Back in October we took a closer look at MyLittleBigTown's new range of Tiny Twisted Tales. Penned and illustrated by the frenzied nibs of Calvin Innes (with e-books edited by Brett Innes), the first tale "Stuart the Bug Eating Man" got a favourable thumbs up from us. 

Now the range has grown, and has a whole new set of funky colour covers to celebrate. Joining Stuart we also now have Pale Henry, and the kick-ass Jenny (the werewolf-hunter).

Starting with Pale Henry, the sad tale of a lad who just doesn't like going out, Calvin and Brett conjure up a story that could almost mirror my teenage years (go out and DO things? Are you crazy? I've got a ZX Spectrum at home, why on earth would I want to go out into the real world?) Henry soon realises that being pale, thin and wan isn't the be all and end all, and out there are trees to climb, people to meet and other kids to play with.

Jenny is a completely different character. She likes to go out - mostly at the stroke of midnight - and put the world to rights by largely ridding it of the all-too-well-known Werewolf menace (What's that? You didn't know the world was crawling with Loup-Garou? Perhaps you're in denial because you ARE one!) Jenny is like a one man (or should that be one-girl) Scooby Doo Gang, scared of absolutely nothing - even the biggest most slobber-chopped Werewolf in the world.

These bite-sized little rhyming story books (also available on Kindle as well as in print) are deliciously dark, reminding us of cool stuff by Charles Addams and Edward Gorey. If your children have a taste for the macabre or even the slightly icky, then they're going to love these a lot.

Charlotte's best bit: Jenny (naturally) who is a heck of a role model!

Daddy's favourite bit: Great format for little story books (the sort of thing I could well imagine toting around in a back pocket as a kid and pulling out during boring maths lessons - excellent!)

Ugh, our profuse apologies for being off the grid for a couple of days. We've all been coughing and sniffling for most of the week and weekend, so we were unable to bring this "Book of the Week" to you as planned last Friday. But it's a cracker, so read on...

Every now and again we come across a book idea at ReadItDaddy that is so inspirational and so cleverly done you could almost hug it with glee. MyLittleBigTown Publishing recently sent us several of their latest titles to review, and "Anisha's Adventures in Bangladesh" was the one that caught Charlotte's eye straight away.

Authors and Illustrators are always looking for new and innovative ways to help children absorb a book's message, or to help the learning process without a book feeling like a dry reference text. So what better way to teach a child about other cultures, languages and countries than making the hero of your story a little girl they can easily identify with.

Anisha is curious, full of adventure and with a little help from her loving grandparents and a pinch of magic, Anisha - along with her magical pony friend and a fantastic camera that can give detailed descriptions of objects along with beautiful photos, sets off on a journey of discovery and delight.

Anisha can now travel anywhere in the world so she decides to visit Bangladesh, a country full of interesting historical architectures, fabulous flora and fauna, and a vibrant culture completely different and absorbing.

Anisha's journey of discovery is as fantastic as a child's reaction to the book. At an age where Charlotte is soaking up every scrap of knowledge like a hungry sponge, having the chance to learn about a country and culture that is completely different to her own is intriguing and inspiring, and triggered us to take a look at where Bangladesh is on the world map, what the weather is normally like and other facts and figures not covered by Anisha's first (and hopefully not last) adventure out in the big wide world.

Thoughtfully written, beautifully illustrated (it's nice to see that Calvin Innes can draw stuff other than bogies and bugs, YAY!) and an extremely clever way of delivering a fabulous learning journey. Fantastic!

Charlotte's best bit: Anisha's fantastic magical pony who can travel to any country in the world

Daddy's favourite bit: Anisha's fact-finding camera. Such a clever idea wonderfully executed.

A ReadItDaddy Book of the Week

(Kindly supplied for review by MyLittleBigTown Publishing)

Our friends at MyLittleBigTown kindly sent us copies of some of their latest books and amongst them was one of their new range of 'Tiny Twisted Tales', bite-sized books with rhyming text and illustrations by one of the busiest guys in the business, Calvin Innes.

Calvin is tightly involved with most of MyLittleBigTown's output, mostly as an illustrator but in this case he's wrestled with words and rhymes to bring you a twisted tale of a man who really loves eating insects.

Entomophagic Stuart the Bug Eating Man isn't well read, he's not vastly knowledgeable but he really does like to chow down on centipedes, scoff spiders and slurp slug juice.

Poor Stuart's wife despairs of him and urges him to go out and get a proper job. With a flash of inspiration, Stuart hits on a brilliant idea - to merge his career with his love of troughing on creepy crawlies. From then on Stuart becomes...the Bug Eating Guy!

I was quite surprised that Charlotte loved this book as much as she did. It's the sort of thing I could imagine young boys finding endlessly fascinating but my little girl, though blessed with an innate knowledge of Disney princesses and fairy tales, does seem to like icky gross stories too.

It really reminded me of the fantastic Edward Gorey stories though it's not quite as dark and gothic as those. We look forward to seeing the other tiny twisted tales arriving soon from MyLittleBigTown.

Charlotte's best bit: Stuart's super-cool bug-shaped bling!

Daddy's favourite bit: Gross liquidized slug shakes! Yum!

(Book kindly supplied for review by MyLittleBigTown)

Zombies. Not the sort of shambling brain-obsessed monsters you'd really expect to see anywhere near children's fiction, but how about zig-zag zit-faced zombies? Not obsessed with feasting on the rich goo you keep between your ears, but the sticky green matter you keep up your nose. That's right, not brainnnnsssss but boggggieeeessss! Welcome to our early review of the second "Gorgeous George" novel from MyLittleBigTown's dynamic duo, Stuart Reid and Calvin Innes.

We rejoin our intrepid hero as George's town recovers from the complete trashing it suffered in the first Gorgeous George novel, Gorgeous George and the Giant Geriatric Generator (which we gave an awesome 4 out of 5 to back in February), another disaster is on the horizon. Spilled toxic waste, an innocent nursery field trip and a rather nasty infection mean that once again George's (newly rebuilt) school is under threat, and George aided by his trusty sidekick Allison and his mad rambling farty Grandad Jock, must thwart the rather gooey new menace - Zigzag zit-faced ZOMBIES!

It's fair to say that this novel isn't one to read while enjoying a nice plate of winkles, nor is it one to browse while you're eating a choice piece of eel pie. But at ReadItDaddy we know that children absolutely love anything mildly gross, so they're bound to fall in love with George's new adventure which is due for publication in January 2013.

Though Charlotte's not really the right target audience for the book, she seemed to be intrigued by the little snippets of information I leaked about it (it's plainly obvious that Stuart and Calvin have spent a lot of time around infants and know full well that there's nothing slicker than a school sleeve when the usual nasty school germs are doing the rounds, as they are right now!)

The story unfolds at a frenetic break-neck pace with thoughtful introductory narratives courtesy of Grandad Jock (who manages to pause between blowing off to deliver some quite interesting nuggest of scots-flavoured wisdom) and there's no time to hang around mulling over the finer points of how nursery kids can be transformed into bogie-obsessed zombies (half an hour of Tree-Fu Tom might do the trick perhaps?) Soon George's plight becomes a fight for sanity and sanitation as he fights shoulder to shoulder with his trusty newly formed gang.

Will George save the day? Will George's dreamy new teacher ever fall for his charms? Will the snotty little girl from Class B ever stop wiping her nose on her braids?

I'm afraid that you mere mortals will have to wait until January to find out, but if you loved George's previous geriatric generator adventures, you'd better get queueing up to fight the zig-zag zit-faced zombie menace before they come for you and your crusty nostril minings!

Charlotte's best bit: Though Charlotte hasn't had this read to her (bit too young methinks!), she still demanded lengthy explanations on what a Zombie is (kept as child-friendly as possible, of course), why they zigzag, and what a zit is (oh my, trust me, you'll find out kiddo!)

Daddy's favourite bit: The fast frenetic pace, and a skilful and masterful adaptation of the classic Zombie genre for a kid-friendly audience. Oh and bogies. Lots and lots of bogies!

(Gorgeous George and the Zigzag Zitfaced Zombies was kindly sent to us for an early review by the superb folk at MyLittleBigTown Publishing)

Gorgeous George - Coming to a nostril near you in January!