We've been meaning to do one of these for a while so now we've finally got round to it, we thought we'd do our first cross-blog 'hug' with the excellent ChildLedChaos Blog and the Friday Pick{ture Book} slot. Clicking on the lovely shelf of books down there will take you to the blog and the rules and regs for how you can join in. 
So let's kick off with another one of the Maverick Books we were recently sent, the rather fun and wibbly "Grandma Bendy" by Izy Penguin. 
What? You didn't know penguins could write and draw? This one can, and she's woven together a torrid tale of a bad grandma turned good. You see Grandma Bendy isn't just a little old lady who watches daytime cookery shows, owns 200 cats, and calls you "George" even though your name is Phil, no she's extremely flexible and bendy, like a septuagenerian Mr Tickle!
She wasn't always sweet and lovely though, Grandma Bendy has a dark past which unfolds as you read the book. We won't spoil it for you but Grandma Bendy is a lovely little book and the first we've come across from Izy. We would certainly love to read more adventures featuring Grandma Bendy so lets hope this is just the start of a successful series. 
Charlotte's best bit: Grandma Bendy as 'Young Lady' Bendy. 
Daddy's favourite bit: Rather cool treatment of the idea of the black sheep of the family making good. 
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

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Goodnight Digger arrived in the post looking a bit like a digger had run it over but thankfully though battered and creased we dug straight in!

From Michelle Robinson with illustrations by Nick East, "Goodnight Digger" is a lovely snuggly bedtime book where a sleepy little boy says goodnight to all his beloved toys in turn. When a book says "will help your little darlings go to bed, and stay there" you can't really argue with that!

I loved Goodnight Digger's rhyming text, and Charlotte loved the artwork (particularly the wooden train set which is just like the one she's currently playing with). We definitely must hunt out her other books (particularly "What to do if an elephant stands on your foot" and "Bear Boar").

If your little ones love lorries, cars, trains, and of course diggers (what kid doesn't!) they'll love flicking through this beautifully presented book.

Charlotte's best bit: "That's my train set!"

Daddy's favourite bit: Panels that look so snuggly and lovely that you feel like you could wrap yourself up in them like a warm cuddly blanket.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

(Book kindly supplied by Puffin Books for review)

Today's mega-review filled me with a bucketload of nostalgia and simultaneously made me a completely gushy proud parent. I took a chance on ordering "The Adventures of Harold and the Purple Crayon" from an Amazon reseller. It's one of those 'lost books' I absolutely adored as a kid, and couldn't believe would be still on sale (You can buy the 'proper' Harold books new on Amazon btw, but this is a rolled up combination of four of the best of Crockett Johnson's originals, not to be confused with the rather poor knock-offs that appeared in the early noughties!)

So rather than listen to me waffle on about how fantastic this book is, I'll let Charlotte guide you through with a pictorial guide to Harold's world...

Harold is a young lad with a magic crayon, able to draw the world around him as he sees fit. In Harold's first adventure (and Charlotte's) - the world starts with a huge purple scribble!

Harold draws a path, and the all-important moon to guide him on his moonlit walk.





(Yes that's the moon, as drawn by Charlotte, there in the corner of a rather large roll of lining paper. Good tip for parents, if you want solid and cheap paper that's able to take a lot of abuse from poster paints, water colours or purple crayons, lining paper is absolutely brilliant. It does help if you've got a pet Dodo who happens to be the best Painter and Decorator in the biz who can get the stuff for you, but it's fairly cheap from most DIY stores too!)




Harold's Journey (and Charlotte's) continues and soon they reach a part of the world where a forest ought to be. To avoid getting lost, Charlotte draws a single tree. An apple tree with lovely purple apples!

They're not quite ripe yet, so she needs to come up with something to protect the tree..! What could it be?




A Dragon! Of course, a dragon, a rather fierce dragon at that - with large gnashing sharp teeth! EEK!

The dragon makes Harold's crayon hand shake and before he knows it, he's up to his neck in the sea.

Quick thinking Harold (and quick thinking Charlotte) quickly draws a trim little boat, the perfect way to escape that scary dragon!

Setting sail for distant lands Harold (and his trusty cohort Charlotte) soon make land, and fetch up on a charming little beach.

It's the perfect spot for a picnic, and so it's time to draw something tasty and nutritious to eat.

9 pies ought to do it..!



Not even the hungriest boy (or girl!) in the world can quite finish off 9 pies. So it's time to draw some animal friends to help out with the picnic leftovers.

How about...a moose! Yep a moose with big antlers, and a tiny little porcupine with a big tummy. That should do the trick!

Nicely fed and watered, it's time for Harold (and Charlotte) to move on but they're both feeling a bit tired and missing home.



They draw a big hill which turns into a big mountain. Losing their footing, Harold and Charlotte tumble to the bottom but save themselves just at the right moment with a timely drawing of a balloon.

Soon the balloon lands in the garden of a familiar looking house but it's not home, just a house. Awww.

Charlotte and Harold rather like drawing houses though, so they draw a few more windows, doors, towers and soon a huge city.



They're lost! Too many windows to look at, too many buildings to get lost amongst so what do they do? When you're lost, ask a policeman for help and he'll happily point the way.

This policeman's a rather jolly chap but seems to have lost his hat.

Eventually Harold (and Charlotte), tired and weary from a day's drawing, find home.


Home, and Harold's window, is always around the moon after all. Tired Charlotte (and Harold) draw up a bed, draw the curtains, draw up the covers and it's time for sleep. ZZZZZ!

(Shhhh everyone, sleeping child - only pretending!)




Quite amazing what you can do with a magic purple crayon, a large roll of lining paper and a cute sidekick, eh Harold?

Can't tell you how much fun we had doing this and how two hours passed by in the blink of an eye while we read the book, drew the pictures and told the story.

As I said at the top of the review, definitely search out Crockett Johnson's original "Harold" stories (the new ones are full colour, and don't quite capture the simplicity, the child-friendliness and the all important simple purple crayon drawings of the original). Basically, if it 'aint Crockett, it 'aint Harold :)

This compilation features the following stories: 

1) Harold and the Purple Crayon
2) Harold's Fairy Tale
3) Harold's Trip to the Sky
4) Harold at the Circus

Charlotte's best bit: The fierce dragon, of course!

Daddy's favourite bit: Naming 9 types of pie off the top of my head for the picnic scene (Is chocolate available in pie form? It is now!)

Rating: A thoroughly well deserved 5 out of 5 stars, Book of the Week

Edit: This is great btw...an animation of the original book. Superb!

The lovely folk at GPP PR and Marketing tweeted us @readitdaddy recently to ask if we'd like to review some books. Lo and behold, four lovely books arrived in the post yesterday and this was the one Charlotte instantly seized on.

Worry-wort parents might want to look away now.

Because, oh my...oh my oh my....

 ....this is a tricky one to review.

"The Fearsome Beastie" is the sort of book my lovely other half @thestrollingmum blanches at whenever we bring home monstrous books from the library. A recent winner of The People's Book Prize, this book really doesn't pull any punches (or axes!). Most monsters in books are rather pleasant folk who start off shouting, gnashing and snarling and end up rather placid, even friendly. The fearsome beastie in this book isn't like that at all. He prowls at night, he likes to eat young children and he thinks nothing of tricking them into trusting them before he gobbles them all up.

There's a message here though, and it's a very strong stark message about 'monsters' that's woven between the gently rhyming text, and the (sometimes rather graphic but beautifully done) illustrations.

Personally I wouldn't recommend this as a bedtime read (in fact I wouldn't recommend this 8 hours either side of bedtime or nap time) and I'm gobsmacked that one particular picture panel made it through editing intact but Charlotte wanted to read it again as soon as we'd finished. If you don't baulk at the thought of your children reading something that feels like a 'warts 'n' all' classic children's fairy story, this is very much cut from the same cloth.

Maverick Books are definitely a force in Children's Publishing to keep an eye on though. Superb high quality book beautifully presented.

Charlotte's best bit: Of course she liked the 'shock' bit the best (and I'm sure your kids would too!)

Daddy's favourite bit: The fact that this doesn't shy away from letting a monster be monstrous, menacing and downright nasty.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Poppa Bombola is all in a tizz
Poppa Bombola's brain starts to fizz
You see he's lost his darling daughter
(Well not really, but sorta)
So he's running hither, and thither and here
To find his darling daughter dear.
He runs to the stable, he runs to the pond
But Poppa Bombola can't find out where she's gone.
He asks piggy, and horse, he asks chicken and cat.
But no one seems to know where she's at.

Poppa Bombola, in a bit of a doze.
Doesn't realise the answer is right under his nose!

As you can tell, I'm not a poet so I won't peel your eyes with any more of my terrible prose. Suffice to say that we rather liked "Where's my darling daughter" and its lilting rhyming text, and of course Poppa Bombola - the world's biggest worry wort. Be prepared to shout "BEHIND YOU!" along with your little ones all the way through this lovely book.

I'd like to have carried on this review in rhyme.
But as you can see, I'm all out of time...!

Charlotte's best bit: Piggies!

Daddy's favourite bit: Big hugs!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The opinion on wordless children's books is often divided. Some argue that without a story for children to follow and identify with, the book loses its impact and impetus. It teaches nothing, because children don't have any guidelines to follow. No narrative means nothing is gained.

I tend to disagree with that summary. A wordless book is like a key to the padlock of a child's imagination and if the art can stand up to it (and Beatrice Rodriguez's illustrations most certainly can) then the story unfolds in a child's mind and if they can't read, you can sit back and listen to one of the best things in the world - a child letting rip with their powerful unfettered imagination.

This story, from Charlotte's perspective, is all about a naughty chicken who steals a magical glowing egg. His friends want some of the egg, so they chase him but the chicken is fast, naughty and sneaky and manages to outrun his pursuers all the way through the book (Alright those aren't her exact words but that's the gist of what she puts across). The book ends rather nicely with the chicken getting his 'reward' but you'll have to 'read' it yourself to find out just what that reward is.

The great thing about wordless books is that you can spin them on their heads the next time round and make the story completely different. Second telling, the chicken is Indiana Jones and he's rescuing a golden treasure from a lost civilisation. Third time around, the chicken has entered the 1500 Metres egg and spoon race, forgot his spoon so he runs the race anyway.

Wordless books. Don't discount them, they're really the most powerful way of experiencing books for little ones who can't yet read.

Charlotte's best bit: The 'reward' the chicken gets (which we won't spoil).

Daddy's favourite bit: Beatrice Rodriguez' knack of imbuing her animal characters with human expressions in just a couple of tiny, tiny strokes. Genius artist!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Colin McNaughton's 'Preston Pig' books are firm favourites back at ReadItDaddy Towers, and we hadn't come across 'S.W.A.L.K' so it was a delight to find it in our local library. Preston receives a mysterious letter with S.W.A.L.K written on the back. His mum knows exactly what that means, sealed with a loving kiss, but Preston doesn't realise it's from his sweetheart, the lovely girl he met on holiday. He reads the letter and decides to write back to Max and tell her all about his life.

As ever, the best bits in the Preston Pig books are all the tiny little details and asides that go on in the background (usually involving a rather daft and completely luckless wolf who rather fancies bacon burgers for breakfast, dinner and tea).

It's a sweet little tale that reminds us of the funny stories about Charlotte and her "Prince Charming" at preschool (actually, recently she's switched allegiances from Prince Jacob to Prince George - women eh? Fickle, the lot of 'em). Colin McNaughton's formula works so beautifully once again, we love it.

Charlotte's best bit: Preston painting portraits of Max in art class

Daddy's favourite bit: The wolf bits of course, he's about as successful as Wile E. Coyote (and about as clever).

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The three greatest cats in children's books return! We absolutely love Moonpie, Andre and Tiny and their cat antics so "There are Cats in this Book" was a well deserved Book of the Week when we reviewed it last September.

We've just enjoyed the follow up and Viviane Schwarz is obviously an expert in two things:

1) Observing, noting and absolutely nailing 'cat character' - so obvious in how Moonpie, Andre and Tiny behave and their antics in this book.

2) Playing with the format of children's books, stretching paper and paint to the limit to produce books that go way way beyond the usual staid 'lift the flap for a big surprise' idea.

So Charlotte loved "There are no cats in this book" and like other children, she loved the surprises (which I won't spoil - suffice to say that her face when she realised what had happened during 'the magic bit' was absolutely lovely).

We're crazy maverick rule breakers here at ReadItDaddy and though we've already had one book of the week, we're going to squeeze Viviane Schwarz's "There are no cats in this book" as well, simply because - well because we can, and because what Charlotte says goes, and because we absolutely love it to bits.

Charlotte's best bit: The magic!

Daddy's favourite bit: Purring cats, lots of purring cats.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars, book of the week

Right alongside our app of the week is this week's book of the week, and again it's a book I can't believe we haven't reviewed before.

Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler are, of course, the legendary author/illustrator team behind the phenomenally successful Gruffalo books but secretly I think we actually love Stick Man more.

A little twiggy fellow lives in a tree with his stick lady love and their stick children three (it's almost impossible to read this book or even review it without breaking into a sing-song voice). Through no fault of his own, and due to his rather 'sticky' nature, poor stick man embarks on adventures and mishaps that take him far, far away from home and his loved ones.

Poor Stick Man. He's not just a stick, he's a man after all! But his voice is lost as various animals and other folk all want to use Stick Man for one purpose or another.

You'll have to read the book to find out what becomes of our sticky chum. Beautifully written, superbly illustrated and pretty much as good as children's picture books get. Stick Man is most deservedly our book of the week.

Charlotte's best bit: Spotting the Gruffalo hanging on a christmas tree

Daddy's favourite bit: Poor Stick Man becoming the arm on a snowman.

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

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