The true purpose of art is enchantment and the best picture books always enchant. The archetypal tale and the exquisite artwork make a collector's item of M.C. Helldorfer's Night of the White Stag (Bloomsbury, £10.99 UK) illustrated by Yvonne Gilbert. On Christmas Eve, a young boy sets out in a snowstorm to seek the king's aid, as his father has been killed in the wars. He meets a blind hunter whose son has also perished - "everything good died in the war" - and together they pursue the great white stag. Can lost hope be restored? Can despair be redeemed? The folkloric resonance and dreamlike tone of the story guarantee sweet sleep for your child at bedtime.
Fiona Waters' retelling of The Emperor and the Nightingale (Bloomsbury, £12.99 UK), illustrated by Paul Birkbeck, does lyrical justice to Hans Christian Andersen's classic tale. The vain Emperor who prefers a mechanical bird's beauty to the song of the nightingale learns his lesson at the end of his life. Birbeck's artwork is as elegant as the porcelain palace of the Emperor and displays a stunning diversity of style and colour. At times the artist bows subtly to Oriental aesthetics with linear perspectives and tiny still figures. In The Brave Sister (Bloomsbury, £5.99 UK), illustrated by Danuta Mayer, Fiona Waters once again refashions old gold with a tale from the Arabian Nights. Stolen at birth from the Sultan and Sultana, two brothers and a sister set off one by one on a quest for the talking bird, the singing tree and the golden water. It is the sister who succeeds, saving her brothers and ultimately reuniting the family. Mayer's artwork roams as freely as the tale throughout and around the text, sometimes framed in gold arches or set in the edges, often varying in size from vignettes to full page spreads. Another gorgeous collector's item.
"It has often been said/there's so much to be read/you never can cram/all those words in your head." With such sympathy for the beginner reader, the redoubtable Dr Seuss used only 50 words in his famous Green Eggs and Ham now reissued in its 40th anniversary edition by HarperCollins at £12.99 UK. An American institution, Dr Seuss's madcap illustrations of funny and furry odd sods and bods dash across the pages in great splashes of colour. Fitting accompaniment to the hilarity of nonsense rhymes and pedagogic repetition. The same publishers have also reissued On Beyond Zebra, (£9.99 in UK) and a fabulous collection of Ten Tall Tales, (£14.99 in UK) containing such favourites as I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today and Yertle the Turtle. Far less appealing and not recommended is the commercial exploitation of Seuss's genius in Seuss-isms, (£4.99 in UK) and The Cat in the Hat's Great Big Flap Book (£8.99 in UK).
At what age should we present death in children's books? This is a question that challenges parents, authors and publishers alike. Yet death is a fact, not a fiction, for many children. Margaret Wild's Jenny Angel (Viking, £10.99 in UK) is illustrated by Anne Spudvillas in washes of earth colours and mystical blues and purples. Wrapped in a long raincoat that covers her "wings", Jenny sits on the roof and watches the stars even as she watches over her young friend Davy who is slowly dying of an unnamed illness. Jenny believes that her own will can fight off death but eventually she must accept the inevitable. Gently, sweetly, sadly told.
Niamh Sharkey's quirky and original images have made her the latest star in children's picture books. Her peculiar artwork, all odd angles and unusual colours, brings fresh eyes to the well-worn story of Jack and the Beanstalk (Barefoot, £9.99 UK) told by Richard Walker. The author (recently deceased) also achieves a new look at an old tale with great energy and humour. Last but not least, a few words on animal books. Throughout my child's early years, I routinely changed the gender of the many animal characters in her picture books. Given that the animal kingdom is no more singly populated by males than is humanity, why present a world where no females exist?
Both male and female picture-book authors are universally guilty of this. Bear's Eggs by Ingrid and Dieter Schubert and The Birthday Presents by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell (both Andersen Press at £9.99 in UK) are typical examples. These finely written and illustrated books do not have a single female character. It's time the parents of daughters objected. Publishers and authors may think "he" refers to "she". Little girls don't.
G.V. Whelan is an Irish-Canadian novelist, screenwriter and critic. Her books for young adults are published under the name "Orla Melling".