Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet Ahlberg, Allan Ahlberg (Paperback, 2008) Pocket-Sized

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As with all their collaborative work, this is a book that invites repeated readings whether it’s to enjoy the rhythm of the rhyme again or to find hidden details in Janet’s pictures. The text per page is also brief, which is great for short attention spans, though it is a slightly longer book than some; when my daughter was very little we would need to read it in stages. The two married in 1969, and began to work together, publishing their first co-venture - The Old Joke Book - in 1976.

This lovely children's book is a fun, rhyming hide and seek game featuring favorite characters from storybooks. It's fun when they have an 'ah-ha' moment either because they recognize the character in this book, or, when they're hearing a verse or tale for the first time, remember that they saw it in this book.In Each Peach Pear Plum, Allan Ahlberg explores the darkest realms of fantasy, describing in ultra-minimalist style the dichotomy between good and evil. Chosen as one of our February selections over in The Picture-Book Club to which I belong, where our theme was "Fractured Nursery Rhymes," Each Peach Pear Plum is only nominally related to the world of nursery rhymes, being more of a rhyming game-book than anything else.

Allan Ahlberg has published over 100 children's books and with his late wife Janet, created such award-winning children's picture books, including Peepo! It's definitely another winner from Allan and Janet Ahlberg, the children will love it and probably want to do it again and again. Many of his books were collaborations with his wife, Janet, an illustrator, and they quickly became one of Britain’s leading author/illustrator teams. Every child must own this book, it has a great rhyming story, a chance to play eye spy on every page and beautiful illustrations with so much to look at. Full of colourful illustrations, this interactive board book is the ideal gift for babies and toddlers that the whole family can enjoy reading together.

The Three Bears make another appearance as Robin Hood relaxes in his den, and then, as the participants begin to come together, the same trio spy Baby Bunting who is then safe and dry with some plum pie in the sun and we all spy . Superbly illustrated by the late Janet Ahlberg and written by husband Allan, 'Each Peach Pear Plum' has rhymed text that, together with the illustrations, invites readers to play the game of 'I spy' with a variety of folklore characters, who each move on from their hidden spots in one illustration to feature in the next one. The overleaf shows an abundant pear tree, a plum tree, and a peach tree, and tiny Tom Thumb snugly resting on a branch, reading a book. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

The story centres around lots of different fairy tale, fable and nursery rhyme characters, with again, lovely illustrations of each to boot. Janet Ahlberg won two Kate Greenaway Medals for illustrating their books and the 1978 winner Each Peach Pear Plum was named one of the top ten winning works for the 50th anniversary of the Medal (1955–2005). The text incorporates famous fictional characters - Cinderella, Mother Hubbard, the Wicked Witch, Robin Hood, Jack and Jill etc. Allan’s repetitive text wastes no words; this is espionage literature with the gripping narrative of Forsyth and Ludlum, written with sinister style of Le Carré and Greene. And when you have to read the same books over and over again to a young audience, it's one of the few that I never get tired of re-reading!

Each Peach Pear Plum commences with the following two lines: “Each Peach Pear Plum, I spy Tom Thumb. The subject of the previous I-spy then launches the next - ie: "Tom Thumb in the cupboard / I spy Mother Hubbard" - with the process ongoing, until the natural (and very fun! It uses the game 'I spy' to encourage the reader to spot the characters in a variety of different settings. Beautiful vignettes roll exquisitely across village, vale and wood through the Ahlberg’s perfect balance between image and verse. The text, with its strong rhyme and rhythm, is perfect to read aloud to very young children, while the game of 'I Spy' keeps children enthralled.