I’m
a children’s book author and illustrator and I have a special fondness for
picture books. They’re often a child’s first experience of reading — or being
read to, and that’s such a magical time! I still remember my favourite picture
books as a child. I’m also a crazy cat person and I love all cats, big and
small. My first picture book, Tiger in a Tutu, is about a tiger who lives in
Paris Zoo but wants to be a ballet dancer. I
made a small list of my favourite tiger picture books for you. I hope you enjoy
it.
Little
Tigers tells the story of a mom tiger and her cubs searching for a new safe
place to live. It’s a simple story about animals and survival, but it serves as
a metaphor for humans too; when the place where we live isn’t safe anymore,
don’t we seek refuge in a new home too? This book is perfect in every way, and
Jo’s charcoal illustrations are just magical.
Told through the eyes of a tiger and her two cubs, this beautiful book is a celebration of the love between parent and child, and the wonders of the natural world.
There are humans in the jungle... So Mother Tiger and her cubs need to leave their den. Follow them on their journey through the deepest parts of the jungle, exploring its secret places, in search of somewhere warm and dry to lay their heads. A safe place. A new home.
With evocative charcoal drawings and gentle, lyrical storytelling, Little Tigers has the feel of an instant classic. Perfect for…
As children, my brother and I were constant playmates. He was an early riser and often woke me up so our day of play could begin as soon as possible. I have sight, and my brother is blind. Play for us was an all-senses experience. We felt the rumble of our bikes on the street, listened to the screech of the metal swing set, and guessed spices by their smell. We also devoured stories. We listened to audiobooks, he read to me in Braille, and I read to him. All of these experiences, and more, prepared me to be an author of numerous children’s books with sensory details to make stories come alive.
This other classic book was one of our well-worn favorites. My brother and I read it so many times that I still can recite it by heart.
The pages are filled with the various sounds Mr. Brown can make: “He can go like the rain, dibble, dibble, dibble, dopp. Dibble, dibble, dibble, dibble, dopp, dopp, dopp.” The text also asks the reader to make the sounds, and the bouncy language is so much fun to try.
Moo moo! Hoo hoo! Cock-a-doodle-doo! Oh, the wonderful sounds Mr. Brown can do. Now see if you can do them too!
Oh, the wonderful things Mr. Brown can do! He can go like a cow. He can go MOO MOO. This fabulous and fun book from the one and only Dr. Seuss is ideal for teaching young children all about noises!
With his unique combination of hilarious stories, zany pictures and riotous rhymes, Dr. Seuss has been delighting young children and helping them learn to read for over fifty years. Creator of the wonderfully anarchic Cat in the Hat, and…
As the white parent of both a white child and a child of color, the discrepancies of representation and inclusivity in children’s literature is an important conversation in our home. Seeing themselves in books allows all children to dream big, feel seen, and know there is a place in this world for them. I hope both of my books, All Bears Need Love and Little Taco Truck do exactly that. I know the list of brilliant books I’ve suggested here are wonderful examples of inclusivity and diversity that young readers need.
All Are Welcome Here follows school children throughout their day to reveal and celebrate many cultures, backgrounds, nationalities, races, body types, clothes, food, etc. Everyone is represented in this beautiful book, allowing children to find themselves and their families among the pages. The repetition of “All are welcome here” throughout the story reinforces the simple and important Celebration of diversity and inclusivity.
A bright and uplifting celebration of cultural diversity and belonging, where all children are welcome in the classroom
'If your little one is a little nervous about fitting in and whether they'll belong at school, pick up All Are Welcome' Barnes & Noble
No matter how you start your day,
What you wear when you play,
Or if you come from far away,
All are welcome here.
Follow a group of children through a day in their school, where everyone is welcome. A school where children in patkas, hijabs, baseball caps and yarmulkes play side by side. A school where…
Music has always been a thread that’s connected me to people and events my whole life. It’s a universal language and one that can bring you closer to people. Playing, singing, or listening to music can transport you, keep you in the moment, or change your mood. It’s a love I’ve had all my life, and it helped me meet my husband! I was lucky enough to join his band on tour in our younger days, and many of those experiences have shaped the picture books I’ve made.
I adore this whole series by Marion Billet. It was hard to pick just one as the classical music, the four seasons, music from around the world, and nutcracker (to name some of the more music-based ones!) are just fantastic. They make babies, toddlers and even older readers react physically to the sound of the music they’re hearing and delight in the bright bold illustrations. They’re a great way to introduce different types of music or instruments.
The rock and roll cats in this book are a particular favorite of mine, as I used to jive regularly in London until our teacher moved away to Nashville! I gifted this book to my two-year-old niece, and even her older sisters would all join in trying out different dance moves to the music. Great fun.
An internationally bestselling series of board books with amazing real-life sounds!
This brand new edition includes replaceable AAA batteries and an exciting 'Look and Find' game on the final page. Press the button, recognise the sounds, then point at the right picture!
What do the tango, Charleston, salsa, rock 'n' roll and hip-hop sound like? Push the buttons to find out!
Aimed at babies and toddlers, this ground-breaking series of interactive board books has a button on every spread, which plays one of five different exceptional quality sound effects. Children of every age will be captivated as they bring the…
Plus, Catherine's
1, and 3-year-old's favorite books.
Why Catherine's
3-year-old loves this book
Between Julia Donaldson’s inimitable rhyming style and Axel Scheffler’s ebullient drawings, this book has become a modern classic, and with good reason. It has everything to appeal to an imaginative 3-year-old like mine: knights, castles, flying dragons, and the recognisable, daily frustration of trying to win adult approval.
My son has actually learnt a lot about storytelling from this book and regularly uses phrases he’s picked up here to construct stories of his own. Fun for both adults and children, this book is a clear winner in our house.
1
author picked
Zog
as one of their favorite books, and they share
why you should read it.
This book is for kids age
2,
3,
4, and
5.
What is this book about?
The magical and exciting picture book from the number one bestselling author and illustrator of The Gruffalo, Zog and Stick Man. 'Madam Dragon ran a school, many moons ago.
She taught young dragons all the things that dragons need to know.
Zog, the biggest dragon, was the keenest one by far.
He tried his hardest every day to win a golden star.'
Zog is the keenest dragon in school. He's also the most accident-prone, flying into trees and even setting his own wing on fire.
Luckily, a mysterious little girl always comes by and patches up his bumps and bruises.…
I never knew Turkeys had so much personality—that is until I lived with a family high in the Andes Mountains of Peru, and met their turkey Pavito. When they scraped leftovers into a trough for their dogs, Pavito would come running too (certain that he was just “one of the dogs”). He would chase me around the courtyard or sit nearby making strange gurgling noises. He became the star character in my books. As a teacher and mother of 5, I have seen which picture books young readers respond to best—those they connect to, laugh at, remember, and which hold their attention.
Thankful, is a beautiful list of simple, everyday things that people are thankful for, from a poet being thankful for words that rhyme to children being thankful for morning storytime. It is a great reminder that we can be thankful for the simple things in life (things that we might not usually think of when asked to name something we are grateful for). It has engaging, rhyming text that is meant to be read aloud, while young readers delight in the details of the charming illustrations.
Celebrate everyday blessings, practice thankfulness, and observe the wonderful acts of service that keep us going each and every day. Eileen Spinelli, bestselling and award-winning children's author, charms with rhymes and whimsy in Thankful, perfect for any young reader and their family.
Thankful is a heartwarming board book that teaches children ages 0-4 to:
Focus on the blessings that we often take for granted
Appreciate essential workers and what people in our everyday lives provide: "Like the gardener thankful for every green sprout, and the fireman, for putting the fire out."
I’d been a preschool teacher and a children’s author for years before I decided to become a mom. I was pretty sure I’d kill it at motherhood, I mean, I knew all the songs and I had lots of books. I was always up for giving advice to the caregivers at my school, heck, I was the perfect parent before my son was born. I knew everything then. Not anymore. Thank goodness for books. Over the years, my child has asked some tough questions, read on…you’ll see. Do they sound familiar? If so, these books might help you find your footing as you go looking for answers.
“When we couldn’t go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, were they playing without me?”
It’s hard for me to put the last two years into context for my son. I was a little detached. I was busy thinking about the future, a “someday soon” when we could be around people, go to the movies, go to school, hug our friends…I feel like I missed nearly half of his life! This book is a reminder of what we’ve experienced, how we’ve changed, and how we got to the place we are now.
From Caldecott honoree LeUyen Pham, Outside, Inside is a moving picture book celebrating essential workers and the community coming together to face the challenges of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Something strange happened in 2020, just before the seasons changed. Everyone who was outside, went inside. Outside, it was quieter and different. Inside, we laughed, we cried, we baked, we exercised, we kept in touch... and we grew. We remembered to protect the ones we love and love the ones who protect us. We watched with admiration and respect as key workers risked their own wellbeing to help others. We knew…
I am a novelist and journalist who has been writing about war and refugees for nearly two decades. In 2018, I went to the Greek island of Samos, which held one of the most inhumane refugee camps in Europe, to talk to people there about their lives and hopes. Out of this, I wrote several articles and later two books, including The Good Deed. My hope is to counteract the demonization of refugees, so rife in the world today, by bringing out all that we humans have in common, such as our need for shelter, food, family, safety, and love.
I read this book a few years ago and have never forgotten it, it affected me so profoundly.
It tells the story of two Kurdish brothers in a mountain village in Iran who are forced to flee persecution and slaughter, one of whom ends up in California. Khadivi, Iranian herself, tells this with such haunting beauty and honesty that it still gives me chills to remember it.
It's part of a trilogy, and I've read all three, but this is my favorite volume.
Two brothers from a small Iranian mountain village-Saladin, who has always dreamed of leaving, and Ali, who has never given it a thought-are forced to flee for their lives in the aftermath of a political killing. The journey is beset by trouble from the start, but over the treacherous mountains they go, on foot to Istanbul and onward by freighter to the Azores.There, after a painful parting, Saladin alone continues on the final leg, on a cargo plane all the way to Los Angeles. He will have a new life in California, but will never be whole again without his…
I am a cultural historian, film critic, literary critic, editor, and essayist–and a closeted fiction writer–fascinated by ‘the fantastic’ in art or in life. And Christmas seems to me the perfect example of a time that unites realism and the strange–the time of ghost stories and nativities. I wrote a book on It’s a Wonderful Life (2023) because it triumphantly succeeds at bridging the connection between ordinary life and the marvelous. I have also edited anthologies of Victorian and Edwardian ghost stories, The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce (Penguin, 2010), and Victorian Fairy Tales (Oxford World’s Classics, 2015), both of which include many seasonal classics.
As a dad, I’ve spent every December for at least the last dozen years returning to read out loud once again a set of children’s Christmas classics. With no slight to Dr. Seuss and the Grinch, it’s Judith Kerr’s Christmas story that I am most happy to read again. I asked my youngest daughter this morning why it’s the best choice, and she simply said, ‘Because it’s got Mog in it.’
Being a creature of habit, Kerr’s anti-heroic cat rather dislikes the Christmas celebrations, and opts out, as the Grinch would too. But as the Christmas story means new life in the dark of midwinter, then it's only appropriate that the books end with reconciliation and pleasure. And the aunts and uncles who stay with Mog’s family bring back to me relatives who were young in the 1930s and who visited us for our own family Christmases.
The enchanting classic Christmas story of Mog - everyone's favourite family cat! This funny and warm-hearted escapade has a stunning foiled cover for extra Christmas sparkle. As seen on TV!
From the creator of The Tiger Who Came to Tea and Mog the Forgetful Cat comes the delightful Christmas adventure about a really remarkable cat!
It's Christmas, and Mog's house is full of strange noises and peculiar smells. Everyone is busy hanging holly and blowing up balloons, and where is that tree going...? But it's always a Merry Christmas in the end when you're with Mog and her family.
As an animal advocate and part-time pet sitter, I wanted to instill the love of animals to babies with a fun board book. I’ve always enjoyed the surprise factor of lift-the-flaps so I was thrilled when Squeak-a-boo! was published. These types of books make for wonderful interactive bonding moments between reader and baby. I hope you enjoy the books on this list, not only for their fun concepts and text, but also for their colorful illustrations.
This Panda is very certain about what he likes and doesn’t like.
You could say he’s very black and white about his opinions. And that’s why the mostly black-and-white paper cut illustrations work even more! Panda’s house is stark as well.
Then one day he begrudgingly accepts a red flower from an elephant which throws him off. But in the end he makes it work. I love the graphic look of the art.
Celebrate the joys of fresh perspectives and unexpected beauty in this touching lift-the-flap picture book from paper engineer Jackie HuangPersnickety Mr. Panda likes his world to be just so. His decisions are always easy: yes or no; good or bad; right or wrong; black or white . . . until one day when the gift of a red flower changes everything. Touching, clever, and with a great message about remaining flexible and open to the beauty in the world, this lift-the-flap picture book is an innovative and heartwarming story sure to resonate with readers. Author-illustrator Jackie Huang brings her utterly…
