Baby books: *12 months to 18 months*

• Fave Rave: All Better Bears
• Honorable mention: Benny and the Brass Band

THIS MONTH'S FAVE RAVE:
All Better Bears, by Hiawyn Oram and Frédéric Joos
What a lovely book, with a perfect sprinkling of sentimentality balanced against a sense of reality. 

When Baby Bear hurts herself, Big Bear mends everything with a plaster and hugs. In the playground one day, Baby Bear falls out with her friends, and that night Big Bear puts criss-cross plasters over the image of a heart on her sleep-shirt (the sentimental bit). Next day things go better for Baby Bear, but when she comes home, she finds that Big Bear isn¹t at all happy. As it is "all over" bad news, Baby Bear kisses it better all over, tickling Big Bear where it tickled and where it didn't tickle (on the arm, in case you're curious). There's a very clever pinpointing of a child's misunderstanding of an adult phrase when Big Bear asks Baby Bear stop and says: "Though the bad news still isn't good, it doesn't seem half as bad!" This incites Baby Bear to run out of the room to find the plasters. These are then placed criss-cross all over Big Bear's body in a yummy picture at the end, to make everything wholly better.

Published by Red Fox, £4.99

 HONOURABLE MENTION
Benny and the Brass Band, by Karen Ludlow with  illustrations by Willy Smax
Here's another story about Benny the Breakdown truck that should appeal when you and your child are in the mood for a proper read. This time, Benny helps the local brass band, initially by carrying them in the big parade, and then when the horn player is ill and has to drop out ­ guess who steps in. The text reads: "And the next day Benny led the parade through Brummingham, going Beep beep ba doo beep!" on his horns.

Published by Dolphin, £2.50

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