The jolly Christmas postman

It's Christmas Eve, the snow is falling, and the Jolly Postman is back on his bicycle with a sack full of seasonal post for the fairy-tale neighbourhood. Baby Bear has a card waiting. Red Riding Hood receives a board game from Mr Wolf, cheekily named Beware, and poor Humpty Dumpty, laid up in hospital, gets a get-well jigsaw to pass the time.

As in the original Jolly Postman, Janet and Allan Ahlberg tuck real envelopes between the pages, so small hands can open each delivery and pull out the letters, cards and surprises inside. Three more envelopes wait further along the round. The rhyming text and Janet Ahlberg's detailed, cosy pictures reward slow looking. It is a book to bring out every December, for children who love fairy tales and the thrill of opening someone else's post.