For early chapter book readers, The Adventures of Portly the Otter by M.G. Leonard (Farshore, £14.99; Tablet price £13.49) is an enchanting collection of new stories, imagining what happened to Portly, the young otter cub from The Wind in the Willows

ENOUGH OF WIZARDS and schoolgirl detectives. This year, it is the Greek gods who have claimed centre stage in children’s fiction, with a wave of new titles reimagining the classical myths. But fashions have changed since the days of Roger Lancelyn Green and Rosemary Sutcliff, whose graceful retellings (Tales of the Greek Heroes, Black Ships Before Troy) treated the myths with a certain reverence. Now, in contrast, the Olympians have descended into the realm of farce, with authors increasingly reimagining their stories in the form of jokey cartoons and graphic novels.

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