...when there was a rat-a-tat-tat on the garden door - Rated 
This book quickly became a favourite with our 20 month old and it's good fun to read for us parents too (plenty of scope for funny voices etc). The story is immediately engaging and full of imagination, whilst the illustrations are quirky and interesting. The version we have has an accompanying audio book, read by Tamsin Greig, and my daughter adores listening to that also. Highly recommended
fabulous book - Rated
Although I am 25, one of my friends brought me this book, as i have a rabbit and my name is Emily Brown, I thought it was a brilliant present and when I read the book I was not let down. Emily is a great heroine and stanley is good as well, i keep it on my coffee table and my friends always end up reading it whenever they come over, proving that people never really grow up.
a brilliant heroine! - Rated
The language is gorgeous (the Twelve Days of Christmas plus some Roald Dahl); the illustrations bear looking at more than once (what's really there and what's pure imagination-scape?); the story is fun and simple enough for my 3-year-old to follow but doesn't bore me rigid.
But what I really love is Emily Brown: practical, spunky, imaginative and forthright. The best girl hero of a book for this age group I've seen, and there's no big point made of it, either.
My daughter's favourite - Rated 
As an adult I have to say that this is not my favourite book to read to my kids. The repetitious nature of the offers Emily Brown receives from the stroppy young queen for her manky rabbit, Stanley are rather like the far superior: 'Eat Your Peas' starring Daisy. The moral of the story, that something which is old and battered, yet truly loved, is worth more than all the new dollies in the world which say Ma Ma, has also been done before in the deserved children's classic, The Velveteen Rabbit. The mixture of drawn and collaged art comes from Lauren Child and all in all I found myself comparing to a lot of things and finding it wanting.
Yet, having said all that, and this is the most important thing. This is the book that my four year old daughter picks almost every night, and has done for months, for me to read to her. Before we bought it, it was almost on permanent loan from the library until I was worn down enough to shell out for it.
I have found a solution however, the copy we have comes with the story on cd in the back, read by the ever wonderful Tamsin Grieg, and so when I can't stand it any more, on goes Tamsin and retells the story with good grace every time.
Good for two year olds, too - Rated
My daughter is two-coming-up-for-three, and although she doesn't really know what an army, navy or special commando force is, she adores this book. She, too, has learned whole bits of it off by heart and can recite them at the right moment. For me, though, the most important thing is that I can still bear to read it at every bedtime even after two weeks solid. The illustrations are charming and the moral behind the story is a sound one. And it's just the right length for bedtime.
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