They seem to grow in wisdom and delight every time I read them... a perfect marriage of word and picture.

It's not just Tove Jansson's wonderfully strange fairytale world that so appeals but also her beautiful line work and exquisite sense of design.

Clever Billy outwits a Terrible Beast who wants to eat her woodland friends. The characters are enterprising, the text surprising and the layout engaging, with paths that wind across the page and changes of perspective; and the pictures are humorous, not least the worried face of a fox dangling upside down.

Nadia Shireen's Billy and the Beast celebrates the experience of those often left out of picture books, with its brave brown heroine and the outrageous array of props she stores in her huge cloud of hair. Lively, energetic, full of well-timed humour (and a sidekick called Fatcat), it's a great story for everyone, especially those not used to seeing themselves centre stage.

These are the most brilliant, beautiful and silly picture-books out there at the moment. Little doorways of joy.