In this 150th Anniversary year of Lewis Caroll's classic story, there are a dizzying array of different versions of the story currently available. Let's take a look at one of the nicest we've seen in a long time...

It's not easy being orange. Or tiny for that matter. One fish feels like he's suffering an identity crisis but perhaps even the tiniest of us can be a hero.

 We haven't heard from our good friends at Top That Publishing in a while but they've been busily creating wonderful books, including this fantastic new range entitled "Sticker History" aimed at encouraging youngsters into finding out more about the ancient world.

Though we've covered four titles in our sneaky peek, there's quite a range including dinosaur and ice age-themed sticker books - you can check out the whole range over at Top That's Website: http://topthatpublishing.com/search?utype=consumer&q=sticker+history

So to the books themselves. Each book comprises a really neat and intuitive set of themed scenes on the various eras in history each book deals with.

Unlike most sticker books, younger children should find these very easy to use as there are handy 'footnotes' on characters and items in each scene helping those fussy little
 misters and madams (like Charlotte) who absolutely insist on each sticker going in its rightful place.

Younger children might need a bit of a hand detaching some of the stickers (some of the larger and more complex shapes are fairly tricky to detach intact but we've found that in practically every sticker book we've ever reviewed so it's not a problem with the range itself).

Charlotte got busy with the Medieval Sticker Book first. Usually I leave her to get on with the important business of sticking and learning but it was great to see her toddling along to me with new discoveries she'd made - or funny bits she'd found in the book (ahem, bare bottoms doing big poos into castle moats are ALWAYS going to be well received by kids of a certain age!)

The books mix historical facts with a good sense of fun and
 if there's one thing that helps youngsters soak up historical facts and figures very quickly indeed, it's humour whether visual or written (the success of Horrible Histories is testament to this fact, obviously). Josh and Ed have hit just the right balance of humour and the character work is brilliant in these books, making them particularly appealing for the 3-5 year age range and well beyond too.

Charlotte steadily worked through each of the books in turn, saving her favourite till last - the Ancient Egyptians Sticker Book. Everything from the construction of the pyramids to mummification is covered (or rather uncovered!) with tons and tons of stickers to place in each colourful and vibrant scene.

It's an utterly fantastic range and one we hope that Top That will expand upon with further titles (Charlotte points out that they really need to do a "Victorian" one - A future idea perhaps?)

Great stickers, brilliant humorous writing and art, not too stuffy and academic and certainly not too dumbed down either. Just the way we love our history books.

The Sticker History range was released back in April by Top That. Once again, check out their website to find out more about the entire range and Top That's other fantastic activity books for children of all ages.

http://topthatpublishing.com/




Charlotte's favourite bit: Yes, that bit in Medieval History where people used to hang their bums out of windows to do a poo. Ew!

Daddy's favourite bit: Great books to use either at home or in schools, and perfectly priced for upcoming stocking filler ideas.

We quite like children's books that double up as fun toys, and as huge fans of Fuzzy Felt we loved this christmassy version from Top That Publishing. "Fuzzy Christmas" lets you build up lots of playful and interesting christmas scenes with some pre-cut felt shapes and fuzzy backgrounds to place them on.

Lovely easy to handle shapes are perfect for little fingers as children build up scenes of christmas and the nativity. Naturally there are always plenty of presents to be had, and Santa pops in for an appearance too.

A great little book to pick up as a stocking filler. Have a fuzzy christmas y'all!

Charlotte's best bit: Lots of creative fun to be had making up different scenes

Daddy's favourite bit: A fantastic fun book, we always love fuzzy felt stuff.

(Kindly sent to us for review by Top That! Publishing)

The Angry Birds phenomenon shows no signs of slowing down, does it? Everywhere you look this summer you'll see kids enjoying the sunshine usually clad in a T Shirt or baseball cap emblazoned with their favourite Angry Bird character (though, kids, come on, there aren't nearly enough of you Bad Piggies out there!)

So if wearing Angry Birds on your clothes is an awesome idea, how about making your own Angry Birds character masks with this brilliant Angry Birds Playground book from Top That and Rovio.

8 masks are included, with absolutely everything you'll need to make these included in the book (yep, even the elastic and some handy sticky tabs for keeping everything in place).

Charlotte and I enjoyed making the masks, it's very easy to detach the masks from their backing cardboard - though you may need to help younger children with some of the slightly more complex mask outlines.

The only real grumble we had was that it's not always easy to judge how much elastic you need (it's provided as one long strand y'see), and the holes for the elastic to go through are a little on the large side, so if you're relying on the sticky tabs to keep the elastic in place, you might also need to knot the elastic a good few times to make sure the masks don't ping off.

So who did we choose? You're dying to know, right? Charlotte chose to wear Little Blue most of the time - and I had to be King Piggy of course!

Charlotte's best bit: Frightening the heck out of mummy by appearing behind her and shouting BOO!

Daddy's favourite bit: Trying to walk around the house in my King Pig mask without falling over furniture and things.

(Kindly sent to us for review by Top That!)

Fab books about monsters probably make up about 3/4 of our current book collection but there's always room for one more. Even a very hungry fellow like Dwayne, the star of this colourful and cartoony lift the flap book.

Dwayne is always hungry. You name it, he'll eat it (yes, even Grandma's overcooked cabbage!) and of course because Dwayne is a gastronome of some repute, he needs a constant supply of food glorious food!

So when Dwayne's cupboards are bare, he turns to other sources of sustenance. Even the neighbour's cat (and kids) aren't safe from Dwayne's rapacious appetite!

Valentina's beautifully designed book has lots of interesting 'lift the flap' pages as you try to guess what Dwayne has guzzled. There are lots of great surprises for younger children as they use the pages and clues before revealing what's tucked up inside Dwayne's tum.

As Dwayne's eating goes horribly out of control, Dwayne gets bigger, and bigger, and bigger - and soon he's consuming entire cities. What happens when he gets too big for our humble little planet?

We'll let you find out by diving in. With lovely colourful foodie illustrations, and Dwayne himself - the star of the show, there's lots of fun to be had with this book. Just don't try eating famous landmarks at home!

Charlotte's best bit: Dwayne eating the poor moggie and doggie! Naughty Dwayne!

Daddy's favourite bit: A great 'lift the flap' idea, with lovely clear and delicious looking illustrations.

(Kindly sent to us for review by Top That! Publishing)

It's World Book Night and to celebrate, our fabulous friends over at Top That! Publishing have released a trio of fabulous apps for your iPad from the 23rd to the 24th April. The details are below:

As mentioned in our previous review for Top That's "Junior Learn to Draw Baby Animals" Charlotte absolutely positively ADORES drawing Princesses.

This book takes a slightly different approach to the "Junior Learn to Draw" series, using copy grids so that older children can copy a picture as a finished article rather than taking things stage by stage.

The clever bit - 3D - comes from the background of the grids you draw into. A tiny set of coloured circles trick the eye into thinking that whatever you've drawn is standing slightly above the page surface.

Amazingly, it works rather well - though if you're like me with slightly wonky eyes you'll find it takes a bit of getting used to.

There's a wealth of Princess-y material here to copy so Charlotte was in her element. Nothing wrong with being a girly girl from time to time is there (and yes, the book cover is pink).

Though it's not a Disney-fied product, there are certainly a few nods to Disney Princesses in the names used and costume types in the book - and funnily enough we've just been discussing those dot-eyes on Twitter. We love them so.

Charlotte's best bit: Drawing Belle.

Daddy's favourite bit: The rather neat little 3D trick. Wonder if you can get paper like that to print out and use for your own designs!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Top That! Publishing)

Charlotte loves drawing, and she's usually constantly drawing beautiful Princesses in flowing gowns - so it was great to get this book from Top That to extend her drawing skills in a different direction.

The "Junior How To Draw" series covers a diverse range of topics with strong cross gender appeal, and this particular title "Baby Animals" is absolutely perfect when your kids are at that "Ahhhh" stage of loving all things furry, fluffy and feathery.

With simple to follow step-by-step instructions, you can learn how to draw kittens, baby Orang-Utans, Meerkats (simples!) and (of great interest to me at the moment) ponies!

We sat down and drew some of the animals together. Charlotte hasn't quite got the hang of using construction lines, rubbing them out before the drawing was complete - so she spent a lot of time skipping the stages and copying the finished articles.

I showed her how artists and illustrators often rough out their work before finalising it (yep, even Daddy!) and slowly she came round to the idea that you could work out a piece in stages just like in the book, and end up with something really cool.

A fantastic book to while away a few hours with, just ahead of the Easter Hols so perfect timing to pick up a couple in the range and give them a go. Don't forget your best pencils and colours!

Charlotte's best bit: Drawing baby rabbits and guinea pigs (her favourite baby animals at the moment)

Daddy's favourite bit: I can draw a pony at last! YAY!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Top That! Publishing)

It seems fitting that it's pouring with rain here at the moment because today is launch day for this lovely little book (and you can see our launch day interview with Joanna Gray just below this very post!). We were very fortunate to be sent a copy for review by Joanna herself and couldn't wait to find out all about The Little Raindrop as it's a book we've been keeping an eye on for quite some time.

Starting life in the clouds, the Little Raindrop races down to earth during a rainstorm, and we trace his journey from cloud to puddle, from puddle to stream, from stream to river and out to sea. Charlotte very quickly worked out that this engaging story was about the water cycle. Told in a such a delightful way that it has quite a broad range of appeal, younger children will appreciate the (pardon the pun) 'flow' of the lilting story and the journey Little Raindrop takes.

For older children (particularly Charlotte's age group) it becomes a book that triggers discussions and investigations - where does our water come from? What happens to the rain, and how does the cycle continue round and round?

For a first book it's impressive and addictive stuff (in a week when we've had a lot of books in our pile, it's been regularly demanded by Charlotte - always a good sign). Parents will love it as it's just the right length for a pre-bedtime book, and it's a nice easy read thanks to Joanna's writing style and ability to make a tale flow as easily as little raindrop's progress downstream.

Grab The Little Raindrop and snuggle down - no matter what the weather!

Charlotte's best bit: The Raindrop flowing through rivers and streams, she loved tracing his path with her finger and loved the bit where he flies through the rainbow and takes on the rainbow hues

Daddy's favourite bit: A great book for a range of ages and a stunning debut. Well done Joanna!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Joanna / Top That! Publishing)

Joanna Gray and her Children's Picture Book debut "The Little Raindrop" - Awesome smile, Joanna!

Ever since a rather mysterious little raindrop started appearing in our Twitter feed we've wondered who it was and what it was all about. Now we know! Welcome to first time author Joanna Gray as she stops by ReadItDaddy for an interview and to talk about her debut, "The Little Raindrop" from Top That! Publishing, which is out today, Hooray!


ReadItDaddy: Congratulations on your first book "The Little Raindrop" coming from Top That on March 1st. Tell us a little bit about yourself!

Joanna: I live in Leeds with my husband, our three children; Nathan (6), Will (4) and Karin (4) – yes they are twins, and our dog, Buster. I work in the Head Office of a Bank where my day job is analysing numbers. It is about as far away from what people expect from an author as possible!

I’m a very energetic, happy person and I love to live life to the full. I love spending time with my family and friends, usually outside running around with the children having fun.

When I’m not being a Mum, working in my day job, or writing, I like to read. I have also recently become quite addicted to Twitter (Yep, us too :)


ReadItDaddy: What was the inspiration for "The Little Raindrop" ? (apart from the - er - interesting weather we've had recently :)

Joanna: Ever since I was a little girl I’ve wanted to write a book but as I grew up and became more mathematically focussed I put that dream aside. However, after having my eldest son and spending countless hours enjoying reading books to him I began to start thinking about writing again. The Little Raindrop was an idea that came to me as I was trying to get to sleep one night. I had to get out of bed and write it all down before I could get to sleep.


ReaditDaddy: We're a bit green when it comes to how books come together but are fascinated by the ties between author, illustrator and publisher. How closely did you get to work with Top That and Dubravka Kolanovic (the illustrator) while the book was in the early stages before going to print?

Joanna: I didn’t at all. I had done my research, and I knew that first time authors very rarely have any say in the illustrator of their book, unless they have arranged it themselves first and submitted the finished book to the publisher. I was quite nervous seeing The Little Raindrop pictures for the first time, but Dubravka has done such an amazing job and Little Raindrop is everything I hoped he would be.

Working with Top That! around the promotion of the Little Raindrop has been a fantastic experience. They are really helpful and have offered me great support for my various ideas.


ReadItDaddy: Tell us a little bit about your influences - what children's books, authors and illustrators do you admire?

Joanna: I am a huge Julia Donaldson fan. I think my favourite of her books is “Tiddler, The Story Telling Fish”, although “Night Monkey Day Monkey” is also really good. I always enjoy reading the Little Wombat books by Angela McAllister, and my children love Giles Andreae’s “Morris the Mankiest Monster”. I admire him very much, but that particular book makes me feel quite ill, it is that well written and illustrated!

When it comes to illustrations I have quite a traditional taste. One of my favourite pictures from a book is drawn by Caroline Pedler in “Bedtime for Little Bears!”. I love the soft pastel drawings, so Top That!’s choice of Dubravka as The Little Raindrop’s illustrator fit in extremely well with my ideas of how I wanted the book to look.


Charlotte: Who is your favourite Princess? (Mine's Snow White but I like Mulan too!)


Joanna: That’s a tough question. I think I will have to say Belle, but Rapunzel is a close second.


Charlotte: Do you have any pets? I love Rabbits and Guinea Pigs but mummy and daddy won't let me have one (yet!)

Joanna: We have a dog called Buster. He is a mongrel, and he is 10 years old. He’s a very special part of our family, and we love to take him on long walks in the woods. He isn’t very good at hide and seek though, he usually stands next to me when I’m hiding and barks at me to tell me to throw his ball for him!

Our thanks to Joanna Gray and Top That! Publishing for the interview opportunity! "The Little Raindrop" is out today.  Look out for our full review (just above this post!)

The MeBooks Library. Classics old and new

This week's theme for #readitmummiesanddaddies2013 is dipping into technology, and the various ways that new portable devices such as tablets and netbooks are changing the way children enjoy stories.

Some time ago we covered a rather innovative app called MeBooks by MadeInMe, a company that produces engaging apps to stimulate a child's love of stories and plays.

MeBooks is one of a brace of storefront-led storybook apps but what makes MeBooks stand out is the ability for parents and children to customise the stories themselves.

Shown below is a typical MeBook page layout with the innovative hotspots in place:

Hotspots mark out areas where dialogue and sound can be added to your favourite stories

Though most MeBooks are beautifully read by a host of celebrity readers, the fun begins when parents sneakily have a play with the app while their children are tucked up in bed, and record their own dialogue (and silly voices of course!) over a child's stories. Equally enjoyable is working your way through a book together, taking it in turns to read and record the story as you go - eventually playing it back or even saving it for later.

The store works particularly well, and has a brilliant selection of books both old and new (including some of our all time favourites like "Not Now, Bernard" by David McKee and the sublime classic Ladybird children's fairy tale books, complete with all that lovely lovely painted artwork.

To get you up and running, you get a book for free with optional in-app purchases for the other titles. Depending on your point of view about paying for e-books these aren't too unreasonably priced so you can soon build up quite a library of brilliant stories to share, read, record and enjoy.

MeBooks (available from the app store, free with optional in-app purchases)

We're starting to see more and more instances of 'customisation' in e-books and storytelling apps and we firmly believe that if you can let a child and their parents 'own' a story in some way, putting their personal stamp on it, it feels all the more enjoyable and truly 'theirs'.

Apps that allow children to make up their own stories are equally welcome, particularly when an app gives children the assets they need to start building a story or even an interactive play without needing artistic skills and expertise. We've seen quite a few apps like this but the standout is definitely Top That Publishing's 'The Froobles'. Again, available for free with optional in-app purchases, the free version is absolutely packed full of potential.

Make your own plays and stories with The Froobles

Seen here is the 'make a play' part of the app - which is by far our favourite bit of this feature-rich app. Children can choose a scene, choose their favourite froobles characters and start recording short movies (complete with speech and sounds they add themselves) to tell a story. Once they hit the record button, they can move characters around, and act out a scene - then save it for later playback. Charlotte can literally spend hours with this and it's so easy and intuitive to use that she can even be left to her own devices while playing it.

The app also contains a great selection of entertaining stories featuring the Froobles gang, as well as other activities like colouring and drawing.

Colour in your favourite members of the Froobles gang

The Froobles range is expanding this year and Top That are also producing toys and merchandise based on these very popular characters. The app is slick and very well done with a great range of celebrities taking up reading duties for the stories (Johnny Vaughan is brilliant and funny reading Little Jack Potato - which surely was based on him!)

The Storybook app market is exploding at the moment, but in our next article we'll be looking into (perhaps not so) dim and distant future, and how new emerging technology may offer new and exciting ways to engage children and parents with reading using their favourite gadgetry.

• The Pirates Next Door by Jonny Duddle (from Templar Books)
• Pants by Giles Andreae and Nick Sharratt (with a sing-a-long CD performed by Lenny Henry)
• Mog's Christmas by Judith Kerr (read by Geraldine McEwan)
• The 'Flip Up Fairy Tale' range from Child's Play (popular children's fairy tales with beautifully read story CDs)
• The Snowman by Raymond Briggs (wonderfully read by the legend that is Bernard Cribbins!)
• Stories for a Prince by various authors (produced for Charity and Prince William back in the 80s)
• The Froobles story and audio range from Top That! Publishing

As Charlotte begins her reading journey, we feel like we're caught up in a phonic whirlwind. Anything that can help her make phonic exercises more fun and more colourful is a definite bonus.

"Learn with Neddy Teddy and his Phonic Friends" is a neat idea. Each colourful panel has a "Phonics Wheel" that children can use in conjunction with the text and fabulous illustrations to match phonic sounds, trickier letter combinations and word matching.

As you can see from the panel, the animal characters and super-colourful pictures are imaginative and fun, and the phonics wheel is a stroke of genius - though some parents might find that they need to cover over the 'picture' window to ensure children are sounding out and learning properly, rather than just guessing words or letters by looking directly at the images.

The wheel idea ensures that the solid and beautifully presented book has an absolute ton of content to ensure that children don't get too bored with the exercises, and can carry on using the book as their phonics skills develop.

At the moment, it's really great to see Charlotte taking those first few learning and reading steps along with her school and with our help, and it's massively rewarding to see her take to something like the Neddy Teddy books with gusto.

Charlotte's best bit: She absolutely loves the animal characters, and of course rotating the wheel to try out all the different word and letter combinations

Daddy's favourite bit: A really solid book and the letter wheel idea is a stroke of genius - May need some parental intervention to turn the wheel at times (but this is very common with this type of book, sometimes they need a bit of 'working in' to make them easier for small fingers to turn without hurting themselves)

(Kindly supplied to us for review by the lovely folk at Top That! Publishing)

Activity books are always a good way of ensuring your children are totally absorbed in something for a couple of hours, well away from the TV or the iPad.

Charlotte became quite obsessed with this book to the point where she couldn't wait to get on with joining the dots as soon as she got home from school, colouring in and enjoying the Fairyland tale in this novel mix of fun and storytelling.

Two young children - Max and Molly - set out on an adventure through a magical forest meeting enchanting characters along the way. There's a fairy kingdom hidden away in the forest, with a beautiful fairy princess to play with.

Naturally this is the sort of thing that Charlotte really loves, but the dot-to-dot theme running through the book was a novel twist. At first she took some convincing that she was actually 'allowed' to draw in a book (we've done too good a job of convincing her that she should look after her books and not scribble in them! She got the idea in the end though!)

Some designs are quite intricate, and if your child has difficulty counting up to higher numbers, these books are actually quite useful for getting them used to number sequences while they have fun.



There are several books in the "Dot-to-dot Adventures" range including this fairy-tale-themed one - each designed around the idea of 'completing' the story as you go along. You can find the rest of the range here on Top That Publishing's website.

Once the dot-to-dot puzzles are completed, children can add colour to the panels and help Max and Molly find out exactly what lies hidden in the magical forest.

This definitely got a big thumbs up from Charlotte, so we'll be hunting down the rest of the range (including dot to dot dinosaurs, space adventures, rainforest and ocean books) which look great fun as well as informative and educational.







Charlotte's best bit: Joining the dots and colouring in the fairy princess

Daddy's favourite bit: Joining in and helping Charlotte join the dots when designs got a bit complicated.

(Kindly sent to us for review by the lovely folk at Top That! Publishing)

The Froobles are quickly becoming megastars as part of Top That! Publishing's flagship range of books, activities and apps for young children. It's easy to see why they are so popular, there's a character there for just about everyone (Personally I think Little Jack Potato is great but very naughty, while Charlotte absolutely loves Sienna Strawberry because she loves to dance and wears a ballet dress!) and they're going from strength to strength with new merchandise, new characters and new books coming very soon (more news on those new characters through this link).

Back to the Froobles Fun Things to Make and Do Book, which was kindly supplied by the fab folk at Top That! The gang are ready for a huge selection of activities, makes and recipes in this fun and attractive book. Making everything from cool paper aeroplanes, butterfly prints, chocolate crispy cakes and even a selection of naughty Jack Potato's best japes to play on family and friends, it's packed to the gills with interesting things to do on rainy or sunny days.

Best of all, there are tons and tons of stickers at the back of the book that can be used for some of the activities, or just to decorate your own stuff at home (Charlotte has proudly stuck Sienna Strawberry on one of her favourite toy cars). I don't think I've ever met a child that doesn't love stickers, so they're a great addition to the book.

If you're already familiar with The Froobles then you'll love this activity book. If not, definitely check out the Froobles Website and meet the gang!

Charlotte's best bit: Butterfly printing and Sienna Strawberry!

Daddy's favourite bit: Those groovy cress heads!

One of the first books Charlotte made an instant bee-line for in the wonderful Top That early christmas parcel we received was "Fuzzy Christmas", a great activity book with lots of 'Fuzzy Felt' shapes to arrange in tactile christmas scenes. A nice durable book, Charlotte had a lot of fun sorting out the shapes, matching them to the stories and text, and then making up her own scenes and stories.

Stimulated play like this is a great way for children to learn different words and have fun while they're doing it, and it's also great for shape recognition and matching.

We've previously had one of the other 'Fuzzy' titles, 'Fuzzy Farm' and it was also quite a useful thing to take on car journeys, where the pieces stay put on the backgrounds (though you have to be careful to make sure they don't end up lost in the car too!)

Nicely illustrated with lots of bold colours and designs, Fuzzy Christmas retails for £4.49 direct from the Top That website. 

Charlotte's best bit: Making up her own stories and narrating them with the great selection of colourful play pieces and scenes

Daddy's favourite bit: A nice hard-back durable book that should stand up to plenty of chewing!

Oooh! What's inside?

The wonderful Top That! Publishing, Suffolk-based publishers behind the excellent 'Froobles' series of apps and books (and soon, a whole lot more) were lovely enough to send Charlotte an early christmas present last week.

A very tired and rained-on little girl was cheered up immensely by the sight of Froobles wrapping paper holding lots of lovely things.

So what was inside the parcel?

Very well wrapped!

Like all children on Christmas Morning, Charlotte made short work of the parcel (I did manage to save some of the wrapping paper though, for a bit of Froobles-flavoured crafting later on). Can you bear the anticipation? Early christmas presents are, after all, the very best type!

YAY! We're in!

Inside were three of Top That! Publishing's latest books and we'll be reviewing them separately. The titles were:

"When I Dream of Christmas" by Oakley Graham, Alexia Orkania and Henry Fisher.

"Fuzzy Christmas" by Kate Thomson and Barry Green.

"Froobles Fun Things to Make and Do" by Ella Davies.




...as well as some chocolate coins and eggs, which disappeared quicker than you can say "What happened to those chocolate eggs and coins, Charlotte?"

Massive thanks to Top That! Publishing for a lovely early surprise and three really superb books that would be excellent additions to any child's christmas list! Reviews coming up shortly...stay tuned!

Our first app of the week award goes to a real doozy. The Froobles from Top That! Publishing, is exactly the sort of app that other publishers and developers need to take a long hard look at before they leap into the foray of producing educational and engaging apps for kids.

Available free at the moment (Free until the 6th August with in-app purchases for extra character stories), The Froobles gets the balance of packing out the 'free' version of the app with so much content that you'll definitely be back for more.

With engaging fruit and vegetable characters acting out stories (read by showbiz luminaries like Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen), the app doesn't just stop at fun and entertaining stories, there are some seriously neat little activities in there too.

We'll skip mentioning the matching pairs game (sigh, how we hate those!) and take a look at the other more interesting stuff.

The colouring game is fun and allows your child to colour in scenes from the stories, and the characters too. It's all very easy to use with a slick user interface that most toddlers will be right at home with (let's face it, kids are far better at using these things than we are - but anything that means they aren't screaming at you to change screens or games is always most welcome).

There are some neat little phonics games where children can match up letters to complete puzzles of words. The only drawback here is that the app does allow you to drop in the puzzle pieces in any order, I think it would've been better and more educational if kids had to follow the proper order of the word but if you're joining in with them, you can always encourage them to do this yourself.

The animated story is fun (Johnny Vaughan seems to be an excellent children's narrator, who knew?) and leads neatly into the real star attraction of the app.

Using pre-set scenery (though, here's a future idea guys, how about letting kids draw their own?), you can drop in characters and props and build your own mini plays. Setting the iPad to record your efforts, you can move characters in real time and even record voices as they 'speak'. Needless to say, the more educational parts of the app were swiftly brushed aside in favour of this, and Charlotte spent hours playing with it. Again there's the slight niggle of having the waste bin (which you can dispose of unwanted bits and bobs in) too near the 'stage' at the top of the screen so you'll have to teach your little ones not to get their characters too close to this or they'll lose them during their plays.

Minor niggles aside, this is easily one of the best toddler-friendly apps we've seen. Additional stories are charged at the rather reasonable sum of 69p (with Chloe, Tessa and Orlando amongst the extra character stories available now).

As a standalone freebie download though, it's still absolutely packed to the gills and really stands out in a sea of fairly mundane and samey apps, so grab it while you can.

Charlotte's best bit: The play maker, an absolute work of genius.

Daddy's favourite bit: Slick user interface, plenty of content and very nicely produced.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars, App of the Week

With entertaining stories, minigames and app surprises for preschoolers, Top That Publishing's "The Froobles" is exactly the sort of interactive app we like to see here at ReadItDaddy. Not just a sterile treatment of a print book but something that truly embraces all the opportunities for fun and learning that modern touch-screen devices can offer. Celebrities like Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen lend their voices to the stories too!

Top That Publishing have been producing fun and educational apps for quite some time and now you can take a look at one of their best-loved series with a free sampler available on iTunes.

The Froobles (on iTunes for iPad / iPhone)

More information is available on the Top That Froobles Support Site. 

The app will remain free until 6th August so get in quick!