Putting a new spin on classic fairy tales isn't easy, and a lot of people give them a bit of a dust and polish without bringing anything new to the table. You definitely cannot say that about Teresa Heapy and Sue Heap's "Very Little" series, and this is the second book that has had us simultaneously guffawing like goons and hugging ourselves with glee at just how durned great it is.

"Very Little Cinderella" starts off with tiddler Cinders 'cleaning up the house' (which, as any parent of a toddler will tell you, means making ten times more mess than they created in the first place). Very Little Cinderella's very big (but not very ugly) Ugly Sisters aren't too impressed with the cleaning attempts, but as VLC snaffles a snack biscuit they have more news.

"We are going to a party!" they proclaim.

Very Little Cinderella wants to party too, but she's going to be looked after by a special babysitter, The Fairy Godmother (who I think I've got a bit of a book crush on. She's CUTE!)

Very Little Cinderella is determined that she wants to sneak off to the party instead of helping clean up the house, so with a little magic and the world's greatest selection of dresses ("This is my best bit!" said Charlotte, falling instantly in love with the Pearly Dress), the plan is afoot. Gatecrash the party but be back home before the clock strikes 12 and the magic runs out.

After a weeny tantrum about what to wear (this is a bit where I laughed, then realised I was laughing about something Charlotte drives us both mad with EVERY TIME WE HAVE TO GO ANYWHERE!) and a quick change of transport (who needs a pumpkin coach when you've got a big blue scooter, yay!) it's off to the party to do dancing and making friends.

As the clock strikes 12 and the Fairy Godmother scoops up Very Little Cinderella to head for home, VLC realises she's lost her very favourite yellow (sorry, I mean LELLO!) boot.

She's inconsolable. No amount of biccies or boots will brighten Cinders' glumness. But wait, who's that at the door? A very little Prince (and his mum) with the missing boot! HOORAY HOORAY HOORAY!

After a bit of a bootswap (again this is so brilliantly observer, why do kids always want to swap shoes?) and a play date, Very Little Cinderella and Very Little Prince Charming become firm friends, dawwww bless their little lello and spotted boots!

We loved this - and now bedtime has become a two-book juggling act between Very Little Cinderella and Very Little Red Riding Hood (we were very pleased to see "Foxy" make a cameo appearance in Very Little Cinderella, Sue managed to work him into one of the book's lovely illustration panels). We truly can't wait for the next book in the series (which at the time of writing is almost finished, and we're allowed to tell you that it's going to be Very Little Sleeping Beauty - Teresa's awesome sons who were at the book signing told us it was OK to say so!)

Charlotte's best bit: The choosing of the special party dress. I thought the 'neat' dress was ace, but Charlotte couldn't resist the shiny dress.

Daddy's Favourite bit: Brilliantly funny, acutely well observed, fantastically illustrated, a super-treat from Heapy and Heap!

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Very Little Red Riding Hood by Teresa Heapy and Sue Heap

Yummy yummy cake! (Not Lello though!)

Teresa (standing) and Sue (kneeling) getting ready to captivate the gathered audience

Don't forget the lello boots!

Charlotte drawing a Very Little Prince (love those red cheeks!)

The awesome Woolly and Tig are stars of a CBeebies TV show where a little girl and her spider pal have all sorts of adventures. Though we don’t watch CBeebies any more, we were aware of the show and were delighted to discover a great series of children’s books have been released by Bantam to accompany the series, helping children gain a better understanding of their world and all the wonderful things in it.

In “Woolly at Nursery” Tig and Woolly enjoy all the fun and activities in nursery class. But one day Tig has a minor bump with one of her classmates. It’s the sort of thing that happens all the time when a group of toddlers play together (we’ve lost count of the amount of times Charlotte has knocked heads completely accidentally with one of her classmates) but Tig is suddenly not so keen on Nursery, and has a mysterious tummy ache next morning when Daddy is about to drop her off.

Woolly comes to the rescue. He tells Tig that sometimes when we have a worry, it’s best to talk about that worry with mum and dad, with our nursery teacher or even with the person who might have accidentally caused the problem in the first place. Woolly is always full of the best advice, and soon Tig and her nursery friend are enjoying themselves and enjoying all the fun of nursery class once more.

Books that help children deal with their anxieties are often a really good way to allay childhood fears, particularly when characters a child is familiar with (for instance, TV characters) are imparting the advice. This book is a great little read, even for children Charlotte's age who often face unfamiliar situations and have anxieties about them (for instance, in half term week, going into Activity Camps just like Charlotte is this week - so the book arrived with brilliant timing!)

With full colour photos, and clear text, it's a great addition to the Woolly and Tig range.

"Woolly at Nursery" by Brian Jameson will be published by Bantam Books on 27th February 2014.

Charlotte's best bit: Tig's classmate's reaction to Woolly!

Daddy's Favourite bit: A really great little book to help children talk about and overcome their anxieties and worries, using familiar and well-loved TV characters, a brill idea!

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

What can we say? What CAN we say? We had the toughest of tough choices this week to choose between a fabulous cat (well, Tiger) book or a book featuring a dashing doggie duo - we couldn't separate them so once again you're treated to a double helping of Book of the Week goodness! You lucky people!

When I first heard that Shirley Hughes and Clara Vulliamy were teaming up for a book, I nearly fell off my chair. This is the sort of news that makes a children's book blogger deliriously happy. Mum and daughter, both hugely talented, collaborating on something that - as we followed, teetering on the edge of our seats with every twist and turn during the book's development - shaped up to be something truly special.

And special it is. For starters it features utterly wonderful classic cars woven into the story of Dixie O'Day, a rather dapper gentleman dog and his (slightly rough around the edges) sidekick Percy. Both enjoy a good biscuit dunked in their tea (Dixie likes a custard cream while Percy is like Charlotte, completely hooked on Jammie Dodgers - bless 'em!), both enjoy a drive out in the countryside in Dixie's fabulous classic Ford Zephyr soft-top, and both definitely love a good race.

The format of this book is special too. We've been clamouring about early chapter readers featuring full illustrations throughout for quite a long time. Previously we've seen very few of these (in fact the only other examples I can think of in Charlotte's collection are the sublime "Claude" series from Alex T. Smith and the utterly brilliant "Harry and the Lady Next Door" by Gene Zion and Margaret Bloy-Graham) but the genius of "Dixie O'Day in the Fast Lane" is splitting the book into five bedtime-sized chapters that can be enjoyed over the space of a week. So you get the bonus of a longer book, divided into bite-sized chunks, but with a little more depth and substance than your average picture book. HOORAY for this format, please please please can we have some more?

Lou Ella, she's like a female Terry-Thomas. A thoroughly bad egg! (LOVE that Diner though!)

We loved the 'background info' and exquisite extra details in the book, which echoes Clara's wonderful "Bunny Brothers" series. The Q & A with Dixie was lovely, as were the various activities and games to play on long car journeys.

But what of the story itself? Dixie and Percy seem to inhabit a world that you really would want to live in. A world where Zoom lollies taste so mouth-wateringly perfect that you instantly crave another after you've finished one. A world where badgers run the local 50s-themed diner and garage, or where waspish neighbours (actually Lou Ella was Charlotte's favourite character - "She is me!" she proudly bellowed, though I don't think she's really that bad!) will stop at nothing to win a local car race.

On the cars in this book - poor Clara has had to listen to me 'droning on' about cars on Twitter for ages but she clearly knows her stuff. We did love Dixie's fabulous Ford but we also rather loved Lou Ella's racey E-Type Jag-alike, and the mouse with his tractor / cheese caravan. Weirdly though, intentional or not, this car was like greeting an old friend again...


...purely because it reminded me of my absolute FAVOURITE toy car from childhood - this little beauty, the Corgi Jet Car:


(I don't think mine had a droopy nose like that though, eeks!)

Charlotte loves this book, because it's exciting, thrillingly paced, and though she proudly claims she's Lou Ella, I think she's got a secret crush on Percy who is welcome to share her mini snack-time Jammie Dodgers any time.

Oh - and one final thing, best bit of the book by far is what you'll find at the end - the welcome confirmation that we will be seeing more of dashing Dixie O'Day and Percy in "The Great Diamond Robbery" next. HOORAY!

Charlotte's best bit: Lou Ella. Fashion icon, but definitely not the sort of person you'd want to live next door to or be in a race with! Boo Hiss!

Daddy's Favourite bit: A genius format, a brilliant story, two of the most talented ladies in the business (who just happen to be mother and daughter) working together in an absolute dream of a book. Don't hang around, go and live life in the fast lane with Dix and Perc!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Random House / Bodley Head)

The Last Minute by Eleanor Updale (Cover by Richard Collingridge)

In an accident, survivors always describe the moments up to the event itself as happening almost in slow motion. As if time somehow grinds to a halt around a cataclysmic event. In Eleanor Updale's latest novel "The Last Minute", time stretches out across 60 chapters like the threads of a complex tapestry. As voyeurs to the events preceding a huge tragedy in a small town, we are painfully and torturously placed in the lead car of a roller coaster ride that slams straight into a brick wall, full stop.

Books are often described as building tension towards a climax, page turners keeping readers on the edge of their seats. In "The Last Minute" we, as readers, follow each thread disjointedly with no choice but to hang on as Updale's almost documentarian storytelling hints at the impact to come.

It's a tough read for a lot of reasons. At times, it's overwhelming trying to pick up the threads you're most interested in (and everyone will have a particular 'favourite' character or plotline they identify with - from an unfortunate man heading for a job interview, victim to several "Mr Bean" style accidents along the way to a toddler staring through the window of a coffee shop, fascinated by a digger working on the road).

As the novel reaches the peak at which we feel like we should hold our breath, we already know that tragedy is close at hand so the book feels like it finishes on a low. This is not a novel to cheer yourself up with, this is a novel that radically demonstrates the sheer amount of contributing factors towards a tragedy, and how the fallout from it affects the people involved.

There's a great web resource to visit for more information on the book's fictional report into the tragedy itself

www.eleanorupdale.com/minute

I'd advise you to read the book first though. It's a really fast-paced novel that is virtually impossible to put down once you start to flick through. I did feel that the actual chain of events at the end of that fateful minute felt like they were skipped over, compared to the build up, but it's intense and interesting to read how the report tries to piece together the exact circumstances of the tragedy afterwards. Fascinating, chilling, gripping.