Aunt Amelia

'We were in a bad mood. Aunt Amelia was coming to look after us. We didn't know who Aunt Amelia was and we didn't want looking after.'

But the two small children in this picture book soon change their minds about Aunt Amelia when she arrives at their door. Far from your average babysitter, she soon puts her own alternative spin on the list of sensible instructions Mum and Dad have left behind.

This inventive picture book is another gorgeously-illustrated delight from Waterstones Children's Book Prize winner Rebecca Cobb. The text is simple yet perfectly pitched, and children will enjoy noticing the hidden details in the pictures, like the birds nesting in Aunt Amelia's extravagant hat. Aunt Amelia herself is a magical, Mary Poppins-esque figure, and young readers will particularly relish the humorous contrast between Mum and Dad's instructions  ('Please tell the children to be careful... don't let them pester you for sweets') and the anarchic illustrations of swinging from tree branches, painting messy pictures and devouring fabulous feasts of ice-cream and pizza.