Hello everyone,

Today I have the pleasure to welcome Chris Callaghan, author of the recently released “The Great Chocoplot”.

Pretty scary story if you ask me :). In anycase a world without chocolate, which is th premise of this great children’s novel would pretty much be the end of the world for me too…and I am an adult.

While we hope to be keeping the “Chocopocalypse” at bay for a very long time I hope, here’s a few children’s books Chris has been reading with his daughter and something tells me that you may be already familiar with a few of those titles. I hope you’ll enjoy! 🙂

Favourite Stories I’ve Read With My Daughter

One of the greatest pleasures of being a dad, has been reading bedtime stories to my daughter, and as she grew older, with my daughter. As she has learned to read out loud and become a more confident reader, the mutual pleasure from taking turns reading has been a pure joy. Over the last few years we have shared many stories – here are some of our favourites.

 

Little Rabbit Foo Foo – Michael Rosen with Arthur Robins’ illustrations.

This has been a favourite (particularly of mine) for many years and still gets slid off the shelf for a giggle. There’s an audio version read by Kevin Whately, which we also love and copy the funny accents whenever we read it out loud. It’s a completely bonkers tale of a naughty rabbit who ‘bops’ everything on their heads. It never fails to get a laugh.

 

My Funny Family – Chris Higgins with Lee Wildish’s illustrations.

We’ve both loved reading the adventures of the Butterfield family in a series of great books. My daughter loves them so much she has read them all with both myself and my wife. The wonderful family centric stories have certainly inspired me to write my own story involving a loving family at its heart. We always get excited when we find there’s going to be another book – and hopefully, long may that continue.

 

Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone – JK Rowling

Reading this was quite a sign that my little girl was growing up. My wife has always been a huge fan and I’d saved myself from reading them until my daughter was ready. We took turns reading this and whenever I read Hagrid’s parts, it usually caused giggles. As I tried to recreate his accent from the films, it would drastically swap from Scottish, to Welsh, to who-knows-what and would usually settle on ‘Pirate’ (with added ‘Ahar, me hearties’ for effect). When writing one of my characters for ‘The Great Chocoplot’ (the dastardly Garibaldi Chocolati) I made him speak in an unrecognisable and randomly changing accent so I could have fun when I read it out loud. Obviously, there’s no need for me to make any comment on how wonderful these stories are, but we have loved every chapter … and we still have more to read!

 

Matilda – Roald Dahl with Sir Quentin Blake’s illustrations.

I’d never read Matilda before, or seen the film, or knew anything about the story. Terrible, I know! But a year or so ago, over the course of a couple of weeks, I had the sheer pleasure of listening to my daughter read it to me. The enjoyment she had for this story spilled out as she took delight in reading every single word. Sharing this magical and beautiful tale with her and listening to the fun and wonder in her voice will remain one of the greatest experiences of being a dad.

 

There will come a time when I will not be able to share these stories with my ever-growing girl in the same way. But until then, I’ll treasure every page.

 

The Great Chocoplot by Chris Callaghan out now in paperback for 7+ readers (£6.99, Chicken House) Find out more at www.chickenhousebooks.com