The left-hand story is set in an inner-city suburb of Sydney, the right-hand story in a small village in the Valley of the Roses, in southern Morocco. Each book mirrors the other, as Baker tells parallel stories of a day in the life of two small boys and their families, including shopping excursions with their fathers. However, while Mirror is essentially a heart-warming wordless tale about the simple delights of family life, Baker was partly inspired to write it by her despair at Australia’s poisonous political attitudes towards foreigners and foreignness.

Using sumptuous shades of blue, ochre and green, Baker perfectly captures the exotic beauty of both ‘landscapes’ in her meticulously created multimedia collages. Mirror takes readers on a magic-carpet ride, which is both highly familiar and tantalisingly exotic. Along the way, Baker champions what it is to be human. She graphically shows that, ultimately, we are all the same and are all connected, no matter how outwardly different our cultures or how remote the places in which we live. The stunning Mirror is a thought-provoking book that unashamedly celebrates the diversity of our shared existence.

Like Jeannie Baker, Jan Ormerod has perfected the art of the wordless picture book. However, she is also an accomplished author, and she has combined with Kate Greenaway Medal winner Freya Blackwood to produce the exquisite Maudie and Bear (Little Hare, $29.95 hb, 48 pp, 9781921541407). There is a delightfully old-fashioned, fairytale quality to this ‘chapter book’ about the domestic adventures of the enchanting but very self-centered Maudie, and her patient and very understanding companion, Bear. Each short, sweet story has a fine cumulative quality, with an ending that is often humorously reassuring and always satisfying. Ormerod’s text sympathetically captures the essence of childhood relationships, whether with other children, parents or grandparents.

Blackwood’s delicate, gentle illustrations are simply perfect. Her Old World setting, with its 1940s styling and Australian colonial and Federation architecture, perfectly suits Ormerod’s paean to friendship, and there are E.H. Shepard resonances in Blackwood’s characterisations. This very satisfying book is brimming with insight, exuberance, pathos, wonder and delight.

The Legend of the Golden Snail (Viking, $29.95 hb, 48 pp, 9780670073498) is the latest in Graeme Base’s stable of spectacularly illustrated, large-format puzzle books. The illustrations are sumptuous, the colours bold and the images imaginative in this rollicking tale about story-loving Wilbur and his faithful cat, who set out on a voyage to find the ship the Golden Snail and to become its master. Along the way, Wilbur discovers the rewards of being helpful and kind to others, and the importance of freedom.

In true Base style, there are maps, books within books, and hidden motifs throughout the book to keep readers attentively scanning the pages. Base’s enthusiasm is infectious, but, as with many of his books, his artistry sometimes overpowers his storytelling and the animal characters are more appealing than the humans. Perhaps that is why his iconic picture book Animalia (1986) continues to be his most successful. Despite this, The Golden Snail is sure to delightBase enthusiasts young and old.

Just as Graeme Base has drawn on fantasy stories to create his latest book, Nick Bland takes the rhyme ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ out of the nursery and into a backyard near you with Twinkle (Scholastic, $24.99 hb, 32 pp, 9781741693539). When lonely Penny Pasketti wishes on a star for a friend, her wish is answered quite spectacularly. A shooting star lands in her backyard, and Penny and Little Star soon become firm friends. However, when Little Star wants to go home, Penny needs all her ingenuity to work out how to get him back into the sky.

Bland’s night-time landscapes are dark but enticing, and the two main characters are charismatic. Penny is a snub-nosed, freckled child, with a mass of curls and a flamboyant dress sense, while Little Star is a bright, star-shaped globule of light with very expressive body language. The backdrops for their adventures are fittingly illuminated. However, where there is light, there are shadows, and it is obvious from Bland’s illustrations that Penny and Little Star are not alone. This makes Twinkle a very intriguing tale about friendship, imagination and the special nature of starlight.

Jackie French and Bruce Whatley perfected their picture-book partnership with the much-loved Diary of a Wombat (2002). However, their latest book, Queen Victoria’s Underpants (Angus & Robertson, $24.99 hb, 32 pp, 9780732288228), is a wombat-free zone. In this irreverent, clever and funny picture book, French draws on one of her many other interests, history, as she tells the story of a little girl whose mother contributed to women’s liberation by making underpants for Queen Victoria at a time when women did not usually wear these important, freedom-giving garments.

Along with extensive research to ensure that the book’s design, clothing, and settings fit the period, Whatley has cleverly dealt with what was no doubt the book’s greatest challenge – how to show Queen Victoria’s need for underpants without revealing any naughty bits. This he does by introducing two dogs with incredibly expressive faces that often end up underneath Her Majesty’s skirt. The dogs are wonderful comic foils for the images in which the little girl and her mother try to imagine what sorts of underpants they should make for the queen. The result is a hilarious romp, with a very cheeky lift-the-flap ending.

Bruce Whatley has also combined forces with television personality and author Andrew Daddo, and the result is fittingly called Monster (ABC Books, $24.99 hb, 32 pp, 9780733322754). Each page features a darkened bedroom in which lurk a small boy in blue-striped pyjamas and a large green monster with horns, fangs and talons. The text is an ongoing conversation between a child and his parents, who are obviously in another room. There is great appeal for children in the scatological humour and ongoing banter of the text, and a surprise awaits the reader at the end.

Daddo’s jaunty text reveals his familiarity with children and the ongoing parent–child repartee that can accompany bedtime. Whatley responds to the text with his usual artistic versatility. Gone are the white spaces and delicate lines of Queen Victoria’s Underpants. Instead, there is a brown, watercolour background, the hulking shape of the monster, and often slapstick interactions between the two main characters. This is a fun bedtime read that should have your little monsters checking to see that there are no boys under their beds.

Christina Booth’s Potato Music (Omnibus Books, $26.99 hb, 32 pp, 9781862917880), sensitively illustrated by Pete Groves, deals with a much more serious subject. It is centred around the family piano and the joy that it brings to a young girl and her Mama and Pa, as each night mother plays and sings, and father and daughter dance together. However, one night the girl’s world changes when war comes to her country, life becomes dangerous and food is scarce. Then one day the piano disappears.

While the underlying theme is dark and rather depressing, there is also much joy in this moving book. Booth’s text is lyrical and beautifully paced, with a musical refrain. It abounds in heartfelt aphorisms about life, love, dreams, hope, and the strength of the human spirit. Groves’s colourful, often joyous illustrations have a similarly dream-like, naïve quality, with echoes of Chagall. This is a contemplative, thoughtful picture book, with an ultimately uplifting message. Like the other titles under review, it demonstrates that picture books can tackle a multitude of subjects in innovative and engaging ways.