A new Lynley Dodd book is An Event. And The Other Ark has been even more eagerly awaited than usual, because it’s Dodd's first book in two years.

The Other Ark also marks a change of tack for Dodd. You won’t find Hairy Maclary or Slinky Malinki here: it’s about Sam Jam Balu, a friend of Noah’s who helps out with Ark #2. (Yes, Balu does rhyme with ‘two’ …)

The pictures are up to Dodd’s usual sterling standards, with the ramshackle wispiness that kids love. And the surreal wordplay is all present and correct, in that familiar brisk rhythm:

Armory dilloes and carnival cats, mad kangeroosters in bow ties and spats.

It's looking good. The kids are snuggling up, enjoying the ride. And then it all goes horribly wrong.

The Other Ark has one of the most abrupt endings of any children’s book I’ve read. It lacks what a screenwriter might call the denouement: the tapering off after the climax, the tying up of loose ends, the touch of whimsy or ‘feel-good’ that tells the child that the story is over and it is time for sleep.

The book simply stops dead in its tracks, leaving you with the feeling that there should be at least two more spreads to go. It stopped so abruptly that, for a moment, I thought that I was holding a misprinted book with the last few pages missing. My audience of two (Alex, 7, and Maddy, 4) instinctively turned the endpapers, in the hope of finding more.

For such an accomplished author as Dodd, this was a surprise. I can only imagine that it was done for effect, but it simply leaves the child feeling unsatisfied.

Most books for children, from the brothers Grimm to The Gruffalo, stick to the three-act plot structure you see in all forms of storytelling, from adult novels to movies. And for good reason: that structure is effective in delivering the emotional punch of a story, and is subconsciously understood even by very young readers.

In The Other Ark, what appears to be the beginning of the end is actually The End itself. And the child’s immediate response is ‘Another book!’

I picked up Hairy Maclary and, I’m glad to say, that one did the trick.