The World Came to My Place Today. Written by Jo Readman and illustrated by Ley Honor Roberts. (Random House 10.99)
This is a bright, modern book successfully linking different kinds of images as well as story and information text - something that is notoriously hard to achieve.
Painted illustrations of the main characters, George and his sister Flora with their grandpa, are combined with maps and photos of the places where everyday goods come from.
The story starting-point features George, who has chicken pox and can't go out. But the book's message is that if you have to stay in one place it does not have to be boring - for example, we discover where the breakfast cereal in George's bowl might have come from. Here a photograph of a cornflake-style cereal is placed in an illustrated bowl.
When George goes to pick up the post, we learn from an inset picture and text-box that doormats can be made from the hairy coats of coconuts that grow in countries like India. We find out where the rubber in George's bicycle wheels comes from, and lastly the sugar in the sweets mum brings when she picks George up at the end of the day.
Tabby Cat's Secret. Written by Kathy Henderson and illustrated by Susan Winter. (Frances Lincoln, 10.99)
It's refreshing to see what seems to be more of an authentic, rather than sentimental perspective on a cat's life. The cat in question is a well-loved pet, but she is fiercely independent and referred to as Cat throughout. She is pregnant and wants some peace and quiet.
When noisy house-decorating activities are going on around her, the writing is short and choppy to portray her annoyance. Cat hides her newborn kittens in a secret place that she isn't going to reveal until she's ready. When the children do find her, the illustration shows them looking on adoringly at the kittens. The text, revealing the cat's supposed thoughts, wonders why the children didn't come sooner.
Zigby Hunts for Treasure. Written by Alan MacDonald and illustrated by Brian Paterson. (HarperCollins, 9.99)
This book about a zebra's journey and the use of a treasure map could prove to be a good starting-point for your own project about going on a journey and creating simple maps. Here we don't find out what kind of treasure Zigby the zebra and his two friends are going to discover until right at the end, and the map's instructions turn out to be much less helpful than some friendly parrots.
In fact, when problems arise in the middle of the treasure hunt, the friends fall out, and the map gets torn in half. The map is big trouble for them all. It keeps folding the wrong way so that the animal trying to control it rocks the boat dangerously, and it blows open in Zigby's face so that he can't work out in which direction he's rowing.
When the friends are ready to make the journey home, Zigby says they will find their way very well without a map. The parrots who helped Zigby and his friends find the treasure - fruit dripping from a tree - offer to help them again.
Children should enjoy the many opportunities to anticipate what will happen next in this story.
Moonthief. Written by Roger McGough and illustrated by Penny Dann. (Kingfisher, 9.99)
An alternative title for this book could be '101 Uses for an Old Moon', since two likeable bear characters called Betty and Bobby explore, with a big dash of make-believe, what they might do with the moon. The suggestions include using it as a frisbee (but it might never come back), or keeping goldfish in it (Bobby holds a moon-shape in front of his face, and his features become distorted in the goldfish-bowl glass). There's some clever layering in the text and pictures, with puns for adults and plenty of visual treats for children.
The illustrations are likeable, the designs lively, and there are little features that can be returned to on further reading. The story does have a bit of a slushy ending, but this works.
