The Two Admirals ¦ The Little Hare Book ¦ The Bear's Bicycle¦ Bob and Bobby

It is good to see picture books of this calibre produced with obvious attention to the quality of illustration. Inevitably there is a lessening of the impact with any reduction of size from the original hardback but this is more than compensated for by their greater accessibility due to the low price. A real plus is the author information at the back of the books.

Two arrogant admirals cause havoc in their village eventually leading to mass evacuation by half the inhabitants. Just as we feel secure and reassured by the success of the innkeeper's plan to turn them into model citizens, two famous generals move in...!

The Little Hare Book is the usual mixture of nonsense and folklore Janosch is so good at producing. The translation is a bit stiff in parts and awkward to read aloud but following my reading it was widely borrowed (mainly by the lower juniors) and, according to their reviews, greatly enjoyed.

The Bear's Bicycle is a gorgeous book in the tradition of Rosie's Walk, with a delightfully naughty teddy bear doing all the wrong things on this bicycle while his friend virtuously shows the reader just how it should be done, totally unaware of the chaos that is following him. The dreamlike feel of the book is further enhanced by David McPhail's illustrations with the unrepentant bear reaching enormous proportions as his wrongdoings escalate only to return to his real size in time for his friend (still oblivious to the mayhem in spite of all the clues) to take him to bed.

Bob and Bobby is a very powerful story about the relationship between a young boy and his grandfather. This develops through Bobby's early dependence on his grandfather to the loneliness, fear and revulsion he feels when his grandfather is so drastically changed by a stroke. Through love they conquer these feelings and build an even stronger relationship in which, though the roles have been reversed, the respect shown by his grandfather originally is echoed in Bobby's way of helping. The story and illustrations have all the magic associated with de Paola's work, from the sensitive line drawing down to the subtle use of colour, described by one of my children as '... just right - sort of soft and sad'.