11 books to buy for young readers this Christmas

Vinegar Bottle (Picture Kelpies, £6.99) is actually a reissue by the Scottish publisher of the first book Katie Morag creator Mairi Hedderwick ever illustrated – and what a lovely book it is. Published in 1972, a retelling of a Grimm fairy tale by Rumer Godden, author of Black Narcissus, it is one of those cautionary fables about knowing when enough is enough.

The old woman, painted in wild, vinegary watercolour, is poor and lives in a vinegar bottle, which looks as if it comes straight from some lost part of Katie Morag island. When she goes down to the water, she calls for the magical “little fish” and asks, “I’m tired of living in a vinegar bottle. Would it be too much trouble to give me a little cottage?”

For wintry picture books with a message it would be hard to find anything more inspiring and gorgeous than Snowboy and the Last Tree Standing (Walker, £7.99). This gem is an eco-aware story by Hiawyn Oram, with atmospheric, other-worldly illustrations by Birgitta Silf. Snowboy is involved in his own imaginative heroic adventure when he’s lured away by Greenback boy, a greedy troublemaker, whose plan is a game involving cutting down all the trees in the forest and catching all the fish in the ocean. There is hope here, though – and a message that so long as some life is left there is still possibility of growth.

But there are laughs too to be had at Christmas, and among the funniest festive tales is Fred Blunt’s Santa Claus vs the Easter Bunny (Penguin, £11.99). It’s essentially a tale of neighbourly discord and envy. Jolly Santa and grumpy bunny live next door to each other, and while Santa is always full of cheer, Easter bunny is not happy. He looks over his fence and sees the old man next door has a much easier time of it – he even has a workshop of elves and reindeers to pull his sleigh. Meanwhile, this exhausted rabbit has to do Easter all by himself, and without even a reward from the children he visits. “Even the dumb reindeer get a carrot!” he says. “I’d settle for a carrot.”

Also among the top funnies is the ever-prolific David Walliams. Geronimo!

(Harper Collins, £12.99), a tale of a quirky young penguin who, from the moment he hatches, complete with aviation goggles, is determined to fly, is full of slapstick comedy and heart-warming moments.

A report earlier this year found that only 1 per cent of children’s books feature a black or minority ethnic main character. Among those few is the wonderful Billy and the Beast by Nadia Shireen (Penguin, £6.99). Billy is a girl with a huge curly head of black hair in which she can secrete many useful items, including donuts. On a walk through the woods with her “trusty sidekick” Fatcat, she comes across the terrible beast. A riot of fun and inventiveness.

Among my favourite types of stories for young children are “I can do it myself” tales. The Way Home for Wolf (Hachette, £12.99), by author Rachel Bright and illustrator Jim Field, is one of these. A little wolf called Wilf wants to lead his pack. “Look at me! I’m big! I am tough!” he says. But the pack aren’t having any of it, and the little wolfling ends up being the one that gets left behind. Here, though, is a story about how there are often others out there to offer help.

For early readers, on this 40th anniversary of Raymond Briggs’

classic, Michael Morpurgo’s new version of The Snowman (Penguin, £12.99) is a must-read. Briggs’ original was, of course, a wordless visual and, on animation, musical wonder. Morpurgo has had to build a tale from words – accompanied by Briggs-like illustrations by Robin Shaw – a difficult task.

One of this season’s most explicitly genderpolitical updatings of a traditional story is The Restless Girls (Bloomsbury, £14.99) by the dazzling Jessie