brilliant humour, ace illustrations and a character who's completely oblivious to how close she comes to being food not a friend. Also loved the expression on the Tiger's face when he's sneezed on!

"Goodnight Tractor" by Michelle Robinson and Nick East (Puffin Books)

Shout like Tarzan!

Goodnight Digger arrived in the post looking a bit like a digger had run it over but thankfully though battered and creased we dug straight in!

From Michelle Robinson with illustrations by Nick East, "Goodnight Digger" is a lovely snuggly bedtime book where a sleepy little boy says goodnight to all his beloved toys in turn. When a book says "will help your little darlings go to bed, and stay there" you can't really argue with that!

I loved Goodnight Digger's rhyming text, and Charlotte loved the artwork (particularly the wooden train set which is just like the one she's currently playing with). We definitely must hunt out her other books (particularly "What to do if an elephant stands on your foot" and "Bear Boar").

If your little ones love lorries, cars, trains, and of course diggers (what kid doesn't!) they'll love flicking through this beautifully presented book.

Charlotte's best bit: "That's my train set!"

Daddy's favourite bit: Panels that look so snuggly and lovely that you feel like you could wrap yourself up in them like a warm cuddly blanket.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

(Book kindly supplied by Puffin Books for review)