Children's book critic Robert Dunbarpicks his top 30 children's books of 2008
A Finder's Magic
By Philippa Pearce, illustrated by Helen Craig (Walker, £9.99)
A boy's search for his lost dog is the starting point for an exquisitely illustrated tale of love, youth and age. (Age: eight)
Airman
By Eoin Colfer (Puffin, £10.99)
A 19th-century teenager, growing up on Wexford's Saltee Islands, indulges his fascination with flying; a ripping yarn full of adventure, wit and humour gives us the best Irish children's book of the year. (Age: 12)
Anila's Journey
By Mary Finn (Walker, £6.99)
Set in 18th-century India and characterised by atmospheric detail this is the beautifully written story of a young girl's search for a missing father. (Age: 14)
Black Rabbit Summer
By Kevin Brooks (Puffin, £10.99)
A reunion of five former school friends triggers an unnerving sequence of nightmarish events. (Age: 15)
Bloodchild
By Tim Bowler (Oxford, £12.99)
Recovering from an accident, teenager Will finds his quiet seaside village less of a haven than he once thought. (Age: 14)
Bog Child
By Siobhan Dowd (David Fickling, £10.99)
The discovery of a body in a bog in the border country of 1980s Ireland inaugurates events which touchingly blend the historical and the contemporary. (Age: 14)
Broken Soup
By Jenny Valentine (HarperCollins, £5.99)
When her brother dies 15-year-old Rowan has to cope with the various repercussions the death has on her parents and a younger sister. (Age: 15)
Ostrich Boys
By Keith Gray (Definitions, £5.99)
Three teenage boys set out to honour a dead friend, discovering a great deal about themselves in the process. (Age: 14)
Cinderella
By Max Eilenberg, illustrated by Niamh Sharkey (Walker, £9.99)
A mischievous retelling is excellently matched in Sharkey's cool and colourful illustrations. (Age: four)
Cosmic
By Frank Cottrell Boyce (Macmillan, £9.99)
A space adventure - but with a difference - provides the opportunity for a very entertaining story of child-adult relationships. (Age: 10)
Creature of the Night
By Kate Thompson (Bodley Head, £10.99)
Bobby, a 14-year-old disaffected Dubliner, moves to County Clare and is caught between old urban criminal ways and new rural values. (Age: 12)
Exposure
By Mal Peet (Walker, £7.99)
Celebrity, football and South American political corruption come together in a five-act novel updating Shakespeare's Othello. (Age: 14)
Jackdaw Summer
By David Almond (Hodder, £12.99)
When Liam and his friend Max find an abandoned baby girl, the discovery leads to dramatic events, during a dark, brooding Northumberland summer. (Age: 12)
Peanut
By David Lucas (Walker, £10.99)
Peanut, "a monkey as big as a nut", spends an anxious day amid the forest's flora and fauna - and then a beetle comes along: delightful, whimsical artwork. (Age: four)
Red Spikes
By Margo Lanagan (David Fickling, £10.99)
Ten quirky, dark and occasionally disturbing short stories include a scary re-working of Little Willie Winkie. (Age: 14)
Smile: Giggles, Gags and Giddy Tales from Children in County Roscommon
(Kids' Own, €10)
Paintings and prose from Roscommon's children provide a joyous and colourful celebration of youthful creativity. (All ages)
Spells
By Emily Gravett (Macmillan, £10.99)
A frog discovers - eventually - how to transform himself into a prince (but with what results?) in this handsome, clever and exquisitely produced picture book. (Age: six)
Spud
By John van de Ruit (Puffin, £6.99)
This often hilarious (and occasionally crude) story, set in South Africa in 1990, recounts a 13-year-old boy's first year at a Durban boarding school. (Age: 14)
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes
By Mem Fox, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury (Walker, £10.99)
A rhyming story celebrates babyhood in all its buoyant variety. (Age: two)
Strangled Silence
By Oisín McGann (Corgi, £6.99)
Amina, a young trainee journalist, becomes entangled in the sinister, shadowy world of political duplicity and media distortion. (Age: 14)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
By Sherman Alexie (Andersen, £5.99)
Young American Indian goes to exclusive white school and struggles to assert his own, and his community's, identity. (Age: 15)
The Ghost's Child
By Sonya Hartnett (Walker, £6.99)
An elderly woman and a young boy explore memory and age: the year's most haunting story. (Age: 14)
The Gift of the Magi
By O Henry, illustrated by PJ Lynch (Walker, £10.99)
A timeless Christmas story of generosity and self-sacrifice acquires new depth in the realism of Lynch's art. (All ages)
The Graveyard Book
By Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Chris Riddell (Bloomsbury, £12.99)
Brilliant writing, complete with light touch, creates an entertaining, macabre narrative. (Age: 12)
The Great Paper Caper
By Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins, £10.99)
Minimalist art and minimalist text combine in a clever "forest'' story where tree trunks and branches mysteriously disappear. (Age: 4)
The Henny Penny Tree
By Siobhán Parkinson, illustrated by Lisa Jackson (O'Brien, €5.99)
A traditional story is given a sparkling retelling: great fun! (Age: six)
The Knife of Never Letting Go
By Patrick Ness (Walker, £12.99)
"13 is the day you start getting responsibilities'' in Ness's "New World" and his gripping story of young Todd's experiences lives up to the promise. (Age: 12)
The Museum's Secret
By Henry Chancellor (Oxford, £10.99)
Beetle-hunting, taxidermy, eccentric relations and time travel all feature in a complex story of a young boy's "remarkable adventures". (Age: 10)
The Poison
By Celine Kiernan (O'Brien, €12.99)
The murky and often violent world of royal intrigue in a fictitious 14th-century European country is the setting for an excellent historical fantasy. (Age: 15)
The Young Inferno
By John Agard, illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura (Frances Lincoln, £12.99)
Dante is brought thoroughly up to date in both word and picture. (Age: 10)