Yummy (3+) by Lucy Cousins
Walker, £14.99; 124pp Buy the book

One Night in the Zoo (2+) by Judith Kerr
HarperCollins, £12.99; 32pp Buy the book

Fairytales such as Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Billy Goats Gruff and The Three Little Pigs are hard-wired into us as human beings, so it’s no surprise to find out how old and universal they are: the husband-and-wife folklorists Iona and Peter Opie traced the story of Cinderella back a thousand years to China.

Youngsters can’t begin to learn these tales too early, for although they warn of fundamental terrors (being eaten or lost, for example), they also give us hope and courage. Ever since Gustave Doré’s radical illustrations for a series of children’s classics in the mid-1800s, it has been fashionable to emphasise the dark side. Happily there is no such shadow in Lucy Cousins’ collection, Yummy.

Cousins’ bestselling series about Maisy Mouse created a world of comforting familiarity, complete with pop-ups of the character doing ordinary things such as getting undressed. They are so innocent that it’s good to be reminded of just how bold her creator is. Not since Dick Bruna’s Miffy in the 1960s has there been such brio in handling colour and shape — derived, like Bruna’s, from Matisse.

Cousins has a child’s confidence — her style uses thick black outlines — but also a sophisticated sense of proportion and design. Her Little Red Riding Hood is all red coat and round apple cheeks, just as the wolf is teeth and trousers. The two-page picture of the Wolf swallowing Grandmother whole, like a shark, is both scary and funny (he has carefully removed her bonnet).

Charles Perrault’s original story, with its sly hints concerning Red Riding Hood’s sexual curiosity before getting into bed with the Wolf, is reduced to its essentials: the question-and-answer session between child and wolf, followed by retribution. (Those who have an interest in Perrault should look up the excellent new translation from OUP by Christopher Betts, with the added bonus of illustrations by Doré.) With its smiling animals and shining good humour, Yummy is a new departure for a talented artist when coupled with a more dynamic narrative style. It will give repeated joy to anyone of 3+.

Judith Kerr’s One Night in the Zoo is an inspired counting book, illustrated with the charm that made her Mog books and The Tiger Who Came to Tea such a hit. My favourite is How Mrs Monkey missed the Ark, both for its moving story of what a mother goes through to keep her family fed and for its animal pictures.

The animals here take part in a “magical, moonlit night in the zoo” that involves elephants flying, lions performing card tricks and flamingos turning blue, all in rhyme. The expressions on their faces are captivating and, I suspect, captured from those of grandchildren; this is a great way not only to teach a little one how to count but also to enjoy a family visit.

Like Shirley Hughes, Jill Murphy, the Ahlbergs and Quentin Blake, Kerr is a part of a British infancy — in fact it’s easy to overlook the importance of these artists. She offers children a vision of beauty, as well as fun, courage and cheer, that they will never forget. Now 86, she is evergreen and amazing.

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