0-5 years
Lighty Faust the Lion
Anna Hymas
9781743008850
£5.99
Like many young children, Ru has an imaginary friend. But Ru's imagination is just that little bit more vivid than most. His friend is a large lion called Lighty Faust. He's Ru's ultimate playmate and protector, and they have heaps of fun together, jumping, climbing and visiting the moon. One day, though, Ru knows it's time for his special pal to roar off. The latest from sparky young Australian publishers Five Mile Press, this is a fresh take on the notion of imaginary friends. Told in nifty rhyme form, full of warmth and fun, this might fit the bill if you're after a slightly quirky alternative to the usual picture book presents.
5-9 years
The Fir Tree
Sanna Annukka / Hans Christian Andersen
9780091944339
£8.99
This properly beautiful artifact, tall, thin, cloth-bound and gold-embossed, could appeal to readers of all ages. But it's particularly apt for little ones, because it's actually all about youth. Like all the best fairy tales, though, it's not without a bit of cautionary bite.
Growing in the forest, the eponymous fir tree is fed up with being small, and he's quite desperate to grow up. So he's delighted when he's cut down to become the centrepiece of a family's Christmas celebrations. What he doesn't know, though, is that the festivities, and his usefulness, won't last forever. He might well come to regret his over-eagerness.
Andersen's ageless tale is given a terrific shot in the arm by illustrator Sanna Annukka. Finnish by birth but now resident in Brighton, Annukka's superbly stylish designs have graced fabrics, greetings cards and even a Keane album cover. Credit where it's due, every page is glorious, echoing and illuminating the prose to winning effect.
9-12 years
The Unforgotten Coat
Frank Cottrell Boyce
9781406341546
£7.99
Slowly but surely, Frank Cottrell Boyce is turning into a national treasure. He started out as an acclaimed scriptwriter for film and TV before moving into children's fiction. His novels Millions, Framed and Cosmic are becoming modern classics, and he's currently polishing off a trilogy of new adventures starring Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. As if that wasn't enough, he was also the writer behind Danny Boyle's Olympic opening ceremony.
Despite his increasingly high profile, Cottrell Boyce retains an admirable zeal for interesting little projects. This is one such: the tale of Chengis and Nergui Tuul, two young Mongolian boys who have fetched up at a Liverpool primary school, and Julie O'Connor, their classmate, who is assigned to help them out.
They spend a month in each other's company before the boys are unceremoniously deported. It's only years later, when Julie visits her old school before it's bulldozed, that she really understands the boys' situation. This revelation occurs when Julie roots through the school's old lost property box and discovers Nergui's vast woolen coat.
You can't bottle the milk of human kindness, but Cottrell Boyce clearly has a gift for conjuring it up in prose. The young characters herein are captivating and three-dimensional. Illustrated by Polaroid pictures of the boy's Liverpool stay, this conveys big, adult issues with a wonderful lightness of touch and plenty of genuine, heart-felt humour. Not for nothing has it been garlanded with awards already.
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