Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler are perhaps the most successful author-illustrator partnership of all time and I can't believe that I am still discovering books of theirs that we have get to read. Charlie Cook's Favourite Book is one such book and, thanks to this sparkly new 10th Anniversary special edition, we've discovered another children's classic picture book to enjoy over and over again.
Charlie Cook's Favourite book is a very clever rhyming tale about a little boy who is reading his favourite book about a pirate... who finds a book about some bears... who have a book about a knight... who reads a book about... You get the idea.
Each double page represents a new book within a book and is amazingly illustrated to look like a book, or a magazine, or an encyclopedia. I think these are some of my favourite Axel Scheffler illustrations and it is great to be able to see just a hint of the work that went into them in the sketches and watercolour paintings at the start and end of this special edition version.
Needless to say that Lara loved this story and she too thought that the book within a book concept was a very clever one indeed! Lara is currently doing a school Read-a-thon and it did cross her mind that she might be able to count Charlie Cook's Favourite book as 10 books instead of one!
The 10th Anniversary Edition of Charlie Cook's Favourite book features a sparkly metallic-style front cover, never-before-seen early sketches for the illustrations and a special foreword by Julia Donaldson.
