We must admit we hadn't heard of Sir Quentin Blake's "Three Little Monkeys" series but here the amazingly talented artist and storyteller puts down his pencils and lets another giant of kidlit take the reins for a whole new version of these cheeky busy little tales.

"Three Little Monkeys Ride Again" by Sir Quentin Blake and Emma Chichester-Clark sees those naughty little monkeys causing absolute havoc on a mini holiday.

Hilda Snibbs takes her three mischievous monkeys to visit her mother in the country.

But what is supposed to be a calm and peaceful holiday is soon filled with chaos and hilarious havoc!

Every time Hilda and her poor mother leave them alone, those simian troublemakers completely trash the place - often with hilarious results. But after such naughty behaviour, how can they possibly redeem themselves?

A fab story for little ones who just won't be able to resist those naughty antics, beautifully illustrated by "The Chich", drawing up beautiful scenes of serenity punctuated by utter destruction in such a hilarious way that you just can't help laughing at those monkey antics.

Sum this book up a sentence: A collaboration between two utter legends in kidlit, resulting in a fabulous book for little ones fizzing with energy, chaos and mischief.

"Three Little Monkeys Ride Again" by Sir Quentin Blake and Emma Chichester-Clark is out now, published by HarperCollins Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

We're celebrating Roald Dahl Day, the great man's birthday with a roundup of some of the titles released with this year's theme...

Clad in a new festive and glorious clothbound cover, this timely reissue of Quentin Blake's take on "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens is a looker from the word go.

Everyone is probably familiar with the classic tale of Ebenezer Scrooge and his miserly ways, but Quentin brings the story to life in his trademark ink and colour drawings, dazzling and delighting us in equal measure as each of the familiar scenes unfold.

Scrooge is a horrid wretch at first, wizened and penny-pinching, he won't even let his employee Bob Cratchitt have a day off for Christmas.

But when Scrooge tucks himself up in bed that night, he's visited by three ghosts - the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas yet to come - who show Scrooge what will happen if he continues to live his life in his miserly manner.
This is one of Dickens' most powerful stories, and it's really not surprising that it has become as synonymous with Christmas as it has (in fact most folk lay the blame at Dickens' door for kicking off that whole Victorian tradition of Christmas as we have come to know (and love) it today!)

It's an utterly gorgeous book though...!

The beautiful illustrations underpin a child-friendly version of the original story.

Dashes of colour make Quentin Blake's illustrations even more amazing than they usually are (and having recently seen his work for "The BFG" up close, we're always completely amazed at his inking skills - turning the most innocuous inky squiggle into something that looks like it could leap off the page at any minute!)

"A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens and Sir Quentin Blake is out now, published by Pavilion Children's Books (kindly supplied for review).

Today is Roald Dahl Day! Celebrations always take place on the birth date of the world's most famous children's author, so we're joining in with a review of a book that's coming out today to celebrate the author's fantastic stories...

Is there a more Christmassy book than this? For Day 10 on our Booky Advent Calendar here's a festive classic reprinted lovingly in a new hardback edition...

Quentin Blake is such an astonishing AND prolific talent it's almost impossible to keep up with his books, but we aim to try - and this superbly dark tinged story sprung on us by surprise. Tucked into the library stacks, we hadn't encountered it before but absolutely had to take it home with us.

"Monsters", written by Russell Hoban and illustrated by Sir Quentin himself, is the seemingly simple story of John. John is almost like every other boy but there's one thing John loves more than anything else. He loves to draw monsters.

Thin ones, fat ones, horrible ones, cute ones - Monsters of all shapes and sizes. John's Mum and Dad are a bit perplexed but wonder if a chat with a friendly doctor might not go amiss.

John then begins an amazing new work of art - on a huge piece of paper. Piecing the whole picture together one tiny tantalising bit at a time, it's obvious that John is working on his most incredible masterpiece yet.

John's parents are intrigued. John's doctor is perplexed but wants to know how the image is going to turn out.

We won't reveal the deep dark twist at the end of the book but it's really quite something, and the ending left Charlotte wanting to know more - and with a myriad questions about what John actually did!

Russell's observations of child behaviour are incredible - his keen eye makes this an essential read, but there's a serious message tucked into this wonderful story, crossing the line between a celebration of a young boy's active and focused imagination and the psychology of how children like John interact with the world around them and other people (including their nearest and dearest).

It's hugely thought provoking stuff, don't miss it!

Charlotte's best bit: The slow reveal of John's huge monster masterpiece

Daddy's Favourite bit: A book with real layers of acute and expert observation of child behaviour from Russell, raising almost as many questions as it answers and all wrapped up in Sir Quentin's illustrative expertise. Heck of a book!

(Borrowed for review from Abingdon's wonderful library)

Like this? We think you'll absolutely LOVE these too!

The Five of Us by Quentin Blake

The Monster Machine by Nicola L. Robinson

Any new project involving Sir Quentin Blake is a cause for great excitement at ReadItDaddy Towers. When it's a new QB story book, we're ecstatic. When it's a new QB story book that celebrates diversity we sit up and pay very close attention indeed.

Quentin Blake is such a fantastic storyteller in his own right that we love seeing what happens when he truly goes to town with a story, writing and illustrating with fantastic expertise and seemingly consummate ease. "The Five of Us" is something truly special though, introducing us to five child heroes who aren't your ordinary everyday run of the mill kids.

There's Angie, who can spot things from miles away with her super-keen eyesight. There's Ollie who is blessed with hypersensitive hearing. There's Simona and Mario, who are both strong and wise and then there's Eric who is...well in the words of the great man himself, we'll get to Eric in a moment.

As soon as you see the book cover, you'll understand that the aim of the book is not just to tell a fantastic tale of believing in yourself, your own abilities and believing that you're truly special in a multitude of ways - but also to celebrate our rich and diverse culture and the children we nurture and influence.

"The Five" are out on a special outing, a picnic in the wilds which heralds the start of an adventure! Hopping into the coach with their adult helper, they soon find themselves in a gorgeous spot perfect for scoffing their sandwiches in.

When their adult helper becomes ill and faints, it's up to the five to use their amazing abilities to team up, work together and help their friend to safety.

The characters in the story are vitally important, for Angie, Ollie, Simona, Mario and Eric are characters that our own children will already known and identify with but characters that don't appear enough in children's stories. Ethnic minorities, disabilities and speech impediments are subtly included, "Five" are everyday kids but wholly unusual to find in high profile picture books and though huge strides have been made in the last few years to make children's books more inclusive and diverse, there's still an awful lot of work to do.

To see such a huge figure in children's stories ably recognising and acknowledging this is extremely encouraging though, so "The Five of Us" deserves kudos as does Sir Quentin for so perfectly capturing the essence of what makes kids so imaginative, brilliant and brave whatever their background or ability.

Back to Eric. We love Eric. Eric is a hero! Eric is the sort of character we are instantly drawn to in children's stories, who struggles against adversity and eventually proves pivotal and vital as the story unfolds. It was all we could do to stifle a huge "Hooray" at the end of the book as the heroic 5 save the day.

"The Five of Us" is out today, September 4th, From Tate Publishing

Charlotte's best bit: Charlotte thought Angie was the coolest by far but really did have a soft spot for Eric too (as did I)

Daddy's Favourite bit: A fantastic story, quite tense and fraught in places but such a high to end on. Brill stuff from a master of children's stories, bringing his expertise to bear on this hugely important book.

(Kindly sent to us for review by Tate Publishing)

Well how do you do, and how do you do, and how do you do again! It's always great to find an excuse to revisit Roald Dahl's meisterwork "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". We've been eyeing up this luxurious and lovely pop-up edition for a very long time. Thanks to a certain dapper little classmate at Charlotte's school she now has it (thanks for the birthday pressie, H!) and it's every bit as chocolatey and great as we hoped it would be.

If you've lived under a rock for most of your life, feeding on the nutritious microbes there, you may not have heard of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" so we'll try and share with you the scrum-diddly-umptiousness of it, in potted form.

Charlie, a poor young lad, loves chocolate but Charlie lives in a tumbledown shack with his parents Mr and Mrs Bucket, and four grandparents - Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine, and Grandpa George and Grandma Georgina. Thus, poor Charlie can only pass by the huge chocolate factory near his home - belonging to a rather secretive chap called Willy Wonka, dreaming of mallow whipple delights and strawberry fizz bombs.

A competition is announced, and Mr Willy Wonka will open the doors of his factory for the first time to a select few competition winners. A golden ticket, hidden inside Willy Wonka's chocolate bars, will allow the lucky winners to embark on a tour of the factory!

With mouthwatering descriptions and utterly brilliant characters, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is often imitated, never bettered - just like Mr Wonka's lovely chocolate and sweets. If your children are still a bit too young to sit through the full version, this pop-up version offers a neatly abridged alternative - packed full of the fantastic illustrations of Sir Quentin Blake, adapted from the original versions of the book.

Thoroughly delicious!

Charlotte's best bit: She still obsesses about poor Violet Beauregarde and her blueberry-ness. Aww!

Daddy's favourite bit: The Oompah Loompah songs, brilliant and funny.