Belinda's Balloon

This book touches a universal chord of anxiety, for when Lucy begs her mother to be given the responsibility of looking after her younger sister, she then loses her as a magic balloon carries her soaring to the tree tops. Emilie Boon uses polar bears as the main characters and the fantastic as a means of losing and retrieving the younger sister, which works to distance the situation from reality. Looking at the rapt faces of the listening reception children, I could see this was nail-biting stuff. Here's a book that's perhaps deceptive to the adult at first glance - don't dismiss it for it clearly meets a need.