This one originally came as a recommendation from awesome Catherine over at the fabulous Story Snug blog and we were utterly delighted with it - and it still gets read today.

It feels like the sort of book I loved as a kid too, purely because it's a work of whimsy that doesn't feel the need to cram a 'message' down your throat like so many other picture books you won't find in our #Booky100Keepers list.

The story opens with a bus driver, a chap who is well and truly stuck in a rut. He gets up at the same time every morning, goes to work at the same time every morning, and sets off on time in his big red bus.

Only...one morning something changes. Thanks to some traffic the driver sees another road, a road he's never gone down before - and soon he and his passengers are embarking on a mystery tour to 'who knows where' aboard the bus (kids don't actually worry about the fact that some of the folk on the bus need to get to work or school, they just go along with the story without questioning the mechanics of it, and I ADORE that about this book).

As the driver picks up more and more passengers, they all begin to realise that the bus is getting a bit crowded. But never mind, they're an inventive lot and help to build another deck on the bus, and another, and another - until the bus eventually reaches the sea.

Journey over? Not a bit of it! The bus is retrofitted with the ability to float, and eventually to fly in the book's big fold-out surprise reveal. For all we know that bus is still rolling along too!

Over the course of the ten years of writing this blog we've always craved stories like this. Stories that spur kids' imaginations and let them fly. Books that don't make a pretence that they're imparting some nugget of wisdom that your common sense wouldn't have already told you (and if there's one huge criticism I'd make of the current UK picture book market, it's that it's utterly and completely bloated with horrid little books that deem to tell you - or your kids -  how to live a better life or to be a better person). This book does none of those things. This book merely sets out to entertain you and boy, it sure does a good job of that.

Original review link

https://readitdaddy.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-hundred-decker-bus-by-mike-smith.html

Well we had to save the best till last, of course, and we couldn't resist the idea of spending christmas amongst the Moomins! Tove Jansson's timeless creations are given a new lease of life with family approval in "Christmas Comes to Moominvalley" by  Alex Haridi, Cecilia Davidsson and Filippa Widlund.

In this exquisitely illustrated and authentic re-telling of Tove Jansson's classic story The Fir Tree, the Moomins are woken up from their winter sleep to be told that 'Christmas' is coming. The only trouble is, the Moomins have no idea who, or what Christmas is! Calamities!

A new generation of readers will enjoy meeting the loveable Moomintoll, Moominpappa and Moominmamma, and all their friends as they experience their very first, and slightly stressful Christmas - and puzzle over what it all means. 

Honestly, there's literally nothing better than a brilliant chapter book - and now it's Christmas Eve Eve (or Day 23 on our Booky Advent Calendar, if you like!) let's dip into "The Real Family Christmas" by Sue Mongredien and Kate Pankhurtst.

It's chaos, absolute chaos in the Christmas household. No, I don't mean just any household but Santa's own family household - and here's three stories that see Santa and his missus, kids and relatives going through the sort of manic stuff we all have to put up with as the festive season gets under way.

Nick (a.k.a. Father Christmas) catches the flu just before Christmas day (tsk tsk Santa, didn't you get your Flu Jab?), meaning that it's up to his fun-loving younger brother Harry to save the day in "Uncle Christmas".

We make no apologies for being well and truly into the christmas spirit. It tends to kick off early at ReadItDaddy Towers and we're already eyeing up the Christmas Decorations, readying ourselves for the festive season.

Book wise we've seen SO MANY brilliant christmas books that we're devoting our entire run-up to Christmas to them, but before that let's take a look at a gorgeous selection of books from Pan Macmillan and Egmont Publishing, each and every one of which would make a perfect gift for the book lover in your family.

First there's the utterly adorable "Grandpa Christmas" by Michael Morpurgo and Jim Field. A master storyteller, an illustrator who charms us to bits with his glorious illustrations, it's like the best christmas present ever! "Grandpa Christmas" tells the story of Little Mia who, along with her family, love to read their Christmas Letter from Grandpa every year.

Grandpa's letter urges everyone to think about how we can look after our beautiful world, and treasure all the wonderful things in it. At a time of year when it's so easy to take things for granted, this poignant christmas message is a truly wonderful piece of work from two immensely talented superstars in kidlit. Put it at the top of your picture book buying list this christmas!

"Grandpa Christmas" by Michael Morpurgo and Jim Field is out now, published by Egmont. 

Fortnite? What's that? Pff, we still prefer the delights of Mojang's Minecraft, and Egmont have all your survival needs covered in the stupendous "Minecraft Survival Collection" - a bumper selection of Minecraft books to keep you busy worldbuilding (and surviving) over the yuletide season.

With exclusive tips from the developers at Mojang, the Minecraft Survival Collection might just save your life! The Guide to Exploration will teach you how to thrive in the Overworld. The Guide to the Nether and the End will teach you how to survive in each of these dangerous dimensions. The Guide to Enchantments and Potions will teach you how to enchant your equipment and brew useful potions. The Guide to Farming will teach you how to be self-sufficient in everything from food to hostile mob drops (plus, if you're like us, who can resist building a huge farm full of cute animals and their babies

Thanks to our good friend Catherine over at StorySnug for recommending this one. Narrowly missing out on our "Transport" theme from last week, our copy of "The Hundred Decker Bus" by Mike Smith arrived over the weekend and we've been reading through it again and again.

The story starts off as the bus driver prepares for an ordinary driving day. He drinks his cup of tea, slides on his jacket and pulls out of the bus station precisely on time. He picks up the same passengers every day, and travels the same route - but a mysterious side road catches his eye. What would be at the end of that mysterious road? Time to find out!

His (very understanding) passengers don't mind the diversion, and soon the bus is sailing through country lanes and past beautiful fields, picking up lots of new passengers on the way. When the bus stops at the sea, the journey doesn't end there. Soon the bus is on board a ferry, sailing for distant lands.

Sailors decide that a mystery journey sounds fun - but the bus is already full! What can be done? With a swift bit of expert engineering the sailors add Deck 3 to the bus - and the scene is set for more adventures, more passengers and even more decks!

We loved the way the story built up to a brilliant climax as more and more detailed little decks are added, more passengers clamber aboard for an adventure - and there's an absolutely HUGE fold-out page to be enjoyed once the bus gets to 100 decks tall.

The fun doesn't last forever. As you'd imagine, the poor bus suffers from the extra load and breaks down - but can something or someone pitch in at the last minute to help out? (We'll let you find out the answer for yourself in this fab book).

There are so many brilliant bits in the book (a bus with its own swimming pool! Wow!) and Mike's eye for detail is awesome. We enjoyed our journey aboard the 100 decker bus and so will you!

Charlotte's best bit: Going swimming in the deep end (and looking at the butterflies out of the window)

Daddy's Favourite bit: Fun, detailed and a wonderful fold-out that's taller than I am! A truly fantastic journey!

As children progress through their Early Years reading, and their skills increase, they'll begin to tackle a huge range of different book types - including more factual stuff.

The "Let's Talk About" Range is a neat little series of books that tackle ordinary everyday subjects from a child's perspective.

In the two books we looked at, "Big Beds and Bedtime" and "My New Baby", two children 'tell' the reader what it's like to sleep in a big bed for the first time - or what it's like to have a new baby brother arriving on the scene.

Busy layouts almost mimic the thought processes of a child, and this adds to the appeal of the books - particularly for young readers who work through the books themselves enjoying both the fantastic photos and entertaining text.

Charlotte's best bit: The funny photos of babies and their moods at the end of "My New Baby"

Daddy's favourite bit: A really cool and contemporary look and feel makes these really appealing to early readers, or just to dip into for a quick bedtime read.

(Kindly sent to us for review by Campbell Books / Pan Macmillan)

Here's a fantastic little range of Early Readers from Kingfisher Books, taking a slightly different tack to most KS1 and KS2 books. Developed in conjunction with literacy experts, the books cover a broad range of topics.

We looked at three: Baby Animals by Thea Feldman, Where We Live and The Fastest by Brenda Stones - each with fantastic photographic illustrations to underpin interesting layouts and text flows to engage children who don't get on that well with the standard Early Readers formats.

With Charlotte at an age where she's hungrily consuming early readers at a rate of knots (and when she can't read those, she'll sit there reading words off the sides of tissue boxes - seriously!) these are a great addition to a home library. They may feel a bit too 'schooly' for some children, but they're very enjoyable and the diverse range of subjects should ensure a good spread in the range to engage both girls and boys.

Check out the rest of the range on the Kingfisher Books website:

http://www.kingfisherreaders.com/uk/index.html


Charlotte's favourite bit: An engaging and extremely attractive range of early readers that really appealed to her current mood of 'finding things out' and fact-gathering.

Daddy's favourite bit: A really nice 'break' from the usual early readers we get sent home from school, the non-fiction approach is brilliant and seems to work better in some ways than some of the usual disjointed storytelling approaches in early reader ranges.

(Kindly sent to us for review by Pan Macmillan / Kingfisher Books)