Kids book club - April

0-4 years

It's a Book!

Lane Smith

9780230753136

£10

With e-books starting to find widespread acceptance, here's a rallying call for the good old-fashioned printed page. A monkey's trying to read in peace but a passing donkey keeps pestering him with questions about precisely what he's doing. Donkey loves his cutting-edge technology, and struggles to get his head round the lo-fi business of opening a book and reading. But once he does, he'll never look back. This little hymn to simple pleasures is likely to delight parents as much as children - maybe even more so. Smith has worked as a designer on Pixar's Monsters Inc and the film version of ‘James and the Giant Peach’, and here he's come up with a picture book tale which is memorable, spare and uncluttered. Watch out for the little mouse who gets the final word.

4-6 years

The Octonauts and the Frown Fish

Meomi

9780007312542

£5.99

If you've been anywhere near CBeebies lately, doubtless you'll have come across ‘Octonauts’, the channel's latest hit show. It's like an undersea version of ‘Thunderbirds’ for pre-schoolers, in which the animal team zoom about in their nifty custom-made craft to iron out sub-aqua disasters. It's gentle fare, and quietly educational about the marine world. Set to become a global success, it's inspired by an original series of adventures by Meomi, actually a design partnership made up of Vicki Wong (in LA) and Michael Murphy (in Vancouver). Their original books are now widely available and they are, if anything, even more eccentric and striking than the TV version, fashioned as they are in the Japanese manga style of cute animals, pastels and freewheeling barminess. On this occasion, the team try to cure a fish of his glumness. They deploy techniques ranging from a mini-golf tournament to a baking marathon. But if they're not quick about it, the frowns will start spreading...

6-8 years

Fintan Fedora: The World's Worst Explorer

Clive Goddard

9781407121031

£5.99

Fintan is the youngest heir to the Fedora Fancy Food Company, and consequently he's stinking rich. But his father thinks he's a ne'er-do-well, too in love with silly schemes to ever amount to much. True to form, Fintan attempts to prove his mettle by setting off for the Brazilian rainforest in pursuit of the elusive chocoplum tree that he's read about in Young Adventurer magazine. He takes the family butler, Grimley, along with him and unbeknownst to their party, local lad Eric Bumstead is also in hot pursuit with his avaricious mum, intent on holding young Fintan to ransom. And that's just the tip of the iceberg - craziness upon craziness is pulled into Fintan's orbit. It's just the sort of person he is. Debut author Goddard has worked extensively as an illustrator, not least for Scholastic's Horribly Famous series. There's a lot of very visual comedy in this tall tale of an unusual little boy, and it owes a clear debt to the work of Roald Dahl - surely the very finest sort of debt to have.

9-12 years

Artichoke Hearts

Sita Brahmachari

9780330517911

If you're looking for a new young adults book that doesn't hinge on romance, or vampires, or vampire romance, then your options are severely limited right now. But you'd do well to give this a try. It's already been garlanded with praise and has won Brahmachari the Waterstone's children's book prize. What threatens to be a mawkish tale about a young girl's relationship with her dying grandmother plays out beautifully, and becomes genuinely moving. It's told from the journal of Mira, who reaches the tumultuous age of twelve just as her Nana Josie starts to fade. Mira has a gift for writing that's being encouraged at school, whereas Josie has a life-long love of art and painting. Together, the pair embarks on a joint project: painting Josie's coffin. It's this inter-generational bond that forms the core of the book, and Nira's first-hand account conveys it clearly and directly. Coming-of-age novels are rarely this compelling, convincing and powerful.