The Colour Young Puffin series (pound;3.99 each) is consistently good at providing entertaining, well-written stories, intelligently designed with copious colour illustrations. Three Cats, Dogs and Crocodiles by Daniel Postgate is a great rhyming text with echoes of Dr Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat, about a sibling disagreement over whether to get a cat or a dog. Frank Rodgers votes for dogs with two new stories: The Witch’s Dog and the Flying Carpet sees Wilf the witch’s dog getting into magical trouble with an old carpet. In The Robodog and the Big Dig, Chip the robotic canine thinks life would be more fun as a cat.

The Kingfisher Book of Stories for Beginner Readers (pound;12.99) is a collection of two short stories and three complete chapter books previously published in the excellent I Am Reading series. Again, the attractive combination of text and colour illustration and the amusing stories by authors Sally Grindley, Nicola Moon, Kara May and Jacqueline Wilson will engage newly independent readers.

For those who like a frisson of excitement, Shoo Rayner’s Little Horrors, in the Orchard Crunchies series (Orchard Books pound;7.99) are not-too-scary stories with strong black-and-white illustrations. The Pumpkin Man sees trick-or-treaters being chased by a giant pumpkin man while The Swamp Man shows what effect a scary movie can have on children’s imaginations. Needless to say, both stories have explanatory endings that will calm any real fears.

All three series are highly recommended for Years 1 and 2.