Scan any child's bookshelf and you will see gorgeous-looking books still pristine and untouched in their covers, while others have been positively mauled. The scruffy-looking books are the ones that children go back to again and again, although parents or minders may be bored silly reading them for the umpteenth time. One new book that is bound to be manhandled is Why? by Lindsay Camp and Tony Ross, (Collins, £4.99 in UK), a story about a girl called Lily who drives her father wild by always asking "Why?". She comes in very handy, though, when a spaceship lands in the park and the Thargons try to take over the world. She stops them in their tracks by, you've guessed it, asking "Why?"
What Are Friends For? by Sally Grindley and Penny Dan (O'Brien, £5.99) proved to be another compulsive read. It's a cute story about a big fluffy bear and his friend, a tiny fox called Figgy Twosocks. Not a lot happens. They play hide and seek, they have a fight, they make up, and off they go into the sunset, friends forever. Simple but very sweet.
Any little girl who has a sister, big or little, should also have a copy of Zelda and Ivy, by Laura McGee Kvasnosky (Walker Books, £5.99 in UK) - three stories about the Fabulous Fox Sisters that are based on the writer's own experience of growing up in a large family. Zelda is the eldest, and she likes experimenting on little sister Ivy. Sound familiar?
Quentin Blake's Mrs Armitage on Wheels (Red Fox, £4.99 in UK) is a thoroughly good wheeze about dotty Mrs Armitage, her high nelly bicycle and a dog called Brakespear.
Mrs A isn't quite happy with the bike as it is, and soon she has added a few really loud horns, a bucket of water and a towel for washing her hands, a tool box, picnic tray, umbrella, cassettes of cheerful music and a mouth organ - plus a splendid back seat for Breakspear. The drawings are as charming as the lady herself.
Outer space is brought to life in Carol Diggory Shield's Martian Rock (Walker Books, £9.99 in UK), a really attractive and readable hardback that caught and held the attention of the five-year-old and the eight-year-old who were helping assess these books. It's all in rhyme, with great zippy illustrations of a ship full of Martians who head off to visit all the other planets, and end up on earth, mistaking penguins for humans. The last two pages are filled with factual information about the planets and you may be surprised (at least I was) by how much the children already know.
In The Great Divide by Dayle Ann Dodds (Walker Books, £9.99 in UK) 80 curious-looking folk embark on a mathematical marathon, dividing by two along the way until just one of them, a flapper in her own plane, wins the great divide. Tracy Mitchell's illustrations are colourful and dashing but the story doesn't grip.
Another Walker hardback, The Sea- Thing Child by Russell Hoban, (£10.99 in UK) is an enchanting, poetic tale of a woebegone creature who is flung up on a beach where he makes friends with a querulous crab, an eel and an albatross. Sounds unlikely - but it works, and the accompanying beach and seascapes by award-winning artist Patrick Benson are stunning.
Younger readers will like two new, fully illustrated stories about Paddington Bear - Paddington the Artist and Paddington at the Zoo, (Collins, £4.99 each in UK). He's up to his usual tricks in both, though the zoo story is particularly funny as it features masses of his sticky marmalade sandwiches.
Gorgeously illustrated Engines Engines by Lisa Bruce Stephen Waterhouse (Bloomsbury Children's Books, £9.99 in UK) takes the reader on steam engines that chug all around India, past temples, women in saris, naughty monkeys and palaces with golden gates. The shades of pink, red, green and gold used here are truly stunning.
The Easter Angels (Lion Children's Books, £4.99 in UK) is a compelling tale about a golden guardian angel and his partner, the angel of death, who have to carry out a special assignment, to set Jesus free from his tomb. Written in an easy friendly style with magical illustrations, it's a worthwhile read in the run-up to Easter.
Orna Mulcahy is an Irish Times journalist
