Ages 2-6

Much as some children love them, I am increasingly resistant to pop-ups, and other gimmicks. One of the simplest and best for toddlers, however, is Dear Santa, (Campbell Books, £4.99/offer £4.74) a Christ-massy version of Rod Campbell's immortal Dear Zoo . The pleasure of unwrapping ordinary presents (a kite, ball, mask, paint) is trumped by a furry cat. You have been warned ...

Meanwhile, Satoshi Kitamura's What's Wrong With My Hair? (Andersen, £9.99/£9.49) is a hilariously off-beat picture book, whose ingenious use of a hole shows a disgruntled lion having a beast of a bad hair day.

There are more problems for Chris Riddell's fastidious inventor-mouse in Wendell's Workshop (Macmillan, £10.99/£9.89) as he tries to tidy his workshop. When he invents the monstrous Wendelbot to tidy instead, he finds himself added to the scrapheap. Children of 4+ will recognise their parents in both Wendel and the Wendelbot, which explodes as a result of facing too much mess, and shriek with delight.

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BACKGROUND

• The Times Christmas choice: fiction

• The Times Christmas choice: crime

• The Times Christmas choice: history

• The Times Christmas choice: audiobooks

BACKGROUND

• The Times Christmas choice: children aged 2-10

• The Times Christmas choice: gardening

• The Times Christmas choice: art

• The Times Christmas choice: memoirs and autobiographies

• The Times Christmas choice: graphic novels

Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's Tiddler (Macmillan, £10.99/ £9.89) provides even more fun. Like their immortal Gruffalo, this is a trickster tale, about a naughty little fish whose excuses about why he is late for school are caught out by a genuine mishap at the hands of fishermen. He gets home by tracking his own tale. A triumphant vindication of the powers of liars and tale-tellers, this is my picture-book of the year.

Winter is a good time to get in touch with nature, and for pop-up addicts, Lara Jones's Poppy Cat's Snowy Day (Campbell Books, £12.99/ £11.69) is good seasonal fun for hopeful 3+s everywhere. I loved Listen, Listen (Barefoot Books, £10.99/£9.89), although Alison Jay's delicate illustrations may cause some to wonder why everything looks like an old plate. No matter: Phillis Gershator's text will encourage them to listen to the rustle of leaves and the plop of acorns. So, too, will Philippa Pearce's hauntingly lovely original fairytale for 5+, The Squirrel Wife (Walker, £10.99/£9.89), illustrated by Wayne Anderson, in which a brother living on the edge of a magical wood gets a wife from a squirrel in return for rescuing a little green man.

Christmas can evoke stress as well as love, and Emily Gravett's witty, elegant Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears (Macmillan, £10.99/£9.89) is a new classic addressing everything but divorce. At 5+ they will probably learn more from Joe Friedman's debut, Boobela and Worm (Orion, £5.99/£5.69). Wise, warm and wonderful this charmingly illustrated collection of stories about a lonely young giantess and her unexpected new pal Worm, with lovely illustrations by Sam Childs, are ideal for early readers.

7-10

Paul Gallico's The Snow Goose (Hutchinson, £12.99/£11.69) makes a welcome reappearance with lyrical illustrations by the great Angela Barrett. Infinitely touching, it tells how a reclusive, hunchbacked artist befriends a poor little girl who brings him a wounded snow goose. When the artist is guided at Dunkirk by the snow goose, sacrificing himself to save others, the most cynical children of 10+ will dissolve in floods.

Those who want the genuine nightmare before Christmas will fall upon Dorling Kindersley's latest venture in Alive, The Ultimate Pop-Up Human Body Book (£17.99/£16.19). Its rib-cage with thudding heart will fascinate 7+, and should be avoided by the sensitive, especially when digesting turkey.

A more wholesome and elegant seasonal offering comes with a flip-the-flap version of Clement C. Moore's The Night Before Christmas (Walker, £12.99/£11.69). Caitlin Matthews and Helen Cann's Fireside Stories (Barefoot, £14.99/ £13.49) are perfect for creating just the right Yuletide feeling with stories from around the world, as is Saviour Pirotta's Around the World in 80 Tales (Kingfisher, £19.99/£17.99), a lavish, colourful cornucopia of delights, each just two pages long.

If all else fails, try the illustrator Jan Pienkowski, back with David Walser's retelling of The Thousand Nights and One Night (Puffin, £14.99/£13.49). Once again, Pienkowski's exquisitely expressive silhouettes, set against a coloured background, conjure up the essence of fairyland, and the picture of Ali Baba discovering his brother's dismembered body in the robbers' cave is sure to please the ghoulish.

It would have been good to have had the same tales as in Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. However, its framing tale about how a wife wins back peace and the heart of her murderous husband by telling him irresistible Oriental thrillers is the best of all, reminding us that the Christmas story is not the only one worth telling in these dark days.

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