The Story Cure. Ella Berthoud

When his horse turns up the next day with two wild horses in tow, the neighbours tell him how lucky he is, after all. ‘Maybe,’ he says. When his son falls off one of the wild horses and breaks his leg, he gives the same response. The broken leg turns out to indirectly save the young man’s life. ‘I get it,’ says Michael. ‘Maybe good luck and bad luck are all mixed up. You never know what will happen next.’ This lovely epiphany, clear enough for children to understand, will not only dislodge the disappointment but open up the possibility of rescuing the moment itself.

      Learning to bounce back from setbacks and make the best of things is surely one of life’s most valuable skills. Maia, the heroine of Journey to the River Sea, models the skill to a T. When, still mourning the death of her parents, she is sent to live with distant cousins on a rubber plantation in Brazil, Maia has great hopes for her exotic new home. She can’t wait to be surrounded by luxuriant jungle, colourful parrots, butterflies ‘the size of saucers’ and wise natives who can heal with plants. Most of all, she’s excited about her new family, the Carters, whose twin girls, Beatrice and Gwendolyn, are her own age.

      The rainforest lives up to all her expectations. But she could not have been more wrong about the Carters, who are ignorant bigots so afraid of catching something from the wildlife around them that they live in a haze of Lysol. It transpires they had only taken Maia in for the money. ‘It’s not quite like I thought it would be, is it?’ Maia says to her tough-but-true governess, Miss Minton, with heartbreaking understatement. But instead of allowing the disappointment to push her into despair, Maia gathers up her courage, pokes her head out the window and hears a familiar, whistled tune . . . Her discovery of a life even more full of wonder and unexpected friendship than she had hoped for leaves readers with the conviction that disappointments may, in fact, be new adventures in disguise.

      SEE ALSO: cheering up, needing

       distracted, being

      SEE: daydreaming, being accused of

       divorce

      SEE: parents who are splitting up, having

       dog, wanting a

      SEE: obsessions • pet, wanting a

       dreams, bad

      SEE: nightmares

       dress by yourself, refusing to

       The Story of Babar JEAN DE BRUNHOFF

      Small children come in two varieties. There are those who can’t wait to do everything by themselves, and those who see no reason to give up being carried, dressed, fed and washed by the various members of their domestic staff. If you feel it’s high time a child started taking an interest in choosing and putting on their own clothes, introduce them to the sartorially savvy Babar.