I feel conflicted about The Smeds and the Smoos. A Smed and a Smoo fall in love despite multiple warnings from their grandparents about why they should be avoiding each other, but unlike Romeo and Juliet this love story has a happy ending.

This story feels hyper relevant when you look at everything that's going on in the world at the moment. Republicans vs. Democrats, Conservatives vs. Labour, everywhere you look it's a red vs. blue world and for little ones who have no understanding of politics and no idea why everyone is so angry at each other it must be quite scary. It feels like The Smeds and the Smoos has arrived at exactly the right time, bursting onto the scene to remind children that underneath we are all the same. It doesn't matter what colour you are, and oftentimes the people warning you to stay away from others have no idea what they're really talking about.

However, looking at it from the perspective of a parent it feels a bit heavy-handed. The moral is obvious and is delivered in a very blunt way, there isn't any nuance behind it. Meanwhile the amount of text on each page is rather intimidating: there are more words per page than I think I've ever seen in a Julia Donaldson story, and my little one couldn't pay attention for longer than the first few pages.

I'm not sure whether The Smeds and the Smoos is going to be as joyfully embraced as some of Julia Donaldson's other stories, but I think this book might go a long way towards reassuring young ones who are starting to pick up on the tension which seems present in most adults in this day and age.