Bookshops piled higher than ever with lavishly illustrated children's books tricked out to look like instant classics. What to buy? The Economist offers its own selection of new titles for children of all ages. Whether to be read alone or to be read aloud, a good picture book for young children strikes a balance between words, which must not be too plentiful, and images, which must not shout too loudly. "How Many Miles to Bethlehem?" (Scholastic, $16.95 and Orion, £9.99), is a deft retelling of the story of the Nativity by an English poet, Kevin Crossley-Holland, with Peter Malone as illustrator. The words are spare and well chosen (every actor in the drama, from the ass to the angel, has a page to present his point of view), while the rich pictures are almost Giotto-like in atmosphere and choice of detail.
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