Charlotte, dear heart, very rarely picks overtly 'girly' books out from the Library but as soon as she saw "The Fairyspotter's Guide" she absolutely went crazy for it. Like a cornucopia of pink and sparkly winsomeness wrapped up in book form, Meg and Lucy Clibbon's book details the secret lives (and different species) of fairies that secretly dwell at the bottom of your garden.

Tinkerbelles, Flower Fairies, Fairy Queens and even the rather naughty and mischievous fake fairies are all detailed with beautiful illustrations.

Charlotte loves the pictures and her own drawings often pick up cues from the various picture books we read so it was quite cute to find her drawing some of the fairies from this and including the various elements in her own scribblings.

Obviously not one for the rumbustious boys at home, but girls (even fairly tomboy-ish girls) will be utterly enchanted.

Charlotte's best bit: The Tinkerbelles, of course!

Daddy's favourite bit: Those rather rude fake fairies.

Rating: 3 out of 5 specks of fairy dust

Imagine what it would be like to live with a dragon that cried tears of pure gold every time he had a bit of an emotional moment. Judging by the vast pile of loot Little Dragon is sitting on, he must be a bit of a sad chap.

Little Dragon and the Haunted House tells his story, and what happens when he decides to up sticks and move with his family to a haunted house.

After dealing with a horribly slippery estate agent (know the feeling!), Little Dragon finds the perfect abode. The only problem is, the ghosts living there are a wee bit afraid of dragons.

Anni Axworthy's charming little tale seems to have struck a chord with Charlotte and I had to draw the line of having yet another book nominated as 'joint book of the week' (two is bad enough, three would be crazy!) But she loves this, perhaps because like most children she finds ghosts and scary stuff absolutely intoxicating and though this book is about as scary as a wet paper tissue, tiny mites hear 'haunted house' and immediately think of spooky goings on.

Charlotte's best bit: Little Dragon's huge pile of gold coins and treasure

Daddy's favourite bit: Why don't estate agents sell more houses that look like something from The Addams Family?

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Life's not easy when you're a Princess. The constant pressure of your parents trying to marry you off to Princes who are too fat, too skinny, too boring or too smelly. Definitely takes the shine off an otherwise perfect life. 


Princess Isabella decides that this isn't the life for her, and in a twist on "The Princess and the Frog", strange and magical things happen when the regal lass snogs a warty pond-dweller on an afternoon walk. 


A little too close for comfort to the Disney film "The Frog Princess" in some places, The Perfect Prince nevertheless manages to be a fun read with some wonderfully quirky artwork (I'd love to know where Sue Mason and other artists source all their weird photogravure clip art from. I can never find any by googling for the stuff, durn it!)


You'll see the twist at the end coming a mile off, but don't worry, it's a croaking good read all the same. 


Charlotte's best bit: An odd toy floating in the castle moat (!)


Daddy's favourite bit: Froggy antics at the end of the book


Rating: 3 out of 5