Ollie the Elephant

The illustrations for this story are particularly charming and, if you know this artist's work in The Little Polar Bear stories, you'll know the range of expression he can employ on the faces of his animal characters. Ollie is a little elephant who longs for a baby brother and sets off to find one, encountering a wide range of other creatures along the way. They want to help him in various ways, especially once he gets lost, but their solutions are unsatisfactory until he reaches home and discovers there's a little brother (or sister) on the way, after all. I found this story manages to stay just the right side of twee, but it's a close run thing. Decide for yourself before trying it on the children.