Witches' children and fallen angels


Slow Loris by Alexis Deacon (Hutchinson, £10.99)
This is a really thrilling debut from young writer-illustrator Alexis Deacon. Its originality jumps out of the covers. Slow Loris lives in the zoo and everybody, including the visitors and the other animals, thinks that he is really boring because he does everything so slowly. What they don't know is that, at night, when they are all asleep, he is really fast. When his secret gets out, soon all the animals are enjoying a wild nocturnal life. Most illustrations for the young are bright and breezy; in contrast, Deacon's drawings are dark, murky, full of detail and totally compelling. While Slow Loris going fast is a blur, all the humans in the zoo look sleepy or bored. This is off the wall and sly in a way that books for this age group aren't supposed to be.

The Kiss That Missed by David Melling (Hodder, £10.99)
You are probably right to be suspicious of any children's book that is aimed at the St Valentine's market, as so often these stories are really for adults who have never grown up. But it is worth making an exception for this wonderfully comic little charmer. Melling has fairytale fun with the story of a bedtime kiss that is blown by the king to his son that misses and bounces out of the window and into the night. Instead of "follow that taxi", it is a case of "follow that kiss", a job entrusted to the accident-prone loyal knight who soon finds himself in the wood where there are "wild creatures with wild eyes, too much hair and very bad manners". There is plenty more in this vein, and a dragon besides, but eventually it is happy ever after. Melling's illustrations are as snazzy and snappy as his prose - and it's fine to be reminded that bedtime rituals cannot be hurried.

All Your Own Teeth by Adrienne Geoghegan, illustrated by Cathy Gale (Bloomsbury, £9.99)
Stuart lives in the city and is determined to be an artist. When he has painted everything the city has to offer, he sets off to the jungle in search of wild animals. He puts up a sign: "Wanted: Hansum wild animal to sit still for painting. Must have all your own teeth and a nice big smile." But Stuart has never seen a wild animal before and he thinks that the elephant's trunk is ugly, the cheetah is far too spotty and the hippo looks like a chocolate pudding. Geoghegan's story, illustrated with zany comic gusto, will make both parents and children laugh out loud, not least because it has a nasty twist worthy of Roald Dahl. A very enjoyable bedtime snack and a useful reminder that it is never wise to insult a crocodile's friends.

Scritch Scratch by Miriam Moss and Delphine Durand (Orchard, £10.99)
Since almost every household in the land with school-age children has nits, every household should also have a copy of this book. It won't help you get rid of the little critters, but at least it will make you laugh as you scratch. Illustrated almost entirely from the nits' perspective, so that the pictures offer a wonderfully skewed view of both scalp and playground, this entertaining story is a reminder that head lice are no respecters of size or status. The main culprit here turns out to be the teacher Miss Calypso, with her cascading red curls. The story is pretty simple, but there is so much to look at that you can read it over and over. A really jolly gift for all those children and parents (and grandparents) who get uptight about nits.

The Witch's Children by Ursula Jones and Russell Ayto (£10.99)
When the witch's three children go to the park, they are only trying to help when they turn Gemma into a frog. Her boat has blown over on the pond and the witch's children think that, as a frog, Gemma could swim and rescue it. But Gemma doesn't want to be a frog and the children haven't learned how to turn frogs back into people. But they do know how to turn the park's ice-cream lady into a princess so she can kiss the frog. Only the ice-cream lady doesn't want to be a princess and Gemma doesn't want to be a prince. Fortunately, the youngest witch's child knows one bit of magic and it goes like this: "Mum!" Soon mother witch has sorted out the mess. This anything-can-happen tale is told with witty text and illustrations and has a satisfyingly reassuring outcome.

Sea Cat and Dragon King by Angela Carter (Bloomsbury, £4.99)
"It is a little-known fact that cats live at the bottom of the sea. Everything that is at the bottom of the sea is just the same as it is on land - except, of course, that it is quite different." So begins this delicious tale from the late Angela Carter, available now in paperback with enchanting line drawings by Eva Tatcheva. Carter knew all about the importance of fairytales, beauty and mothers in our lives and wrote about them for adult readers. But she does it just as beguilingly for the young in this delightful story about the old dragon king who is ashamed of his ugliness, the little underwater cat who befriends him and sea cat's ever-resourceful mother. The writing has the effortless simplicity of really good prose and is easy for both adults and children to read.

Love That Dog by Sharon Creech (Bloomsbury, £9.99)
This is a book so quirky and original that it defies categorisation. It is a book about inspired teachers - Miss Stretchberry, who is introducing her class to Robert Frost and William Blake - and about poetry and boys, and about boys writing poetry. Particularly Jack: "I don't want to/ because boys/ don't write poetry./ Girls do." But before he realises what he is doing, Jack is writing poetry. One of the brilliant things about this book is that it turns can't into can. Soon Jack is the classroom William Carlos Williams, finding, through poetry, a narrative for his own life and a way of expressing his pain at the death of his dog. The original poems used by the amazing Miss Stretchberry are at the back of the book and that is where you need to begin.

The Adventures of Bert by Allan Ahlberg and Raymond Briggs (Viking, £9.99)
Allan Ahlberg in cahoots with Raymond Briggs? It sounds like the sort of super-league merger that demands immediate referral to the monopolies and mergers commission. In its own small way it is a super-league book, too, about the hapless Bert - husband, father and complete noodlehead, the kind of guy who dives into rivers to rescue cardboard boxes before remembering that he can't swim. What is so nice about the story is that it is both recognisably Ahlberg and recognisably Briggs and yet also distinctly of itself. It makes the ordinary - and they don't come more ordinary than Bert - extraordinary. The humour is both broad slapstick and rather droll. This book will take immediate permanent residence on our bookshelves.

Falling Angels by Colin Thompson (Hutchinson, £9.99)
This little miracle of a book is a story about how to live and how to die. Though intended for younger children, it has proved virtually impossible to prise from the grasp of every child and adult I've shown it to. Sally is a girl who can fly. Her mother doesn't believe her, but her ageing grandmother just smiles. Colin Thompson has written a simple and gravely beautiful parable about those who fly and those who do not, those who see the world with their eyes and those who see it with their hearts. He illustrates the book with rich and brilliant pictures that portray a world seen largely from the sky - full of quirky little details such as bridges held up by trainers and huffing, puffing boats with houses on their backs. This is a truly entrancing book that is like owning your own special treasure chest - every time you pick it up, you notice something rich and rare that had escaped you before.

Angelina at the Fair by Katharine Holabird, illustrated by Helen Craig (Puffin, £4.99)
Our household isn't big on cute furry mice and we have a particular aversion to ballet-dancing mice. But we make a rare exception for Angelina. This is largely because Angelina is clearly not a mouse but a six-year-old girl with all the hopes, fears and insecurities of a child of that age group. She has the triumphs, the failures and the tutu that any self-respecting six-year-old would die for. There are eight titles in the series, and it doesn't matter which one you choose first because you just have to accept that you are going to end up with all of them. The writing is crisp and clear, the illustrations detailed with a lovely sense of movement and emotion. A child just about to come to the school-reading scheme will cope with these, but the best of the stories bear many repeated readings. Now that's my kind of book.

Hoot and Holler by Alan Brown and Rimantas Rolia (Hutchinson, £9.99)
Babies will enjoy looking at the enchanting owl pictures. But this tale of an unlikely friendship and the importance of speaking up and saying, "I am happy," or "I love you," or rather "I love you-hoo," really comes into its own with a slightly older age group. Holler is a big owl and Hoot his little friend. Every night they play together, but Hoot is too little and Holler too shy to say how happy they are. Then both are carried away by gusts of wind and both mistakenly believe that the other no longer wants to play with him. It takes courage to find each other again. A sweet but never cloying parable about friendship and affection, this has wonderful stylised, slightly surreal illustrations that will make you as wide-eyed as Hoot and Holler themselves.

The Sandcastle by MP Robertson (Frances Lincoln, £10.99)
Even a king can't hold back the sea, tells this amazing little picture book in which daily life and dreams become entangled to quite magical effect. Jack loves building sandcastles but is always disappointed when the tide washes them away. He longs to have a sandcastle as big as a real castle and wishes that he was a king. That night his dreams come true in a joyous Freudian fantasy of mermaids, floods, shells and the testing of ego and power. Robertson's simple, salty prose combines with fabulous full-colour illustrations that look like something out of a 50-year-old book of fairy tales and make tremendous use of movement and sly perspective. There is a sense of exhilaration and a wistfulness about this book. Every time you look at it, it leaves an imprint on your mind like a footprint in the sand.

It Takes One to Know One by Gervase Phinn (Puffin, £3.99)
This book of school poems is not in the "Please, Mrs Butler" league, but there is plenty to amuse a six-year-old and it could stay in the library all through primary school. The observations ring true and the humour entertains children while bringing a wry smile to parental lips. Older children will like Twenty Things That Parents Never Say, which begins with "Of course you can have more pocket money" and ends with "School holidays are a bit short this year". Younger ones will enjoy The Day Mum Brought the Baby Home. Remember Me will amuse anyone who has been taught by a teacher whom they didn't like and who didn't like them. Phinn goes for the easy laugh too often, but his work is accessible and at times touching. In a largely poetry-free world, it is very welcome indeed.

Be Good, Gordon by Angela McAllister and Tim Archbold (Bloomsbury, £9.99)
This is a real giggle. Gordon's parents always go out on Tuesday nights and leave him with a babysitter. Gordon is always good. But when Lily Jigg-Popsicle, the new babysitter, turns up one week, she isn't good at all. Lily wants to play all night. Soon their roles are switched, as Gordon knits and sips tea and Lily becomes increasingly naughty. Before long, Lily has persuaded the overcautious Gordon that sleep is only for when you are tired. This exuberant - and exuberantly illustrated - story depicts Gordon as a little boy old before his time. It is about the joys of play, breaking all the rules, and remembering that children are not little grown-ups. We loved its zest and subversive message. This is a book for children who want to grow up to be explorers and circus performers, rather than accountants, and for all the parents who will let them.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, illus Helen Oxenbury (Walker, £9.99)
OK, so we grew up with and loved our Alice stories with the original Tenniel drawings (although to be truthful, I remember being slightly afraid of some of the gloomy images, even if I think they are brilliant now). Illustrator Helen Oxenbury takes a very contemporary approach to the book, transforming Alice into a modern little miss in a blue shift dress. Is this a problem? Not at all; in fact, it makes the story much more accessible to this age group. It also offers a broader picture of Wonderland and its associated characters and creatures. Her depiction of the Cheshire Cat and his smile cannot but make you smile yourself. This is an essential addition to any children's library, a book that puts the colour (though Oxenbury knows when to use black and white when appropriate) and wonder back into Wonderland.

The New Faber Book of Children's Verse ed by Matthew Sweeney (Faber, £16.99)
Is this the right age group for a serious poetry book with few illustrations? Well, you are never too young for poetry, and Matthew Sweeney's collection is comprehensive enough to offer pleasure when you are 70, let alone seven. This isn't bright and buzzy enough, though, to turn youngsters on to poetry without a little help. Read it with them. There is plenty for the younger age group here, including classics such as Walter De La Mare's The Listeners and AA Milne's The King's Breakfast. A few years on, they can savour WH Auden. It's a broad church: you get Jackie Kay, Carol Ann Duffy and Benjamin Zephaniah, as well as TS Eliot and Rudyard Kipling. In some ways, this book seems old-fashioned, but it doesn't dumb down, which is so often the case with children's anthologies. A reminder that poetry is a natural part of our lives - whatever our age.

Don't Make Me Laugh by James Steveson (Red Fox, £4.99)
This innovative picture book is a little miracle. It turned a cross, crying five-year-old into a bundle of giggles. It works like a game. There are just three rules: first, you must not laugh when reading this book; second, you must not even smile; finally, you mustn't do anything that you are told not to do. If you do break the rules - which you undoubtedly will - you must go back to the very front of the book again. In charge of the book and its reader are Mr Frimdimpny, a very stern crocodile. Mr Frimdimpny tells stories that are guaranteed to make any five- or six-year-old laugh. In a clever twist he breaks his own rules and ends up being sent to the front of his own book. Provided that the adult joins in the spirit of the thing, this is a lot of really silly fun for all the family.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/mar/28/buildingachildrenslibrary.booksforchildrenandteenagers2
www.theguardian.com
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