You might think that there’s a limit to the amount of narrative verse Julia Donaldson can churn out but nope, the author of the Gruffalo is at it again. The Bowerbird (Macmillan, £12.99, buy it here) is a heartwarming story about a dear little Bowerbird (they’re a thing; watch the YouTube clip of the bird's David Attenborough-narrated performance for a fascinating bit of fun) who builds a – yes – bower and waits for a lady bird to join him, only to have his little home and his purple flower spurned by the proud Nanette.
But there are other birds out there; the moral being that you should never give up in the quest for romance. Catherine Rayner’s illustrations are adorable.
Another rhymer, Pam Ayres, has turned her attention to the natural world with I am Oliver the Otter (Macmillan £12.99, buy it here) which carries otter facts in jolly narrative verse: “I am very beautiful, with whiskers round my snout/And I can close my ears and nose to keep the water out”. It comes with cheerful drawings by Nicola O’Byrne. A treat.
You wait ages for a nice edition of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, then two new editions by much loved illustrators turn up. Quentin Blake’s (FarShore, £12.99, buy it here) comes with a lovely introduction from the great man. The cheerful spirits and jolly street urchins are more his thing than the gloomy spectres, but Scrooge at the graveyard is memorably sombre and Marley’s face as doorknocker is very fine. It’s delightful.
But so too is the edition illustrated by Arthur Rackham (Bodleian Library, £25, buy it here), whose silhouettes are as exquisite as his colour-wash drawings. Here we get menace as well as well as exuberance, with one spirit being Old Nick himself. It’s an utterly beautiful book and you may not want to part with it.
As for fairy tales, it’s hard to think of a lovelier collection than Enchanted Tales and Happily Ever Afters (Macmillan Collector’s Library, £20, buy it here), which brings together some of the most famous storytellers (Charles Perrault, Andrew Lang, Grimm Bros) with the finest illustrators, including, again, Rackham, Harry Clarke, Walter Crane, and Elizabeth Tyler Wolcott. If I were a nicer person I would give mine to a deserving child, but tough, I’m not.
Norse myths have been having a moment for quite some time now, and if you want a version with the most engaging illustrations (the one for Valhalla looks like nothing so much as Monty Python’s Black Knight - arms and legs everywhere and no hard feelings) this cult version – D’Aulaires’ Book of Norse Myths (NYRB Kids, £17.99, buy it here) – by the d’Aulaires, a husband and wife German-Norwegian duo, is just captivating. Slow readers will enjoy the pictures and the lucid stories are for any age.
Kate di Camillo’s The Puppets of Spelhorst (Walker, £10, buy it here) explores the uncanny capacity of puppets to invite storytelling and here a set of them – a girl, a boy with a bow and arrow, a wolf, an owl and a king – undergo adventures, separation and trials with assorted owners, longing all the time to have their story told. The illustrations, by Julie Morstad, are haunting. Frank Cottrell Boyce’s The Wonder Brothers (Macmillan £12.99, buy it here) is about magic and you don’t get more magic for two young practitioners than restoring the missing Blackpool Tower. This cheering story is grounded in the art of actual conjurers; Frank Cottrell Boyce is something of a magician himself.
The admirable Katherine Rundell (you have read Rooftoppers?) has gone all Philip Pullman in her latest: Impossible Creatures (Bloomsbury, £14.99, buy it here), a story about two worlds – ours and a place where the creatures of legend still live – and how a boy and a girl from each join forces to save them from destruction. I prefer the author grounded in reality, but it’s hard to fault a story that features a flying coat, sphinxes and a baby griffin; it recalls Philip Pullman’s The Subtle Knife, and won this year's Waterstone's Book of 2023 award.
The book I enjoyed most is Efua Traoré’s One Chance Dance (Chicken House, £7.99, buy it here) about an intrepid boy who runs away after his forest village is destroyed to find his mother, who left to seek her fortune in Lagos. He only has three letters and no address but fortunately, he does have a pet bushbaby, an indomitable spirit and some unexpected friends. A gripping read.
