Children's Books: Sounds fun

TELL ME SOMETHING HAPPY BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP; written by Joyce Dunbar, illustrated by Debi Gliori; (Picture Corgi, £6.99)

This reissued picture book features a CD enclosed in a flap inside the back cover. One side of the CD features the story read by Anton Rogers and accompanied by discreet sound effects. The story is told at a slow enough pace to ensure children won't feel rushed trying to keep up. On the other side there are cheerful 'ting!' sounds to indicate each page turn. This feature should provide encouragement for beginner readers who are building up their confidence in moving through books on their own; it should help them feel supported and at the centre of the story-telling.

The story itself is memorable for the warmth of the relationship portrayed between older sibling Willoughby and the younger Willa, who is scared to go to sleep in case she has a bad dream. Willoughby does a grand job on his own, and their mother only briefly peeps in to check they are OK. Willoughby's device for encouraging his sister to sleep is to direct her thoughts to happy things, including the many anticipated good features of the following day.

The language becomes particularly striking when Willoughby explains that the night is waiting for the morning, and that morning itself is waiting for 'flowers to bloom in, leaves to flutter. For clouds to float in, wind to blow in...' At this point in the story the illustrator has used a purply-blue wash to reveal the sleeping world outside their tree-home, with my favourite detail being the sleeping bees clamped on to the tops of flowers which are bending with their weight.

- For information on Joyce Dunbar see www.joycedunbar.com

WHO'S IN THE LOO? written by Jeanne Willis, illustrated by Adrian Reynolds; (Anderson, £4.99)

This larger format board book is great fun. Not only does it use a great array of characters, including a wandering wombat and a waddling penguin, to introduce different ways of describing going to the toilet, but it also features some catchy rhymes.

Where rhymes are split over two spreads, this increases the anticipation of the reader. Here is a flavour of the book's tone (which is extremely tasteful throughout, though not prudish): 'Who's in the loo? There's a very long queue. Is it an elephant having a poo? They're taking forever! Now who could it be? A whale who's doing the world's biggest wee?'

The illustrations of a straining hippo and a coach load of elderly snails with heavy eyelids should tickle children. The story resolution isn't too predictable either.

- For information on the author Jeanne Willis see http://www.walkerbooks.co.uk/Jeanne-Willis

- For information on Adrian Reynolds see www.davidhigham.co.uk/html/Clients/Reynolds

ELLA AND TOM BOARD BOOK SERIES: 'Going on a Picnic', 'Sleepy Time', 'On the Farm', 'Let's Play'; written by Gina Ford, illustrated by Rosalinda Kightley; (Doubleday, £4.99)

These four board books from Gina Ford of Contented Little Baby fame feature novelties including lift-the-flaps and feely fabrics.

The flaps in 'Going on a Picnic' present the answer to a question posed in the text: 'What is Tom taking from the fridge?' Under a flap featuring fridge food are two yoghurts - presumably one for each of the children. Everything goes into Ella and Tom's little woven picnic basket, including their dog Toby.

In 'Sleepy Time' the children discover sleepy animals such as the cat cuddled up in her basket and, my favourite, behind the colourfully painted wooden flap, the horse dozing in his warm stable.

The novelties are less successful in some places where fabric is set into the pages. It's fine when a squidgy pink blob of plastic material is used for a pig's nose in 'On the Farm', but where only part of the object is represented by the fabric, this creates confusion. For example, the cow only has a small patch of velvety felt on her back, whereas the text describes this as a 'coat' and the rest of the cow's body just feels like an ordinary board book page.

The same is true of the 'Let's Play' title. Although the bumpy texture of the paper set into the page is enjoyable to run your fingers across, when only one wheel out of two on the toy car has this kind of wheel, it makes the concept of 'bumpy' less convincing than it might have been.

The illustrations in all four books are appealing, conveying as they do a rich range of different textures and colours in the clothes the children wear and the objects all around them.