Books for kids...

By The Light Of The Moon by Tom Percival (Bloomsbury, €8) 

Moving house is a strange thing for anyone but especially for a small boy called Ivan, who has only known the comfort of the home he has lived in all of his life.

When he moves to the new house he is not at all happy as he looks above the high window in his new bedroom and finds he cannot sleep.

He looks up at the moon, and that is when he runs out into the night to see a beautiful ball of light, which turns out to be an extraordinary shimmering little creature.

Following many adventures during which Ivan almost reaches the moon, he comes to realise that maybe he will eventually like and accept the new house as his true home.

Percival’s low-key and subdued illustrations provide an atmospheric mood for this gentle tale. Suitable for age six and upwards.

What’s Below by Clive Gifford and Kate Mclelland (Red Shed, €14.80 HB) 

As your boots crunch over the snowy fields in winter have you ever wondered what’s beneath, asks this inspiring little book.

Five colourful pop-ups provide the answer showing such various scenes from a rain forest canopy to a city pavement.

Animals abound, from chipmunks to the fossilised bones of a long dead dinosaur. All mysterious and magical. Suitable for age five and upwards.

The Moon Spun Round WB Yeats for Children iIlustrated by Shona Shirley Macdonald (O’Brien, €19.99) 

What purports to be an introduction to the poetry of WB Yeats could well be classed as Yeats introducing an exciting new illustrator to the Irish market.

The superb selection of illustrations, sometimes reminiscent of Clark, Rackham and PJ Lynch, are breath- taking in scope and composition.

The movement of the nine and 50 swans at Coole, the interaction between stolen child and the fairies, the fluid lines as ‘The Fiddler of Dooney’ strikes up a tune and the dark colours in ‘He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven’ complement Yeats’s poems.

The anthology is masterfully edited by Noreen Doody. Suitable for age eight and up.