Zany, whacky, and slightly educational? What better way to describe a counting book that doesn't just follow the usual format - but includes a ton of humour and fun.

"You Can't Count on Dinosaurs" by Philip Ardagh and Elissa Elwick proves just how difficult it can be when you're counting a bunch of very busy prehistoric creatures.

They don't seem to want to sit still for more than 5 minutes, which means that counting them from one to ten is extremely tricky.

But we trust our young readership, and know that in the end they'll know just how many dinosaurs are on each page.

A naughty T-Rex, a slightly scaredy-cat Apatosaurus and the cutest triceratops you've ever met are all present and correct in this book (with fabulous endpapers to introduce these busy characters to you - oh and a rather lovely dedication to Judith Kerr which we really loved!)

Let's take a peek inside:

How rude!! Rex's table manners leave a lot to be desired!

Don't even think about it, Rex!!

Clear the road! Get out of the way, the bunnies are coming and this time they're mobile!

In the rip-roaring and chaotic "Bunnies on the Bus" by Philip Ardagh and Ben Mantle, bunnies are on a jaunty ride aboard a fuzzy bus filled with cuteness.

These bunnies will stop at nothing to get where they're going, and the driver swerves his way through Sunnytown honking his horn. 

Once again, Messrs Ardagh and Littler land slap bang in the middle of our Chapter Book of the Week slot with the fourth in their fantastic "Secret Diary" series...

Our Chapter Book of the Week this week makes it 3 for 3 for this utterly brilliant history series from Philip Ardagh and Jamie Littler...

Time to step back into history for another fantatic book of the week from Messrs Ardagh and Littler...

Phillip Ardagh, author of awesome "The Secret Diary of John Drawbridge" available now from Nosy Crow / National Trust

We're making room on the blog today for one mighty beard, and one mighty author. Phillip Ardagh, genius behind the new "Secret Diary" series has unleashed "The Secret Diary of John Drawbridge" on the world with a hysterical historical take on Medieval life. You can find out what we thought of it in our chapter book roundup a wee while ago here - but in the meantime here's Phillip with a Q & A session to talk about his new book series.



Did you visit any particular National Trust properties as research for The Secret Diaries series?

The honest answer is “yes and no”, which may not be very helpful but is the truth. I’ve been a member of the National Trust for donkey’s years – not to be confused with donkey’s EARS – and have been visiting National Trust since -- *lowers voice* -- the 1960s. So I have, in effect – and in a car AND on foot – been researching these Secret Diaries for forty or so years before I even knew I was going to write them. I’m also very fortunate that my favourite castle in Britain is less than an hour from my house by catapult. (Admittedly, it has to be a very large catapult and fired by an expert.) It’s Bodiam Castle on the Kent/East Sussex border. It even has an amazing moat, full of ENORMOUS koi carp which nibble the ducks’ feet whenever anyone throws bird food into the water. Although Bodiam is very much a ruin on the inside, it looks very much intact from the outside – except for the missing barbican (the gatehouse on its own tiny ‘island’) – and I certainly visited it more than once whilst writing John Drawbridge, and snooped around all sorts of other National Trust castles. We even launched John Drawbridge at Wray Castle in the Lake District (even though that’s not a medieval one)!


You say you’ve been visiting National Trust properties since childhood. Did they inspire your interest in history?

Yes. Absolutely. National Trust houses and castles and land certainly helped bring history to life for me. To be in a room with low doorways and wooden beams and dark wooden furniture, looking at the tools people used, the embroidery they made, the documents they wrote, the gardens they designed and tended… it gave me a real sense of people in the past having been living, breathing people in some ways so similar to me and yet so different. It really fired my imagination both for a love of history but also of writing fiction too; imagining all the excitement and skulduggery that must have gone on in these places. The good times, bad times and funny, happy and sad moments. I feel a song coming on…