Melrose & Croc: Together at Christmas - Emma Chichester-Clark

This exquisite picture book has been our favourite Christmas reading for the last three Christmases. I remember buying it on impulse from Waterstones, during my lunch break, and then wondering why I had spent £10.99 on a book when the shelves at home were overflowing. In fact, it was an investment and whilst other books have fallen by the way side as the children have grown older (now 9 and 10), this is still the favourite and gets read each Christmas Eve. The story features Melrose, an elegant yellow dog who in the story appears to be quite well to do, and Croc, a short stumpy crocodile. Croc comes to town with nothing ...  Read the complete review

The creator of Blue Kangaroo and Lily has come up with another pair of characters who are bound to become popular with children and parents alike. Melrose is a large yellow dog (though before reading my daughter had a theory that it might be a 'mummy lion' type of creature). Croc is a tiny green crocodile. They, curiously, inhabit a world which is (apart from them) populated by normal human beings. I like that as normally you either get human or animal worlds (although some books mix the two well, for example the enduring classic The Tiger Who Came to Tea) and using animal characters allows more flexibility with the story telling while the essentially human ...  Read the complete review