A World of Cities by Lily Murray is a big book that you might struggle to fit into your Christmas stocking but which should fit under the tree quite comfortably! It’s perfect for kids with an interest in travel and combines in-your-face illustrations with genuinely interesting facts about the history and culture in each location. The book is bold and it’s this boldness that will make the book appealing to smaller children who perhaps don’t understand very much about the text being read to them.

A more engaging tale for really little ones is A Christmas for Bear by Bonny Becker, which follows the tale of grumpy Bear and over-excited Mouse. Our little girl loved us reading this one aloud to her and the gentle illustrations mean that, despite the Christmas theme, the book avoids being garish.

Meanwhile, the Boy from Mars by Simon James is packed full of superb dialogue and really heart-warming themes. The illustrations reminded us of Quentin Blake’s illustrations, and this is the Christmas book purchase for you if you have an imaginative little boy in your life at home, particularly if he has any interest in space! If you have a little boy in your life who is more into nature than space, perhaps Snowboy and the Last tree Standing will be more appropriate. Hiawyn Oram presents a vivid portrayal of a little one’s imagination with Greedy Greenbackboy’s idea of a game that involves cutting down all the trees in a forest and catching all the fish in the ocean. Will Snowboy realise there is more to life in nature than games like this? Well, we won’t ruin the ending for you..!

The final trio of books present some really cute animal characters. On the Night of the Shooting Star portrays Bunny and Dog, who live on opposite sides of the fence and only realise their loneliness on the night of a shooting star. This book has crucial messages in about loneliness and caring for others. A slightly more light-hearted tone is struck by I’m Afraid Your Teddy is in Trouble Today, by Jancee Dunn. This book aims to answer all those questions you may have had about what your teddies do when you’re out the house! It’s a real laugh out loud scream of a book, packed full of energy and cartoon-like pictures.

Finally, Jory John brings us Penguin Problems, which provides a little glimpse into the life of a penguin. Clearly it isn’t all about waddling around looking cute; penguins have real problems to deal with, just like the rest of us (even if our problems don’t normally revolve around struggling to find our relatives in a crowd of identical penguins!).