What better way to introduce the very young to astonishingly brilliant non-fiction books than with a title as gorgeous as this. From the moment you see the cover of "Nature's Day" by Kay Maguire and Danielle Kroll, you can't wait to jump in head first - and your little ones will feel the same. Children have a natural curiosity about nature and the world around them and this book really encourages that, right from the word go.

Taking children through the four seasons, the many nuances in our weather, the wondrous flora and fauna we can discover in our world from the far-flung reaches of the rainforest right to our very own doorsteps and back gardens, Kay and Danielle are our tour guides on a lyrical journey soaking up everything nature has to offer.

Wide Eyed Editions are really developing a knack for brilliance when it comes to non fiction - with these big sturdy hard-backed books designed to be enjoyed sprawled out on the floor, just like the big weighty books I used to lose myself in as a kid. With tons and tons of gorgeously detailed illustrations to pull Charlotte in and grab her attention too, this is a real winner.

Charlotte's best bit: Visiting all the different places where nature can be found, and where all the different plants and animals live in harmony

Daddy's Favourite bit: A beautiful book packed full of amazing page spreads to really draw your little ones in, and develop their love of nature

(Kindly sent to us for review by Wide Eyed Editions)

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Atlas of Adventures by Rachel Williams and Lucy Letherland

We're fortunate enough to be included on the fabulous Fat Fox Books Blog Tour for a new author and a new book that's absolutely guaranteed to light your fire. From the moment you spy the gorgeous cover, you're going to fall in love with it!

Meet Lili, she's the flame-haired hero of Wen Dee Tan's first book for Fat Fox. Lili's hair isn't just fiery in colour, it's actually fiery in nature too!

For a carefree little girl with a ton of joie de vivre this isn't really a problem, but soon Lili discovers that a flame-haired lass can have a pretty tough time of it in the real world. Neighbour's sheets are charred on the washing line, and an innocent game of jump-rope can go horribly awry. Soon, it feels like no one wants Lili or her troublesome tresses around.

Lili wanders dejectedly in the woods, and discovers a group of the village children in danger. Can Lili's wonderful hairdo possibly save the day after all?

This book has the most endearing hero as its central character, and we rode a rollercoaster ride with Lili as she seems so happy and full of life - but doesn't always fit in. The message tucked neatly betwixt the glorious pages here tells us that everyone is special, everyone has that certain something about them that may turn out to be their saving grace later on in life.

The story flows beautifully, the illustrations are purposely minimalist with Lili's flame-red hair drawing the eye in every page spread. It's a luscious treat to behold indeed, and a real joy to read to your mighty girls and boys (even more so if they have gorgeous red hair too!)

We love Lili, what an awesome first book from Wen Dee for Fat Fox! May there be many many more!

Charlotte's best bit: Lili unintentionally setting someone's lovely clean washing on fire! Oops!

Daddy's Favourite bit: A gorgeous book from start to finish, an endearing central character and a real feel-good message delivered with aplomb. Wonderful, Wen Dee!

(Kindly supplied in PDF format for review by Fat Fox Books)

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The Red Tree by Shaun Tan

The Katie Morag books by Maire Hedderwick

We are cheating a bit here by squeezing in a second book of the week this week with a book that we've previously reviewed way back in the mists of time when we still had a rating out of 5, and this blog was in its infancy (along with our Blog Boss Charlotte who was a mere whippersnapper back then!)

So is it possible for a book that your child loved as a tiny tiddler to still be well received now they're an opinionated and fussy 7 year old?

In the case of "That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown" the answer is a resounding YESSSS!

So why did this book stand the test of time? Well look at the talent behind it for starters. Cressida Cowell, known to millions as the genius behind the "How to Train your Dragon" series which has made the leap to the big and small screens from its book beginnings, writes this absolute cracker. Neal Layton, illustrative genius behind one of our all-time favourite books "Jennifer Jones Won't Leave Me Alone" provides the stunningly appropriate and fantastically scribbly-scrobbly visuals for our story journey.

But having top talent to pen a story isn't always the be all and end all. Why then IS this story so utterly perfect for Charlotte? It's because of Emily Brown herself and her wild and vivid imagination. Over the course of "That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown", Emily - always accompanied by her old faithful toy rabbit Stanley, embarks on the most incredible adventures often without straying from her own back yard. She treks across the sahara desert on a motorbike, climbs through the rain forests and explores the outer reaches of space.

Stanley is the focus for this story, you see avaricious eyes have rather taken a shine to the scruffy old rabbit with his wonky smile. After making several offers of 'swapsies' for Stanley, Queen Gloriana The Third adopts downright sneaky tactics to kidnap Stanley and take him to the palace to live with her instead.

Poor Stanley! He does NOT look happy!

As you can imagine, Emily Brown is not the sort of girl who is going to stand by and watch her best friend be spirited away, so she decides a trip to the palace is in order.

Revisiting this now Charlotte is older (and thankfully still tolerant of me using a multitude of really silly voices for all the characters in this such as the army, naval and air commanders) it is actually a genuine joy to see her still as excited and entertained by this book (though she made a lot of pointed comments about NEEDING all those "How to Train your Dragon" books lovingly listed at the end. We'd better start saving our birthday money!)

Emily Brown has now featured in four books (and we'll be taking another look at "Emily Brown and the Thing" soon, another re-review to see if Charlotte still loves that grizzly scratchy old Thing as well!)

If you've yet to encounter the Emily Brown books, I'm almost envious because you are going to experience the joy of finding an utter booky treasure - and one that is going to stay with you and your children for a very long time to come!

(Read our original review of "That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown" here)

Charlotte's best bit: She loves the bit where the sneaky "Queen's Special Commandos" (who are just the army, navy and air force in disguise) sneak in and steal Stanley. How very DARE they!!!!

Daddy's Favourite bit: I was so pleased that these were getting a timely reprint. The Emily Brown stories are brilliant, and span such a wide age range (well, in our case at least) that it's a genuine pleasure to revisit them and dust down all my silly voices to read the absolute best of the bunch. A joyous celebration of a child's imagination, and a rather nicely veiled moral lesson on avarice and envy tucked in between the pages too! Wonderful wonderful WONDERFUL!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Hodder Children's Books)

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"Emily Brown and the Thing" by Cressida Cowell and Neal Layton

"Jennifer Jones Won't Leave Me Alone" by Frieda Wishinsky and Neal Layton

"Whuh? It's not Friday!" I bet you're thinking but we're shuffling things around on the blog this week to join the fabulous blog tour for a very special book! So our first "Book of the Week" is popping up today, hooray!! We're just too good to you!

Sometimes, books are the most welcome houseguests. They arrive just when they're most needed with an unerring sense of timing. This was the case with "Missing Jack" by Rebecca Elliott. Regular blog visitors will know how much we love Rebecca's books so we were very excited to hear that her latest title features an astonishingly awesome pair of moggies.

The reason this book came along with such perfect timing (accompanied by the most wonderful hand-written letter by Hattie at Lion Hudson, who, by the way, we think is utterly amazing and worth her weight in gold - we hope Big Boss Panda is reading this!) was because of the story's core theme.

Any book that can help children deal with loss or grief in such a touching, sensitive and amazing way really makes us sit up and pay attention. You see, quite recently we lost our beloved Nan - Great Nan to Charlotte, and Nan to me. She was a lady who adored animals of all shapes and sizes, particularly cats so we know she would have loved "Missing Jack" very much. I miss her dearly. Charlotte misses her too and I'm just glad that Charlotte had the chance to know such an amazing lady.

On with the story. Jack is the world's greatest cat. He's not snooty like some cats, he doesn't spit or snarl, nor does he lie in a comatose heap doing nothing all day but licking his lazy paws. Jack is warm and cuddly, Jack doesn't even complain when he has his whiskers pulled by naughty babies. Jack loves curling up on Clemmie's lap (you may already know how awesome Clemmie is, from Rebecca's utterly lovely "Sometimes" and "Just Because" books - if not, seek them out RIGHT NOW buster!) Toby loves Jack very much, and thinks he's the best cat in the world.

As time passes, Jack slows down, gets older - and soon he's like a cat grandpa (oh how we LOVE this section in the book where Jack is sitting in a comfy chair, flat cat-cap upon head, telling tales of his wild youth to a gathered crowd of cheeky mice).

Eventually Jack dies, and Toby misses him terribly. There will never ever be another cat so amazing.

Or will there? Here's where the book almost had us in floods of tears. Along comes another cat named Humphrey - and though he's not Jack either, he's not snooty, scratchy or lazy. He's daring, he's a little crazy and though he's not there to take Jack's place, he's quite happy to be loved.

You don't need me to tell you how utterly beautiful Rebecca's storytelling is, nor how perfect her artwork is. She always surprises us, keeping us on her toes with a seemingly endless array of amazing art styles that she pours into her books, making it look so easy (but I bet it definitely isn't easy to come up with such luscious visuals to accompany such lovely stories).

Don't miss "Missing Jack", it's the purrrr-fect way to open interesting discussions with your children about a quite tricky and sensitive subject.

Charlotte's best bit: Humphrey's quite daring motorcycle stunt! Phew-ee that cat is CRAZY!

Daddy's Favourite bit: With exquisite timing, along comes a book that is like a warm cuddle, like a soothing balm helping us to deal with a recent loss in a thoughtful and sensitive way. We always know we're in for a treat with Rebecca's books, but this is truly something special indeed.

(Kindly sent to us for review by the utterly wonderful Hattie at Lion Hudson PLC)

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Sometimes by Rebecca Elliott

Just Because by Rebecca Elliott

Zoo Girl by Rebecca Elliott

Once again, Frances Lincoln Books have published an absolutely astonishing book in conjunction with Amnesty International. Leaping straight out at you courtesy of its cover by superstar children's author / illustrator Oliver Jeffers, the book celebrates and explores what freedom means. Inspirational quotes on the subject of freedom from such luminaries as Nelson Mandela, Anne Frank and Harriet Tubman are fused with astonishing new illustrations from the creme de la creme of children's illustration. New works from artists such as Chris Riddell, Alexis Deacon, Jackie Morris, Barroux and Ros Asquith amongst others feature in this utter treasure.

As children begin to explore their world, understand it, and most importantly ask lots and lots of questions, it is fantastic - nay vital to have books such as "Dreams of Freedom" to underline the simple universal truth - that freedom is not to be taken for granted and people campaign long and hard, fight all their lives in order to gain or retain it.

Charlotte's best bit: Chris Riddell's fantastic illustration describing how children are not automatically born free, but should be

Daddy's Favourite bit: Utterly mesmerising quotes coupled with truly luxurious and involving illustrations. Once again, a book that belongs on every child's bookshelf.

(Kindly sent to us for review by Frances Lincoln Children's Books)

On the 10th December 1948, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed, protecting the rights of people from all countries. Never more than now do we need a timely reminder of how important the declaration is, and how human rights groups such as Amnesty International tirelessly campaign to preserve this most important declaration.

Given recent headlines (which we won't be drawn into a discussion about here) the importance of being able to share a book with your children that outlines those rights in clear terms that they can understand and appreciate from a very young age cannot be understated. Bringing together an enviable list of talented illustrators to contribute to this luscious book - with sales royalties donated to Amnesty International - should ensure that the book's core message are brought across, shared, enjoyed even. Above all, not taken for granted.

We spent a lot of time with the book. Charlotte's school is already extremely forward thinking when it comes to promoting the ideology behind the UDHR and as parents, having a vitally important book to underline those values is an absolute godsend.

Reprinted here for the first time since 2008, as we said at the top of the review there really is no better time for it. A hugely important impactive book that should be on the shelves of every school library, and indeed on your shelf too.

Charlotte's best bit: Nicholas Allan's utterly brilliant illustrations based around our right to education.

Daddy's Favourite bit: So amazingly compiled, the illustrators list reads like a "who's who" of all our favourite talented folk, and the lessons imparted here - not dumbed down, but imparted so effectively for a children's book, are more important now than ever.

(Kindly sent to us for review by Frances Lincoln Children's Books)

We've championed many wordless picture books and have seen some real beauties over the last few years. It's a tricky format to get 'just right' and it must be a really tough challenge to script, illustrate and tell a story knowing that your young reader may need a guiding hand.
Or will they? You see the flip-side of why we love children's wordless picture books is because you can leave absolutely everything open to the interpretation of the child - letting them let loose their imagination to tell YOU the story in THEIR own way. So that's exactly what we did when 'reading' and reviewing "The Umbrella" by Ingrid and Dieter Schubert, a lavish new book from Book Island.

The tale opens right in the end papers with a dog discovering a bright red umbrella. It's the beginning of an aerial adventure as the intrepid pooch is lifted aloft by a gust of wind, high above the streets and houses, fields and forests and off to distant lands.

The doggy adventurer has near misses in Africa (watch out for those nasty crocodiles!), cruises underneath the waves in the ocean's briny depths, and narrowly avoids a nasty incident with some spear-throwing Amazonian warriors.

We took it in turns to tell the tale, and it was very revealing that while I adopted a fairy straight-laced retelling of the tale as I saw it, Charlotte really let loose her imagination and told a story more of the relationship between the dog (who was a big show off) and the cat who initially watches his 'friend' lifted aloft before embarking on his own perilous trip as the book comes to a close.

Books like this are vital and important for emerging readers, allowing them to develop their own storytelling dialogue and their own ways of interpreting what they're seeing. Hooray for wordless picture books and hooray for Ingrid and Dieter Schubert for coming up with such a brilliant adventure!

Charlotte's best bit: Charlotte loved the bit where the dog is rescued by a baby elephant and his mum, before being unceremoniously hurled off a cliff to resume his journey. Charming!

Daddy's Favourite bit: A luxurious and wonderfully presented story that leaves you and your children free to let your imagination soar, just like that intrepid little dog on his red umbrella. Lovely!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Book Island)

Felicity Fly finds out about fruit and vegetables in Christina Gabbitas' latest story in her engaging and sing-song rhyming book series. Do you know what a dragon fruit is (or what one tastes like?) Do you know how packed with vitamins and goodness a head of broccoli is? This is a fantastic little book to teach children all about the amazing fruits and vegetables that come from all over the world, and now can be found in the grocery section of our local supermarkets. On our weekly shop we always make a point of making a bee-line for new and interesting looking fruit, so Felicity's story was absolutely perfectly well received by us.

The story doesn't just teach children about their 5-a-day though, it encourages exploration of our planet as we find out about all the amazing places in the world where the fruit and vegetables grow - and there's a brilliant read-along download courtesy of Christina if you fancy learning a few of the different languages and accents of the characters (this is a giggle, we loved it!)

Charlotte is still quite a fan of the Felicity Fly adventures, so even a very fussy 7 year old can enjoy these stories.

Find out more about Christina's amazing work at the Poems and Pictures website

Charlotte's best bit: Felicity (and Charlotte) finding out just how good for you Brassica Broccoli is! Yum!

Daddy's Favourite bit: A fantastic way to engage children's imaginations and to encourage them to eat their 5-a-day. Awesome!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Poems and Pictures)

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Felicity Fly in the Garden by Christina Gabbitas and Julie Omond

Felicity Fly Meets Veronica Vac by Christina Gabbitas and Julie Omond