Reading isn't for everyone, as completely strange and weird as that sounds.

I remember my own personal reading journey only began once my junior school teacher realised the reason I took a while to take to reading wasn't because I didn't love stories and books, I just didn't love the ones they started out with in school. After all, who wants to read about spot the dog, or a cat sitting on a mat when you can read about "The Book Dragon" by Kell Andrews and Eva Chatelain.

Rosehilda and her friends are warned to beware of the Book Dragon! 

Yawn! Who would want to learn to read like this? Ugh! Gimme books!

Even baked goods like to get their groove on and in "Bagel in Love" by Natasha Wing and Helen Dardik, you'll meet the most adorable pair of characters ever.

Bagel loves to strut his funky stuff, but for some reason he really struggles to find a partner.

With the annual dance contest coming up fast, poor Bagel sits on the sidelines, coming to terms with the prospect that he may never get to shine in front of an appreciative audience.

But wait, there's a certain little cupcake who might be able to help him fulfil his dream. From a sad bagel to Fred Eclair (oh we can't resist a bun-shaped pun or two!)

The story is adorable and should tick all the boxes for mini "Strictly Come Dancing" fans.



Helen's illustrations are also utterly sublime, and dare we confess that it's almost impossible not to suffer from chronic sugar cravings while reading this book?



Super stuff for tinies!

Sum this book up in a sentence: A glorious little underdog story with the cutest baked characters you'll ever see strutting their funky stuff.

"Bagel in Love" by Natasha Wing and Helen Dardik is out now, published by Sterling (kindly supplied for review). 

It's the welcome return of what can only be described as the most adorable pug character in children's books. Step aside buster, it's "Thunder Pug" by Kim Norman and Keika Yamaguchi.

Our tummies are rumbling in anticipation of another grand food-based adventure with Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast.

In "Mission Defrostable" by Josh Funk and Brendan Kearney, the dynamic comestible duo are back for an adventure that will give you the chills.

Something is wrong, very wrong in the fridge.

Everything is encrusted with ice, and even Sir French Toast's moustache has ice crystals in it, let alone Lady Pancake's hair.

It's time to embark on a mission to find out what's gone wrong, and why their world is slowly being wrapped in a blanket of ice.

Enlisting the help of an unlikely ally, and with the aid of the shady (literally, she wears shades!) Agent Asparagus, it's a mystery ready to unwrap for our heroes.

Brrr! It's cold in the fridge! Colder than usual!

The story unfolds in fun to read rhyming text from Josh, with Brendan's tummy-rumblingly great illustrations of a vast food-populated world nestling in your icebox.

Who is this mysterious character? No it's not Britney Spears, but Agent Asparagus!

When the two finally track down their ultimate foe, there's a huge twist in the tale - which we won't ruin for you of course.

C really loved me reading this book aloud to her, mostly because it's a beautifully flowing rhyming story that has plenty of chuckles and surprises along the way.

Delicious!

"Mission Defrostable (Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast Book 3)" by Josh Funk and Brendan Kearney is out now, published by Sterling (kindly supplied for review). 

Our Second Picture Book of the Week this week is a subtle but extremely cleverly written and illustrated picture book that couldn't be more timely if it tried...

A war of words with bear vs brain! Set your picnic baskets to stun with "Don't Feed the Bear" by Kathleen Doherty and Chip Wass...

Our first Book of the Week takes a really cool and interesting approach, something breaking away from the 'norm' when it comes to books about space...

Here's a rather interesting book about bears, and boys who - at first - don't like bears...

Oh it's a tough life when there's a new arrival on the scene, and you've been used to getting your own way in your own house for pretty much forever...

A fantastic book celebrating one of the most important feminist figures of the last 100 years? You bet we're up for reading that...

As the wind howls outside, the darkness falls and the rain beats a staccato tempo on our roof, we keep telling ourselves one thing over and over...there's no such thing as monsters. There's no such thing as monsters...

Hungry? Fancy something biscuity to snack on with your choice of beverage? Perhaps give this fella a miss, he might just bust your chops!

"Kick! Jump! Chop!" by Heather Ayris Burnell and the impressively named illustrative entity known as Bomboland is a fabulous and energetic new book out now from Sterling Publishing.

The ertswhile biscuit warrior is a masked ninja, who will stop at nothing to teach his enemies a lesson - and when you're as tasty as he is, it's just about all you can do to stay alive when everyone wants to take a bite out of your head!

Baked by a mystical sensei, all the ninja masters are invited to battle the Ninjabread Man but one wily fox thinks he has an idea to defeat (and scoff) this pint-sized ninja warrior.

It's a fabulous take on the classic "Gingerbread Man" tale with plenty of punch, and some truly stunning papercut artwork from Bomboland.

Chock full of hilarious puns baked lovingly by Heather, it's a potent combination of classic action and fairytale fun given a hint of mystical eastern promise. We absolutely ate it up!

"Kick! Jump! Chop!" by Heather Ayris Burnell and Bomboland is out now, published by Sterling Publishing (kindly supplied for review). 

We do love a picture book that fizzes with energy and almost feels like it's trying to burst out of its covers to grab your attention. So it is with "Rocket Shoes" by Sharon Skinner and Ward Jenkins.

Young Jose is the lucky owner of a pair of the neatest shoes you'll ever see. They are indeed rocket shoes, and with them Jose can soar effortlessly through the skies (safety helmet firmly on his head, sensible chap!)

The only problem is that Jose's flight is soon to be grounded. There's a bunch of grumpy adults who clamour for the Rocket Shoe factory to be closed down - and an outright ban on those pesky flying shoes.

But when Jose is faced with a tough decision, to use his shoes just one last time for a daring mission to save the day, he really wants to be sure he does the right thing - even if it means breaking the rules.

A superb energetic and hugely original rhyming story that's full of excitement and brilliantly uplifting moments (as you'd expect from a book about flying shoes, I mean COME ON, how cool would they be!)

"Rocket Shoes" by Sharon Skinner and Ward Jenkins is out now, published by Sterling (kindly supplied for review). 

It's not easy being a kid when mum and dad drop the bomb, that announcement that you're going to get a new brother or sister.

I distinctly remember both times this happened to me. First with my sister coming along and stealing the limelight, then with my brother some ten years later (by which time I wasn't actually that upset about it all, being a moody teen by that time).

We are always interested in reading children's books that take a well-worn theme (in this case the arrival of a new sibling and the impact on a child) and spin it up into a story that really rocks.

"Famously Phoebe" does exactly that, at the hands of Lori Alexander and Aurelie Blard-Quintard.

Young Phoebe has always been the centre of attention, with her doting parents snapping photo after photo of her and her antics.

But soon Phoebe realises that a new arrival is set to steal her spotlight. It's a sucky situation but will Phoebe come round, and realise that having a little sib might be more fun than she thought? After all, is it not an older brother or sister's duty to be a complete bossy pants to their new baby bro or sis?

A totally awesome story, hilarious and beautifully illustrated too! Win!

"Famously Phoebe" by Lori Alexander and Aurelie Blard-Quintard is out now, published by Sterling (kindly supplied for review). 

After a brief blog break it's a HAPPY NEW YEAR from us, and a huge hope that you'll keep reading our blog in 2018. We're kicking off our January reviews with a few books that we couldn't squeeze into the schedule before christmas, including this bake-tastic belter from Dee Leone and George Ermos.

"Dough Knights and Dragons" is the tale of a young would-be Knight who accidentally makes a fantastic new friend while exploring a deep dark cave.

His new friend is a dragon, and through a mutual love of food and in particular baking, they become inseparable buddies.

There is a problem though - All would-be knights know that to come of age they must defeat a dragon, skewering the poor beast with a sword.

It gets worse, all dragons also similarly know that to be considered any kind of a dragon they must toast a knight with fiery breath and eat them!

Their friendship seems doomed until this clever duo come up with a plan, a sneaky and brilliant scheme to ensure that this horrible custom of man vs beast is consigned to the history books once and for all.

We've seen many, many books about friendships. We've seen many many books about brave knights and dragons too but we've never seen a book that fuses all these ideas together with a brilliant bake-off and such a delectable selection of goodies within its pages. Chock full of originality, humour and of course a nice easily digestible moral message to wolf down with your favourite slice of cake.

Delicious in fact!

Charlotte's best bit: The final contest between dragon and knight, and their awesome solution on how to come up trumps!

Daddy's favourite bit: Beautiful book this, and a hugely original story idea too.

"Dough Knights and Dragons" by Dee Leone and George Ermos is out now, published by Sterling (kindly supplied for review). 

We're both complete suckers for a nicely presented journal or two.  We're also huge fans of Christopher Hart's artwork, so put the two together and you've got kawaii awesomeness!

Here's a horsey tale that's a real hoot! Meet Otis, the inquisitive pony who fancies a bit of a wander...

We still love a good board book here on the blog, and we particularly love Sterling's fantastic board books for tiny inquisitive toddlers, written in conjunction with the American Museum of Natural History.

This little piggy went to market. This little piggy stayed at home. This little piggy ate roast beef...and this little piggy went to the moon!!

Here's a fantastic trio of new books from Sterling Publishing that gather together a gigantic collection of the corniest jokes, the most hilarious rhymes, mind-bending riddles and even a superb quiz to help you find out more about yourself.

First up is Michael J. Pellowski's "Joke and Riddle Bonanza" (with illustrations from Sanford Hoffman).

Whip-crack a smart line or two with a dizzyingly brilliant selection of gags and jokes ranging from the corny to the cool.

Knock knock jokes and amusing limericks on just about any theme you can think of.

Michael's previous books have gone down a storm with Charlotte so it's great to see a couple of new ones hitting the shelves.

"Joke and Riddle Bonanza" by Michael J. Pellowski and Sanford Hoffman is out now, published by Sterling Publishing. 

Why have just one joke book when you can have two! Michael is also the genius behind "Mega Funny Jokes and Riddles".

It's another quickfire-gag-filled amazing collection to test out on unwitting relatives and friends, again with some true corkers tucked in amongst the pages.

These books are pocket sized and excellent to stuff in your bag to amuse your friends with at school, or just roll out at Christmas to go along with those appalling christmas cracker jokes.

"Mega Funny Jokes and Riddles" by Michael J. Pellowski is out now, published by Sterling Publishing. 

Last but not least, something entirely different. Something for those little folk who just cannot resist those internet or magazine quizzes that ask "What kind of animal are you?" or "What's your favourite superpower!

"Quiz Me" by Jamie Kyle McGillian is a fascinating glimpse into your psyche, as you answer various questions that might just reveal your innermost secrets, or at least give you and everyone else a good laugh when you find out your spirit animal is a Wombat, and your superpower is to walk around all day naked without anyone noticing.

It's a super-cool book that will keep little ones occupied for hours as they work out their scores, and trace through each round of questions.

Answer honestly though, no room in this blog for cheaters!! It's all in the name of fun.

"Quiz Me" by Jamie Kyle MgGillian is out now, published by Sterling Publishing (kindly supplied for review).