Even more fitting with the season, Bea finds a cold and hungry reindeer hiding in the snow. The poor animal is quite frail and hungry and Bea is determined to sneak it into the castle until it recovers and is strong enough to be set free.  

But with party preparations keeping everyone busy, can Bea keep the little reindeer safe until she can find his family? 

C couldn't wait to dig into this one, and it's perfect for kids who love adventurous tales, and particularly kids who love animals as much as we do. 

Look out for more of Princess Bea's adventures in "The Naughty Puppy" and "The Lost Kitten" too. 

"Princess of Pets: The Snowy Reindeer" by Paula Harrison and Olivia Chin Mueller is out now, published by Nosy Crow (kindly supplied for review). 

As more and more early readers and chapter books become a staple on ReadItDaddy we thought it would be a great idea to do a monthly roundup of some of the titles that have hit our doormat. 

For your football-mad kids, "Frankie's Magic Football - Frankie Saves Christmas" by Frank Lampard (with illustrations by Mick Jackson) continues the engaging series of books with a footy and festive theme. Frankie's toughest draw yet pits Frankie and his friends against a rotten reindeer, a mischievous elf and a truly abominable snowman. It'll take more than a set of snowballs to defeat that little lot!

"Frankie's Magic Football - Frankie Saves Christmas" is released by L & B Kids on 2nd October 2014. 

Charlotte has been absolutely crazy about "The Rescue Princesses" series by Paula Harrison since mummy used to read them to her. Now Charlotte's old enough to tuck herself away with the books, and she has been voraciously consuming them at an alarming rate of knots ever since (thank goodness there are 12 books to choose from in the series. 

The two currently on Charlotte's reading pile are "The Ice Diamond" and "The Rainbow Opal" and though Charlotte's reading them in a fairly jumbled up order, she's absolutely loving this adventurous and magical series. The books are out now and Paula is hard at work on a new top-secret project for announcement in 2015 so keep an eye out for that!

Find out more about Paula and the Rescue Princesses on The Nosy Crow website.

Another extremely busy and prolific lady has a huge number of books arriving this autumn and winter. As well as "A Treasury of Animal Stories" (which collects together Holly's well-loved animal tales into one bumper volume) Holly has a new wintry book "The Winter Wolf" and a touching and heartwarming new tale about coping with loss and grief, with illustrations by Catherine Rayner - "A Tiger Tale". All three are available now so check out Holly's work, we just do not know how she manages to write so many brilliant stories, there truly is something for everyone.

Lockwood and Co - The Whispering Skull (Lockwood and Co 2) by Jonathan Stroud (Doubleday Children's Books)

Last but not least, a book that I had to kidnap all to myself. Jonathan Stroud is back with a fantastic followup to "The Screaming Staircase". "Lockwood and Co - The Whispering Skull" once again plunges us deep into the darkness of an alt-London, in the company of Lockwood, Lucy and George for more spooky goings on. I'd long been clamouring for the return of the classic ghost story when the first Lockwood book arrived with a clatter of chains and an expert swish of a rapier. "The Whispering Skull" does not disappoint, it's spooky and scary stuff but wrought with Jonathan Stroud's expert eye for detail and absolutely top notch characterisations. I couldn't put it down, seriously!

"Lockwood and Co - The Whispering Skull" arrived on September 25th from Doubleday Children's Books so go grab your copy now!

That's about it for our chapter book roundup for this month. We'll be making this a semi-regular thing so if chapter books and early readers are your thing, we'll be covering more and more on the blog very soon. 

Planning out new stories in The Rescue Princesses series is one of my favourite things. I start by developing the personality of the leading princess and go from there. Her temperament dictates the direction of the story and the challenges she needs to overcome. The girls are very different and the way they relate to each other makes the story more fun to write. Clarabel and Lulu, for example, are almost opposites: one is timid and the other headstrong. But they can overcome their instincts in the story. The moment in The Wishing Pearl where a timid Clarabel stands her ground against the impulsive and feisty Lulu, is as important to the book as the animal rescue itself.

Clarabel from "The Wishing Pearl"

Lulu

The series travels the world, which is also great fun to plan. By the end of the 9th book, the princesses will have had adventures on five continents! I research the animals I’m writing about and their habitats, even though I’m not putting huge amounts of scientific detail in the story.

It’s important to me that children who love a good adventure story should be able to read the books and get absorbed in them. When that happens they don’t even realise that they’re actually spending time working on their reading – that’s my aim! Early chapter books are great for an adult and child to share, but they’re also where most children make those first tentative steps into reading alone and when they do a whole new world opens up to them. It’s a HUGE moment! Better rates of literacy can help combat all kinds of social ills so we must support our children with their reading. To me, that makes early chapter books more important in some ways than any other category of books. We need to value the category more (I’m trying not to get on my soap box here!). It should become an even richer area full of diverse story ideas and writing talent. We should reward chapter books which are almost always ignored in literary prizes. (I’m not saying give me a prize but do give rewards in this category!) I feel lucky! I know of children who have taken their first steps as an independent reader with one of the Rescue Princesses books and that’s such a great honour.

The Rescue Princesses - The Lost Gold

Paula Harrison writes The Rescue Princesses series published by Nosy Crow. The 7th Rescue Princesses book, The Lost Gold, came out on the 2nd May. She has recently launched a series for older readers and Faerie Tribes: The Crystal Mirror is now available, also published by Nosy Crow