I must admit that I'm largely at fault for being a bit of a numpty when it comes to the subject of this latest editorial but as the subject is entirely new to me (possibly not to you more seasoned book bloggers) I figured it was worth blogging about.

It's the first time it's actually happened to us so worth a mention at least but recently we were sent a Blad to review.

Now, those of you in publishing will automatically know what on earth I'm on about. A Blad is actually an acronym term for a Basic Layout and Design book, really meant to show how a book will eventually look and feel before it hits the market.

Blads are usually never seen outside publishing houses or industry insiders, so it was quite something to receive half a book (hence the image above). Dutifully the publishers had included a QR code for the full text of the story (which, as digital naysayers we had no means of doing anything with) but the big problem was mine - I sat down excitedly, ready to read this hotly anticipated book, utterly deflated as it started to read wrong, like pages were missing. I hadn't noticed it was a Blad you see, simply because I hadn't started the book at the back cover where it stated such. As the book isn't out until September this was a really early review copy, again unusual for a picture book so noob error on trying to read it like most of our other picture book submissions. Bad Daddy!

The book in question will be really stunning in its final incarnation, I've no doubt about it. But like being teased with an amuse-bouche when you want a plateful, it left us virtually hopping from foot to foot waiting for the full thing.

It did get me musing on a couple of points though...

1) What if the practice of sending out 'blads' became the norm. In an industry where publishers are sending out an awful lot of review copies it does actually make perfect sense NOT to send full copies of books out to folk who are (let's be honest) 'doing it for the love of it' rather than being professional book journalists, you know, the sort of folk whose short pithy sentences usually accompany PR blurbs when new titles are sent out (That bloke from a certain red top who always seems to say the same thing - "A great children's book destined to become a classic" yet is endlessly quoted in back-cover quotes or press material).

2) If it DID become the norm, would people give up book blogging in their droves? After all, most book bloggers see a complimentary copy of a book as a form of unofficial 'payment' for their time and effort in putting together blog articles and reviews. What if your 'pay' is suddenly halved? What about those unscrupulous folk who sell on the review copies they get? (That's almost worthy of a whole editorial in its own right, personally I can't condone that at all, I think it's wrong but there you  go, we donate all our surplus to charities and schools that genuinely need them).

3) Digital copies are economical and easy to distribute en masse but do they really offer the same reading experience that the eventual paper-based book will? (This is a debate that'll never have a right or wrong answer though I did smile about the news this week about a surge in print sales over digital, I can't really explain why I find bucking technology so endearing).

There are folk who work entirely digitally and don't really want the clutter or annoyance of dealing with paper books but dang that's a million miles away from where we are.

Personally there's nothing worse than trying to keep Charlotte's attention on even the best of the best e-books when you're forced to grab the tablet or laptop, go through the machinations of actually getting the right e-book file or copy on there, and keeping your child's attention on the thing when they happen to know there are a zillion other time-wasting apps installed on the device that they could be messing around with instead!)

Believe me, and I really cannot stress this loudly enough. We're hugely, hugely grateful for the books we're sent - even the blads - simply because it makes us feel wanted. It's as simple as that.

Someone out there wants us to write about their books, and perhaps even values our opinions enough to kindly retweet or mention on their sites a few words we've written. That is so cool and it also means that you are making one little girl very happy because you want to know what she thinks of your books and aren't afraid that she might think they're not up to scratch.

But perhaps the way we engage with books is changing, and so the ways we write about books and work with publishers must inevitably change too.

I'd love to hear your opinions whether you're a publisher, author, illustrator or book blogger so please do drop a sentence or two below in the comments for this one.

Regular blog visitors will know how much we love the bookworld of Harry Potter. Yep, even a hardened old cynic like me with a preference for intelligent sci fi and grown up fantasy can't help but be won over by J.K. Rowling's meisterwork.

I'd promised Charlotte that I would read all the books to her when she was old enough as part of our nightly bedtime reading (and judging by our Twitter feed, quite a few other book bloggers are doing the same with their kids too, having read the books themselves).

HP readings have started to sneak into other spare moments of our time and part way through "The Goblet of Fire" I had to finally confess something that's been bothering me for a while.

"Charlotte, I really don't like Harry Potter".

Her mouth dropped open agape like she hadn't understood what I'd just said. I quickly had to follow it up by explaining that I really didn't like "The Boy Who Lived" but adore the book world, the characters, the situations and quite a huge amount of the narrative J.K Rowling writes.

But there's just something about Harry that really came to a head while reading "Goblet" again and the reason for this editorial is a dreamy musing on whether others have encountered the same problem.

There are bits in all the books, but most definitely in "The Goblet of Fire" where I find myself skipping over the "Harry" bits just to get back to plot lines featuring the other characters, and other situations on the periphery of Harry's direct involvement. By TGOF you swiftly come to a couple of conclusions about Harry (and be warned, there are spoilers ahead for the one or two of you who've never read the books but might one day and don't want them ruined for you):

1) He's one lucky son of a gun (well duh, the guy survived being blasted by one of the most powerful dark wizards who ever lived, I'd say that was pretty lucky) and seems to lurch from one scene to the next relying entirely on luck rather than (a small amount of) wizardly skill

2) He would, without any shadow of a doubt, be completely and utterly stuffed if it wasn't for just about everyone else in the books. Everyone, not just his immediate friends and cohorts.

3) Half the time you wonder whether he even wants to be where he is - as grim as the alternative is (living with his abusive relatives), there are times when you think he'd rather be selling matches on a street corner than working his way up the wizarding ranks to magical glory.

"The Goblet of Fire" just seems to underline this, hell it seems to draw a magical highlighter through it as you see Harry being mysteriously put forward for the Triwizard tournament at far too young an age, and basically reacting to this not by steeling himself and giving it his all, but basically lamming it or wringing his hands moaning "woe is me!" until someone comes along and helps him get his act together (well, at least until the end when he does finally seem to wake up and smell the butterbeer and pull his socks up at the final cataclysmic confrontation with ol' no-nose himself). Nary a nod to Moaning Myrtle (who saves his ass TWICE in the same challenge), and nought but the promise of some socks for Dobby (who also helps out in that challenge). In fact more than a modicum of cheating and subversive sneakiness as he gets the inside track on challenges from Hagrid and Bagman too. Surely not the Hogwarts way?

He does seem to redeem himself admirably of course towards the end of the book, when he brings back Cedric Diggory's body after his ultimate battle with Voldemort, but I even felt like I wanted to get past these bits with Charlotte just so we could see what happens next with the rest of the bookworld that Harry dwells in.

So many people have deconstructed the Harry Potter books, perhaps rightfully claiming that Hermione should've been the central character, or hell even Neville who suffered similar tragedy early in his life but seems to be played as a comic klutz for most of the books right up until the last few where he starts to emerge as a force to be reckoned with, an oak-hearted hero and not a dimwitted dunce.

Charlotte still argues me out on most of the points I've raised above. Harry is a hero, he's an inspiration, and he is the way he is simply because the cards never seem to be stacked in his favour and he's justified in being a bit of a reluctant hero but it still doesn't help me get over this undying urge to imagine what would've happened if Harry had simply stayed with the Dursleys.

Perhaps it is just "The Goblet of Fire" though, arguably one of the series that I remember not exactly taking to when I first read the books some years back. Things get distinctly better in "The Order of the Phoenix" and then as we move towards the latter novels and their darker tone, the books begin to feel like they're getting into their stride just as they end...(I can't comment on "Cursed Child" yet as I haven't read it, I know I should get a move on really shouldn't I!)

I'm prepared for flak, of course I am. Harry is (after all) the key character for a publishing phenomenon, the inspiration for so many kids to read and want to read big fat wordy books (hooray hooray HOORAY!) but am I really the only person who thinks Harry is a bit of a bore himself even though you can't deny the books are durned good reading all the same?

It's lovely to see you again, and hopefully by now you're all settling into the new year nicely. We've been catching up with all the books and posts we've been queueing up over the Christmas holidays and now we're firmly back into our groove.

Looking ahead even just a few months at some of the new releases due in 2016, we can tell you that you're in for a LOT of cool stuff arriving this year whether you're a new parent looking for brill books for babies, are reading picture books to your child, letting them take their first faltering steps in reading on their own or have a surly tweenager or teenager at home who picks and chooses their own books.

Kicking off our new batch of (hopefully fairly regular) editorials, we thought we'd come up with 5 things we hope to see in 2016 and also 5 things we hope we won't!

In no particular order then, we're really looking forward to: 

1) New books from some of our established faves. A new Jon Klassen "Hat" book is on the way from Walker Books and there's also the prospect of a whole new "Hilda" adventure from Luke Pearson / NoBrow / Flying Eye this year, which has us positively champing at the bit!

2) An even stronger year for non-fiction. 2015 was an amazing and brilliant year for really good quality non-fiction titles from Wide Eyed Editions, Usborne, Big Picture Press and so many others. We really hope that there'll be even more diverse and brilliant topics covered this year and we're hopelessly excited about some of the new history titles we've seen previewed from Thames and Hudson and others.

3) Middle Grade fiction making huge strides in the same way YA did last year. Again, with the focus of our blog becoming more on MG and less on picture books for young readers we're looking for the new standout titles from authors who are making MG chapter books their own, and also seeing how various publishers (such as Macmillan, Walker and Faber) are really putting their own stamp on the formats that are becoming mainstays in MG.

4) Great book events. It's a no-brainer that there'll inevitably be a ton of fantastic book events happening during 2016, I'd personally love to see more that didn't come with a hefty entry fee and are open to all, expanding the level of interest beyond hardcore book folk!

5) More diversity, more books with broad gender appeal, more interesting subjects tackled in books for younger readers (kids aren't dumb so don't dumb things down for them, and a hugely successful year for print AND digital because the two formats really can benefit and compliment each other - it really isn't a format 'war'

And in no particular order, 5 things we'd love to see the back of in 2016

1) Girl / Boy books. Old fashioned, outdated, and generally not needed nor wanted - let's put them to bed in 2016 for once and for all!

2) Tedious "School" books that don't encourage or engage. It's been one of our frustrations during Charlotte's reading journey that in general, the books she brings home from school are gone through as a 'chore' and as a measurement exercise rather than doing what they should be doing - really getting her interested in books and reading, and engaging her. This is always going to be a tricky one but since she became a 'free reader' at school and could go and choose her own books from the library, we've noticed far less reluctance to 'school reading' and tons more interest, in line with the work we put in with her ourselves.

3) Diversity treated as some kind of amazing and fantastic unique 'selling' point. Diversity in children's literature should be celebrated for sure, but it should also be the norm. All kids should be able to see themselves in books, movies, magazines, TV and internet content they're exposed to BY DEFAULT and there's so much more work to be done here not just with race and gender but with so many other aspects of diversity too.

4) Disney / Marvel / DC to stop bloody well treating girls like some weird species that only likes their products or characters if they're dressed up in Taffeta ball gowns. Mighty girls need more than that, mighty girls want superheroes and brilliant character merchandise just as much as the mighty boys do and if I see one more Star Wars Force Awakens product line arriving on shelves WITHOUT REY I'll be shouting about it from the rooftops until something changes.

5) Format wars. There's a place for E-books, and there's a place for print and both can exist in perfect harmony whether you're dedicated to your kindle or love the tangible feel of having a ton of books on shelves around your home. So many times we see the press leaping on any drop in either side's sales with glee which is just completely stupid and makes no sense. Personally I'd love to see both flourishing because more sales = a more healthy publishing market, more encouragement for publishers, authors and artists to do the amazing things they do and in general more people reading than staring dead-eyed at TV screens or hilarious cat or minecraft videos on YouTube.

We hope you'll stay with us on our book journey in 2016 and we look forward to hearing from you in our comments or on our social network feeds.

Love love love

Phil, Ali and Charlotte @ ReadItDaddy