Emily Brown and the Thing

This is the second book in the Emily Brown series (the first being "That Rabbit belongs to Emily Brown" and the third being "Emily Brown and the Elephant Emergency") - and arguably the best. Cressida Cowell's fantastic words conjure up a little girl who has to take on a semi grown-up role as she tries to comfort a sad Thing which she finds sitting on her windowsill - and to get him to go to sleep.

At first he tells her he's lost his cuddly and can't get to sleep without it. Eventually Emily Brown (and Stanley, her toy rabbit) find it at the top of the twistiest, thorniest tree in the Dark and Scary Wood. She presumes the Thing will go to sleep now, but no, then he needs his bedtime milk - which she and Stanley retrieve in the Wild and Whirling Wastes. And then his medicine, and then...

These worlds (as well as Emily Brown's home) are brought to us in an imaginative scratchy collage style by illustrator Neal Layton, who makes us feel genuinely sorry for the scribbly, large-eyed Thing in his checked pyjamas. Add to this a simple, satisfying twist at the end and you have a pretty perfect picture book.

Amazon.co.uk link: Emily Brown and the Thing