Age 3-6

From the team that brought us the bestselling The Gruffalo, comes a picturebook about books. A boy reads his favourite book about a pirate, who finds a treasure chest containing a story about Goldilocks, who is caught reading Baby Bear’s favourite tale about a knight who reads aloud from a joke book . . . Nine stories slot inside each other, until the last one, about a boy who is reading his favourite book. Donaldson’s rhyming text maintains her popular metre from The Gruffalo, and both the words and the illustrations are full of fun and jokes. Scheffler’s creatures and characters, with their expressions of bemused enjoyment, can’t keep their round eyes and big noses out of stories, making this a satisfyingly self-referential volume about reading and the pleasure of reading. It involves children not only by inviting them to choose their own favourite, but also by giving them a sense of taking part in the story they are looking at. The circularity of the book means that children will immediately want to reread it; above all, it proves that reading is irresistible.

(Macmillan £10.99)

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