First published more than 25 years ago, it is great to see these pop-up classics republished in a new, larger and squarer format.
In the first, monsters jump from the pages, displaying all the bad manners and annoying behaviour that dismay parents but fascinate young children. A rhyme gives the story pace as it catalogues the monsters' antics - playing with food, being rude - and the biggest 'little monster' is finally revealed.
In Dinner Time, we follow a 'food chain', with each animal gobbling the previous one, and every page revealing another fierce-looking beast with ever-bigger jaws. There is real momentum here too, with the refrain, 'I'm going to eat you for my dinner. And he did', running throughout the story.
While the language in both stories is fun, the lasting appeal of these titles lies undoubtedly with the fantastic collection of wild and vivid creatures, created with skilful paper engineering and the boldest splashes of colour.
- My Dog, My Cat, My Mum and Me written by Nigel Gray and illustrated by Bob Graham. Walker Books, £6.99
A little girl is bewildered that her dog is getting fatter and fatter, but when a litter of puppies arrives, the reason becomes clear! Lift the flaps and see how the little girl meets not just puppies but kittens and finally her very own little baby brother as well, in this introduction to the concept of birth and life cycles.
- Where's My Cuddle? written by James Mayhew and illustrated by Sue Hellard. Bloomsbury, £5.99
Jake rejects mum's cuddle at the school gate, fearing that his little chums will think him a baby. But after a bad day at school, a cuddle is all he wants. The problem is that his mother has given the unwanted cuddle to his dad, who's given it to the cat, who's given it to a witch ... and it's ended up with a dragon. In the end, Jake gets a cuddle from the dragon and another, for good measure, from mum at bedtime.
The problem with this book is that it's a good story spoiled by having, at the beginning and end, a heavy-handed message that children should never be petulant and always say 'please'. Any practitioner or creative child worth their salt will ignore this laboured attempt at teaching manners and use it as a springboard for some fantastic small-world play about dragons and knights and castles!
