An enormous striped-like-a-tiger cat with glittering lime green eyes and matching stripes up his legs like footballer's socks: Motley is a mighty cat who walks alone. But he doesn't want to live alone, so presents himself for adoption to two little girls. They soon realise that their beloved ink-black Darius cannot cohabit with such a magnificent young Turk; sadly, they return him to an indifferent caretaker. But on the day that Darius dies, Motley magically returns to live with them forever. Susanna Amoore's touching and true story, Mot- ley the Cat (Viking, £10.99 in UK), is illustrated by Mary Fedden, the contemporary British artist, whose seemingly effortless drawing and brilliant, glowing colours give strength and feeling to the story and a unique, painterly depth to the whole.The power and quality of the pictures in Amy Hest's When Jessie Came Across the Sea (Walker, £10.99 in UK) will give similar pleasure; Dublindweller P.J. Lynch's illustrations are a tour de force. This handsome, large-format book shows young, Jewish Jessie reluctantly leaving her grandmother in a poor middle-European village to take the emigrant ship across a rough ocean to America. Sewing lace for Cousin Kay, she saves her coins week by week until she can send a ticket home to her much missed grandmother who will arrive in time for Jessie's wedding.There is truth in this rhythmic narrative, feelings of loss and discovery as common to the emigrant Irish as to the Jewish diaspora it describes. The scenes on the ship are redolent of fusty old clothing and tired humanity travelling en masse towards the unknown; yet Jessie manages to sew a lace pocket for a little girl, and meets the boy she will later marry. This gentle, romantic story ends on a note of aching joy that brought a tear to the eye of this reviewer.The big bold Baby in Helen Cooper's The Baby Who Wouldn't Go to Bed (Doubleday, £4.99 in UK) gets a bit tearful, too - but only after a rollicking, bravura journey, begun at bedtime. "I'm going to stay up all night," he announces, before revving up his little car and vrooming over a surrealistic landscape past a tired tiger, sleepy soldiers and drowsy musicians. Not even the moon can stay awake to play with him and so he finds himself all by himself in the dark - a lonely moment sure to strike a chord in the most stubborn stay-awaker. Someone who was ever so weary comes to find him, and after she has picked him up and given him a satisfying mega-hug, the Mother puts him to bed in a room of toys that look reassuringly like the creatures and characters of hisextraordinary nocturnal journey.A recent winner of the Kate Greenaway Award, this is one of the increasingly rare picture books that goes to the heart of true infant experience, with elements that all small children will recognise and enjoy.Finally, Catherine and Laurence Anholt's A Kiss Like This (Hamish Hamilton, £9.99 in UK) is a sweet cuddle of a book, ideal for those with a very hands-on-approach to goodnights. Big Golden Lion finds Little Cub totally irresistible, smothering him in fatherly embraces that include "a great big raspberry on his belly button". Monkey, Parrot, Rhino and all the friends feel just the same, but when Mean Green Hungry Crocodile comes by, it's time for Golden Lion to come smartly to the rescue and explain that "when you see a sleepy Little Lion Cub, there's only one thing in the whole wide world that completely, exactly right . . .
And that's a huge, great big golden lion kiss . . . Just like this!"