Miss Poppy's guide to raising perfectly happy children - Elaine Addison

Elaine Addison is a modern-day Mary Poppins. A trained nanny who has worked for many high profile clients, her childcare recipe is discipline plus fun. In this book she shares her successful formula for bringing up children who are well-behaved and, most importantly, happy.

Starting at 6 months and going up to 5 years, Elaine covers all the core areas parents have to contend with - establishing sleep routines, weaning and feeding, tantrums etc. Her basic message is routine with plenty of fun - she includes along the way lots of ideas for making mealtimes, for example, less stressful (having the child decorate their place setting themselves), dealing with wobblies (never try to reason with a 2-year old) and organising messy children (make them clear up at the same time each day with a signature piece of music).

With her reputation as a trouble-shooter, able to deal with problem behaviour, Elaine offers an approach to childcare that is rooted in today's environment yet also has an appealing element of the old-fashioned nursery about it - an attractive idea to many parents who don't want to buy into the current Gina Ford regime of strict and humourless routine.