Books for Children

The Very Greedy Bee by Steve Smallman and Jack Tickle (Little Tiger; €9.50 HB) is a salutary lesson about the alienation caused by greed.

The eponymous greedy bee hoovers up all the honey without sharing. But when he grows fatter his wings can’t take the strain and he’s marooned in a dark place. Of course there’s a happy ending to delight ages three to five.

Emu On The Loose by Lisa Regan and Kelly Byrne (Bloomsbury; €10.66 HB) is one of the Wild Things series of zoo animals. The interesting information about emus is nicely couched in quirky, laugh-aloud illustrations as googly-eyed Emu visits a house and samples the furnishings. Just the book for creature lovers age seven and upwards.