The Crocodile Who Didn't Like Water, by Gemma Merino

It’s true that our eponymous crocodile doesn’t like the water. He’s not afraid of it, really, he just. Does. Not. Like it. He wishes he did, because he’d really like to join his brothers and sisters in swim club, so he comes up with a plan to get himself in the water. It’s a good plan, but he’s still not terribly happy about being in the water, no matter how hard he tries to like it. But maybe there’s a reason why he doesn’t like the water… maybe he’s not a crocodile at all…

The Crocodile Who Didn't Like Water is a lovely story that says it’s good to try and overcome your fears, but ultimately it’s ok to be different. That it’s more than fine to say, ‘you know what, this thing and me just don’t mix’ - and this usually this means I can do different things instead. Which is exactly what the little crocodile in this story figures out.

Gemma Merino’s illustrations are very endearing – you just want to give the crocodile a hug and tell him everything will be ok – and the twist in the story is so wonderfully unexpected I laughed out loud the first time I read it. Of all the books on the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2014 shortlist, I think this is my favourite.

Penguin in Peril, by Helen Hancocks

Three hungry cats have hatched a cunning plan to make themselves a fishy feast. Step one: capture a penguin. Step two: recapture the penguin. But finding a runaway penguin on the city streets is easier said than done… Especially when he blends in so well with nuns and policeman and waiters.

To be honest, I am far from taken by Penguin in Peril. I’m not really sure what the author was trying to do (other than be clever) or what the point of the story was (other than the fact that the cats wind up in jail, so get a kind of comeuppance). It was all rather pointless; there's no real sense of characterisation, the drawings aren’t terribly interesting or appealing, and we're never actually let in on the cats’ cunning plan. What exactly were they going to do with the penguin once they caught him? Just get him to catch fish for them? It would have made a lot more sense for them to just spend their money on food in the first place.

Harold Finds A Voice, by Courtney Dicmas

Harold is an excellent imitator, copying and repeating all the sounds he hears in the apartment where he lives, from the bleep of the alarm clock to the whooshing of the washing machine. But there are only so many sounds to be heard in one small apartment, and he can’t help wondering what other beautiful and interesting noises exist out in the world. So when the window is left open one morning, he decides to find out…

Harold is not disappointed by all the wonderful sounds he finds, but it opens up a new question: does he have his own voice that’s his and his alone? How can he find it? What will it sound like?

Bright and colourful, Harold Finds A Voice is great fun to read – there are so many different noises to make and imitate – and even when his voice isn’t quite what he expected, finding it brings all sorts of lovely new things into his life: other parrots like him! Courtney Dicmas has taken a basic idea – the importance of being yourself – and put it across simply and beautifully.

Open Very Carefully, by Nick Bromley & Nicola O'Byrne

You should do as the title of this book suggests: open very carefully, because what you find inside might surprise you – a crocodile! What is he doing there?

Wait a minute… Oh, no! He’s eating the letters of the story! This is no good; we can’t be having this. It’s a book for goodness’ sake! What can we do to stop him? Rock the book to see if we can make him fall asleep… Shake the book to see if he’ll fall out… Oh, gosh, now he’s going to try and eat his way out. Yikes!

Open Very Carefully is certainly an original idea, with lovely, bold illustrations, but I’m a little worried about where the crocodile has gone to now he’s escaped the book – what if he’s hiding under my bed?

I hope small children won’t find this book scary. I particularly like the interactive nature of the story – with the shaking and rocking of the book to help the crocodile on it’s way – and it’s a fun, fresh idea. I just hope that something a little friendlier will be able to sneak in through the hole the crocodile’s made – a fluffy bunny perhaps?

Time for Bed, Fred, by Yasmeen Ismail

You know how difficult it can sometimes be to get young children to go to bed? Well, dogs too. On hearing those three innocent little words, “Time for bed!” Fred’s anti-bed instincts kick in. Where can he hide so that he won’t have to go to bed? Among the flowers? Up a tree? What about under the rug? With any luck all this crazy running about will tire young Fred out…

Fred seems like a really nice dog, with shaggy ears that are just asking to be tickled, and a playful, mischievous character that shines through Yasmeen Ismail's colourful illustrations. The pictures are full of movement and activity, and the story is so simple and fun it’s impossible not to enjoy it and appreciate the not-so-subtle metaphor. Time for Bed, Fred is sure to be one of those books you’ll get asked for again and again – especially, perhaps, at bedtime.

Weasels, by Elys Dolan

The weasels are planning to take over the world and today is the big day. But just as everything is ready to go, disaster strikes. “Machine status: It’s Broken”. What’s wrong with their world domination machine? Can they fix it? They’ve got a few ideas, like adding a clothes hanger, installing batteries, or buying a new machine. Perhaps the best solution is the simplest one?

Weasels is a lot of fun to read as an adult – Elys Dolan’s illustrations fill every page and are packed full of little details, quirky asides and tongue-in-cheek references – like the chief weasel villain overseeing his lab weasels with a pet white mouse curled up on his lap, the coffee debate going on in the background, and a quick pause to make sure everything is health and safety compliant. How much of this would small children appreciate, though? Perhaps little, perhaps more than I would give them credit for.

Either way, Weasels is an amusing tale with tonnes to look at and a nicely ambiguous ending – what will happen once the weasels manage to fix the problem? They’re not really likely to let a little technical difficulty get in their way. They are weasels, after all.