Children's books: 7 and under

Picture books round-up: the droll troll and a wizard from Oz

Magical visions to draw in the youngest readers
troll

The new children's laureate, Anthony Browne, was asked recently whether he thought publishers should help parents by saying what age group their picture books are aimed at. It is something I always attempt, but I was glad to hear Browne explain why it is often a self-defeating task, not least because good picture books are often devoured by improbable readers. I have watched grown-ups and teenagers enjoy, on the sly, books with glaringly childish contents. Besides, slapping an age on a picture book has now become even more complicated because of the arrival of a wave of teasingly sophisticated picture books (I include one in this round-up) that are nothing if not ambiguously targeted.

But the first book that caught my eye for this summer is unambiguously child-oriented. The Troll by Julia Donaldson and David Roberts (Macmillan £10.99) is the tale of an eccentric troll who knows how the old story about himself goes – his address must be under a bridge (no worries) and he must partake of a goat diet (more dicey). One day, a spider scuttles across his bridge – a potential hors d'oeuvre. But the spider deflects the troll by pointing him in the direction of goat meat, and the troll sets out with frying pan, cookery book and purposeful frown. Roberts's pictures are comically assertive; the troll with his pan is wonderfully toothy and determined. Donaldson's subplot involves a ship of pirates seeking a cook and her elaborate hide-and-seek game is happily concluded. An ingenious, lively creation, guaranteed not to get anybody's goat.

Michael Rosen has always had an eye – or an ear– for bullies. He once wrote a poem which began: "I'm big and you're not so big", in which a big boaster was eventually dwarfed when the little chap he was persecuting inconveniently grew up. His news book, I'm Number One (Walker £11.99), is a careful, cunningly thought out variant on the theme. It concerns a wind-up toy soldier who is too busy bossing toys about to see (until the end) that they hold – or turn – the key to his life. This is a beautifully organised and moving story with a slow-release moral and engagingly communicative drawings by Bob Graham.

Finn Throws a Fit! by David Elliott (Walker £5.99) is an absolute must for anyone who has – or has ever had – an angry toddler. It is the story of a tantrum which develops like a force of nature and is illustrated with brilliant, hyperbolic skill by Timothy Basil Ering. I particularly love the drawings of "thunder in the nursery" and "lightning in the kitchen"; the kitchen itself is bathed in sickly green light, the parents are bent double and their hair stands on end as the mayhem unleashed by their bellowing son takes over the house. And then it is over. And it is time for Finn, like a junior Prufrock, to eat a peach.

In The Girl With the Bird's-Nest Hair by Sarah Dyer (Bloomsbury £5.99), the amusing, neat – or in this case – untidy – idea is to tell a story about a little girl with a head of wild, red curls whose hair really does become a bird's nest. The book begins with a delightful guide to the wildlife that takes up residence – jay, starling, blue tit and so forth. It is like a gentle successor to Hilaire Belloc except that Holly's mother has pitifully little control over the hairbrush and it is only a close encounter with a peacock that eventually has the desired effect.

Tales From Outer Suburbia (Templar £12.99) is an uncategorisable one-off by the unique and weirdly talented Australian illustrator Shaun Tan. He has always had an eye for the misplaced, bizarre side of life (he once wrote a book with the name The Lost Thing). And in this strange, marvellous, bewildering book, he recovers surreal memories of childhood; audiences with suburban water buffalo who give good advice to those who seek it, a deep sea diver who speaks Japanese and may have been the long-lost love of a grumpy Japanese woman in the neighbourhood (her mood improves after the diver plunges into her life). Tan also wonders what happens to all the poems that get written but never published – and draws a dazzling paper trail to immortalise them.

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Today in pictures

The Observer New Review's regular round-up of the best books for children of all ages

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