Kathy Kozlowski

The Library Lion (Walker), by Michelle Knudsen and Kevin Hawkes, is an almost perfect traditional picture book about a gentle creature who becomes enamoured of his local library. It tells a riveting story of misunderstandings made right, and has a really satisfying ending. Guus Kuijer’s The Book of Everything (Allen & Unwin) is an elegant little book, told from the perspective of a sensitive child, whose family is saved from the power of angry religious fervour by neighbourly kindness and common sense. I love the modern fable The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (Candlewick), by Kate DiCamillo, a great family read-aloud and a moral fable for all ages narrating the travels and adventures of a haughty china rabbit. Last, but not least, Simmone Howell’s Notes from the Teenage Underground (Pan Macmillan), in which three suburban teenagers relieve summer boredom with ‘alternative, underground stuff’, is raw and edgy, and full of sharply observed characters.