Certain books in our #Booky100Keepers list have entered our collective family vocabulary, containing words or phrases that have wormed their way into our everyday lives.

Stephanie Blake's brilliant "A Deal's a Deal" is one such book, and arrived just at the right time - as C and her schoolmates began the ritual of swapping - usually with C coming off worse in any playground swapping deal, much to our annoyance (we eventually had to ban her from taking stuff into school as she came back with utter junk which she'd swapped for the expensive Tinc stuff we'd bought her).

In the story Simon the Rabbit rather fancies his best friend Ferdinand's toy car and agrees to a swap, only to realise that the car he's ended up with is plastic, is broken and is utterly worthless.

Simon hatches a plan of dire revenge, claiming that his friend left something inside the car he'd obviously forgotten about, but a deal's a deal, to take back is to steal - so the only way Ferdinand is getting his prized possession back is to swap things back.

We soon find out what the 'hidden thing' inside the car was, once again Stephanie dipping into the grosser side of representing what kids are actually like in real life (we won't keep you in suspense, the 'valuable object' is actually a bogey!)

Stephanie's books are always funny, anarchic, and of course achieve that magical balance of allowing kids to vicariously live through the somewhat unsavoury behaviour of the book's characters, hopefully learning from the moral that each story gently weaves in.

Check out our review links of this and Stephanie's other books:

I Don't Want To Go To School by Stephanie Blake (Random House Children's Books)

A Deal's a Deal by Stephanie Blake (Gecko Press)

ReadItDaddy's First Book of the Week - Week Ending 31st August 2018: "I'm the Biggest" by Stephanie Blake (Gecko Press)

"Nits!" by Stephanie Blake, translated by Linda Burgess (Gecko Press)

It's almost impossible to hear the word "Nits!" without feeling your scalp itch. Even if, like me, you have a totally barren scalp, you still feel like the little critters are making their way through your lovely, lovely thatch.

But ah, here's a book that isn't just about nits, it's about that first crush.

"Nits!" by Stephanie Blake once again begins with Simon - but this time he's not quite the brash and effervescent character he normally is. Simon is quiet, thoughtful - and deeply and hopelessly in love.

The object of his affection is Lou, a girl in his class. She's beautiful, she has lovely yellow bows on her ears - but alas Lou is in love with Mamadou rather than Simon.

The thing is there's something else about Lou. She's absolutely lousy with nits!! Will this change the course of Simon's affections? Or perhaps provide him with a chance to prove that love conquers all, even nasty little insect infestations.

We enjoyed this, even though it's so short you can literally polish it off in 5 minutes flat before bedtime. Not as brilliant as Stephanie's other titles, but still awesome (itchy) fun.

Sum this book up in a sentence: A tender love story that will make you scratch your head furiously while reading it (or while typing up a review of it, in fact!)

"Nits!" by Stephanie Blake, with translation by Linda Burgess, is out now, published by Gecko Press (Kindly supplied for review). 

It's Book of the Week time! Time for another romp with Simon and his hapless little brother...

Here's a book with a subject that's very close to home at the moment. Children often have anxieties about school and Charlotte has a whole ton of them, ranging from concerns about swimming to worries about whether she's got all her reading books with her. Often the tiniest thing can be built up in a child's mind until it reaches monstrous proportions.

So Stephanie Blake's latest book was very well received. We love Simon, the bunny star of brilliant books like "Poo Bum", "Stupid Baby" and our personal favourite "A Deal's a Deal". In the story, Simon absolutely DOES NOT want to go to school and makes no bones about telling everyone. Over breakfast, he's adamant. while getting dressed he's stubborn, and even when being walked to school by his dad, he's determined. He does not want to go to school and that's that!

Amusingly Simon, like Charlotte, soon realises that once you're there and sat down, and immersed in all the things that happen in class, school doesn't seem so bad after all - but what happens when it's pick-up time? (Pretty much the same thing that happens with Charlotte - we have the devil's own job to drag her away from the place!)

Stephanie Blake's humour in both her storytelling and her illustration really makes her books stand out. They're cheeky, irreverent, and Simon is like a bunny version of Bart Simpson - a wee bit naughty but you can't help but like the little fellah.

Another fantastic addition to Stephanie's Simon stories! We can't wait for the next!

Charlotte's best bit: Simon's wonderful artwork in class

Daddy's Favourite bit: Love this book and it came along at a time when C has been having lots of anxious moments at school. Funny and a wee bit cheeky, pretty much how we'd imagine Stephanie herself to be :)

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

Some children's authors have an innate understanding of what can make a child dissolve into a fit of snortles, giggles and sniggers. Stephanie Blake definitely has that particular Jedi mind power down pat - her books have exactly this effect on children (particularly Charlotte) and in her latest book, "A Deal's a Deal" we once again meet slightly cheeky hero Simon the Super-Rabbit.

This time Simon's pooing super-powers are on hold. Instead we see Simon and his best friend indulging in a spot of that favourite childhood pastime, swapping.

Simon has a rather near trio of coloured cars. Ferdinand has a bright red (but plastic, instantly inferior) car. Simon rather likes the red car but isn't sure it's worth three of his favourite cars. Ferdinand definitely likes the look of Simon's three cars but has to call on his powers of persuasion to seal the deal.

Ferdinand is what we refer to in the children's book trade as "a thoroughly bad egg" and Simon, lamentably, discovers all too late that the red car isn't (or should that be is) all it's cracked up to be. But there's no going back - after all, a deal's a deal, to take it back is to steal!

Stephanie's delightful and rib-tickling story has a wonderful pay off at the end (which, naturally, we're not going to spoil for you!) Charlotte loved the payoff and I rather loved the memories this invoked of feverish negotiations in the playground when I was a kid (I think I was stupid enough to once swap a packet of Monster Munch for a Matchbox car - well I WAS hungry and packets of Monster Munch were quite substantial back then!)

"A Deal's a Deal" by Stephanie Blake is out on November 1st (Gecko Press)


Charlotte's best bit: Simon wins the day, in quite a disgusting way!

Daddy's Favourite bit: Swapping! Ah the memories!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Gecko Press)