Jampires by Sarah McIntyre and David O'Connell

This one is a bit personal because I have been a tiny bit involved in the publication of it. But have no fear, I wouldn't blog about it unless I thought it was BRILLIANT! And it's also been road-tested by Rosie and pronounced as 'Yummy!' and a few seconds later 'Can we get some doughnuts? Will there be any jam in them?' (Rosie loves jam doughnuts - who doesn't?!)

Anyway it's a great picture book about some loveable characters called 'jampires'! These naughty little creatures are stealing the jam out of everything and one day a little boy, Sam, decides he's had enough and sets out to discover what is happening. He catches the jampires and they take him to their land (note - make sure you're not hungry at this bit, it will have you reaching for the cake tin!) and introduce him to their mummies. After making such great friends the jampires take great care never to leave Sam jamless again and even make sure they provide him with extra. But the thing is they have to get their jam from somewhere so make sure YOU check your doughnuts carefully!

I think this will really come into its own over halloween, I think we might download the masks and do some kind of jam doughnut bobbing (instead of apples). But let's not run away with autumn too quickly, it's great to read now as well!

There is a lovely website with a few activities on it and a guide to making your own comic-jam which is how the authors came up with the whole concept. And Sarah McIntyre has a wonderful blog which has a great post on it at the moment about how the book was created.