Our second Picture Book of the Week this week is a stunning version of a true children's classic...

It's Day 15 of our Booky Advent Calendar and you know what that means? Even more christmas book loveliness - this time with the latest in the fantastic "Princess" range by Caryl Hart and Sarah Warburton.

This time we meet a mighty girl princess with a difference in "The Princess and the Christmas Rescue.

Princess Eliza isn't your ordinary everyday princess. Though she likes dresses and shoes, she much prefers a toolbox and a stack of materials to make her own incredible inventions and creations with.

Her parents despair! Why can't Eliza be a bit more...well...princessy?

They urge her to make some new friends, but her various attempts go slightly awry (gingerbread boys are notoriously slippery little customers after all!).

Heading out into the forest despite her parents' warnings, she finds a dear little cottage full of elves. These elves aren't just ordinary elves though, and they are fantastically busy making lists and wrapping presents for their unseen master.

But who is this mysterious figure? He's suffering from the flu so Eliza decides it's up to her to help these poor flustered elves to bring Christmas to all. So good are her efforts that Saint Nick finally arrives to whisk Eliza away on a fantastic Christmas Eve journey, and perhaps even deliver a special present to Eliza herself.

This is utterly magical christmas bookage in every way, from two of the most talented folk in kidlit.

"The Princess and the Christmas Rescue" by Caryl Hart and Sarah Warburton is out now, published by Nosy Crow (kindly supplied for review). 

Possibly one of the sparkliest books we've reviewed this year, it's the return of Twinkle the Fairy in "Twinkle Makes a Wish" by Katherine Holabird and Sarah Warburton...

By now, most of your little ones will be back at school - and some of them will be starting "Big School" for the very first time. It's a fairly stressful time for both parents and children but imagine if the school you were starting at was the Fairy School of Magic and Music, and your first lessons involved learning spells?

This is the story of Twinkle who is a fairy who is doing just that. Though Twinkle is popular and talented, she has a tough time summoning the skills and patience to learn some tricky magic in her first lesson. How can Twinkle remember such complicated spells?

Twinkle needs practice but even this goes awry as Twinkle breaks the sacred rule of not practicing magic after hours, and soon her fairy village and pods are woken by the calamitous sounds of magic going wrong. Poor Twinkle!

Is there a way that she can use her exquisite singing voice and musical skills to help her out with her magic?

This is what we refer to in ReadItDaddy terms as a "Charlotte and Mummy" book though I did bite the bullet and read it to Charlotte first. For girls who love all things pink, glittery and fairy-fantastic, the talented Katherine Holabird and Sarah Warburton have come up trumps with a whole new set of stories and engaging characters that children will love (yep even some of the boys rather like Twinkle and her misadventures!)

Charlotte's best bit: Lovely glittery covers and spreads and Charlotte absolutely loves maps in a book, so any book that starts off with awesome end-papers like this is off to a great start!

Daddy's Favourite bit: Fun and full of mischief and misadventure, Twinkle is bound to be a surefire success with your little would-be fairy folk

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

How many times as a kid did you dream of a world without adults? Your own world, where you could make up your own rules, go to bed when you wanted to, eat what you wanted to when you wanted to. How blissful would it be?

That's the story here in "My Adventure Island" as a young boy imagines what life would be like on his own island. An island where big sisters are banished, where mum and dad have to apply for a visa to visit, and where family pets are all part of the castaway crew.

But would it be that great, really? What happens if you bang your knee and want someone to kiss it better? Or you want someone to read you a bedtime story. Or - heavens forbid - you want your big sister to give you a big soppy hug?

Find out how our young hero copes in "My Adventure Island" - and start planning your summer island holiday now!

Charlotte's best bit: Being able to eat your pudding first, then your dinner!

Daddy's Favourite bit: Rather neat story, great ideas! A tropical island getaway would be just what I need right now!

It really is something of a recurring theme on the blog at the moment - children's books that deal with friendship in all its forms. In "Mabel and Me - Best of Friends" we find out what happens when Mabel and her best friend "Me" take a summertime stroll and meet various folk along the way that seem to think Mabel is a little odd.

"Look at those scrawny legs" they say. "What funny ears!" they whisper. But when Me realises just who they're talking about, we find out just what happens when a friendship is tested and examined.

Mark Sperring's gentle text fuses with Sarah Warburton's brilliant illustrations perfectly. We liked the 'twist' mid-story as the narrative deals with Me's misunderstanding. The core theme that friends are friends despite outward appearances, or behaviour, is a good strong basis for a quite enchanting story and it helps hugely that this felt like a "Charlotte" book - ie a book with a little girl at its heart who is fairly ordinary yet extraordinary too.

Charlotte's best bit: "I want a friend like Me!"

Daddy's favourite bit: A lovely story, gentle but funny in all the right places with utterly delicious artwork.

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

For the second part of our "Book of the Week" nomination we are extremely pleased to finally be able to take a look at a book that has received a lot of positive buzz since it first released. Now launched as part of Nosy Crow's "Stories Aloud" range (with added enhanced audio, thanks to a clever little QR code tucked inside the cover) "The Princess and the Peas" is a delicious treatment of a well-loved fairy tale.

Young Lily-Rose May is an ordinary everyday little girl who lives with her dad in a cute little cottage in the woods. She loves to draw, read, dance and do all the things little girls like to do. But she absolutely, positively does not like peas!

This seems to be pretty common amongst little girls, but when a doctor calls to find out the cause of Lily-Rose's aversion to those poddy little green legumes, he can only come to one conclusion. Lily-Rose May is a princess - because princesses are allergic to peas!

He shows Lily-Rose and her dad the well known tale of what happened when a princess, sheltering from a storm, stayed at the royal palace one night. The queen, seeking out a true princess to marry off to her son the prince (why he couldn't just go on Zoosk like everyone else is beyond me), hid a single solitary pea under a huge pile of mattresses. The poor princess could not sleep a wink all night, broke out in pea-green hives, and had a thoroughly miserable time of it. BANG! One Princess, ready to marry off to the lazy internet-dating-site-dodging prince.

The doctor, rather than prescribing some antihistamines or pea-allergy suppressants, dictates that Lily Rose must give up living with her dad, and must move to the royal palace at once!

With a tear in her eye, Lily-Rose dutifully obeys and joins the palace household as a princess. A young girl's dream, hooray! Or is it...

This is a fantastically funny and very appealing reworking of "The Princess and the Pea" which Charlotte has demanded daily since it arrived. It could be a lot to do with Lily Rose May's name, it could be a lot to do with that absolutely stunning pink cover, but it's mostly to do with it being a brilliant book beautifully written and divinely illustrated. The audio enhancement is the icing on the cake (and we've already crowed (ha ha) about what a great idea Nosy Crow have come up with there). "The Princess and the Peas" definitely deserves a place in your pea-dodging princess' book collection!

Charlotte's best bit: The beautiful beautiful dresses and shoes that Lily-Rose May gets to wear at the palace (girls, honestly!)

Daddy's favourite bit: Daddy's brilliant pea recipe ideas. You know, pea cookies aren't actually that bad!

(kindly sent to us by Nosy Crow to thank us for Charlotte's brilliant Princess drawing used on their blog)