My son was given A Dragon on the Doorstep as part of the book start scheme this is a programme which encourages parent to enjoy books with their children.

The pictures are bright and although not perfect they are appealing to young children. Each page depicts the text from that page and is very relevant to the story. From the third page your child has the opportunity to find the hidden animals on each page.

The language is simple and rhyming, it is easy for a child to understand and also join in with, once you've read the book a few times.

The story is simple; a couple of children find a dragon on the doorstep and put him in the cupboard under the stairs, where they find a crocodile. They put the crocodile in the attic and find a spider in there too. The spider gets put in the toy chest where there's a tiger, which in turn gets put somewhere else, I won't tell you the whole story but basically each time they try and contain an animal they find another and all the previous animals hide in the current room. It all ends in a game of hide and seek.

My children love this book it's definitely one of their favourites, of which there are many. I have to hide it regularly to get a break from being asked to read it. My three year old knows all the words and could probably read this to his younger brother or recite it anyway. There are lots of things on the page to find, look at or talk about.

The book is written by Stella Blackstone, an author I know nothing about I'm afraid. It costs anything from about £4.00 upward. It is definitely a good book for bedtime, it's simple, quick and enjoyable. I've awarded four stars because I don't feel that the illustrations are the best that they could have been.

There's a dragon on the doorstep, do you think he wants to play?