Children's fiction

Harvey, The Boy Who Couldn't Fart by Matthew Johnstone (Walker, £9.99)
Harvey, The Boy Who Couldn't Fart should prove a sure-fire Christmas choice. This nicely crafted comic story about windless Harvey includes a survey of his family’s farting habits and comes with a devious fart machine (a “Fart-o-matic”). But the back cover carries a lengthy, po-faced warning: “You must use the device only as described in these instructions…” The story itself is a gas – a rival to any Christmas cracker. Kate Kellaway., Photograph: Walker

A House In The Woods by Inga Moore (Walker, £12.99)
A House in the Woods is a beautiful book dominated, once again, by pigs. But these are uncommonly dainty pigs in a lavishly imagined forest, carpeted by gold leaves and moss. Trouble strikes when the pigs’ makeshift shelters are wrecked by their squatter friends: a rueful bear and a merry moose. More permanent accommodation is called for and the pigs hire a hilarious team of “beaver builders”, equipped with hard hats and a keen appetite for peanut butter sandwiches. The joy of their eventually constructed, reassuringly secure house will captivate parents and children alike. KK. Photograph: Walker

The Pop Up Book of Poo (Walker, £8.99)
The Pop Up Book of Poo is a compendious and surprisingly informative publication (“Because bat poo is so high in phosphorous and nitrogen, it was used to make gunpowder during the American civil war!”). KK. Photograph: Walker

A River of Stories by Jan Pienkowski & Alice Curry (Commonwealth Education Trust, £18.99)
Salt water, fresh water, clean water, dirty water – these stories from around the Commonwealth capture the role of all kinds of water in everyone's survival. Whether it is too much or too little, gloriously flowing in rivers, gushing from wells or seeping through marshes, water is essential for people and animals everywhere. In this well-organised anthology, some stories are realist, others magical, but all will stimulate readers to think about protecting this vital resource. Jan Pienkowski's stunning silhouettes bring watery scenes vividly to life. Julia Eccleshare

Christmas At The Toy Museum: A Fairytale by David Lucas (Walker, £11.99)
Christmas at the Toy Museum: A Fairytale (Walker £11.99) is absurd, enchanting and simple. The toys rush to the tree and realise there is nothing there – no presents. One comes up with a proposition: “Why don’t we all give each other ourselves?” They set to work at once. And that more or less wraps the story up – once you have also thrown in a glorious, interventionist angel who traffics in stars and wishes. KK. Photograph: Walker

Everybody Was A Baby Once and Other Poems by Allan Ahlberg & illustrated by Bruce Ingman (Walker, £7.99)
"Keith’s forgot his royal crown/Kevin’s late (again)/Jason’s lost his frankincense: The Unwise Men.” There are no prizes for guessing what this brief poem is about. Ingman illustrates “Nativity” as a sweet and stumbling primary school play with the three small kings, identically clad in red robes and ermine, making a delightful mess of their stage debut. It is one of a collection of funny, fresh, easy-to-take-on-board poems by the indefatigable Ahlberg. KK. Photograph: Walker

Christmas Eve At The Mellops by Tomi Ungerer (Phaidon, £6.95)
An elegant reprint of a 1970s tale, features four pigs with distinguished first names: Casimir, Isidor, Felix and Ferdinand. It describes their attempt to find homes for the snowy Christmas trees they have exuberantly dug up from a German pine forest. As they do the rounds, the point is not lost on the reader: doing the right thing is seldom easy. Everyone seems already to have a tree. But the pigs persevere – and start to understand what it is to be in want and what it means to give. A light-footed Christmas education (presents eventually distributed to patient pigs). KK. Photograph: Phaidon/Phaidon

Tales From India by Jamila Gavin, illustrated by Amanda Hall (Templar, £14.99)
If what is required this Christmas is flight into a different culture, then Tales from India is the thing. This fabulous-looking collection of stories should be an answer to prayer. The Hindu recipe for creation in which a sea of milk is turned into butter is only the beginning but is given assured and dramatic treatment by Hall, who does not shrink from any of her exotic tasks, including the drawing of a serpent that doubles as a milk churn. KK. Photograph: Templar

My Henry by Judith Kerr (HarperCollins, £7.99)
Christmas is a time for remembering absent family and friends, and My Henry is a picture book to touch the heart as well as make one laugh aloud. It is a new departure for Kerr, a deliciously singular extended daydream in which she imagines wild, airborne outings with her late husband, Henry. He is dressed in a pink cardigan and yellow tie and has sprouted some rather inefficient looking green wings to help him fly. Heaven, obviously, is his new address. And bliss, all round, is guaranteed. KK. Photograph: HarperCollins

My daughter loved this when she was young:

Freight Train by Donald Crews (Phoenix Yard, £10.99)
You don't have to like trains to love this simple and witty book. Trundling down the track goes a typical freight train, made beautiful by its bright colours, from the red guard's van through to the black tender and steam engine. Bold and clear, the colours stand out, until the train gathers speed and they are all whirled together as it hurtles through tunnels, over bridges, through night and day until, as trains do, it disappears. Nothing is said, nothing needs to be said; it's just a very satisfying experience. And a good introduction to colours, too. JE. Photograph: Phoenix Yard

Mother Knows Best by Jill Murphy (Puffin, £6.99)
Jill Murphy follows her bestselling Peace At Last and Five Minutes Peace with a deliciously acerbic look at parent–toddler relationships. In the best spirit of maternal tolerance, Mother Bear indulges her little cub Bradley in his insatiable desire to play. Knowing she must encourage his creativity and foster his enthusiasm, Mum keeps up a steady stream of Bradley-entertaining suggestions. Bradley's stamina doesn't falter; Mum's does. Through gritted teeth Mum falls back on the old cliché. Readers will cheer when she does. JE.Photograph: Puffin

This is the first book i remember reading. It was a birthday present

Quentin Blake's Amazing Animal Stories, written by John Yeoman (Pavilion, £10.99)
There are magical monkeys, a daring tortoise, a tricksy locust who outsmarts a coyote, and many more besides. The essence of the different animals and the celebration of their individual attributes are a delight. John Yeoman retells these tales from around the world with vigour and enjoyment, while Quentin Blake's illustrations make them all original and bewitching. JE. Photograph: Pavilion

Famous Five 70th anniversary marked by star illustrators

Quentin Blake and Helen Oxenbury among artists to reinterpret Enid Blyton's classic children's characters for a new generation

Alison Flood

guardian.co.uk, Friday 24 February 2012 16.22 GMT


Famous Five at 70: Detail from Emma Chichester Clark's take on Five Run Away Together. Photograph: Hodder Children's Books

Much-loved illustrators including Quentin Blake and Helen Oxenbury have reimagined the Famous Five to mark the 70th anniversary of the adventurous quintet's first appearance, bringing new looks to Enid Blyton's classic characters.

Blyton's publisher approached Blake with the idea of celebrating 70 years since the author introduced the world to the Famous Five with Five on a Treasure Island in 1942. Blake was immediately enthusiastic and the project was widened to include Oxenbury, the award-winning children's illustrator known for her work on Michael Rosen's We're Going on a Bear Hunt, Emma Chichester Clark, Oliver Jeffers and Chris Riddell.

"When I first wrote to Quentin Blake with this idea, it seemed a long shot," admitted Anne McNeil, publishing director of Hodder Children's Books. "His response, however, was enthusiastic and open. Mr Blake was keen to explore the idea of linking the Famous Five with five of the nation's favourite illustrators."

Blake, best known for his illustrations of Roald Dahl's books, has brought his iconic style to bear on Five on a Treasure Island, showing Julian, Dick and Anne, their cousin the tomboy George and her dog Timmy picking their way through the rocks to Kirrin Island in George's boat. Oxenbury has tackled Five Go Adventuring Again, Riddell has taken on Five Go Off in a Caravan, Jeffers Five Go to Smuggler's Top and Chichester Clark Five Run Away Together.

"It is always a wonderful challenge for illustrators to create new images for iconic words and it is fascinating to see how Helen Oxenbury, Chris Riddell, Emma Chichester Clark and Oliver Jeffers have risen to the challenge," said Blake. "In doing so, they have breathed new life into favourite stories for those who know them well and those who are discovering them for the first time." Out in May, priced at £5.99, a percentage of royalties from the sale of each limited edition book will go to the House of Illustration charity.

Blyton died in 1968, leaving behind over 600 children's books. Hodder still sells more than half-a-million Famous Five books a year. "The Famous Five are held in deep affection up and down the country," said McNeil. "We identify, it seems, with these children who are so full of optimism and life. As the publishers of the Famous Five, Hodder Children's Books holds in its care a real reading legacy. We are mindful of this, and of the responsibility that it entails. Seventy years is a long time, and very much worthy of a celebration."

'Scent-sational' reads: smelly children's books hit the market

Autumn Publishing is to inject fun into the reading experience with books that smell of bubblegum, berry flavours – and farts


A new chapter ... Autumn will publish The Greatest Farter. Photograph: Getty Images

What have we all been missing from our lives? A book that smells of farts, apparently. The Bologna Children's book fair is taking place at the moment, so there are heaps of announcements coming out from the kids' books world, but this one from Autumn Publishing is my favourite so far.

Autumn is launching a "scent-sational" new division, it said this morning, which will be called Smellessence. This new imprint will bring out a range of scented books based on its acquisition of rights in "ground-breaking new technology based on micro-encapsulation and touch activation". I remember a number of scratch-and-sniff books from the 1980s (I rather liked them), but this technology, I'm told, is new: the smells have shelf lives of up to three years, and it hasn't been used in books before.

"This advanced technology and the smells it creates are so real they take children's reading to a magical new level. We wanted to inject some fun into the reading experience and this is a powerful way to do just that," says Autumn managing director Perminder Mann in the announcement.

So there's The Splotz list, which I'm told will feature nice smells: bubblegum and berry flavours. And then there's a title called The Story of the Famous Farter, out later this spring, which will include a fart smell on its last page. I couldn't quite believe that when I heard it, so I asked Autumn's PR to repeat herself, and yes, it's true, and "it will be as palatable as farts go", apparently.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised; last year, after all, there was New York, PHEW York, which featured smells like garbage, sewer steam and horse manure. And you know what? It sounds horrible but it's the kind of thing I can see kids collapsing with laughter about. Fart books – they're the new Twilight. You heard it here first.