Fruits is an excellent, vibrantly illustrated book that was the winner of the Smarties Prize Bronze Award. It is cleverly written by Valerie Bloom and beautifully illustrated by David Axtell.

The rhyming words are full of rhythm: Seven Mangoes! What a find! / The smaddy who left them really kind / One fe you an' six fe me / If you want more, climb the tree. ("Smaddy" means "somebody" and "fe" means "for".)

The writings contains lots of humour, too:

Three sweet-sop, well I jus' might give one o' them a nice big bite. / Cover up the bite, jus' so, sis, / Then no-one will ever notice.

(A sweet-sop is a very sweet fruit which has a rough outside and white inside with black stones.)

The book will appeal to a wide age-range of children, from those learning to count and young enough still to be read to, to those reading for themselves and able to use the glossary of unfamiliar words. "How much fruit can one girl eat in a day? You'd be amazed!" The poems offer a great opportunity to interest usually reluctant readers with the unusual subject matter. --Susan Naylor