Many children's picture books aim to quieten childish terrors – it goes with the territory – offering the equivalent of a soothing nightcap before bedtime. But in this summer's crop (mainly for the under-5s), reassurance comes with several new slants. Look Back! by Trish Cooke and Caroline Binch (Papillote Press £6.99) even has the confidence to remind children (and parents) that fear is an inevitable part of life. This is a beautiful book with painstaking, lifelike illustrations that pull you into the story from the start. Cooke tells a West Indian grandmother's tale about a predator no one has ever clapped eyes on – Ti Bolom. We meet the grandmother as a little girl with furrowed brow and braided hair, standing in a tropical wilderness and turning to look back at… nothing. Sometimes that is the nature of fear: the predator you never see but continue to believe exists. And I love the way the exploration collides here with a celebration of the rapport between a grandmother and her grandson: family, at its best, the ultimate tonic.
For any child frightened of ghosts, Ghost in the House by Ammi-Joan Paquette, illustrated by Adam Record (Walker £11.99), might prove a lively antidote. Ammi-Joan Paquette has had the spirited (in all senses) idea of a haunted house in which the ghosts themselves are terrified. Each spooky occupant is fearful because the house is haunted by… a boy. Adam Record illustrates this amusing turnabout with zest. He introduces us to a pale blue finger puppet of a phantom who is, triumphantly, not the stuff of nightmares.
And besides, there are – as Julie Rhodes and Korky Paul remind us – worse things, noisier anyway, than haunted houses. The Very Noisy House (Frances Lincoln £11.99) is an ideal book for readers unafraid to bark, bellow and bang. The story describes an uproar, a glorious or hellish (depending upon your point of view) multistorey cacophony. Korky Paul scribbles sounds in a riot of letters. And although the merry din eventually subsides, Julie Rhodes does not neglect to remind us that big noises start small.
Sue Pickford's Bob and Rob (Frances Lincoln £11.99) is the best book about a burglar since Allan Ahlberg's Burglar Bill. Rob is more bungler than burglar, with a virtuous dog named Bob, and Pickford writes with gumption about this contrasting pair. My favourite moment has the dog (who wears a mask to match his owner's) exclaiming in the middle of looting: "I'm telling you now, we do not need a gold-plated potty." Pilferings aside, this develops into a robust, entertaining, moral tale that confirms that even a dog's life is likely to turn out better than a thief's.
Two books by maestros are just out: Quentin Blake's The Fabulous Foskett Family Circus (Andersen £12.99) is a collection of drawings originally produced for a Harrow hospital which has, opportunistically, been rehashed as a picture book. John Yeoman has had the tricky commission of linking pictures with narrative. He does his gallant best but cannot quite pull off the integrated animation of Blake's All Join In – even though the characters swing to a similar rhythm. Having said that, the drawings are Blake at his absolute best. My favourite is the fellow in pale blue zigzagged trousers who juggles eggs – he alone justifies the cover price.
And another legend, John Burningham, is celebrating the 50th birthday of Borka (Jonathan Cape £19.99). Cape is right to publish this golden goose of an edition for an as-yet-uninitiated generation. Borka is the goose who has to wear a jersey because she arrived in the world without feathers and who retires to Kew where birds prove jersey tolerant.
And the inimitable Shirley Hughes has a new offering, produced with her daughter Clara Vulliamy: Dixie O' Day: In the Fast Lane (Bodley Head £8.99). Toad of Toad Hall would enjoy this as bedtime reading (it is between a picture book and a first reader and will become a series) because it is about a jolly red car that constantly gets into trouble, a couple of charming joy riders, Dixie and Percy, and their enemy, Lou Ella, in her chewing-gum pink sports car. Vulliamy's perky drawings in black, pink and red are as accessible as a superior comic and are guaranteed, alongside Hughes's racy narrative, to get young readers behind the wheel.
