Now here's a really amazing idea for a children's book, and one that serves a noble cause too. "Silver Buttons" is a story that feels like hitting the pause button on the whole world, as Bob Graham's book expertly captures a moment. 9:59 on a Thursday Morning to be precise, just as young Jodie is putting the finishing touches to a rather natty painting of a duck, wearing a top hat, with silver buttons on his boots.

The book unfolds events around this fairly insignificant event as Bob Graham pans around the town, capturing scenes of everyday life from every angle and aspect. We see Jodie's little brother taking his first faltering steps, we see a young wife and child seeing their soldier husband / father off on a tour of duty and the more we delve into the cityscape, the more detail is revealed.

Bob Graham's art style is beautifully uncluttered but at the same time so rich and varied in detail that with each turn of the page, a new scene unfolds or an event is added to as the clock crawls towards 10.00.

As we read this, we felt like birds soaring above the scenes, imaginations soaring and picturing what would be happening in our own town on a precise single moment like this.

Charlotte's best bit: Jodie's rather cute brother as he wobbles and teeters taking his first steps

Daddy's Favourite bit: A great message here, to savour the ones we love, and live in the moment. Beautifully told and wonderfully illustrated as you'd expect from Bob Graham

(Kindly sent to us for review by Walker Books)

We begged, nay PLEADED with the Pigeon not to try and drive the bus. We even lost a Knuffle Bunny along the way but so far we've been pretty safe from running into hungry Dinosaurs.

Thank goodness for Mo Willems' new book, which is a cautionary tale about being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and scoffing far too much chocolate (something we're definitely, woefully far too familiar with).

What happens when Goldilocks trades three bears for three dinosaurs? Well, at first the welcome mat will be extended, and the chairs will be comfy, the beds wonderfully made and the lure of hot, cool and "just right" chocolate pudding will be too tempting to pass up.

Like Mo Willems' "Pigeon" series, we loved the fact that Mo gets away with tweaking and poking fun at children's story mainstays while introducing abject chaos in copious amounts, and great characters who you're never sure you should side with or run screaming away from.

With Mo's trademark art style lending itself well to a book chock full of things for children to discover (see how many Pigeon cameos you can spot!) it's a hilarious and enjoyable romp.

Charlotte's best bit: Pigeon turning up in various places (pigeons are very cheeky like that) and the Dinosaur's "welcome" mat.

Daddy's Favourite bit: Whacky and zany, with plenty of giggly moments. Oh and lots of chocolate, which can only be a good thing* (*Unless you're trying to avoid being a Dinosaur's main course!)

(Kindly sent to us for review by Walker Books)

Popping up just in time for its release date on Thursday 5th September 2013 is Lucy Cousin's latest book, "Peck Peck Peck". Lucy, already a megastar because of her wonderful "Maisy" books (which Charlotte absolutely loved as a toddler, and would probably still love now), now turns her hand to telling the tale of a Daddy Woodpecker and his youngster. Young Woodpecker is keen to learn all about the world, and also learn how to be a PROPER Woodpecker too. Dad is only too happy to oblige and shows Little Woodpecker how to do what Woodpeckers do best, peck a piece of wood or a treetrunk.

Little Woodpecker then decides it's time to go off in search of adventure and fun. With a jaunty wave from Dad, he pops into someone's house to see how people live - and most importantly, what brilliant pecking opportunities can be found in the average home.

OH NO!

Yes, I'm afraid that naughty little Woodpecker soon makes short work of just about everything!

This is a fabulous book, hilariously funny and reminiscent of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" - but rather than munching his way through various tasty looking food, Little Woodpecker pecks his way through an entire house!

Children will absolutely love 'PECK PECK PECKing' along, sticking their fingers in the holes in each page and shouting out with each peck.

From time to time on the blog we encounter books that we just know are destined to become hugely successful, win tons of awards and be so well loved in schools, in libraries and at home. "Peck Peck Peck" is just such a book, it's utterly wonderful, memorable and just the right side of mischievous. Just the way we like children's picture books!

Charlotte's best bit: Woodpecker making very short work of an entire Kitchen. PECK!

Daddy's Favourite bit: We had a great discussion about a possible sequel to this book called "FILL FILL FILL" when the humans come back and find their lovely home swiftly turned into Swiss Cheese by that naughty woodpecker! PECK!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Walker Books)

Bulls, they say, can get agitated and agressive as soon as they see the colour "red". Over the summer we discovered that children (well, Charlotte) can get quite agitated and even fairly aggressive as soon as they see something like this...






Increasing the levels of literacy in young children, even pre-school, is a hot topic and since Charlotte started school we've felt under huge pressure to turn something we've loved to share with her since birth into something that's going to win her gold stars and academic praise at school.

For someone contributing to and compiling a children's picture book blog, seeing well-loved picture books repackaged in this way sets off alarm bells. From tweets this morning, it appears that Francis Lincoln and Barefoot Books are about to take the plunge with repackaging and reformatting children's picture books in this way - with the aim of seeing an increase in use in classrooms, perhaps adding to and enhancing a child's learning and reading journey at home with books they're familiar with rather than easily identifiable "school books".

I see the merit in this, but in our direct experience, as soon as a child sees anything like the banner on that Chris Riddell book, or (alas) those much maligned characters from the Biff, Chip and Kipper books, they seem to switch off and disengage.

Over the summer we really struggled to maintain the momentum that had gathered in Charlotte's first year at school and her first experience of structured and scheduled reading vs reading for pleasure.

The original aim when we started reading to Charlotte was that she'd pick up our love of books from hearing us read stories to her. We hadn't factored structured learning into the equation but from her initial first faltering steps on her journey of learning to read, we knew that laying the foundations in reading for pleasure had more direct and beneficial effect than the sometimes stilted phonics and decoding methods used in class.

That's not to say that these methods should be binned but to see them filtering down into children's picture books, story books and seeing the leeching categorisation, age rating, reading level rating and pigeonholing of books feels like it's eroding the chance for children to discover the joy of reading at their own pace, in ways they prefer.

Of course, it's not a popular way of thinking - this business about letting children meander along at their own pace, when Education Ministers are all about speed, progress, efficiency and an almost "Tiger Mother" mindset that the earlier children are hit with learning exercises, phonics, decoding and testing, the better.

Over the summer, at a rough estimate, we've read less than a handful of books that are specifically structured "school" books, and each and every time one appears, there's a huge reluctance from Charlotte to engage with that book. Sometimes a single 30 page book can take a week to work through, not because of a lack of ability on Charlotte's part (her reading and decoding are spot on for her age group - if there is any merit in such a ridiculous concept as grouping children's reading ability by age).

In sharp contrast, I'd estimate we've read around 100 or so books to her and with her that are children's picture books or early chapter readers that aren't specifically designed to enhance learning or fit into any kind of reading programme and structure. "Normal" children's picture books are always extremely well received, and voraciously consumed at home. Children are not daft and they know what they like!

Obviously these programmes aren't new, and the methods of teaching children to read are tried and tested but the danger of the lines between books for pleasure and books for learning 'blurring' to this extent is that a whole generation of new readers won't see reading as anything else other than a chore or a task. Repackaging well loved children's picture books seems crazy, but if it must be done, make it optional - perhaps use stickers or a spare cover to offer parents (and teachers) the option of softening the blow a bit?

There's a good solid reason that children's books are so hugely successful and tied into so many aspects of our culture, and it's not because children enjoy books that lecture at them, they enjoy books that tell them stories, enhance their view of the world, and (for goodness sake, this above everything else!) entertain them and perhaps make them laugh!

How can you make a truly awesome book even more brilliant and wonderful (particularly for mummies and daddies who love reading to their children)? Packaging the Hugless Douglas books with your very own Douglas to hug is a stroke of genius and since this book arrived, Charlotte has taken it everywhere with her. But ah, the lure of the book for me is that it brings out the natural born 'performer' - because the fantastic (and I must say brilliant quality) Douglas hand puppet that pokes his cheeky head through the pages of this book is utterly fabulous for enhancing your reading aloud.

In the book, Douglas is looking high and low for a hug. As he sees lots of other animals cosying up together, Douglas feels a little lost and forlorn. But when you're a big cuddly furry and fun-loving bear, hugs are never far away!

We've loved this format for children's books before (most of you will probably have seen the fabulous "Calm Down Boris" books by Sam Lloyd and Stella Gurney). What really surprised me is that I could see the book working beautifully for children younger than Charlotte (she's 5, remember) but she loved it, purely because here was a tangible form of Douglas to interact with when she'd take the book off on her own and act out scenes from it using the puppet.

It raises a whole subject in its own right of the art of 'performing' books, or using props to enhance stories (which we firmly believe in).

Naturally, not everyone's a huge fan of reading aloud to their children and not everyone's predisposed to being a big showoff or doing funny voices - or indeed waggling a puppet around to help a story bounce along, but we really thought this was a fabulous idea and as mentioned above, the quality of the book is superb so it should hold up to even the most ardent 'huggers'!