0- TO 3-YEAR OLDS

Baby Brains by Simon James (Walker £10.99) takes parental competitiveness to its logical conclusion: Baby Brains's parents do all the right things, so by his second day he is helping mend the car, and within weeks he's involved in a space project. But it turns out that, emotionally, he's just a baby after all (hurrah). New parents will be reassured.

Ted Dewan's little Bing books (David Fickling £4.99 each), about a rabbit toddler, have rhythm, action, humour, observation and edification, which is a lot for a small package. They prove, too, that pictures that use computer and cartoon techniques don't have to be deadened by them.

In 1954, a lovely collection of nursery rhymes made the mould for successors. Lavender's Blue (OUP £14.99) contained pastoral drawings, gently coloured and black-and-white, by Harold Jones, heir to Kate Greenaway and Randolph Caldecott, and 167 rhymes, compiled by Kathleen Lines, including songs, alphabet rhymes, proverbs and finger games (with instructions). Now rather quaint, the book has just been reissued; it's ideal for reading to babies and toddlers.

In The Story House by Vivian French (Orion £20), Big Ghost (a kindly spook) tells a tale for every week of the year to Little Ghost. The fun, light stories, with a central, interracial family which includes step-siblings, are enlivened by cheerful, cartoony pictures by Selina Young, and cover such diverse subjects as tadpoles and potty-training.

Just for You, Blue Kangaroo! by Emma Chichester Clark (Andersen £10.99) is the story of a first Christmas, full of warmth and zinging colour. And a sweet and stylish celebration of snow is Julie Monks's Winter Magic (Scholastic £10.99), which understands how snow inspires the imagination and has simple atmospheric pictures.

4- TO 6-YEAR OLDS

Sources for the rich illustrations by Peter Malone in How Many Miles to Bethlehem? (Orion £9.99), the season's most appealing rendition of the nativity, include Giotto and medieval illuminations, with added witty detail. The characters, from star to Christ child, tell the story in snippets written by Kevin Crossley-Holland.

In an atmospheric picturebook, Twenty-five December Lane by Helen Ward and Wayne Anderson (Templar £9.99), a child in search of a perfect present stumbles on the surreal, colourful shop of the title in a gloomy street where, clues suggest, Father Christmas himself stocks up with gifts. With enigmatic detail and pages full of falling snow, it has a haunting, chilly strangeness thawed by a warm and reassuring ending. A composite of three folk tales, The Princess and the White Bear King (Barefoot £10.99), magically retold by Tanya Robyn Batt, has exhilarating illustrations with tilted perspectives and delicious colours by Nicoletta Ceccoli that create a wintry fairyland.

Two exciting picturebook illustrators produced books this year: Dave McKean followed Wolves in the Walls (written with Neil Gaiman) with The Day I Sold My Dad for Two Goldfish (Bloomsbury £12.99), about a swapping trail starting with a preoccupied father, and Alexis Deacon, author/illustrator of Slow Loris and Beegu, teamed up with Barbara Jean Hicks for Jitterbug Jam (Hutchinson £10.99), about a little monster afraid of the boy under the bed. Both contain the sort of skill and imagination that most illustrators can only dream about.

The established elite has gone from strength to strength. If you missed any of the following, buy them now: Shirley Hughes's inspiring, lovingly drawn Alfie Wins a Prize (Bodley Head £10.99) about a painting competition; Raymond Briggs's latest, The Puddleman (Cape £10.99), full of humour and affection; Jan Ormerod's Lizzie Nonsense (Little Hare £9.99) evoking her grandmother's Australian childhood with stunning sunlit artwork; Nick Butterworth's best yet, The Whisperer (Collins £10.99), a feline West Side Story with a happy ending; and Lauren Child's Hubert Horatio Bartle Bobton-Trent (Hodder £12.99), a funny, mischievous, visually fab and stylish spoof of the ways of the wealthy. A book that should stimulate imitative art projects and encourage any schoolchild (of 4-11) to become more aware is Belonging by Jeannie Baker (Walker £10.99), a wordless series of detailed low-relief collages of a view through a window that tell a story of time passing and a community regenerated.

A cut above many debuts is Alan Rusbridger's The Coldest Day in the Zoo (Puffin £3.99), skilfully structured around tales of animals that have to stay in keepers' homes when the zoo's central heating breaks down. It has running jokes, punch lines and a neat comic economy.

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