Sometimes it feels like we've been extremely privileged to witness the rise and rise of a person's kidlit career, reviewing their awesome books then delighting as others discover them and love them as much as we do.

Steve Antony's brilliant "The Queen's Hat" arrived at a time when the nation was feeling a lot of love for our monarch. It almost feels like a different era, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee had been and gone, as had the London 2012 Olympics but when we first took a look at "Hat" back then, we loved the idea of a picture book romp featuring the Queen, and a mad dash to recover her wind-blown hat.

Steve obviously poured a lot of love and a lot of work into this book, filled with a brilliant chase, a ton of awesome little pictorial in-jokes and funny bits. It was a huge hit with us and Steve followed up with a couple of sequels (including a superb christmassy edition - "The Queen's Present") that were also very well received.

But oh, then there was this one...

"Please Mr Panda" came along at a time when we'd started writing the ReadItTorials for the first time, and I'd been moaning on about how kids today were becoming less and less polite. No pleases, no thankyous, not even a polite hello or goodbye if you greeted them.

The whole core of any book that tries to teach kids a moral lesson needs to be subtly done. Too light and the kids will miss the message entirely. Too heavy and it feels like some adult finger-wagging at them.

Steve's genius was to dream up a completely engaging (and hilariously deadpan) character to do the heavy lifting in his story, Mr Panda, a sombre looking chap but also a chap in possession of a delicious tray of donuts. Various creatures come along to try and snaffle them, but only one thinks to try saying "Please!"

Again Steve hit on a formula that worked beautifully for several follow-up books. But never let it be said that this awesome dude is a two-trick pony. Oh no sirree

I swear the guy has some sixth sense when it comes to creating the sort of picture books we've been waiting for. Again this time I'd been moaning about picture books following 'safe' formulas with very little to separate a publisher's annual output in some cases.

"Unplugged" breaks just about every picture book 'mould' there is to break - and it's testament to Steve's talent, and the faith his agent and publisher have in his ability to produce completely engaging and important stories that this book exists at all.

The story of Blip is so different for many reasons. First of all there's never any mention made in the book of Blip's gender. This is hugely important in children's books (though I am sure that I remember reading a lot of blogs that reviewed this and automatically assumed Blip was male). There's also the way the book looks, eschewing the normally heavily over-saturated and colourful picture book format for something that is largely greyscale. We wrote about how it reminded us of an old Playstation game called Vib Ribbon. I remember C's reaction to the book, and the reaction of others who fully understood what Steve was trying to achieve and I'm secretly sad that we don't see more books like this on bookshelves.

We've never actually met Steve but he seems like the sort of person you really want in kidlit - someone who fully understands the huge responsibility placed on their shoulders to produce books that mean something, that enhance children's lives, that educate and amaze - but in all cases, are downright fun to read. He seems like a lovely bloke on Twitter and I hope he continues to produce awesome work like this for many many years to come.

Below are links to some of his other books that we've covered on the blog including the ones mentioned above (I mean how many times has he fetched up in our "Book of the Week" slot?)

Review Links:

ReaditDaddy's Book of the Week - Week Ending 11th April 2014 - "The Queen's Hat" by Steve Antony (Hodder Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's Second Book of the Week - Week Ending 9th October 2015 - "The Queen's Handbag" by Steve Antony (Hodder Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's Second Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 25th January 2019: "Amazing" by Steve Antony (Hodder Children's Books)

"Goodnight Mr Panda" by Steve Antony (Hodder Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's First Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 30th March 2018 - "Unplugged" by Steve Antony (Hodder Children's Books)

I'll Wait, Mr Panda by Steve Antony (Hodder Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's Second Book of the Week - Week Ending 19th December 2014 - "Please Mr Panda" by Steve Antony (Hodder Children's Books)

Booky Advent Calendar Book of the Week - Week Ending 9th December 2016 - "The Queen's Present" by Steve Antony (Hodder Children's Books)

"The Queen's Lift-Off" by Steve Antony (Hodder Children's Books)

"Green Lizards Vs Red Rectangles - What are we fighting For?" by Steve Antony (Hodder Children's Books)

Monster in the Hood by Steve Antony (Oxford University Press / Oxford Children's Books)

"When I Grow Up" by Tim Minchin and Steve Antony (Scholastic)

Cor, can you believe how well travelled our Queen is? She's been around the world - twice - and now she's rocketing off into the inky blackness of space in Steve Antony's fourth book in his hilarious rib-tickling series featuring our jet-setting monarch in "The Queen's Lift Off"

With an extra-special royal rocket, and a whole host of extras, this tale takes us on a fantastic journey around our Solar System with The Queen finding out all about space and the planets we share a galaxy with.

Steve's trademark busy and super-detailed illustrations for this series are once again fantastic, with tons of clever little in-jokes and characters to spot (always keep an eye out for those aliens, who keep popping up in this rambunctuous solar-system-wide chase!

Good lord, where's the queen off to now?

Thankfully Queenie is a resourceful old soul and soon gets the hang of piloting her own rocket. Time for a bit of stellar sightseeing then!

Little known fact. Saturn's theme tune is "If you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it"

The attention to detail in this fourth book is once again totally excellent, and we can't wait for littlies to get their hands on this one.

Sum this book up in a sentence: A stellar journey for an adventuresome monarch, time to join The Queen as she rules over space!

"The Queen's Lift Off" by Steve Antony is out now, published by Hodder Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

Steve Antony's journey to picture book superstardom has indeed been amazing, as I think Steve himself would agree...

We're so pleased to have finally met Blip, a character after our own hearts and the star of this week's first Book of the Week...

Steve Antony's well-mannered and impeccable Mr Panda is back and we DEMAND our own doughnut-covered pyjamas!

Take one Olivier Award Winning Songwriter, comedian and playwright...add an illustrative genius and what do you get? Sheer picture book bliss!

Our second Booky Advent Calendar Book of the Week for 2016 is a rollicking romp that we just couldn't resist...

Look out, beware, something lurks in the neighbourhood but three brave little animals aren't scared...yet!

The world's most polite panda is back! Steve Antony's sequel to "Please Mr Panda" is every bit as tasty!

War? What is it good for? Absolutely nothing (say it again!) Alright, enough of the cheesy pop quotes let's dig into Steve Antony's latest story with two distinctly different contrasting factions.

The green lizards are small, squishy and travel together in huge numbers. For what seems like an eternity they have lived at constant war with the Red Rectangles, stark, angular and pointy-cornered.

No one can quite remember how the war started, but the two sides cannot live harmoniously until one fateful day when the smallest green lizard asks a very important question.

"What are we fighting for? Why can't we live in peace?"

An understanding is reached and as the book comes to its gentle conclusion you'll see what can happen when one lone voice of reason becomes many, and two sides finally work together to achieve understanding and peace.

Steve's trademark uber-detailed artwork (with some absolutely brilliant little expressions on the green lizards' faces) comes into play as the book's stark contrasts prove hugely appealing to young eyes, while imparting a fantastic, positive and important message.

Charlotte's favourite bit: Green Lizards and Red Rectangles living in harmony in a cool red des res!

Daddy's favourite bit: A subtly delivered yet powerful message in the story, delivered with glorious detailed spreads that will make tiny teenies little eyes pop out! Fantastic!

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

"Green Lizards and Red Rectangles"

Written and Illustrated by Steve Antony

Published by Hodder Children's Books

Publication Date: 5th November 2015

Steve Antony's madcap chase in "The Queen's Hat" goes countrywide in the fabulous sequel. Let's dive into "The Queen's Handbag", our second Book of the Week this week...

We couldn't resist sneaking in just one more book of the week before we take a bit of a break over Christmas (but don't worry, articles and reviews will still be popping up between now and January so stay tuned!)

Steve Antony has established himself as a bit of a superstar this year. His second book "The Queen's Hat" rocked our socks off back in April, with a wonderful celebratory mix of crazy chase antics, regal tomfoolery and a lovely touristy whirl around our beloved capital.

It's been really great to see other folk loving the book as much as we have - and they're going to fall in love all over again with Steve's latest book.

Put it this way, we knew we were going to love it from the moment we saw the star's dour and quite serious expression on the front cover of the book. Mr Panda may look slightly grumpy but he's a stickler for good manners. So when Mr Panda decides to offer a huge tray of (quite mouthwateringly delicious) donuts to his friends, you'd expect there to be a bit of a bunfight.

"Manners maketh the man" said my wise old Nan, and she was right - but it seems that none of Mr Panda's friends have ever been taught about good manners and politeness. They're rude, grabby and they're definitely NOT going to be sampling Mr Panda's fare with an attitude like that.

It takes an utterly adorable lemur to show people how it's done. In fact the rather delicious moment when Mr Panda hears a please, and a thank you caused us to cackle with glee - largely due to Steve's utterly fab way with expressions (Mr Panda is a deadpan superstar, we LOVE him!)

We read this again, and again, and again (and as it turned up first thing in the morning we ended up in a mad rush to get to work and school - but hey, some things are worth being late for!)

So Steve effortlessly cruises into our Book of the Week slot once again, this book is an absolute hoot but more importantly it's something of a rarity - there really aren't enough books around that encourage politeness and good manners, and certainly none that deliver their core message in such an utterly brilliant way. Hooray for Steve and Mr Panda!

Charlotte's best bit: Lemur's look of blissed-out sugar-fuelled satisfaction after a ring-donut feast! (She adored the fact that he could thread all the donuts onto his tail and just scoff them at leisure)

Daddy's Favourite bit: Steve is swiftly establishing himself as a children's book superstar, comparisons to Jon Klassen are justified - with the tiniest tweak of his pen he can imbue the characters in this story with huge personality, none less so than Mr Panda himself! Love his deadpan expressions and utterly love each reaction to animal rudeness. Thoroughly well deserved as one of our final book of the week winners of 2014

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

Inspired by a news story about our beloved monarch nearly losing her hat on a blustery day at Grandson William's helicopter base in Anglesey, Steve Antony's fantastic debut for Hodder Children's Books is exactly the sort of riotous celebration of royalty - and London - that we absolutely can't resist.

From the eye-catching cover design (challenge your little one to count all those bearskins on the Queen's Royal Guards!) to the fast-paced story, we knew we were going to end up reading this book again and again. What I hadn't quite expected was that Charlotte would take this everywhere, as I mentioned to awesome Steve Antony on Twitter, "The Queen's Hat" has barely left Charlotte's side while on her easter hols (and has been dutifully shown to grandparents who also love it to bits).

The Queen is off to visit a very important person one day, and as she leaves Buckingham Palace her hat is caught by the wind, and whisked off her head.

So begins a rip-roaring chase around the capital's greatest landmarks, with The Queen (a sprightly octagenerian) dashing after her windswept headgear.

The beauty of this book is the way that it unfolds. A few guards gamely keep up with Queenie, and after a while the entire company of the Royal Guard join in, until there are hundreds of them dashing all around London to retrieve that hat.

I'm trying not to ruin too many bits for you, because the book made us smile at every single turn of the page (don't you love books that you have to twist this way and that in your lap to get the most out of? We certainly do!)

So many tiny little details are worked into Steve's illustrations (look out for the politicians sharing a cab - they look familiar!). There's a real vibrant energy at work here, and that's something that children will be able to tap directly into. Every single reading of this book has met with fizzing enthusiasm from Charlotte.

There is one scene though, and it's an absolutely brilliant spread as The Queen dashes through London Zoo, pursued by her guards, her corgi, a very tired looking butler - and an absolute TON of Zoo animals all joining in the pursuit. This scene actually held us up quite a bit in every subsequent reading and re-reading as Charlotte loved identifying all the different animals (and I couldn't help giggle about the poor corgi, clinging to a guardsman's trouser leg as he swings through the zoo). Needless to say, she sagely pointed out that the monkeys probably weren't actually helping, more hindering the chase!

I've no idea how long it must've taken Steve to draw all those guards (and if you look at them, they're all subtly different! No copy and paste jobs here) Pardon the pun but hats off to him, this is a truly wonderful, sometimes cheeky but absolutely essential children's book, a joyous thing indeed - and all that effort was worth it because it's a front runner for Charlotte's favourite book of the year so far (high praise indeed!)

"The Queens Hat" will rock your world on May 1st 2014, from Hodder Children's Books.

Charlotte's best bit: The naughty monkeys 'helping out' in the Zoo scene, which is such a fantastic illustration

Daddy's Favourite bit: We have read and re-read this so many times. Eagerly awaiting Steve's next book because if this is anything to go by, he's going to be big, big news and this book is going to win awards by the megaton!

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