From the silly to the sublime, picture books cover a multitude of subjects, interests, characters…so diverse, fascinating, vibrant and colourful! I could quite happily read picture books all the time! These are new to me but already firm favourites.
Pick a Story, A dinosaur + unicorn + robot adventure by Sarah Coyle and Adam Walker-Parker, Published by FarShore
This is the second book in this series, a new take on a choose your own path style story. Gwen is excited to celebrate her birthday but when her cake disappears, it becomes the turn of the reader to choose the direction of the story. Did a unicorn, dinosaur or robot take it? As you read through, you continually choose new directions ensuring a never ending supply of fun. These bright, colourful books are so much fun to read, choose and choose again. Every time you read, a new story emerges with more fun to be had. There is certainly a revitalisation of choose your own path books and they are very popular. These books are so cleverly illustrated and designed!
Floof by Heidi McKinnon, Published by Allen & Unwin
Cat lovers will absolutely rejoice and relate to this stellar story. This might just be the perfect picture of what a cat does all day! They are very busy creatures with all that meowing, eating, teasing and working, basically chaos causing! Floof is a floofy cat who shows us what they get up to each day and the illustrations differ greatly from his perspective to that of the reader. It is so much fun to look at the pictures just to see what is actually happening in the life of Floof. Innocent Floof knows their mind and typically, doesn’t vary their routine. The illustrations are full of floofy fluffy cat and you can almost feel the fur as you turn each page.
The Sour Grape by Jory John and Pete Oswald, Published by HarperCollins
This food group series is terrifically funny and full of life lessons for both the young and the old! Grape used to be sweet and respectful until one birthday party when no one came. From that point on he became grumpy, sour and held grudges against anyone. When he finds himself on the end of a friends grudge, he takes some time to reflect and realises the errors of his way. These books are perfect for reading with older children who can understand the language and take the lessons to heart. Always a huge hit in library lessons, I love this series and the humour and creativity within them.
High Top The Sneaker that Just Can’t Stop by Tom Lacey, Published by Little Tiger
High top is fresh out of the box and ready to meet and mingle with his friends. He loves to be active and helpful but finds he can’t stop, even when his friends need him. After a super busy day of playing, painting and dancing, High Top stops for a rest with Platoe, a wise old slipper. Platoe asks some thoughtful questions about High Top’s day and his friends making him think about what went wrong. This is a great book for discussing what consequences High Top faced when he got a bit out of control and ways he can fix them. Anthropomorphising shoes is an effective way to highlight some life lessons. Looking forward to more in this new series.
Beware of the Blue Bagoo by Karl Newson and Andrea Stegmaier, Published by Happy Yak (Quarto)
What a charming story of a rumour gone wild about a beast called The Blue Bagoo. A young detective has heard all the rumours about the beast from a convincing crowd in the community but when they discover the truth, there is work to be done in dispelling the myths and rumours. The Blue Bagoo is not what you think and certainly the rumours need to be dealt with, perhaps the Blue Bagee can help. I read this to a class today and they loved it and spent the last few pages spotting more and more Bagoo’s and Bagee’s! The illustrations are fantastic, filled with small details and bright colours.
Oh Armadillo! This Party’s All Wrong by Ellie Irving and Robert Starling, Published by Happy Yak (Quarto)
Armadillo is delightfully quirky and tends to get most things muddled. In a bid to make new friends, he decides to host a party and invites all he meets. As each invitation is accepted, the animals ask for cake, games and decorations and each time Armadillo rushes home to sort them out. You can’t help but giggle as Armadillo takes each request at face value and makes a cake made of actual sponges and a chair made of musical instruments. When the party begins the animals tell Armadillo he got things wrong but he quickly points out his quirkiness, perspective and fun side and they all agree, it’s the best party ever! Fun and filled with colour, this rhyming tale will go down a treat in school.
I am a primary school teacher, turned librarian. Now I have the title Reading Advocate for ASSET Education Trust, based in Suffolk.
I read constantly and have more books than bookshelves, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
I celebrate reading every day at work and at home with my two children, aged 11 and 9.
I sit on the National Executive Committee for the Federation of Children’s Book Groups and run an OU/UKLA Teachers as Readers group!
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My Shelves Are Full 