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Another winner from Donaldson & Scheffler. First we got Room on the Broom, then A Squash and a Squeeze. Next came The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child. Then Charlie Cook's Favourite Book and The Smartest Giant in Town . Six books in, and Donaldson's yet to drop the ball - she's the most consistently excellent, fun, easy to read aloud, and imaginative picture book author I've found (so far).

The core thread of The Smartest Giant is a cumulative rhyme. The giant has a heart of gold, but he's very scruffy looking, so he buys some smart new clothes. As he strolls along, he meets various animals in distress and donates his new clothes, one piece at a time, to help them out which builds into a charming little poem...

My tie is a scarf for a cold giraffe,
My shirt's on a boat as a sail for a goat,
My shoe is a house for a little white mouse,
One of my socks is a bed for a fox,
My belt helped a dog who was crossing a bog



Because it dips in and out of the repeating, cumulative poem, it lacks the momentum of some of the other books - like Room on the Broom - and as such doesn't hold my little boys attention quite as well (he's only 19 months old). So a solid three stars, not a million miles shy of four.

After this I read: And Another Thing...