These books stretch back, far back, way back to the very origins of this blog and in fact by the time we got round to reviewing these (just after we'd started up) we'd already been reading them to C almost on a nightly basis for two years.

Yes, they're that good. In fact these books are rare in that they're picture books that both my wife and I would read to C independently of each other.

You see even from when she was a tiny, tiny baby, barely able to make out the pictures and words in the books we'd read to her, we would take it in turns on alternative nights to pick a book out of our shelves and read it to her before bedtime. Nowadays it's just me, still clinging on on there with the bedtime book, even though we both suspect C loves them now more as a method of spending some time with us, and dragging bedtime out a bit longer than for a real desire to hear the books again and again.

Back to "Pants" though by Giles Andreae and Nick Sharratt. If ever there was a book that felt more like a song (in fact in the version we own, Lenny Henry does a VERY good job of "singing" the book) it's this.

It's a daft, cheeky and surreal look at our underwear. It's also one of those rhyming books that if we think hard enough, we can actually trot out by heart. I guess that's purely because we read it so many times.

"Pants to pick a daisy, pants for being lazy, PANTS ON YOUR HEAD WHEN YOU'VE GONE CRAZY!" (typed without cheating so possibly wrong).

The follow-up is equally brilliant and also appears on our keepers list...

Pretty much the same deal as the first but with a few new cheeky bits and new laughs, "More Pants" followed swiftly in the original book's wake.

We later picked up "Socks" (which wasn't written by Giles, instead penned by Elizabeth Lindsay) from the library but by then the magic had died. That fleeting moment of perfection in two books was lost, and in fact I was moderately surprised to find that "Socks" wasn't where the story ended, and there are now even more pants books than ever before. It's such a successful formula though, a brilliant combination of bold and colourful illustrations underpinned by the most pitch-perfect bouncy rhymes, the perfect way in fact to draw a tiny little girl into a love of books.

Original Review Links: 

Pants

More Pants

Socks by Elizabeth Lindsay and Nick Sharratt (David Fickling Books)

This week's Chapter Book of the Week is a welcome return to a period in history and a set of characters that we've come to adore...

A sizzling, funny and brilliant rhyming sing-a-long book that is destined to be much in demand by your littlies. Turn the ignition and hop on board...!

Let's zoom out into the stratosphere in a colourful and vibrant journey of discovery - You Choose your adventure in "You Choose in Space" by Pippa Goodhart and Nick Sharratt...

The hugely important Life and Deaf Children's Deafness Charity gathered together a children's workshop with deaf children and ex-children's laureate and superstar author Julia Donaldson to collaborate on this fantastic story book. "What the Jackdaw Saw" written with help from deaf children, and illustrated by Nick Sharratt, is a brilliant book that introduces sign language along with a story that really piques a child's curiosity.

Jackdaw has decided to throw a party, and as he flies around town and country, he spies all his friends going about their daily business.

"Come to my party!" shouts Jackdaw, but instead of replying, other animals look at Jackdaw and touch their heads. What on earth is going on?

Again and again Jackdaw meets animals doing the same strange thing. As we bounce along to Julia's perfect rhymes, it was brilliant to see Charlotte really trying to puzzle out what was happening. "Why ARE the animals doing that, Daddy?" she kept asking. I wouldn't reveal anything until the end, when a frustrated and flustered Jackdaw encounters the very reason why all the animals are looking alarmed and touching their heads. We'll let you find out the answer yourselves because we don't want to spoil the surprise!

Once children have finished the story (and have demanded it read again and again, mark my words!) they can have a lot of fun practicing their sign language just like the animals in the story and learning new ways to communicate with children with hearing problems.

Julia Donaldson (herself a sufferer with hearing loss) has pulled out all the stops to produce a thoroughly engaging, thrilling and somewhat mysterious story here that is complimented by brilliant illustrations showing us exactly how to 'sign' some of the things we'll find in the book.

You can find out more about the book, and the Life and Deaf organisation on Macmillan's website for the book: http://www.panmacmillan.com/book/juliadonaldson/whatthejackdawsaw
Charlotte's best bit: Charley's visit to the dentist. Rinse please!

Daddy's Favourite bit: Brilliant fun for tiddlers, beautifully illustrated and told

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

There's always time to sneak in a few more books just in case you (like me) are a last-minute christmas shopper in search of some brilliant inspiration for your children's christmas book pile or stockings.

What a belter this is too, a novel take on those wonderful fuzzy books for toddlers that have tactile bits that are fun additions to an entertaining story. This is quite original, fun and cheeky - just the way we like our christmas books.

It's Christmas, and Santa is about to make his rounds - but his mischievous beard is looking for a new place to dwell. Off it flits, giving Santa a rest but looking for the perfect fizzog to attach itself to.

Here's where the novelty kicks in - that lovely fuzzy beard on Santa on the cover can detach, a nifty piece of velcro on each page gives you a new place to put Santa's facial fungus - with hilarious results.

Though the book is technically aimed at younger children, Charlotte spent the entire book cackling with glee as Santa's beard came to rest on a beautiful princess, or a gardening granny - or even on a little baby!

Finally it lands somewhere very cheeky indeed - but at least it's picked the right big red bottom to land on - as that bottom belongs to good old St Nick himself.

What an utterly brilliant idea for a christmas book (and don't worry about losing that beard, it's rather handily attached to the book via a piece of ribbon which should stand up to even the most enthusiastic tugging - which is more than you can say for the Santa at your local garden centre's beard!

Charlotte's best bit: Hooting with laughter at the baby with the beard! (We named him Pubert!)

Daddy's Favourite bit: What a hilarious and original christmas book - destined to cause mirth and merriment for kids of all ages!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Walker Books)

Daisy, the intrepid 6 and a half year old superspy, superhero and all round supergirl is back for another adventure, pitting her wits against the most nefarious threat to humanity ever encountered. Peas!

As you've probably read in Daisy's other books, Daisy does NOT like peas, and when Planet Pea threatens to collide with earth, meaning each and every meal (and pudding) ends up laced with the horrid green vegetable, Daisy must do something. Daisy must, in fact, become Super Daisy!

Cheered on by her friends, Daisy sets out to thwart the pea-green menace before it's too late.

We loved this book, not just because it's another excellent 'Daisy' book but because of the inventive layouts, great 'lift the flap' panels and the superb pop-up-book-like paper mechanics on some of the pages. Imbuing the book with an action-packed pace, does Daisy succeed in her quest? You'll have to read it and find out.

Charlotte's best bit: Peas in EVERYTHING even ice-cream (which she said she'd eat anyway)

Daddy's favourite bit: Seeing how long it took before Charlotte proclaimed "Daisy is ME!" (about 3 seconds).

Rating: A Peatastic 4 out of 5 peas

This jolly colourful and fun book popped itself into our library stack this week but as the old adage goes...never judge a book by its cover.

We've previously loved Pants and More Pants by Giles Andreae and Nick Sharratt to bits (and they're still both regular bed-time reads), so it seemed like Socks was going to be a dead cert for an instant 5 out of 5 but...hmm, I don't know what to say really, it's disappointing in a way that's hard to explain. Perhaps the bar has been set too high by those books and that's why Socks is a bit of a dud.

Sharratt's illustrations are as good as ever, but the book just seems to meander along making pretty awful sock-based puns before dribbling away to nothing. Charlotte is a tough critic, even tougher than me and in our weekly review schedule she's always the one who passes final judgement on a book (four years old and a tyrannical critic! Be afraid, be very afraid!) If it's her kind of thing, it will be demanded and read and re-read until I can barely stand to open the cover again. If it's not, and if it just doesn't float her boat, it gets put to the bottom of the pile and passed over in favour of the others.

Sadly, this is the case with Socks. It's very rare to see a mis-hit involving Sharratt but this is one pongy odd sock at the bottom of the wash pile alas.

Charlotte's best bit: A tiny glimmer of a smile at the sock-submarine

Daddy's favourite bit: Bright vibrant colourful illustrations that can't lift a book that has no flow or rhythm at all, sadly.

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars. Owch. 

We've had a few different books in this format before. Pages are divided up into strips and hilarity ensues when you mix and match different page 'strips' together to make crazy combinations. At least that's the idea behind The Big Book of Magical Mix-Ups, but Charlotte's idea is that you should NEVER, EVER, EVER mix the strips up, always making sure they are the same colour and make sense.

Er...

(takes child to one side, explains chaos theory and the notion of untidyness)

Ahem, that done, this book wasn't quite as big a hit as I'd hoped, though the core idea is excellent. Take a family member (ie Daddy), add a behavioural trait (boring), add a magic spell and an ingredient and end up with Daddy transformed into...a slippery frog or a chocolate fairy.

In theory it should've made Charlotte snort milk out of her nose at every page turn. In practice she's too neat and organised for such antics. Shame, I thought it was a great idea!

Charlotte's best bit: "Nosey Grandma!"

Daddy's favourite bit: "Mummy the Chocolate Fairy"

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

We'd had this book out from the library before, long before I'd started this book blog so when we saw it again we thought we'd give it another read through. By now if you've regularly kept up with "Read it, Daddy!" you'll know that Nick Sharratt's books are favourites at Maybe Towers. 

"Shark in the Park" might be quite short and fairly repetitve but the superb cutaway "circles" on each page are great surprise-reveals that children will utterly love (one slight problem with the design - kids always tend to stick their fingers through the telescope "hole" and pull the pages open that way, and this can sometimes tear the page - thankfully Charlotte's a bit more careful than some of the kids who've had the book before). 

A fabulously daft book, but excellent nonetheless. 

Charlotte's best bit: The reveal at the very end of the book. 


Daddy's favourite bit: Wishing daddy had a quiff like Timothy Pope's dad. 


Rating: 4 out of 5

Published by Walker Children's Books




We all know that Nick Sharratt's a genius and pretty much everything he commits to paper is worth reading but this book has a neat little trick up its sleeve that's bound to be a hit with your toddlers. Each page starts off as a silhouette before a turn of the page reveals what (or rather who) is hiding in the Foggy Foggy Forest. Getting your child to guess what the outlines are before slightly lifting up the page to reveal what's underneath is a great trick, before turning the page to confirm what's there.

Great fairy tale characters appear in the book in new ways that are bound to delight your children. As I've said countless times of Sharratt's books, the illustrations are crisp, bold and colourful and the fog gimmick is excellent. 

Charlotte's best bit: Guessing what all the ice creams are that Red Riding Hood is serving. 

Daddy's favourite bit: The Ogre, doing Yoga. 

Rating: 4 out of 5

Modernising a classic fairy tale for a young (and fidgety) audience, Stephen Tucker and Nick Sharratt have come up with a winning formula of bold illustrations connected to a bouncy rhyming version of the classic fairy tale. 

You may think you know the tale inside out but are you prepared to meet the hungriest troll in the world? Cooking up plenty of recipe ideas for his favourite food, Goat, the nasty Troll is easily the star of the book. Great pictures and lots of interesting flaps to lift and discover for enquiring toddlers. 

Charlotte's best bit: The Troll's house under the bridge

Daddy's favourite bit: Goat Burgers (which actually made me feel quite hungry)

Rating: 3 out of 5