Children's Picture Books: The term "picture book" nowadays encompasses such literary and artistic variety that virtually every single example of it demands consideration on its own unique terms.
Of all the areas within the world of what we group together as children's books it is the one that currently seems to attract the most imaginative artists and writers, often accompanied by production values that transform the books themselves into works of art. Even the oldest of themes and topics can become the starting point for original, rich and colourful presentation.
Creation stories, for example, are among the most ancient of narratives and part of the lore of most civilisations. But, as a title such as Mr and Mrs God in the Creation Kitchen, demonstrates, the genre is far from exhausted. Here we encounter in a kitchen setting a benign married couple who exercise their ingenuity in a series of creative endeavours: they start with the sun, move to the earth and the evolving fecundity of its creatures and end with whatever might be given shape from "a leftover piece of clay".
What emerges most from the Wood and Ering combination of word and picture is its exuberance. The domestic and the divine elements of their story are wittily drawn - in more than one sense - into one another, enhanced by the colloquial tone of the husband and wife exchanges as Mr and Mrs God pursue their task. The generosity of the artwork and its concentration on huge, vibrant splodges of paint create a book that, given its subject matter, is rightly wonderful and awe-inspiring.
Retold by Kathy Henderson and illustrated by Jane Ray, Lugalbanda attains a certain topical significance as being "an epic tale from Ancient Iraq". But more, perhaps, than this incidental timeliness, this extremely old story appeals for those qualities that are in themselves beyond and outside time: the timelessness we associate with myth and legend is to be savoured in almost every sentence.
The Lugalbanda of the title is the youngest of eight of a family of princes, keen to follow his brothers to war against a distant city state. His wishes are granted but illness overtakes him and, though various deities come to his aid, it is not until his encounter with "the terrible Anzu bird, a monster of the skies" that his fortunes are eventually restored and he is able to assume the heroic role that awaits him. This will involve a meeting with the goddess Inana and an acceptance of the conditions under which victory in war may finally be claimed; the prerequisites are the exercise of magnanimity and respect for the culture of others, even others we may have defeated.
The Sumerian clay tablets on which, some 5,000 years ago, Lugalbanda's story would have had its first written expression are stunningly revivified in Ray's decorative illustrations. Reminiscent in their detail and colour of ancient religious manuscripts, they are imbued with the gilded magic that is an integral part of all true storytelling. Whether in its panoramic full-page effects or in its miniature small-scale embellishments, this handsome volume is a triumph of contemporary picture book art.
From faraway places and times we move in Tom MacRae's The Opposite to the apparently much more immediately recognisable routine of daily family life. But all such illusions are shattered when its hero, Nate, awakes one morning to find "The Opposite" staring down at him from his bedroom ceiling. What ensues is a hilarious sequence of totally chaotic events, throwing Nate's life at home and school into complete confusion. MacRae's decidedly scatty text is more than matched by Elena Odriozola's madcap illustrations and by the use of a layout and typographical design that accentuates the story's eccentricities. Everything combines to suggest - and young children in particular will enjoy this - that the dividing line between the everyday and the anarchic can be very thin indeed.
An anarchic note is struck also by the determinedly humourless Beth, the heroine of Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick's Silly Mummy, Silly Daddy. Here is a child not willing to be cajoled by parents or relatives into putting on a smile - but what fun Fitzpatrick has, both in the beautifully observed body language of her pictures and in her minimalist text, in portraying their futile efforts! The resolution of the predicament is clever and amusing, the overall outcome being a picture book guaranteed to provoke what in this case is the most appropriate of responses - a wide smile from adult and child readers alike.
Robert Dunbar is a commentator on children's books and reading
Mr and Mrs God in the Creation Kitchen Text by Nancy Wood, illustrations by Timothy Basil Ering Candlewick, £11.99
Lugalbanda Text by Kathy Henderson, illustrations by Jane Ray Walker, £12.99
The Opposite Text by Tom MacRae, illustrations by Elena Odriozola Andersen, £10.99
Silly Mummy, Silly Daddy By Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick Frances Lincoln, £9.00