Never Say NO To a Princess by Tracey Corderoy & Kate Leake

A fun and feisty princess picture book served up with a good helping of adventure, friendship and finally...manners!  The little princess wants her own dragon and no one Ever says NO to a princess, do they?

We meet the young princess as she's in the process of demanding a variety of things and because her parents, the King and Queen are too busy doing royal things, they are happy to instruct servants to give her what she wants.  Her biggest threat to them is that if she doesn't get what she wants, she'll howl and cry and throw a tantrum.

When she sees a dragon, she demands that she should have one.  All manner of antics follow where the servants attempt to snag the dragon, but no joy.  This results in a huge crying spell for the princess and in fact, she cries so much, she floods the castle and the lands and gets swept out on a flood of tears into the dark scary woods.

She's more than JUST a bit scared but help is at hand, in the shape of the very same dragon she desperately wanted for herself.  The dragon is kindly, and the princess demands, quite rudely to be taken home, immediately.  Of course the dragon in turn demands the magic word and the princess is stumped.

Eventually she does figure out what the dragon means by the magic word and after spending the night with him, drying out and chatting, he flies her home.

The princess is reunited with her parents who notice something about her immediately.  She's no longer miserable, she's changed.  The princess dispatches an invitation to her friend and invites the friend to a party and behold: the princess is happy and smiling.  Not only has she made a new friend, but she's also happy.

I loved Never Say NO to a Princess.  The artwork is fresh and cute and full of mad sparkles, and gives us the idea of chaos this princess' life is all about - what she demands, she gets, no questions asked.  She's rude, arrogant, and has no manners.  Yet it takes a run-in with a fearsome monster who has far better manners than her, to teach her this lesson, someone to stand up to her, ignoring the wailing and the bad manners.

Smart and funky, Never Say NO to a Princess, is a great read for readers 3+.  The lesson is pretty obvious but done in a very charming way so that even as an adult, I didn't felt preached to.  Which I think is a great lesson to learn: being polite makes you a better person and invariably makes you friends.

The Grunt And The Grouch by Tracey Corderoy

Parents Beware! This is quite possibly one of the most disgusting books you will come across. Seriously stomach churning at times with talk and illustrations of snot, maggot cakes and mouldy teeth, it's not pretty. So of course little ones will absolutely adore it and find it hilarious!

The Grunt and The Grouch kind of reminded me of Roald Dahl's The Twits, they are really that disgusting, maybe even more so. My daughter laughed her way hysterically through this one then wanted it read over and over again. It's a pretty simple story, and alongside the grossness and hilarity there's a nice message about telling people how you really feel and being brave enough to reach out to them. I really liked this element to the story, so did my daughter who thought it was ever so sweet the trolls now have each other.

The writing in this book is simple and fun and will appeal to boys and girls from age 2-7 years. With clear, bold text it's a great book for being read to or practising reading skills for older children and is engaging throughout. The illustrations are bright and detailed and utterly gross, which will delight young children, especially when they see your (exaggerated disgust). My daughter wanted to go back to the `snot' page time and time again just to see me hide behind my eyes screaming `eeeuuuuw'

I definitely recommend The Grunt and The Grouch, it's the type of book children will love, the author clearly knows what it is that gets a young child hooked on books. It's five star fun from beginning to end.