Ben receives a penguin as a present, but no matter what he does—singing, dancing, tickling, even sending him to space—the penguin refuses to speak. Ben’s frustration builds into a two‑page tantrum familiar to many parents and children. In anger, he tries to feed the penguin to a lion, but the lion devours noisy Ben instead. At last, the penguin acts—biting the lion’s nose to save his friend.

Dunbar’s clear, simple sentences and repeated refrain, “Penguin said nothing,” makes this an ideal choice for early readers, reinforcing rhythm and language sounds. The stark illustrations—often just Ben and the penguin on a white page—capture silence and tension beautifully.

What sets the book apart is how it invites children to imagine what the penguin might be thinking, until the final twist reveals he has plenty to say. Whether real or imagined, the penguin proves himself a loyal friend. Inspired by a gift from Dunbar’s brother, this playful story celebrates friendship, patience, and imagination.

Walker Books, 2017. 10th Anniversary Edition

ISBN 978 1 4063 7331 8

The New York Times #1 Bestseller

This delightful picture book explores emotions, friendship, and how activities can help lift a bad mood. Its strength lies in how it playfully validates emotional health, showing that naming a feeling—like being grumpy—can help us sit with it, even if it doesn’t go away.

Jim Panzee wakes up grumpy. “The sun was too bright, the sky was too blue and the bananas were too sweet.” His friends notice his hunched posture, bunched eyebrows, and frown. Though Jim tries to smile, “he didn’t feel happy inside.” They suggest singing, jumping, and other mood-lifters, but nothing works. In a striking scene, Jim tells off his friends—grouped on the left side of the page—then runs off alone, a small figure on the right. He later shares his regret with Norman, who’s sore from dancing with Porcupine. Together, they decide it’s okay to be grumpy for a while.

Max Lang’s digitally rendered jungle scenes amplify the humour and emotion, with expressive animal faces and striking layouts. The uncluttered text makes it ideal for pre-schoolers and early readers. A bonus section at the back offers fascinating facts about primates—an unexpected treat.

Puffin Books, 2023.

ISBN 978 0 241 62869 0

Tags: mood, emotions.

This whimsical tale follows Adelaide, a kangaroo born with wings. As she grows, so do her wings—until one day, she leaves home, following a plane across the world to places like India. When she arrives in Paris, she decides to stay. A playful moment with a customs official inspecting her pouch sets the tone for her adventures.

Adelaide becomes a music hall sensation and later performs a heroic rescue, saving two children from a burning building. She falls in love with Leon, a fellow kangaroo from the zoo, and they marry.

The pen and watercolour illustrations, rendered in sepia and blue, are simple yet rich in detail. One memorable scene shows Adelaide frightened by the gargoyles of Notre Dame, only to be comforted by angels.

Though the storyline is zany, the deeper theme is about embracing who you are. As Tomi Ungerer himself explains, “I think it’s about the way some children can feel themselves ‘different’ but they can still survive, and more than that, succeed” (Tomi Ungerer: Official Website). That’s a powerful message for young readers.

With its short sentences and expressive images, this book is well-suited to early readers.

Tomi Ungerer (1931–2019) was born in Strasbourg, France, and lived and worked in New York, Canada, Ireland, and Alsace. The Musée Tomi Ungerer opened in Strasbourg in 2007 to acknowledge his legacy, making him the first living artist in France to be so honoured.

📚 Recommended for ages 3-6

Phaidon Press Limited, 2011 (1st publ. in German in 1980).

ISBN 978 0 7148 608 3 1

Japan Picture Book Awards Grand Prize in 2011

Kikko’s dad sets out one snowy day to bring a pie to her grandma in the woods which unfortunately he forgets. Dressed in a black coat, red hat, and gloves Kikko hurries after him with the pie. She follows a figure she thinks is her father but, in her hurry, she falls and squashes the pie. Soon she comes to a big house and realises the figure she has been following is not her father but a bear who is going to a tea party! The animals invite her to join them. They replenish her broken pie with a selection of treats and escort her safely to her grandmother’s house to ensure her safety. When a little girl sets out into the woods on her own, we expect darkness but, here the journey becomes light.

Visually, the book is striking: mostly black-and-white charcoal drawings with flashes of red and yellow. The cover shows Kikki in a snow-filled woods with a squirrel high up in a tree while a hare hides behind the trunk of a tree. The simple clear text and the quality of the paper and illustrations make this a tactile delight.

A story of friendship and gentleness, The Tea Party in the Woods is a visual feast that could almost stand as a wordless picture book, so deep is the storytelling in its art.

📚 Recommended for ages 3-6

ISBN 978 1 77138 107 9

Kids Can Press, 2015 (translation), 1st publ.2010 as Mori no Oku no Ochakai e.

This story is about Moon Lake, a secret lake hidden behind a deep canyon, known by few. Legend has it that the moon leaves silver stones after bathing in the lake.

In the mountains, far from the lake, lived an old shepherd and his grandson, Peter, who looked after sheep. Before the old man could tell his grandson how to find the lake, he passed away. Peter continued sheep farming after his grandfather's death. He accidentally finds the lake while searching for a missing sheep. After finding the gemstones, he picks up some and befriends a fox who helps him get home.

Peter faces a threat from the town's selfish people, including the king, if he doesn't lead them to the hidden jewels. Peter is obliged to guide them to the lake. Upon arrival, the men gather the jewels greedily. They die in the ravine after disregarding Peter’s warning to leave before dawn.  

Peter goes back to the lake to take jewels for his sheep's ears so he can find them in the dark. He wants jewels in his window for working at night and to help Fox find his home.

In this book, pastel watercolors work well with the beautiful text. The sheep's ear jewels shine at night, and the moon and gemstones reflect light on the pages. Ivan Gantschev's work is a shimmering masterpiece.  

Ivan Gantschev (1925-2014) is a Bulgarian-German illustrator and author.

📚 Recommended for ages 4-8

Publisher: North-South Books, 1996

(1st publ. 1981)

ISBN 9 781 55858 598 2

*Winner of the Newbery Award 1929

Millions of cats is a delightfully simple story of a couple who want a cat because they are lonely. The husband’s long journey to find a cat is shown in Wanda Ga’g’s use of both pages. When he returns with “millions and billions and trillions” of cats, which features as a lovely rhyme in the book, the wife must decide which one to keep. Which is the prettiest cat? Or is that what matters most?

This book is the oldest illustrated book in America, first published in 1928. Up to then America mostly imported its illustrated books from the United Kingdom.

Wanda Ga’g was born in rural Minnesota, USA and the Literary Hub describes her as both an “artist and lithographer”. The simplicity of the story is matched by clear type and spacing that allowed for future translation. Indeed, the hand-lettered text designed by Wanda’s brother was a first for picture books.

📚 Recommended for ages 3-6

Puffin Books 2006 (1st publ. 1928)

ISBN 978 014 2407080

*Won The Library Association Kate Greenaway Medal.

This is a delightful story about a bear scared of the dark, representing so many young children’s fears of the dark. Father Bear offers bigger and bigger lanterns within the Bear Cave, but none are big enough to settle the little bear’s anxieties. Finally, father bear brings little bear outside the cave into the darkness and there the brightness of the moon and the stars allay his fears.

The close relationship between Big Bear and Little Bear is conveyed in the bears’ faces. The repetition of words is soothing and is useful for a child learning to read. This is a book that was read repeatedly in our household when the children were small.

Can’t you Sleep Little Bear?  is part of the Little Bear series written by Martin Waddell, illustrated by Barbara Firth. Martin Waddell is a prolific children’s writer from Belfast, Northern Ireland while Firth grew up in Hyde, Cheshire in England.

📚 Recommended for ages 3-6

Walker Books 2013 (1st publ. 1988)

ISBN 978 156 402 2622

Tags: Darkness; Nighttime Fears; Bedtime; Picture Books. 

This gentle classic tells the story of an imagined friendship between a bear and the moon. When Bear decides he wants to give the moon a birthday present, he sets off to ask when its birthday is. As he climbs trees, paddles rivers, and hikes into the mountains, Bear eventually hears an echo—and believes it’s the moon replying.

Through this sweet misunderstanding, Bear learns that the moon also wants a hat for its birthday. He leaves a hat in a tree, and when the moon moves in the sky, it appears to “wear” it. The bear is delighted. The hat falls from the tree due to the wind and when the bear finds it on his doorstep, he believes the moon has ‘gifted’ it to him.

The artwork is simple, reminiscent of colouring book lines with earthy greens, browns, and blues. Circular illustrations echo the moon’s shape, while generous white space and large text make it easy for little readers to follow. The gentle repetition of phrases, due to the echoing sentences, encourages participation and language play—ideal for toddlers and preschoolers.

Written and illustrated by American author Frank Asch, Happy Birthday, Moon remains a quietly magical book more than forty years after it was first published.

📚Recommended for ages 2–6

Picture Corgi Books, 1985 (1st publ. 1984)

ISBN 0 552262 752

Hervé Tullet’s Press Here is more than a read—it’s an experience. A simple tap on a yellow dot becomes an adventure in colour and number that’s full of surprise and delight. Children are invited to shake, tilt, clap, and press their way through an energetic, imaginative journey—no electronics, no flaps—just the magic of print and participation.

As children follow the prompts, they’re not only reading—they’re exploring colour recognition, basic counting, and most importantly, the joy of engaging directly with a book.

The design is bold yet minimal: large dots in primary colours, clean typography, and intuitive directions. The hardback edition, with its glossy pages, feels durable and inviting—perfect for small hands. While there’s also a smaller board-book format, the original size allows the artwork and movement to breathe, making it ideal for story times and shared reading.

One of the loveliest things is watching children who aren’t used to this kind of freedom with books. There’s often a flicker of disbelief—Am I really allowed to do this? —followed by delight. I once shared Press Here with a six-year-old reluctant reader who was instantly captivated. Her joy was so real, she had to take a copy of the book home.

Known in France as the “Prince of Preschool,” Tullet has created over eighty books, but Press Here remains iconic. He refers to his books as “unfinished,” waiting for children to complete them. That spirit of collaboration and play is what makes Press Here so memorable. Tullet has given us a masterclass in interactive storytelling.

📚 Recommended for ages 3–6, especially tactile learners, preschoolers, and reluctant readers.

Chronicle Books, Hardbook, 2011.

ISBN 978 0 8118 7954 5

Tags: Interactive Book, Preschool, Playful

This picture book is a delightful story about three little owls, Sarah, Percy and Bill at night.  They wake up in the dark to find their mother gone. They are scared and each expresses their feelings in different ways. Sarah, the eldest baby owl says she’s gone hunting for food. Percy, the middle owl, is also calm. Baby owl Bill is upset “I want my mummy!”  Sarah ever comforting suggests they huddle together on one branch.

The text in this picture book is clear expressing the baby owls’ anxiety about their mother who is absent. The text is beautifully supported by the illustrations throughout as in the scene “a big branch for Sarah, a small branch for Percy, and an old bit of ivy for Bill”. The aloneness of the owls is evident in a perspective of three tiny owls in the distance sitting in a verdant green tree landscape.

Patrick Benson’s illustrations in this book are so tactile that you feel you can almost reach out and touch the owls’ downy white feathers, in contrast with their mother’s brown feathers. In a series of close-ups, Benson exquisitely illustrates the baby owls’ fears of abandonment. His use of watercolour and ink to capture the backdrop of forest and night time is magical.

This is a book for babies and toddlers. The large clear type which changes colour cleverly to suit the illustrations would allow children from the age of 3+ to follow the text and makes it a suitable book also for slightly older children learning to read.

Martin Waddell is a prolific children’s writer from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is especially well known for his collaborations with the illustrator Barbara Firth on the Little Bear series.

Recommended for ages 1–6

The O’Brien Press, Dublin, 1992.

Tags: Separation anxiety; Nighttime; Owls; Literacy.

The Whales’ Song is a dreamlike picture book that celebrates the wonder of imagination and the enduring mystery of the sea. Lilly’s grandmother tells her enchanting stories of whales—how they sing, how they move, and how, if offered a gift, they might even make contact. Lilly is captivated, her heart opening to the possibility of hearing their haunting songs.

The contrast between the grandmother’s reverence for the whales and the grandfather’s brusque dismissal—“whales are for eating”—introduces a gentle tension, one that plays out quietly in both text and illustration. A particularly striking spread shows the domestic scene from above: Lilly curled up in her grandmother’s lap, the cat dozing nearby, while her grandfather's leg disappears off the edge of the page as he leaves the room. It’s a brilliant use of perspective, full of unspoken feeling.

The illustrations throughout are luminous. Close-up portraits of Lilly and her grandmother feel almost magical in their intimacy, while double-page spreads show the grandeur of the whales framed in white borders. The atmosphere of Lilly’s night-time encounters with the whales is deepened by the evocative use of shade and light. Moonlit oceans shimmer in tones of sepia and cream.

Together, author and illustrator have crafted a story that is a tribute to the animal kingdom, the gift of storytelling, and the space in children’s lives for wonder.

📚 Recommended for ages 3-6

Red Fox (Random House Children’s Books), 1993.

ISBN 0 09973760 4

Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins is a deceptively simple fun tale. The premise is straightforward: Rosie the hen sets off for a walk around the farmyard, unaware that a fox is sneaking behind her every step of the way. What follows is a playful sequence of near-misses, as Rosie blithely avoids danger time and again—completely unaware of the chaos unfolding behind her.

The true charm of this book lies in its pantomime-style humour. Children will quickly catch on to the “behind you!” drama on each page, gleefully anticipating what misadventure will befall the hapless fox next. It’s a masterclass in visual storytelling: the text (one sentence) is minimal, often just a word or two per spread, while the pictures carry the full weight of the narrative, creating tension and comic payoff in equal measure.

The colour palette is warm, dominated by sunny yellows, oranges, and earthy tones that evoke a late summer’s day. The illustrations are bold with simple graphics while the large clear font makes this book an excellent choice for beginner readers.

📚 Recommended for ages 3

Puffin Books. 1970 (Ist publ. 1968).

ISBN 014 050032 4