John Winch (1944–2007)

An old woman leaves the city and moves to the country so she can read without noise. Instead she has a lot of chores to do to keep her house going, and barely finds time to read.

great images and simple language make this good for young readers

The illustrations are worthwhile, but I wasn't drawn in by the story and neither was my son. On a second note, some of the pictures were a bit scary for the sensitive: a fire jumps out of the summer page (and the woman's expression is that of being terrified), after which a flood comes. I may have missed the point of this book, but in fact the story was something of a let down for me ...

The story of an old man who loves to sing and the animals love his singing. As he grows old one day he forgets to sing. The animals really miss his singing so the birds start to sing. The old man then remembers that he is forgetting to sing and joins the animals in singing.