Here is a handful of books that got left over in the run-up to Christmas:

James was greatly amused by the elephantine invasion

The Slightly Annoying Elephant
David Walliams and Tony Ross
Harper Collins Children’s Books
Who is knocking loudly on Sam’s front door? His mum back from the shops? A friend? Not a person at all in fact but an enormous blue pachyderm with a suitcase demanding entrance and claiming that Sam has adopted him. Well, he did sign one of those adopt-an -animal type forms at the zoo. Did he read the small print though? What do you think?
So now all the way from Africa is a very rude elephant wanting a bath, food – lots of it,

a bike, and a place for a nap. With the house in chaos, can things possibly get any worse? Erm … a whole herd worse. Who’s a Silly Boy then?
Yes there are nods to Judith Kerr’s classic The Tiger Who Came to Tea, but this is David Walliams (of Gangsta Granny and Demon Dentist fame) with his over-the -top, wickedly wacky humour in a debut picture book and he has collaborated with master illustrator, Tony Ross who has created the marvellous scenes of madness and mayhem.
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Daniel absorbed in the story

Tuck Me In!
Dean Hacohen and Sherry Scharschmidt
Walker Books pbk
“It’s time for bed.
Who needs to be tucked in?”
So begins this cleverly interactive bedtime story wherein we meet a whole host of adorable baby animals

each waiting for a cosy blanket to be placed over them as the stars twinkle above and the crescent moon rises in the night sky.
The straightforward, question and answer repetitive text means that young listeners will quickly start joining in and before long will be reading along and then reading for themselves, this delightful book.
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Little Big Mouth
Jeanne Willis and Lydia Monks
Walker Books pbk.
We all know that name calling is abhorrent so why does Little Green Monster take such delight in calling Blue Monster such things as ‘BAT eared, NIBBLE NAILED short STUMPS!’ or ‘Frog MOUTHED SKINNY RIBBED frilly knickers!’ to name just two of the insulting names he hurls at the newcomer on his first day at Monster Academy? (There are many more combinations readers can concoct by making use of the split pages strategically placed at intervals throughout the book.)

I’m happy to say though that Little Green Monster’s intolerable behaviour is brought to an  abrupt end when he discovers just who has been on the receiving end of his bad-mouthing. Lesson learned? Let’s hope so – well and truly!
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Barbapapa’s Voyage
Annette Tison and Talus Taylor
Orchard Books
Those of us who remember the seventies may well recall the adventures of a large pink blobby shape-shifter who was born in a garden, discovered by and subsequently became friends with, a boy named Francois. Now, thanks to Orchard Books, the adventures of this larger than life character can be enjoyed by a new generation of children. In this particular story, Francois, concerned at Barpapapa’s listlessness and low spirits, takes his pal to the animal doctor for a check-up. The diagnosis is not sickness but loneliness: a Barbamama is needed. So, with friend Cindy, Francois is given permission to accompany Barbapapa on a quest to discover one of these rarities.

Their eventful and sometimes hazardous search takes the three to London, India, New York, even to other planets, but without any success. When finally they return safely to their own garden, what should they find but a large black Barbamama. Then it’s a case of love at first sight and after some weeks, there are seven new additions to the Barba family, one green, one pink, one yellow, one purple, one orange, one blue; there’s even one Barbababy with long black hair (which was extremely lucky!). See the end papers for a family portrait.
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Robert Crowther’s Pop-Up World of Animals
Robert Crowther
Walker Books
Visit five contrasting locations in the latest offering from Crowther, master of paper engineering. At each location we are shown the fauna in their habitat and both habitat and each of the many animals featured per pop-out spread has a brief informative paragraph. We see the Savannah grasslands, dive down to the Ocean depths to see submarine life, then view a Desert region, the frozen seas and land of Polar regions and finally, the equatorial Rainforest. There are numerous tabs, flaps, pop-ups and pop-outs.

Shanu and Shifu, brothers from Rajasthan, investigating how the book works

All in all, a fascinating and thoroughly interactive experience.
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Interactive in a different way – try stopping yourself singing along to this one – is:

What Does the Fox Say?
Ylvis and Svein Nyhus
Simon & Schuster pbk
I love the picture book rendition of the wacky YouTube hit, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofNR_WkoCE  by the Norwegian brothers duo that has recently been on the lips of countless children everywhere. I have heard it in several primary schools I have visited in recent weeks.
Yes, the words are pretty ridiculous but I’d buy the book for the illustrations alone  Using a limited colour palatte, Nyhus has created a series of wonderful, slightly surreal scenes that remind me somewhat, of picture books versions of traditional coyote tales

and those crazy choruses are great fun for sound/symbol association activities. (Try putting them onto an interactive white-board. Children could even make up some more of their own.)
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Find and buy from your local bookseller: http://www.booksellers.org.uk/bookshopsearch