So we've already established that the surreal 70s charm of Barbapapa was a HUGE hit with Charlotte when she received the first of the newly reprinted Orchard Press versions of these timeless classic stories.

If anything, the second book to be reprinted is even more popular with her. Read on and you'll find out why.

Barbapapa is looking a little under the weather, and Francoise is worried about his shape-shifting chum. An animal doctor takes a look at Barbapapa and finds him in perfect health. The problem isn't physical, it's emotional. Barbapapa is lonely and needs a Barbamama!

Francoise and his best friend decide to embark on a journey to find a Barbamama. With Barbapapa accompanying them, they soon jet off around the globe to find Barbapapa a soul mate. They search in London, they search in India, they scour the US but sometimes the very thing you're looking hardest for can be right under your nose!

Charlotte's excitement at finding out that there was a female counterpart to Barbapapa was amusing - more so when she realised that Barbapapa has an entire family too (this isn't really much of a spoiler since technically you'll meet them all in the end-papers of both books which is, in itself, a bit spoilery). Charlotte loved Barbamama (who always reminded me of a hippy and groovy chick) but loved the Barbababies too (particularly the very lucky little long haired fellow!)

Now we know that more reprints are scheduled for early next year we can't wait to read more of Barbapapa's adventures. This is a really sweet little tale so prepare to meet the Barba-family!


Charlotte's best bit: Barbapapa and Barbamama's amazing children who pop up from seeds in the ground. Pop!

Daddy's Favourite bit: An awesome road trip with a shape-changing hero, we truly can't wait for more Barbapapa from Orchard next year!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Orchard Press)

We're back for a second look at Guy Parker-Rees' fantastic Tom and Millie books. This time Tom and Millie aren't on a Great Big Treasure Hunt , they're wondering what they'd like to be when they grow up (depressingly, I put the question to Charlotte while we were reading this and she said "I want to work in a shop!" and I said "A bookshop?" and she replied in stern tones "NO silly, Co-Op!" - eep!)

Tom and Millie decide to visit their relatives and friends to find out what jobs they do, and how much they enjoy them. Mum works at the hospital and loves it to pieces. Auntie is in charge of a building site, and Uncle drives a recycle truck!

As with Tom and Millie's Great Big Treasure Hunt, this book encourages children to find lots of different things in each busy and detailed scene - and threaded throughout the book is the challenge to find a tiny little ladybird who features in each double page spread (we particularly loved the GIANT version in the museum, hehe!)

Lots of people have compared the Tom and Millie books to the works of the late great Richard Scarry - which would be a heck of an honour for anyone indeed. But I think Guy has carved out a neat little pair of books that are absolutely perfect in their own right, and great books for spurring a child's imagination, creating great discussion points and of course playing "I-Spy" as children search for their favourite characters in each scene (as well as that elusive ladybird), play counting games in some of the panels and enjoy the story too of course, mean that you end up with a nice multi-faceted book to read and re-read again and again. Top work Mr Parker-Rees!

Charlotte's best bit: The dinosaur museum (and the naughty kid hiding in the dino eggs! Tsk!)

Daddy's favourite bit: Love the Scarry-esque anthropomorphised animals, but love the different approaches you can take with this book (and The Great Big Treasure Hunt too, of course). Stunning stuff!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Guy / Orchard Press)

My lovely other half The Strolling Mum first spotted this book on one of our regular visits to our fab indie bookstore Mostly Books and we all fell in love with it more or less instantly. It was high on the wishlist so just before Christmas we made sure this was going to be in Charlotte's stocking. She absolutely loves the Beauty and the Beast Disney treatment, and recently also went to see an astonishingly good stage production of the Broadway musical, so it's really no surprise to find this book becoming our first Book of the Week of 2013.

Sticking to a fairly traditional treatment of the story, Beauty and the Beast tells the tale of a merchant with three beautiful daughters who seeks refuge in a mysterious castle one evening. Making free with the facilities and hospitality, the merchant is entirely unaware that the castle holds a dark secret. A beast is lord and master of the castle, and demands that the merchant pays a terrible price for stealing one of the beast's prize roses to give to his youngest daughter, named Beauty.

The beast is intrigued by Beauty and rather than demand the merchant's life, he asks the man to bring his daughter to the castle so she can take his place instead.

Beauty is charming, intelligent and well read - and instantly wins the Beast over. Rather than kill her as agreed, he holds her captive.

Her family fear her lost forever, and though her (rather shallow and annoying) sisters mourn for a little while, her father is devastated at the loss of his favourite daughter.

A magic mirror in the castle shows Beauty her family day by day, and she watches - grief stricken - as her father wastes away pining for her.

If your only exposure to the Beauty and the Beast story is the Disney treatment, do yourself a massive favour and pick this book up - and treat yourself to a far better version lovingly told and paid homage to by Ursula Jones. Sarah Gibb's haunting and exquisite artwork perfectly accompanies the story, doing away with the over-cute Disney-fied imagery in favour of something that virtually leaps off the page with vibrant colour suffused with cameo-like shadowy scenes. In essence, this is the sort of beautiful book that harks back to an era when brilliant story collections based on the works of Hans Christian Andersen and The Brothers Grimm were often bound together in huge volumes and deliciously illustrated.

Perfect in virtually every way and a very well deserved book of the week.

Charlotte's best bit: Beauty's amazing dresses (including a certain yellow number that Charlotte just fell hopelessly in love with).

Daddy's favourite bit: Luxuriously presented with the sort of artwork that makes your jaw drop.

At home, Charlotte is amazingly heavy-footed for a 4 year old girl who weighs less than an oak leaf, but when she had a stint at ballet classes she was amazingly fleet of foot and absolutely loves anything to do with Ballet (including, obviously, wearing those pink tutus - in fact if we pick her up from preschool and she's not wearing the preschool tutu, we think there's something wrong with her) so this book was an instant hit.

It's the simple story of a little girl called Tilly who goes to ballet class every Tuesday. She practices hard for the big ballet show.

Each page sneaks in lots of illustrations that hint at how 'good toes, naughty toes' and 'pleies and Jetes' lead to fluid dance movements, but told in a real child-friendly story format. Tilly is an easy character for little girls to identify with too, so it's a great book if your youngster is slightly obsessed about ballet and dance (as Charlotte is).

Charlotte's best bit: Tilly dressing up as a cat. Miaow!

Daddy's favourite bit: Jake (the only boy in class) doing the dinosaur dance.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Though we first reviewed "That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown" last October, Charlotte grabbed it again from the library and I thought it was worth taking another look at it simply because she's been driving us absolutely crazy with this book, wanting to read it at least 3 times a day or more. 

So what's so fascinating about the story of Emily Brown and her rabbit, Stanley?

Getting into the mindset of a three year old isn't easy when they've got 40 years on you but it seems to be the book's neat way of showing the consequences of naughtiness. As we said in the last review, Queen Gloriana the Third will pretty much stop at nothing to own Emily Brown's "bunny wunny" Stanley. No amount of bribery or bargaining will get Emily Brown to give up her companion, her co-adventurer and her favourite toy. 

Perhaps the veiled lesson "you can't always get what you want so make do with what you've got" may be lost on Charlotte, but certainly Emily Brown's (rather kind) way of helping Queen Gloriana realise this is quite a neat twist. 

I promise I won't make a habit of re-hashing reviews but the tenacity Charlotte has shown in demanding this book be read make me think it was worth another look. 

Charlotte's (new) best bit: The dolls that say "Mama, Mama!"

Daddy's (new) best bit: Nah I still like the Queen's Secret Commandos. 

Published by Orchard Press





Sunny McCloud is normally happy go lucky, yep that's her in a nutshell. But something awful has happened. Sunny has lost her smile. 

This super-cute book is instantly engaging. Fantastic child-like artwork (have you ever tried to draw something as a child would? It's extremely difficult, believe it or not!) helps lift the story above the norm. Sunny's flights of imaginative fancy as she searches low and high for her smile are superbly done and the book's as bright and sunny as the heroine herself, despite the poor lass spending the majority of the book in the doldrums. 

Charlotte's best bit: Mr Glittergills

Daddy's favourite bit: Daddy only managing to wear a "flop" instead of the flip-flops.

Rating: 5 out of 5