A picture book containing six chapters might sound rather too much for young children. But Allan Ahlberg and Raymond Briggs A Bit More Bert is full of illustrations and has just a little text on each page. The chapters have a title page and then another three pages, except for Chapter 5 which has seven pages. Each chapter is actually more like a mini story, so if a child has a very short attention span, you wouldn’t have to read the whole book at once. We read about Bert and his dog, who is also called Bert, we give Bert a haircut, and then we see how Bert is constantly nagged by his mother (named Grandma Bert).

Allan Ahlberg, Raymond Briggs

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The BFG is short for the Big Friendly Giant. There were nine bad giants. Sophie lived with the BFG in the cave. The BFG and other nine giants lived in Giant Country. My favourite characters were the BFG and the Fleshlumpeater because they were funny.

Roald Dahl

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The book is about Mr. Gum having a Goblin army and how he is trying to rule Lamonic Biber (the town). The main characters are Mr. Gum, Billy William the Third and Polly. My favourite character was Mr. Gum because he was funny.

My favourite part of the book was when the Goblins sang a really funny song. I liked the song because there was a burp solo in it. This book is similar to Mr. Gum and the Cherry Tree because there was another similar song in it.

Andy Stanton, David Tazzyman

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It goes up and down, hits the lows and then just when you think that it’s stopping it begins shooting up on the upward track. Rajorshi Chakorborti’s first young adults’ book, Mumbai Rollercoaster is set in the city in which he spent the formative years of his life. Of course, Mumbai has a lot going for it apart from this – the very size makes it a great sprawling landscape for cops and robbers chases. And it has an active underworld. According to Rajorshi, in Mumbai, ‘You get the feeling that at any moment, an adventure could begin’. There are streets to be explored on foot and on bicycle and interesting twists and turns of road. And this is the philosophy that he follows in his novel. With every chapter a new adventure begins.

Rajorshi Chakraborti

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“How Do Dinosaurs Learn Colours and Numbers?” is a picture book divided into two sections, predictably for numbers and colours. The first section covers all the primary and secondary colours plus brown and pink one at a time, as well as white and black together. It ends with a double-page spread on rainbows. The second section introduces the numbers one to ten in order and ends saying that the dinosaur will count again. It isn’t the most thrilling ending to a book.

Jane Yolen’s text for the book is in a very clear, large font on a white background; there is no problem reading it. Perhaps one of the book’s strongest points is that the text is in rhyming verse, for example:

“a purple towel
left on the floor,
a green sign taped
to the bedroom door.”

Jane Yolen, Mark Teague

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The book is about Matilda. She learnt to read when she was three. When she was five she went to school. When she was in school she got a secret power.

My favourite characters were Miss Trunchbull, Matilda and Mr Woormword. My favourite part was when Matilda got her special power. I didn’t like when Mr Wormword ripped Matilda’s book.  I would recommend this book to children similar age as me because it’s quite a long book and small children can’t read it.

Roald Dahl

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The stripy horse and his friends live in a bric-a-brac shop, where magic is causing mayhem. Stripy horse is upside-down, Hermann the sausage-dog draught excluder is tied in a knot, someone has scribbled on Muriel the bird’s lampshade and Roly and Pitch, the salt and pepper pots, have been swapped around. Mortice, the lion-shaped lock from the wooden trunk, realises that the monkeys have escaped because the trunk wasn’t locked up. They have stolen his key and are causing havoc.

Jim Helmore, Karen Wall

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My six year old daughter is an enormous fan of the Winnie the Witch books by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul – so much so that she virtually knows some of the earlier books off by heart. Therefore she was delighted to receive another Winnie book for her birthday. This time it was ‘Winnie’s Amazing Pumpkin‘ which is a fabulous fun tale!

In this book we discover that Winnie loves all sorts of vegetables but her absolute favourite has to be pumpkin. However it is extremely difficult flying off to the market each week and bringing back all the veg on her broomstick along with Wilbur her cat.

Korky Paul, Valerie Thomas

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The Happy Prince and Other Tales is a collection of children’s stories by Oscar Wilde and was published in 1888. The collection contains The Happy Prince, The Nightingale and the Rose, The Selfish Giant, The Devoted Friend and The Remarkable Rocket. The stories are laced with Wilde’s descriptive flourishes of flowers and nature and the first three in particular are wonderful and quite heartbreaking at times. There is often a very obvious religious subtext (with acts of kindness, generosity and sacrifice rewarded in fantastical ways) and some incredibly touching and sad moments but the stories, for the most part, manage to be uplifting too and Wilde’s major theme is always that we should think of others and not just ourselves.

Oscar Wilde

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My daughter has always loved Julia Donaldson books ever since she first discovered The Gruffalo at the age of about two. Since then, our collection of books has grown and grown, and we have grown to love many of Julia Donaldson’s creations, especially the ones that are so brilliantly illustrated by Axel Scheffler. One of our newest favourites is Zog, an enthusiastic young dragon who is trying to do his best whilst studying at Dragon School.

Like most of Julia Donaldson’s stories, Zog is written entirely in rhyming couplets which provide a lovely flow and rhythm to the story telling.

Axel Scheffler, Julia Donaldson

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Dexter Bexley is a young boy with a scooter. He is out on his scooter on his own one day when he bumps into a Big Blue Beastie and falls down. The Big Blue Beastie tells Dexter that he is bored and will probably eat him up. Unperturbed, Dexter says he has a much better idea. The Beastie seems convinced. He has a scooter too, and follows Dexter as he scoots off again.

The pair have a rest at the foot of a tree among the flowers. The Big Blue Beastie complains again that he is bored and will eat Dexter up.

Joel Stewart, picture book

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