It all began with "Lunchtime" by Rebecca Cobb - we fell totally in love with Rebecca's stories and her truly gorgeous art style right from the moment we read that book.

Like so many keepers, the joy of a book that becomes something of a performance piece for a dad reading to his daughter cannot be understated - nor can the simple core theme of the story of a little girl who won't eat her lunch, and what happens when a hungry bear, wolf and crocodile turn up to join her - eyeing up her soup, sandwich and apple with greedy eyes.

Each character in the story had a voice when I'd read this aloud to C.

Bear was slightly gruff, with that weird inflection in his voice a bit like Boris Johnson in full blustering flow.

Wolf was slightly more sneaky, subversive, whispering. Crocodile was snappy and brash, no nonsense.

We read this so many times we practically read the print off the thing, and it led on to a huge appreciation of Rebecca's other work, whether penning and illustrating her own brilliant stories or working with other creative folk - even one I previously couldn't stand anything by (Richard Curtis, in case you were wondering - Oh alright, Blackadder was great but I think a lot of that was down to Ben Elton to be honest!)

Anyway we're here to talk about Rebecca's work, and this one is also worthy of note (honestly though, after the last few books in our #Booky100Keepers you're going to think we're a bit obsessed with death).

"Missing Mummy" is one of the best books about bereavement, thanks to the unique perspective of describing loss from the child's point of view, but also because of Rebecca's trademark art style - lending itself well to a diary-like account of a child's grief at the loss of a parent.

Sensitive, touching and beautiful, this book highlights just how much emotion Rebecca's illustrative work conveys with such beautifully economic but utterly fitting artwork underpinning a subject that is extremely tough to cover effectively in a way that doesn't sound like it's talking down to children, that genuinely helps them feel that they're definitely not alone in feeling the way they do.

Rebecca's illustrations for other authors are also loads of fun, but it always felt like she kept her best work for her own books - and we'll never get tired of them even though little miss isn't so little any more.

Original Review Links: 

The Something by Rebecca Cobb (Macmillan Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's Second Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 8th June 2018 - "The Day the War Came" by Nicola Davies and Rebecca Cobb (Walker Books)

"It's a Little Baby" by Julia Donaldson and Rebecca Cobb (Macmillan Children's Books)

Missing Mummy by Rebecca Cobb (Macmillan Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's Book of the Week - Week Ending 20th December 2013 - "Aunt Amelia" by Rebecca Cobb (Macmillan Children's Books)

Bonus Christmas Eve Booky Advent Calendar - "Snow Day" by Richard Curtis and Rebecca Cobb (Picture Puffin)

The Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson and Rebecca Cobb (Macmillan Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's Booky Advent Book of the Week - Week Ending 5th December 2014 - "Snow Day" by Richard Curtis and Rebecca Cobb (Picture Puffin)

The ReadItDaddy Interview - We catch up with Rebecca Cobb, illustrator of "The Day the War Came" by Nicola Davies (Walker Books)

Lunchtime by Rebecca Cobb (Macmillan Children's Books)

We're absolutely thrilled to be joined on the blog today by a hugely talented illustrator who has produced some of our favourite books.

Rebecca Cobb has now provided illustrations for one of our Picture Book of the Week winners for this week. "The Day the War Came" by Nicola Davies is a touching, heartwarming and thought provoking story of the migrant crisis and the terrors of war as seen through the eyes of a child.

Without further ado, let's chat to Rebecca about her amazing work.



1) Hi Rebecca. Thank you for joining us on ReadItDaddy, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Hello, thank you very much for having me! I am a picture book illustrator and author and I live in Cornwall with my husband and two young daughters. As far back as I can remember I have always drawn and made things. When I was little I used to write and illustrate little books and stick them together and I’m very lucky that I still get to do that!


2) We’ve been HUGE fans of your work since the blog began and have always loved your gift for creating the most amazing expressions in your characters. Can you tell us a bit more about your process?

Thank you, that is very kind of you to say! The character design is usually the first stage when I’m illustrating a book and working out not only what they will look like but also how they are feeling and what their personality is like. I have often caught myself subconsciously pulling the expressions that I am drawing on a character’s face! The next step is to storyboard the book, working out the layout and pacing of the whole thing and the compositions of each page. From there I will draw each page up very loosely and roughly in pencil and then when the book feels ready, I will use my light box to trace the rough drawings into final artworks with ink, pencil, coloured pencil and watercolour paints. I love to use this combination of media because of the different types of marks that I can make with them. The whole process, designing, editing, re-drawing, refining and then painting the finished illustrations, usually takes about 6 months.


3) With “The Day War Came” you’re tackling illustrations for a really tough subject. How difficult is it to adapt a style that’s usually full of gorgeous quirky humour to tackle a much darker subject.

When I’m illustrating a book the characters always feel like real people to me and this was particularly the case with this project because it is a story that is sadly relevant to our world today. It is very upsetting to think of anyone being in that situation, let alone thousands of children. I was working on the illustrations during my pregnancy, which was already an emotional time and Nicola’s beautiful, heartbreaking text really affected me. I think that I channelled a lot of my sadness and frustration into my drawings which resulted in them being darker than my previous work but it felt right for this book.



4) We’d love to know how you felt when you first read Nicola’s manuscript. We think this is such a hugely important book, quite different from the expected ‘norm’ of children’s picture books. Was that quite daunting?

I first read The Day War Came when it was published on the Guardian website as Nicola’s response to MPs voting against giving sanctuary to 3000 unaccompanied child refugees. Nicola had heard a story about a refugee child not being allowed to go to a school because they said there was no chair for her, and this little girl became the central character in Nicola’s powerful poem. I was incredibly moved by reading it and immediately drew a chair to add to the social media campaign #3000chairs that Nicola, Jackie Morris and Petr Horáček started, where drawings of chairs became symbolic of refuge and education for the 3000 children who were not going to be accepted into the UK. When I was asked about illustrating the book sometime later and I read it again, it somehow felt even more powerful as a picture book text. In my head I could picture the little girl and the devastating scenes around her and I was overwhelmed. But what I loved about it was the positive message of empathy and hope - things don’t have to be this way, if only we would be kind to each other, and often it is children who remind us of this. I was daunted by the responsibility of producing illustrations that lived up to to Nicola’s wonderful words because it felt like such a serious and important book, but I felt compelled to try!



5) I think our favourite book of yours is “Lunchtime” and I remember it being demanded almost daily when she was a tiny tiddler. How much fun was it to write?

I’m so pleased that you like Lunchtime, that is lovey to hear, thank you! I loved writing that one because it was a semi-autobiographical story about a little girl not wanting to eat - which was a very familiar situation to me as a child! I felt that mealtimes were an annoying interruption to my playing and drawing. I love books that have an ambiguity to them and I enjoyed not explaining the animals that the little girl meets in the book. I dedicated the book to my mum to apologise for all the trouble and worry that I put her through during all those years when I refused to eat!

"Lunchtime" by Rebecca Cobb. Utterly fantastic book!

6) We’ve been writing about children’s books for nearly ten years now (eek!) and one thing we’re always interested in are what authors and artists think might be the next big trends in picture books. What do you think we’ll see more (or less) of in the next few years in PBs?

I’m afraid that I’ve never been very good at realising what is trending or in fashion, perhaps because I am daydreaming a lot of the time! But I think that the picture book world has been getting more and more exciting recently and really celebrating the idea of a book as a beautiful, physical object to treasure. I really hope it continues this way in the future and I think it would also be amazing to see more illustrated books for early readers, YA and adult novels too.



7) You’ve worked with some amazing authors as well as writing and illustrating your own fantastic stories. Is there a ‘dream’ author you’d love to work with (You’ve obviously set the bar pretty high already with the likes of Julia Donaldson and Richard Curtis!)

Yes, you’re right, I’ve been so lucky and it might be greedy for me to wish for any more! Some of my favourite picture books are written by Nicola Davies so it has been amazing to work with her. I enjoyed drawing in pencil for The Day War Came and one day I would really like to do some black and white pencil illustrations, perhaps for an older book. I do love stories with dark humour, terrible villains and ridiculous adults so I think it would be fun to illustrate something like that.



8) What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received as an author / artist and how did that advice influence your work?

With hindsight, he may have been just saying it to get me out of his office, but in my early days of trying to get commissions, a publisher once asked me to come back and see him in a year to prove to him that I really wanted to be an illustrator and to see how my work developed. Although I never succeeded in getting an appointment to see him again, his words had a huge impact on me because I realised that I did need to show everyone that I was serious and it gave me the incentive to spend that year really pushing myself and developing my work.



9) Going back to “The Day War Came”, were there any influences you drew on to come up with the illustrations (which are fantastic btw, spine-tinglingly perfect in conjunction with Nicola’s words).

When I pictured the illustrations for this in my head they were very dark and shadowy so I wanted to draw using a lot of pencil and a limited colour palette. I did a lot of research looking at photographs from news websites which were very distressing and a constant reminder that this story is a reality for a lot of children in the world today. I also looked a lot at the work of illustrators that I admire: Jon Klassen, David Roberts, Beatrice Alemagna and Laura Carlin in particular because I love their absolutely beautiful drawing, compositions and use of colour.



10) Finally, Charlotte always loves to hear good advice from artists and authors on becoming a writer or illustrator. Any tips for a budding imagineer?


My main advice is to keep writing and drawing and don’t stop! I believe that if you have a passion for something and enough resilience and persistence then you can achieve it. I have always been so keen to draw pictures that I used to get told off at school for spending too long illustrating all my projects in every lesson. So I think that if it is what you want to do, then don’t give up!

Our second Picture Book of the Week is one of the most affecting, emotional and truly brilliant books we've read in a long time..."The Day the War Came" by Nicola Davies and Rebecca Cobb...

It's Christmas Eve, and you get a double dose of Booky Advent calendar today, a bit like that extra-big choc or picture you get on your proper advent calendar.

We're returning to a book we reviewed back in 2014 because we dug it out again recently. I was probably a bit unfair in my original review because I'm actually allergic to Richard Curtis (and I've got a medical certificate to prove it) and the inevitable Christmas showing of "Love, Actually" is to be avoided at all costs (even though my lovely wife will try and tempt me into watching it).

But both Charlotte and I ADORE Rebecca Cobb's work, and her books have been a staple part of Charlotte's growing up.

In "Snow Day" something quite miraculous happens (well it'd be a bloomin' miracle if it ever happened here, let's put it that way). The world awakens to a thick snowfall, and as everyone gets a text message or an email to tell them that the school is closed, two folk miss the memo and head off into the snowy town as usual.

One is a teacher, a fairly strict fellah named Mr Trapper. The other is a boy called Danny, who is Mr Trapper's least favourite pupil (and vice versa, Danny really doesn't like Mr Tapper at all).

The teacher has to stay in school because there's a pupil present, and Danny has to stay in school because his parents are away and his aunt has already left the house. So the two of them are stuck in a snow-bound school enduring the day's lessons.

At least that's how it starts out, but as soon as Danny rushes into the playground to build a snowman at playtime, Mr Trapper comes out of his shell, showing Danny the "proper" way to make a snowman.

From thereon in, the lessons change - they raid the science class to eat all the jelly babies holding together the atom models, they go skating and skiing on books from the library (HERESY!) and build a fabulous igloo.

All too soon the day is over, and the next day all the snow is melted so both are back at school along with all the rest of the teachers and pupils. Mr Trapper seems to have reverted to his normal grumpy self, but as soon as he puts Danny in detention for slouching, the "Snow Boys" reunite and their bond of friendship is once again shared over some rather special plans for the next snow day (we won't spoil things too much for you on what they build!)

You can read our original review here. It was fantastic to find that this story had actually stood the test of time, and Charlotte still enjoyed it. I might be slightly biased but I think the whole thing hangs off Rebecca's brilliant illustrations, though the story is a rather heartwarming snowy one that's perfect for this time of year.

"Snow Day" by Richard Curtis and Rebecca Cobb is out now, published by Picture Puffin (and kindly sent for review). 

I was a bit apprehensive about approaching Charlotte with this one. The moment she saw the cover, I could see her expression setting into that "I'm not reviewing THAT!" look. But...

Our first Festive Book of the Week for December is a book I knew we'd like from an illustrative perspective (we absolutely love everything Rebecca Cobb does) but weren't too sure about from a story perspective.

You see, I guess we're not really in the market for Richard Curtis' brand of writing. Though I'll bow to his genius back when he was writing some of the funniest comedy on TV (Blackadder) he made me laugh like a drain, but with movies like "Notting Hill" and "Love Actually" - and even TV like "The Vicar of Dibley" I never really liked the schmaltzy stuff as much.

But this book is fantastic, and it feels like a truly original christmas story that may have an air of familiarity to anyone who has been stuck at home with the kids on a "Snow Day" - when school is closed and there's no way to get from A to B.

Two folk turn up to school regardless of the weather, a boy called Danny and his least favourite teacher, the strict and stern Mr Trapper. Danny and Mr Trapper are SWORN ENEMIES so imagine being stuck in a snow-bound school all day with the person you like least in the world.

Amazingly though, Mr Trapper and Danny bond over their shared predicament - and this is where the story really starts to warm the cockles of even this old cynic's heart. Mr Trapper sees something in Danny's character that isn't unlike his own. Both seem fairly lonely, and perhaps can find common ground if only they can think of a way to jazz up the cold and miserable day.

Mr Trapper and Danny decide to ditch the lessons for the day, and embark on a wonderful set of adventures doing all the things that schoolkids (and probably quite a few schoolteachers) dream of doing when the school is empty. Misusing school supplies to good effect (though we're not sure we approve of using schoolbooks as makeshift ice skates) and building the world's biggest snow fort.

It's almost a shame when the snow is all but fleeting, and starts to disappear - meaning the next day will just be yet another boring school day. For one fantastic day though, these two characters share a bond that lasts for a long time, recalling just how much fun can be had in the snow.

Utterly and completely brilliant and well deserving of our first "Booky Advent Book of the Week" for the festive period!

Charlotte's best bit: Mr Trapper and Danny's utterly incredible (and huge) Snow Fort

Daddy's Favourite bit: A thoroughly original and heartwarming story with the most glorious and wonderful illustrations. Lovely stuff!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Picture Puffin)

We really are having a fantastic book week this week with some of our favourite authors and illustrators contributing to our vast wobbling book stack that's demanding to be read.

We clear the decks for certain folk though, and when a new Rebecca Cobb book arrived, we gave it a proper "ReadItDaddy" whoop and a welcome. We absolutely love her books to pieces.

"The Something" demonstrates something that Rebecca Cobb fans will already know and love her for - Rebecca can effortlessly tap into the sense of a child's imagination, producing books that make their visual and literal senses soar.

In "The Something" a little boy loses his bright red shiny ball down a mysterious hole in the garden. It's too dark to see what's down there, and even his doggy pal can't sniff out what lurks inside.

The boy starts to imagine who (or what) might dwell in this cosy little nook. Could his ball be responsible for mayhem, smashing through breakfast in a mouse's underground house? Could foxes have captured the ball, sweeping it off as their latest plaything? Or could there be something more substantial lurking under there - a troll perhaps, or even a dragon?

We love the way Rebecca's art instantly wins children over, speaking on their level, in their own visual language while we read the story aloud and let their own imaginations fill in the rest.

Rebecca really can't do any wrong by us, and judging by the plaudits heaped on her by some of the biggest names in the book business, we think a lot of other folk find her books absolutely essential too!

Charlotte's best bit: A fantastic cameo appearance by Aunt Amelia (look very carefully for it!) and lots of brilliant touches including a truly satisfying end.

Daddy's Favourite bit: I shouldn't really laugh but the "mouse house" spread was just so gigglesome. Poor mice! What a superb book!

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

Our final book of the week this year (as we're taking a bit of a blog break over the festive season!) and you can accuse us of favouritism towards Rebecca Cobb if you like, but she's just SO GOOD!

"Aunt Amelia" is instantly eye-catching because of Rebecca's lovely child-friendly artwork, and also because it features a female crocodile character who doesn't want to eat young children all up! Quite the opposite in fact. Aunt Amelia (through some strange family dysfunction) gets to look after two children while mummy and daddy are away.

The children aren't at all keen at first, but soon realise that the huge list of rules and regulations that mummy and daddy leave behind for "auntie" are there to be slightly bent (if not broken to pieces, in fact!)

Each and every illustrated spread comes with one of the rules - but shows Aunt Amelia and the children having fun doing exactly the opposite. Parents might issue a 'tut' of disapproval but we loved the fact that Aunt Amelia is a kindly old soul, and most importantly (for any aunts and uncles watching), pitches in and plays with the children on their level. They get messy, they get dirty (we loved the bit with the mud fight, YES!!) and they eat lots of things that aren't necessarily good for you (Charlotte pointed out that the kids did at least eat some pizza amongst all the sweet treats they devour). They stay up late and have one or two stories before bedtime (one or two dozen, we heartily approve) so when mum and dad come back, the children have had the best time ever and can't wait till Aunt Amelia comes to look after them again.

This is such a brilliant book, full of fun and colour - and Aunt Amelia is such a brilliant character (who reminds us of Charlotte's grandparents!)

We always look forward to what Rebecca will turn her hand to next, and this is brilliantly illustrated and written. A fitting book of the week to end our fabulous 2013 with!

Charlotte's best bit: "The Children can have one ice cream each" - Better make it a big one then!

Daddy's Favourite bit: Fabulous Aunt Amelia, we really would love to see another story with her, she's fab! Can she look after us next?

Some authors and artists instantly grab our attention with everything they publish or produce. Rebecca Cobb firmly belongs in that elite collection of authors and artists, and we've loved everything she's done.

This book though, phew. It's been a really hard book to review for a number of reasons.

The subject of bereavement is a tough enough subject to adequately describe in any form, let alone in picture book form. It's something that takes a lot of explaining to children, leading to a lot of questions (some quite uncomfortable questions at that) - whether you have faith or don't. In our case we picked up "Missing Mummy" and it led to one of the most interesting, heartfelt and - for me - hugely emotional conversations I've had with my little girl since she was born.

The story in this book is told from the perspective of a little boy whose mummy has died. At first, he doesn't understand why mummy has gone away - and assumes that she will be back. But Daddy and his big sister have to gently explain that mummy has died, and that she won't be coming back.

The sledgehammer blow of what it must feel like to be a child hearing something like that, is so beautifully handled here that it made me well up when I previewed it for suitability, it made me quite tearful when I read it with Charlotte - and days later it made me cry out loud when quite unprompted, Charlotte said at the breakfast table that "she knew she was sometimes naughty, sometimes every day, and that she didn't know why but she will try not to be".

When you read the book you'll sort of understand how that statement ties in with it and why I had to hug her tight (once I'd stop yowling), sit down with her and the book and read it to her again - emphasising the point made by the little boy's dad that it was "nothing he'd done, it was not his fault".

It's easy as a parent to miss the many forms in which your child's love for you manifests itself. Sometimes it's demonstrable. Sometimes it's subtle. Sometimes it manifests itself simply as a fear that you may not always be around, or there for them. Like nothing else, at that point I fully understood what Charlotte felt like and also what it means to be a parent, the amazing duty of care you undertake and how sometimes your child just seems to KNOW.

This book is important. I may have missed the huge fuss and also may have missed the plaudits it should have had heaped upon it, the praise from teachers and counsellors who could make such brilliant use of this book in situations that arise in schools and at home, and I may have missed praise from parents who have used the book in the way it was intended to be used, to help them and their children through what must be a hellishly difficult time.

But let me say again, this book is hugely important, so utterly and beautifully written and illustrated, and proves what we already knew. Rebecca Cobb is a gigantic stratospheric talent who seems to have the innate ability to be able to inhabit a child's mind, and beautifully describe and express what dwells within.

This is my fourth attempt at writing a review of this book, to try and help others understand why they should read it, whether they feel they need it or not. I would point out that I am fairly emotional when it comes to stuff like that but I would imagine even the hardest of hearts would need a huge box of tissues during and after reading this - particularly if it spawns the sort of questions or conversations that it did for us.

Sorry, I've probably not even come close to doing this justice. Just read it - please.

Charlotte's best bit: There's a beautiful scene at the end, as time begins to heal and turns tears of sorrow into tears of joy. Can't think of a better way to describe it but it's wonderful.

Daddy's Favourite bit: My other half finds it hilarious that I get so emotional about things like this (but I think secretly she might be glad I'm some heartless macho fool). As much as this affected Charlotte in a really unexpected way, it hit me like a ton of bricks and made me cry a lot. This and Jo Empson's "Rabbityness" should sit alongside each other on everyone's book shelf. 

Now this book is rather special. Not only is it a brilliant story that combines one of our favourite authors with one of our favourite children's book illustrators, it has a fantastic cause at its heart too.

You may have spotted the paper dolls cropping up everywhere, at your local bookshops, in libraries and anywhere you normally find children's book folk.

There's a good reason for that - and if you dive on through to the Paper Dolls Website you'll find out a whole lot more. For each set of paper dolls you send in to Macmillan for their Guinness World Record attempt, you'll be helping to donate 10p to a very worthy cause - the Save the Children Foundation.

Download this template and get colouring!

Better still your children can even draw their own by using this alternative template too!

Check out some of the dolls other folk have completed!

Contributing to the world's longest paper doll chain while aiding a good cause? You KNOW you want to join in (we already have - visit the website for more information on how to send your completed sheets to Pan Macmillan). Doll sheets can be submitted up till the 31st of August 2013, so there's still lots and lots of time.

Right then, on with the book. Julia Donaldson and Rebecca Cobb? It's a match made in booky heaven isn't it. Combining superb rhyming text with Rebecca's utterly wonderful illustrative style to tell a story of a young girl who, with her mum, makes a string of five paper dolls and embarks on an adventure with them. As the girl plays, and her imagination is unleashed (is there a more powerful creative force on the planet than a child's imagination? I doubt it) the dolls narrowly avoid catastrophe as they dance and play.

But then the book throws you a curve ball. Just when you're happy that this is a lovely story with a carefree young girl and her wonderful cut-out friends enjoying life to the full, something happens. A young boy appears, a young boy (a rather nasty boy if we're truthful) with a pair of scissors.

What happens next is impossible to describe without completely spoiling the book for you - so we're going to take the rare opportunity here of warning you right now that we're going to give away the end. If you do not want to read on, please stop now.

NOW!

Still reading?

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OK you're still here so I'm assuming you've either read it or don't mind spoilers. The next bit rather upset Charlotte because the nasty naughty little boy (older sibling? Bully? It's never made clear but he's horrible whoever he is!) chops the string of paper dolls into tiny tiny pieces, breaking the little girl's heart. What a rotter!

But perhaps the power of a child's imagination is even more powerful than the nasty streak the boy demonstrates. As the rather grief-stricken little girl returns home, folornly, the paper dolls soar into the stratosphere. All the tiny little cut-up pieces reform as the dolls are once again complete, and roam the stars dancing and laughing as they go.

The little girl grows up, and then makes paper dolls with her own daughter (which is a rather touching and lovely way of turning the story around from that horrible bit!)

We thoroughly enjoyed this book. You've already heard us talking about Julia Donaldson's expert rhyming in our review of Wake Up Do, Lydia Lou and she's nailing it here again. But for us the real star of the show is Rebecca Cobb. Her illustrations are truly magical and you'll know just how much we love her work if you take a look at our review of her wonderful book "Lunchtime".

Hope the review has spurred you into action and you're downloading and printing those paper doll sheets out to join in with the record attempt!

Charlotte's best bit: Jacky Backy.

Daddy's Favourite Bit: The little doll with two noses.

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

If you haven't discovered Rebecca Cobb's absolutely brilliant children's books yet, you're in for a bit of a treat. "Lunchtime" is a very good starting point to introduce you to Rebecca's illustrative and storytelling style, putting you firmly in the Clarks Shoes of a little girl who is very much like Charlotte - a busy little bee who likes playing and drawing far too much to bother about silly things like mealtimes and bedtimes.

The little girl in Rebecca's story is told off by Mummy when she doesn't sit down at the table for lunch. Fortunately she has some very good (and very hungry) friends to help her out, and they soon polish off everything!

Of course, you can guess what happens next. The poor little girl gets back to playing and drawing and discovers that a rumbling tummy can growl even louder than a hungry bear, a starving crocodile or a famished wolf.

I loved Charlotte's reaction to this, a subtle nod of 'yeah that's me' which of course I couldn't disagree with (I'm sure Charlotte would secretly love three brilliant and hungry animal friends to help her out every time Daddy cooks :)

I loved this book too but what really 'got' me was the back cover, and the wolf. I won't spoil it for you but that absolutely cracked me up to pieces for some reason :)

Charlotte's best bit: She loved the idea of having three hungry friends to help out with meals

Daddy's favourite bit: That back cover. Just seek out this book and if that doesn't make you want to cuddle it, I don't know what will!

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

Children's Book Week Illustration by Rebecca Cobb

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