Baby books: 12 - 18 monthsHumphrey's Corner, by Sally Hunter Humphrey is an elephant whose Mummy is getting on with her jobs while he
tries to find a place that's perfect for playing in.
First Humphrey takes his favourite toy, Mop, into the bathroom and finds some 'sploshy sounds' (the effect of bubble-bath balls being dropped into the toilet), and a house for Mop made from stacked toilet rolls. Then Humphrey creates something special from the things he finds in his mummy's bedroom: he sits his toy on an upturned stool inside a circle of her beads which becomes 'a sparkly blue sea.' But nowhere is quite right, until he finds his Mummy in the kitchen. The illustrations are unusually muted, with soft pencil lettering for the story text, all elements that suggest Mummy's constant, loving presence as well as Humphrey's childish innocence. It's a special book that can be enjoyed on many levels. Published by Puffin, £4.99 Snow Babies, Big Babies, Small Babies and Farm Babies, by Jacqueline McQuade 
In these books we are treated to a picture of a baby animal with its parent on one page and on the opposite page the same baby animal in action. So, for example, a hippo calf is shown going to the watering hole with its mother, and then close-up bathing happily with her in the bigger scene. We adults enjoyed testing our knowledge of the name for each animal's young, and it was quite a relief to find there wasn't a special name when we couldn't think of one! The illustration style manages to be soft, realistic, and appealing all at the same time. Mum of a 15-month-old comments: "My son loves animals in any form, and relates to the idea of babies being part of a family. He sometimes found it hard to understand that the big picture showed a larger version of the baby animal, rather than a grown-up animal. But that's something important for him to learn." Published by David Bennett Books, £4.99 each.
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