Whoah! Now THIS is taking baking to the next level! Adelle Smith's first amazing book for children is the awesome "Baked - Amazing Bakes to Create with your Child"

Laurence King Publishing are renowned for publishing hugely interesting and engrossing children's books, usually with an artistic slant.

We've been taking a look at three up-and-coming titles from this innovative publisher, starting with Jon Burgerman's "Burgerworld" which is out now.

Jon Burgerman is a cult artist and creative who comes up with the most incredible and original artworks.

Now some of his brilliant designs have been collected together in a new colouring book, that will encourage you to unleash your creative potential.

There are tons of amazing ideas and designs in this fantastic book, here's a quick page sample...

"The Sausage People of Argentweiner" - Indeed!

Better still, the book comes with tons of brilliant and crazy stickers that you can either use in the book or in your own artworks. Fancy making something completely loopy? This book is definitely for you!

"Jon Burgerman's Burgerworld" is out now from Laurence King Publishing.

Sticking with art, our second title introduces a crew of artistic geniuses ready to amuse and educate you...

In "Arnold's Extraordinary Art Museum" by Catherine Ingram and Jim Stoten, you can join Arnold, Gertrude, Dot and the others on a whistle-stop tour of Arnold's museum.

Featuring a mixture of real and imaginary artwork to really fire up your imagination, this comic book journey unfolds as Arnold strives to build and compile the best art collection ever created.

You can join Arnold for an art adventure extraordinaire in September when the book is released in Hardback and paperback formats.

"Arnold's Extraordinary Art Museum" is also published by Laurence King Publishing.




Last but not least, it's time for some animal fun...

Huge page spreads chock full of detail! That's the order of the day for "The Amazing Animal Adventure" by Brendan Kearney and Anna Claybourne.

A globe-spanning exploration of all the animals, birds, fish, insects and goodness knows what else in a packed volume that's sure to delight and engage.

Each page spread explores a different corner of our amazing planet, with stylish and original illustrations picked out in glorious colour.

Here are a couple of example page spreads to feast your eyes on. How gorgeous is this book?

The Amazon Rainforest (Charlotte's favourite place!)

Night time on the Russian Taiga.

"The Amazing Animal Adventure" was released on 4th August by Laurence King Publishing. Pick up one of these astonishing books NOW, they're absolutely beautiful!

We've been dying to see more from super-talented Faye Hanson since we first read "The Wonder" - Here's another wonderful book from Faye!

Oh how I miss TV programmes like Take Hart and Art Attack. Encouraging children to get involved with doodling, drawing, sketching, painting - whatever it takes to bring out their creative and imaginative sides - is something we're hugely interested in.

So it's lovely to see a fantastic new book that's full of brilliant art ideas.

"The Arty Book" by Nikalas Catlow and David Sinden has just come out, published by Bloomsbury Publishing. Perfectly timed to stave off boring long summer days, it's full of neat little doodle projects to keep your little ones entertained.

Better still, the centre of the book contains a huge fold-out sheet of stickers to embellish their brilliant creations with. Awesome!

We've enjoyed the mini projects in here, more suited to younger ages but still a lot of fun for us both. You're never too old for a doodle, after all!

"The Arty Book" was released on 11th August by Bloomsbury Publishing.

A new range of beautifully presented classic children's stories are being given a new lease of life, courtesy of award-winning independent publishers Nosy Crow.

The first of these will be "The Velveteen Rabbit", Margery Williams' timeless classic story about a toy rabbit who wishes he was real. With new illustrations by Sarah Massini, and a gorgeous new inlaid foil cover on special hardback versions, it should be a sure-fire hit for an early addition to your christmas present book list.

"The Velveteen Rabbit" is a cherished toy that muses on what it takes to become real. A wise friend observes that you have to be well loved, a little bit worn, perhaps a little older before you can be 'real' but the restless rabbit wants to know more - and when left out in the rain one balmy summer's evening, the rabbit soon finds out that he's not quite as real as he thought.

The original story will be presented in its unabridged form for the new book, and the preview copy we took a look at was filled with the most gorgeous illustrations in Sarah's characterful style. We can't wait to see a finished copy as this is one of our all-time favourite classic stories.

"The Velveteen Rabbit" will be released on September 1st 2016, published by Nosy Crow.

On this very day 6 years ago we started ReadItDaddy. Or to be more accurate, my wife came up with this crazy idea of me starting a book blog to try and build up a list of the many, many books we hauled home from the library every week.

Abingdon Library - as we've mentioned many times on the blog - is still our go-to place for awesome and astounding books, and we're so very lucky that the library is still well stocked and funded enough to keep going when so many others have had their funding slashed, and have been forced to close.

We definitely do not take the place for granted and if there's one message we've come across many many times on our blog voyage, it's that libraries need your help and your support so PLEASE use this fantastic resource if you've got it, and if you can.

Our first review was for a book that has since been read and re-read so many times that we almost know it off by heart. Coming from that magical era of US children's publishing that spawned so many classic children's books, and also built the strong foundations and templates for children's books to follow for decades and generations to come, Gene Zion and Margaret Bloy Graham's sublime "No Roses for Harry" tells the simple tale of a black and white dog who gets the most terrible lime green and yellow-rose decorated sweater from his doting Grandma. Harry, being a mischievous pup, tries all sorts of ways to accidentally 'lose' that terrible sweater but in the end a bird comes to his aid. Has Harry really seen the last of that dreadful thing?

So THAT'S where it got to!

One of the reasons I made a bee-line for this book for Charlotte's library pile was because I had such strong memories of the "Harry" books as a kid. There were several in my school library (and sadly although there are only four still in print, there were quite a few more if I recall correctly so if any publishers fancy reprinting the rest, you'd win a fan for life!)

Charlotte was 2 at the time we started the blog but both my wife and I had been reading books to her from birth. By the time "Harry" came around she was an inquisitive, curious little book-lover and delighted in this tale of a naughty little dog and his antics. We borrowed the other Harry books from the library and eventually bought our own copies because we ended up adding them to our library loans pile so frequently it seemed rude not to actually buy the durned things! So "Harry the Dirty Dog", "Harry by the Sea" (Charlotte's absolute favourite by a mile), and "Harry and the Lady Next Door" are now in our collection.

On our 6th anniversary of writing the blog, so much has changed in all our reading tastes. Picture books are still loved but we find ourselves increasingly working through piles of awesome middle grade and chapter books, and of course covering as many non-fiction titles as we can lay our hands on.

We never expected to be sent books to review. We still find that hugely satisfying and we also love the fact that even though we don't cover self-published titles, authors of those titles still regularly try their luck and value our opinion enough to drop us a line. Sometimes it's just nice to hear from folk who are doing something different, writing new and original stories that they're trying to get 'out there'.

There have been so many happy memories of people we've met through the blog, including fabulous authors and illustrators who we're still humbly a bit embarrassed to introduce ourselves to (and it's still such a giggle when they know us, and the blog AND like what we do!) We'd get out there more, but holding down a full time job and Charlotte being at school during the week really does mean we only get out on special occasions when the timing is perfect  - Always fantastic to get to do that from time to time.

Without a doubt it's been such a huge benefit to Charlotte's reading, writing and English skills, such a huge boost to her curiosity and imagination from reading all those books and writing about them between the two of us (and I should point out that my wife is definitely the unsung hero of this blog, who puts in just as much effort as I do when it comes to sourcing and reading the most amazing stories, or catching up with the most brilliant non-fiction titles we can find).

As we move more towards chapter books, non fiction books, comics and material for older readers we still can't 'quit' picture books and we're still delighted and dazzled every week when we see what's new, what's coming, and just how hard publishers, PRs, authors, artists, designers and everyone else in the children's publishing industry work to bring us such amazing titles week after week, month after month and year after year.

Finally the last words should come from Charlotte. I asked her recently what she thought about the prospect of "Read It Daddy" one day closing its doors, publishing our last article and she was adamant that she would NOT let that happen, no way no day!

She also regularly talks about one day being "Read it, Charlotte" and taking over entirely. Her typing skills are coming along and though most of the time she's far too busy to write up our articles, she's still the beating heart of what we do here and always will be.

So you're stuck with us for the time being.

So Happy 6th Blog Birthday to us and a solidly heartfelt and huge thank you to all the amazing people who've helped us carry on with the blog and thank you so much to all the folk who regularly drop by to read what we have to say.

Our Second Book of the Week is a brilliant addition to Portico's "Cool" series. Myths and Legends abound!

This week's first Book of the Week features an artist who is a regular BOTW mainstay, and his hugely talented sister...

A previous editorial hinted that a blog post on this subject might be incoming. Again, thanks to Matt Imrie for inspiring this post on the subject of selling review copies of books.

We've long held the opinion that getting things 'for free' for the purposes of review can be seen as a double-edged sword. On the one hand you have no obligation to be nice about the book you've just had plop through your letterbox (or in our case, have had left under the bamboo outside the house in the rain by a knock-and-run courier). On the other hand, there's the trickier subject of your 'fee' for writing about a book. A free copy should be payment enough, shouldn't it?

There's will always be the question of worth of a review written for something you've received for free. Does this really lessen the impact or importance of your opinion? Would you, for example, have rated a book so highly if you'd had to shell out your own hard earned cash for it? Would you also rip it to shreds if it'd cost you £20 and you hated every single page? Maybe so.

The main subject we're dealing with in this post is what happens when you, as a less than scrupulous / ethical blogger, decide that you also want to make a bit of money on the side from those books and sell them on.

There are strict rules on review copies - they should not be sold on - particularly if they're pre-release promos as you may not only be breaking the 'street date' for a publication but you could also be illegally infringing on the copyright as well (that's before we get into the business of you not paying tax on an 'income' if it's something you regularly do). Pretty sure that if publishers cottoned on, they'd cut off your 'freebie' supply at the neck too so is it really worth it?

I've heard one counter-argument. If you're selling on books you're not really doing anything that second-hand book stores aren't already doing. Technically you're still taking away a sale from an author, illustrator or publisher if you pick up a copy of their book from a 2nd hand store - so what's the difference if you're selling books on as a private individual? It's not as clear cut as it all seems but it still feels a bit ruthless to me.

So what IS the answer?

We donate our surplus books to charity and to local worthy causes, we make a point of donating AFTER publication dates so that books don't end up in the stream but even then I'm not sure we're actually doing the right thing - for some of those books will eventually be ending up 'sold' at a charity shop, thus once again not directly contributing to the author, illustrator or publisher's coffers.

ARGH!

It's a quandary for sure. We have tried at least some of the alternatives:

1) Working entirely from digital copies. This would at least mean no path of disposal for surplus books, as once we're done we can just delete them and they'll be gone, forever lost in the ether (probably forcing us to kick ourselves when we realise we wanted to re-read the book at a later date). Digital still feels a bit weirdly soulless for me and I know Charlotte doesn't quite 'gel' with e-books or digital copies in the same way she does with a print book, so this is a last ditch option if we really couldn't deal with review copies in any other way

2) Pulp the books. Destroy perfect copies of gorgeous picture books. Send them for recycling, rip 'em up to be turned into - well, perhaps more books or other paper products but the mere thought of imagining gorgeous books ending up shredded for recycling just fills me with abject terror and horror.

3) Donate them to libraries and schools - We already do this, as well as donating them to charity shops. Copies have been gratefully received at a local special needs school we support, and also for children's reading groups, doctor's surgery waiting rooms etc. Wherever we spot old and tired looking books we're always keen to take along a choice few surplus titles so that other kids can enjoy them (and, of course, pick up their own copies when they get home and realise that they REALLY NEED THAT BOOK! Hooray!)

4) Keep them. Well we do this too, of course we do! In fact it's nigh on impossible to find shelf space for all the 'keepers'. There are so many books that we would fight tooth and nail not to have to lose and that will always be what happens to the majority of our books. They are lovingly kept, read again and again, and hopefully one day Charlotte will pass them on to her own kids (it's lovely when she shares them with her cousins when they come to visit, she's becoming quite an accomplished storyteller in her own right which is awesome!)

5) Stop the blog. Well we all know that's not going to happen any time soon, right?

We've already cut down what we review - mostly because Charlotte is moving beyond most picture books - and because it's only fair to let other bloggers have a fair crack of the whip (something else to consider - let others who have younger children more suited to younger age group titles get into blogging and encourage them - perhaps again there's an outlet for surplus titles if you live near one or don't mind stumping up for the postage!)

However it would never feel right to sell books on for us - never! There are so many reasons why it would go against what we've tried to achieve here (not least of all because we're lucky enough to have two awesome independent bookshops where we live and why the heck shouldn't we push people towards buying books there, we need bookshops just as much as we need libraries and there's still no better feeling than browsing the shelves of a book store and finding something you'd missed). Sometimes we wonder though if we're the only ones who rigidly stick to an ethical code of not selling on. Quite apart from anything else, it would be a major faff packaging books up, getting to the post office and selling them to make anything close to a worthwhile sum but we're just not wired that way anyway so we love donating, we love gifting and that's pretty much that.

So if you do sell on your review copies, I'd be really interested to hear your point of view. Drop a comment below!

Colouring books are life savers in the long summer holidays when the weather decides it's going to dump a ton of the wet stuff on your well laid plans for getting outdoors and enjoying the fresh air.

We loved "Animalium" when it was first released, making it a very well deserved Book of the Week.

Now you can join in colouring the fantastic illustrations in the book with this luxurious activity book edition, taking Katie Scott's brilliant illustrations and putting them all together so you can break out your colouring pencils, crayons and paints.

The paper quality is good enough to withstand the most ardent colouring and the book's format is nicely sized for tucking into an overnight bag for trips to grandma and grandad's house.

Charlotte's one tiny criticism was that the illustrations still contain a lot of the original shading, not leaving enough white space within the pictures for huge swathes of multicolour. It's a minor point but children will have a lot of fun with this one, curating their own colourful museum of incredible animal species.

"Animalium Colouring Book" is out today, 11th August 2016 from Big Picture Press.