Riggledy Piggledy
written by Tony Mitton and illustrated by Paddy Mounter
(David Fickling, 12.99)
This lovely book takes favourite nursery rhymes, which there's no beating for familiarity, and adds a note of freshness. Newly-written rhyming puzzles gently shoehorn the reader into the text of the traditional rhyme that follows. Children may be able to solve the puzzles before turning the page.
For example, the new Sneeze-Up rhyme goes: 'Lots of roses arranged in a ring/And a box of tissues/What a strange thing!' Here the picture shows a tissue paper aeroplane zooming from a box of tissues. Under this picture is the prompt common to all rhyme puzzle pages: 'What's the answer? Let me see.../Have a think. Now, what can it be...?' Turn over the page and you find the Ring-a-Ring o' Roses traditional rhyme.
Now it's time for you to guess what these new puzzle rhymes lead on to: 'A small song-book,/ put down,/a dish of butter/and a loaf of bread (brown).'
And how about this one: 'Three tiny pairs of dark glasses (dropped)/ Three little grey tails (cropped).'
Babysitter Bear
written by Catherine and Laurence Anholt
(Penguin, 10.99)
There's a reassuring pattern to this tale about a little boy who is going to be looked after by Babysitter Bear for the day, and who narrates the story. He and Babysitter Bear collect six babies one by one, and take them to Picnic Park. 'Six bouncy babies rolling/Along the winding track/There's the swing and EVERYTHING/It's lovely to be back.' And when Babysitter Bear briefly falls into the pond, Stinky Skunk is the only baby the boy won't look after - there's a smelly nappy to contend with. The boy rides on the Bear's back, dropping the six babies off on the way. When he arrives home he finds a new baby - a sibling for him. And after caring for others all day, Babysitter Bear enjoys a whizzy ride down a steep path, slipping smoothly into the moonlit endpapers.
Floppy Ears
written by Ruth Louise Symes and illustrated by Tony Kenyon
(Orion, 7.99)
This is a neat, nicely-paced story that it is easy to find parallels with in the human world. Here, an adoring little brother rabbit wants to play the same games as his older sibling, Twitchy Nose. But while the others play, Floppy Ears is told to just watch. When Twitchy Nose lies down for a doze, it's Floppy Ears who spots danger approaching. Their enemy, the fox, chases after them, and they hide in a blackberry bush until they are safe.
Later, when their mum asks if Floppy Ears has been allowed to play, Floppy Ears eagerly recounts their hide and seek game, without mentioning the fox.
Twitchy Nose wants Floppy Ears to come along next time too - it's safer that way. The softly-rendered tones of the illustrations capture a pastoral landscape bursting with spring greenness.
The Summer Ball
by Fran Evans
(Piccadilly, 4.99)
Detailed illustrations in this book capture the tiny imaginary world the creator dreamed up as a child. Rose Fairy is so busy making costumes for the summer ball that she falls asleep, exhausted, before her own dress is decorated. The fairy community set to work on her behalf and carefully decorate her simple dress with tiny seeds, flowers, and stones.
At the ball, Fairy Rose looks around at the costumes she has made and feels happy to think that everyone helped to make her own gown. It's a captivating world, with triangular trees, dancing dandelion fairies who sweep along on the breeze, and bluebell fairies contentedly riding in a delicate purple bluebell cup (this is harnessed to a pretty horse to make a flower chariot).
The scale is so small that in this world the insects appear like giants.
One of my favourite pictures is the dome-backed red and black ladybird watching 'four fairies practising their dancing in a ferny glade', where the ferns are as tiny as curled eyelashes.
Yuk!
written by Kes Gray and illustrated by Nick Sharratt
(Bodley Head, 10.99)
This is a light-hearted look at what happens when a square peg - a girl called Daisy - has to fit into a round hole. She is to be a bridesmaid at her aunt and uncle's wedding. Pressure is put on Daisy to wear a fussy dress, while Daisy thinks of various cool outfits including scuba gear and football kit, to wear instead. Not surprisingly, her suggestions don't go down too well.
Eventually Daisy attends the wedding in her own designer gear - a green combat outfit with useful pockets for confetti, which she gaily throws everywhere. 'She got the Vicar in the ear, Nanny in the handbag, and Grampy in the camera...' She also spatters Daisy's mum in the teeth, causing her to splutter 'Yuk!' - just the word Daisy had used earlier to describe the fussy bridesmaids' dresses. The blue velvet one with bows and puffy sleeves is particularly gruesome.
