Angelina’s Birthday, Katharine Holabird ill. Helen Craig (1989)

A nice illustrated tale, intended to be read to girls aged 3 – 6

Puffin Books 0 141381426 26pp £4.99

The Angelina Ballerina series runs to many volumes, all chronicling the doings of a dancing mouse. In them, Angelina, and all the other mice, essentially live the lives of humans – wearing clothes, walking on their hind legs and taking ballet lessons. Absurd and saccharine as that sounds, they are nicely drawn and have a considerably charm.

In this tale, Angelina accidentally breaks her much-loved hand-me-down bike, undertakes lots of tasks to earn money to buy a new one, and, once her new mount arrives, leads family and friends on a birthday bicycle ride. If you want your children to grow up believing that bicycles are everywhere, this text is rich is useful, subliminal messages. It would also nicely tee up the gift of a bicycle.

PS Dec 09