A lot more goes on underneath our feet than you might imagine.

Templar always seem to produce the most dazzlingly attractive books, and in "Walk This Underground World" by Kate Baker and Sam Brewster, you'll find a brilliantly illustrated subterranean world stretching out in front of you, and stretching back through history too.

We're off on an amazing journey all around the globe to find amazing hidden worlds, teeming with life - from prairie dog towns and ant cities, to opal mines and treasure-filled tombs.

What's life like inside a leafcutter ant colony?

Going underground...on the underground! A highlight of visiting London.

I was a bit apprehensive about approaching Charlotte with this one. The moment she saw the cover, I could see her expression setting into that "I'm not reviewing THAT!" look. But...

Butterflies are beautiful, and one of the most pleasurable experiences we've had recently was lying out in the middle of a wild grassy meadow watching the butterflies flit around...

Published by Francis Lincoln / New Edition

Try as I might to avoid bringing home Monster books from the library, there are so many. When Charlotte picked this book out and clung to it for dear life, no amount of cajoling or persuading could convince her to leave it behind. The good news is that the monsters in this book are a happy jolly bunch and there are plenty of "lift the flap" pages to keep youngsters occupied (though here's an open question to publishers and authors - why do lift the flap books invarlably not have a lift-flap on the very last page of the book? We've seen that quite a few times). 

A couple of moments of concern occured when the book talks about monsters hiding under the bed (do other parents have a toddler who's convinced that this is where monsters live even if you take every measure to convince them otherwise?) and another monster talking about eating little boys - but the pace and mood of the book is light hearted and jocular enough to gloss over these bits. 

Charlotte's best bit: Inevitably it's going to be the monster showing off his pants on page 1


Daddy's favourite bit: Monsters bothering grannies!