You know you’re in for a treat when a book comes with a glossary that consists almost entirely of new and delicious sounding food. In the House With Chicken Legs, Sophie Anderson offers up delights such as Beghrir: ‘a spongy pancake soaked in honey’, Chak-chak: ‘deep fried balls of dough, drenched in honey and left … Continue reading
A novelty tie in of a much loved children’s book normally means a poorly stitched soft toy stapled to the front cover, or perhaps a collection of screen grabs taken from a lacklustre animated movie with text written by somebody in the publicity department. In the case of the Fungus the Bogeyman: The Plop-Up Book, … Continue reading
The thing that really got me interested in this whole sci-fi thing in the first place wasn’t Star Wars or Doctor Who, it was a story about a witch called Meg who takes her scraggly cat Mog on a birthday outing to the moon. But she wasn’t the first witch in space, and she wouldn’t … Continue reading
I’m having a big dragon-fest at work recently, which has given me a good excuse to trawl some of my favourite picture book beasties, plus some brand new ones. In the 1960s Tove Jansson, best known for creating her very own Moomin shaped folk legends, turned her hand to illustrating some British children’s classics including … Continue reading
‘This is how the story begins… In a dark dark town, there was a dark dark street, in the dark dark street, there was a dark dark house, in the dark dark house, there were dark dark stairs, down the dark dark stairs, was a dark dark cellar and in the dark dark cellar…’ Apart … Continue reading
