Recent children’s books

The bookshop shelves are stacked with the usual bewildering array of children’s books this Christmas, and the first striking fact is what good value they have become, largely because, like almost everything else, most of them are now produced in the Far East, from Thailand to Cochin. The average price of a lavishly illustrated book for young children, £10.99, has remained the same for several years, and even elaborate pop-ups, like Francesca Crespi’s The Nativity, published by Frances Lincoln and printed in China, only costs £12.99. It was good to see a version of one of Arthur Ransome’s Old Peter’s Russian Tales being reprinted in a lively version for young children. Little Daughter of the Snow is retold by Shena Guild and illustrated by Tom Bower (Frances Lincoln, £10.99). A childless old couple make themselves a little daughter out of snow. At first she delights everyone as she plays and dances with the other children, sustained by a diet of ice porridge, then spring comes, with sadly predictable results.