It must be love love LOVE....

Toot Toot Sniffers and Snifferlings. It's a brand new year and we already have a teetering tower of books of gigantonormous proportions to sniff. What larks!

SO at the top of said teetering pile is the latest adventure featuring big snugly burly bear about town Hugless Douglas, in his new book WE LOVE YOU DOUGLAS by the one and only 
David 'brush master' Melling - published by Hodder Children's Books 

This story begins with dear old Douglas helping his little tiny sheepy chum Flossie find her long lost best friend. If you ask me these adorabubble little sheep don't get enough of the limelight so I was thrilled to see velcro-like Flossie taking centre stage!

Douglas and Flossie set off on their bumbling quest in typical Douglas fashion, encountering all manner of mishaps and mayhem as they go, including a pair of milkshake making cows and an abundance of helmet wearing trampolining rabbits (WHY do I never stumble upon such things !) After much dillying and dallying they eventually find Little Sheep, who is without doubt utter cuteness on a stick and one of my all time favorite spectacle wearing characters.

Douglas is left with a gaping hole of friendless sheep shaped proportions as the two little creatures are happily reunited. Douglas's sadness at his lack of a best-friend is short lived and the story naturally has a very happy ending with a multitude of foresty creatures showing Douglas just how much they all love him, and so do I. Three cheers for Douglas.

We Love You Douglas is a welcome addition to any home library, a happy charming story masterfully spun and illustrated with great skill and joy. A huge friendly hug in book form.

Also look out for the particularly peachy LOVE spread at the very end. A wonderful extra to prevent you feeling bereft at the end of a lovely book. Available at all good book shops.  

I have admired Melling's work for well over a decade now and it seems to just keep getting better and better,The juicy colours on every turn of the page make you feel like you are looking at David's real watercolour masterpieces and the character work I would say is second to none. I salute anyone who can capture a look of relaxed concentration on the face of a cocktail shaking cow!

Moooove over Tom Cruise!

YOU LUCKY SNIFFERS I have procured an exclusive sneak peek for you! yes JUST FOR YOU, no one else has seen these delightful snippity peeps at the magical development work for this beautiful book.

Hugless Douglas 4 ...Behind the scenes...Introduced by David Melling

 "The initial early ideas are VERY scribbly and random. I just start to fill pages with thoughts. They're done quickly and without much care - brainstorming with a pencil. My Dad was a sculptor and I remember watching him doodle. He always called his pencil his "thinking stick."

These pages from my sketchbook are from HUGLESS DOUGLAS AND THE BIG SLEEP but it illustrates my working method quite well. For me doodles and note-taking go hand in hand. It's all about getting the idea down, not how good a drawing looks...not yet anyway..."

 RARE MATERIAL THAT NEVER SEES THE LIGHT OF DAY ALERT!! :

With multitudinous fondest thanks to dearest David Melling and Hodder Children's Books 

Visit David's blog here and check him out on Twitter @DavidMelling1

All artwork (c) David Melling