• Fave Rave: Toddlerobics Animal Fun
• Honorable mention: Baby's farmyard word book

THIS MONTH'S FAVE RAVE:
Toddlerobics Animal Fun, by Zita Newcome
Like the first Toddlerobics book, this one is full of buoyancy. The eight toddlers taking part in the organised gym activities are encouraged to mimic animals, and the picture of them on their hands and feet scuttling "Thisaway, thataway, across the sands" like crabs is very funny.

Variety is achieved by focusing on a different child or grouping: "Roar! You're a lion!" says one child facing another; "Snap! You're a croc!" responds the other, dressed in a yellow lion's suit. 

For clarity, the animal the children are mimicing is always featured on the same page. This is not a book for bedtime, but for a well-focused playtime. You may prefer to stay seated and restrict your involvement to calling out the rhymes, but your child definitely won't let you!

Published by Walker, £9.99

There's a page illustrating animal features, like a mouse's whiskers and a ram's horns, and a page devoted to food that can be grown on a farm, including potatoes, peas, and corn-on-the-cob. This themed approach enables the book to work on several levels. For example, the page that starts with "sunrise" shows lots of children doing things on the farm like collecting eggs and cleaning the tractor, with the matching verb underneath.

Mum of a 16-month-old comments: "This has become my daughter's favourite. She seems to like the fact that there are lots of little pictures of animals. And she's absolutely fascinated by the scarecrow. I think she keeps trying to work out whether it's a real person."

Published by David Bennett Books, £6.99