My younger sister, when she was around 5 purchased Sir Charlie Stinky Socks and The Really Frightful Night with her pocket money. I had never heard of Kristina Stephenson before, so the book cover must really work at encouraging kids to read her books, as it was so bright, colourful and contained a lot of characters.

Published by Egmont Press, Charlie Stinky Socks and the Really Frightful Night, costs around £6. I would say this is definitely worth it, as it hasn't had any creases, torn pages and doesn't look dog eared at all. However, it probably can be purchased cheaper on Amazon in the preowned section like most of the books these days. Every purchase of this book also gets 10% donated to Naomi House Children's Hospice, which is a great little bonus when you buy the book!

As said before, I've never heard of Kristina Stephenson, so didn't really know what to expect from her as an author. As it turns out, she is quite good at writing as she has had a career in both Childrens TV and theatre. Her forte is definitely illustration though, as it is clear a lot of thought and design has gone into the pictures accompanying the text.

The story follows Sir Charlie Stinky Socks who lives in a castle, where things always seem to be scary. However, the hero is never scared of anything, and when a princess' teddy bear goes missing he must search the castle to find it. He faces many things like ghosts and ghouls, all to simply get the bear! Then he faces the scariest of them all..the Cellar Dweller, will he be able to get the teddy bear back from him? You'll have to read the book to see!

The pages have a decent amount of wording on them, more than you would expect for a childrens book. But this is a good thing, as it encourages children to read more than they usually would. It's very descriptive, and combined with dialogue, it makes for a great and not boring read.

The illustrations are where Stephenson shines through, she was previously trained as a costume designer, and this makes her design really shine through from the others. The book is quite big, and they cover a lot of the pages. Most of the illustrations are bright and really interesting as all the creatures shown throughout the castle are weirdly designed.

This book would definitely be great for someone who is about 6 years old, as long as they have some basic reading skill. This book definitely is more wordy than some of the other children's books, and is a great way to get children reading more than they usually would. My sister when she was 5 had no problem reading this, so I would say 6 and under is probably it's targeted audience.

Overall, I would recommend this book for it's target audience as it makes for an enjoyable story combined with excellent text and pictures.