Ten minutes to bed: Little Unicorn's Birthday by Rhiannon Fielding and Chris Chatterton

Penguin, 2020. ISBN: 9780241453162.
(Age: 3-10) Recommended. Little Unicorn's Birthday is a gorgeous book that really captured my 6-year-old daughter. She has previously loved other books in this series (Little Unicorn and Little Mermaid) and has requested that we find the other 3!
The book follows a count down sequence where each minute that Dad counts down (to bedtime) something happens at Little Unicorn's party. They play games, open gifts, eat delicious food and of course eat cake. It all ends with Little Unicorn and her friends all fast asleep under the night sky.
This book is easy to read and follows a reasonably simple rhyme. I liked the count down aspect too which is always an important skill to cement for younger children.
The illustrations are my favourite and I have truly loved them in every book in this series we have read. The cover is textured with sparkles which really draws your attention and the illustrations on the pages really show the mood of the book. Lots of colour, and then it slowly darkens to the night-time scenes. The characters have wonderful facial expressions and are extremely cute.
The author/illustrator partnership between Rhiannon Fielding and Chris Chatterton is very successful, and I feel that these books are a testament to that. I think that any book in this series would be a great gift or library addition for readers from 3 to 7 years old.
Lauren Fountain