Children’s Books

My Ireland Counting Book by Eoin Ryan (O’Brien €7.99) is an interesting way of introducing numbers to the very young.

With bold lines and strong, flat colour, each spread focuses on Irish themes to count, such as hurlers, castles, dancers and other familiar national things. A nice touch is the inclusion of small leprechauns interspersed throughout for children to find and count.

Roger McGough was one of the originators of The Scaffold in the sixties. He also wrote most of the humorous dialogue for the Beatles’ film The Yellow Submarine. In recent years he has become renowned for his poetry for children. An Imaginary Menagerie (Frances Lincoln €7.10) is a collection of his creature-related poems that will entertain any age. Illustrated with his own quirky drawings, the poems are short and they sparkle with laugh-aloud humour such as the Aunt-Eater: Badgers and Goodgers; or try this verse on Emus: “To amuse emus on warm summer nights, Kiwis do wiwis, from spectacular heights.” With a nod towards Spike Milligan’s style, this is the book to encourage budding little versifiers.