Age 5-8

Some of our finest picturebooks — as has been proved by a new guide to 170 children’s books translated into English, Outside In — are produced by foreigners, such as Pablo Bernasconi, the award-winning Argentinian artist, with his trademark patchwork backgrounds and decorative spirals. He is a master of photographic collage, making startling, original, cubist-inspired caricatures composed of unlikely elements: a wizard’s face, for instance, is made out of a cheese grater and a carrot. His own text tells the comic and inspiring story of Chancery, a sad wizard’s assistant, a blue ogre who is ugly and, therefore, lonely, and who, in desperation, does something forbidden to a book of spells. This wreaks havoc with the magic and the wizard’s reputation for turning toads back into princes and curing dragons’ scorched throats. When Chancery learns to tell the truth and make amends, he finds out how to be handsome without any hocus pocus. (The trick is a confident smile.) Readers will feel as Chancery does: “His head was dizzy with all the wonders the book contained.”

(Bloomsbury £14.99)

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