FOR THE youngster just coming to terms with numbers, who better to promote counting than the bunch of slimy, hairy uglies in The Monster Counting Book by Kate Daubeny (Caterpillar; €10.66)?

JOHNNY SWANSON by Eleanor Updale (David Fickling; €13.03 HB) is set in 1929.

BIG AND LITTLE, by Ana Martin Larranaga (Caterpillar Books; €5.92), is a boxed set of four, sturdy board-books, just the right size for small hands to hold.

Noah Barleywater Runs Away

THE Montgomery Murder Mystery by Cora Harrison (Piccadilly; €8.35) is set in the gaslit streets of foggy London in the 1800s.

TALL STORY by Candy Gourlay (David Fickling Books; €13.19). When Andi finally meets her brother Bernardo, whom she has not seen for eight years, she is shocked to discover he is literally a giant – eight feet tall.

YUCK! That’s Not a Monster! by Angela McAllister and Alison Edgson (Little Tiger; €13.90) is the story of a misfit. Mr and Mrs Monster are thrilled when their gloriously ugly offspring, Frightful and Horrid, are hatched out.

THE Train Driver, by Kunak McGann (O’Brien; €7.55), is the story of a small boy who loves trains.