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Find out moreA new selection of books especially chosen to introduce toddlers and young children to the world, through colours, shapes, numbers, letters and more.
April 2019 Book of the Month | Bounce like a bunny, spring like a lamb, leap like a frog, hop like a chick – pre-schoolers will have a ball guessing what animal adorable, active Ted is about to imitate before lifting the flaps for the big reveals. Bright, bold and with plenty for little ones to giggle over as they get involved, this is the very best kind of board book – the kind that toddlers will request over-and-over (and over!) again.
This absolutely stunning book turns the alphabet into a wild exploration of the animal world as readers are presented with 26 different creatures across colourful pages, all featuring pop ups or peep through cut outs to make this unforgettable. Questions to readers, as well as its ingenious layout, make it a superb interactive reading experience – ‘Who is prettier than an ant?’ asks the text: ‘A butterfly’ is the answer. ‘Who has more legs than a butterfly?’ a caterpillar, and so on. Some of the questions are delightfully quirky: ‘Who is more wobbly than an iguana?’ (Can you guess?), but each one, combined with the striking artwork will draw the reader into the wonderful world of the Animalphabet.
Take the very young on a trip into the high mountains in this excellent first information book. Each page features a stunning pop-up depicting one of the animals native to the mountains, from wolf to bear, from Bald Eagle to a Rainbow Trout, particularly beautiful and dramatic in rich reds and greens. The animals are introduced via lines of verse while elsewhere on the page short lines of text convey interesting and intriguing facts. The pop-ups are not only beautiful but sturdy enough to stand repeated readings, and this is a book to inspire the very young.
Playful and kind, Elmer is the perfect companion for the very young and they’ll find a delightful echo of their own day in his. From waking up through lunchtime, playtime, bath and bedtime, Elmer is a happy presence and each page is full of life, and things to talk about. Specially shaped sturdy tabs are lovely to look at and useful too for little fingers as they turn the pages. David McKee’s artwork always dazzles and suits the board book format very well.
Shortlisted for the UKLA Book Awards 2019 | A beautiful picture book about friendship and art. Bob and Bat are best friends. They do everything together (look out for the wonderful illustration of them dancing to the radio!) but best of all they love painting. Then one day Bat leaves a note for Bob explaining that he has to go away for a while. Bob is bereft, indeed just how sad is clear not just in his attitude, but in his paintings: whatever he paints is blue, representative of the big blue hole where Bat used to be. Fortunately his other friends come to his help, opening his eyes to the colourful beauty and hope of a sun rise, and shortly after that, Bat returns too. This is simply gorgeous to look at, and opens up all sorts of discussions about friendship, resilience, art and expression.
Counting from one to ten is great fun with this jolly, carefully thought-out board book. There’s just one line of text on each page, short but interesting with some nicely onomatopoeic language (tractors chugging, fire trucks rumbling). This describes the scene and numbers the vehicles. Readers are also asked questions and given extra things to count and find, a good way to keep and hold their attention. The illustrations are bright and attractive, lots of fun to look at, and the machines each carry smiling animal characters – stories in waiting there. A round tab on each page reinforces number recognition and makes it easy for little hands to turn the pages. ~ Andrea Reece There's a companion title, Amazing Machines First Words too!
This robust, beautifully illustrated board book is a great way to teach young children about nature, and will also boost their vocabulary. Themed under headings such as gardens and parks; feathers, eggs and nests; and rocks and gems, the pages feature an array of birds, animals, insects and plants, all clearly illustrated and labelled. Many will be familiar to UK children, the little wren for example, branch of ivy, or dandelion clock, while others are more exotic – the Baobab tree, or Arctic fox. Each page, each object is lovely to look at and provides so much to spot and discuss. ~ Andrea Reece
Join everyone's favourite pet, and learn to count with MOG! Mog is the forgetful cat that everybody loves, and now you can learn to count with her in this brand new book for very young readers. This delightful book is the perfect introduction to counting and with its gorgeous illustrations and Mog's unique humour it's sure to remain a favourite for years to come. Perfect for very young readers from ages two and up.
Lovely to look at, this is an effective way of learning to count up to five, and in five different languages too. Each page features a child, who each speaks a different language: Spanish, Mandarin, English, French and Japanese. A special panel down the side features little vignettes of their faces, press them and you can hear the children counting to five in their own language. Readers will quickly be joining in, and there’s lots more to hold their attention on the pages too, as well as extra phrases to try out. An ingenious method of putting the fun into language learning, and a way of showing children how much they share with other nationalities, even though we all speak different languages. ~ Andrea Reece
A Julia Eccleshare Pick of the Month March 2018 There are many books of opposites, none like this. Opposites – big, small; messy, tidy; loud, quiet – are illustrated via vivid, stylish depictions of animals. A giraffe for example is high – so high there’s simply not room to depict neck or head, while on the opposite page a brightly coloured snake slithers through the grass to illustrate low. Some concepts are startling in their vocabulary – a peacock, tail outspread, is ‘fancy’ while a crow on the facing page is ‘sober’. Each picture tells a story too, the tiger up close licking its lips while three antelope - ‘far’ - tear off into the distance on the opposite page. A book that combines learning and discovery, words and pictures working together perfectly. ~ Andrea Reece A beautiful wordless book of opposites which will inspire young readers to think and imagine. In stylishly illustrations set onto an empty background a fancy peacock is contrasted with a sober blackbird, a big elephant with a small mouse, a slow tortoise with a fast cheetah and a stripy bee with a spotty ladybird. stimulating to look at and fun to talk about. ~ Julia Eccleshare Julia Eccleshare's Picks of the Month for March 2018 The Lotterys Plus One by Emma Donoghue King Coo by Adam Stower Splish, Splash, Ducky! by Lucy Cousins We Are Not Frogs! (Little Gems) by Michael Morpurgo The Sorry Tale of Fox and Bear by Margrete Lamond Song of the Dolphin Boy by Elizabeth Laird What Do People Do All Day? (50th anniversary edition) by Richard Scarry Bird House by Libby Walden Bug Hotel by Libby Walden Alone Together by Clayton Junior The Lost Penguin by Claire Freedman
A wonderfully inventive and original search-and-find book, The Alphabet of Alphabets will keep children entertained for hours. Each page features a different alphabet of things, one for each letter of the alphabet, from B is for birds to Z is for zoo, via H is for hats (a personal favourite) and R is for reptiles. Allan Sanders’ meticulously drawn artwork fills busy scenes with activity, and in each there’s a complete A – Z of things to find. Sometimes there are two separate alphabets to discover and, in extra challenges, there’s a queen to find on every page, and a pair of underpants too. Some of the words illustrated will be new to children – exosphere, Kepi and Zamboni for example – and a note at the back encourages the use of a dictionary. ~ Andrea Reece
There’s so much for very young children to discover when they peep inside the sea in the pages of this excellent board book. Each page features a different ocean scene, from the seashore to the darkest depths. Lifting the sturdy flaps reveals all sorts of secrets, an anemone uncurling its wriggly tentacles, or an enormous whale and its baby. One delicately patterned flap hides a leafy sea dragon, ‘its body looks just like seaweed’. It’s a visual treat, while extra die cuts on each page make this a really satisfying tactile experience too, and it’s packed to the gills with information. ~ Andrea Reece
It's never to early to read to children and this selection of picture books are a great introduction to first concepts, perfect for even the youngest babies.
Through colour, touch, sound and shapes young children start to make sense of the world around them.
ABC See and say all the letters of the alphabet by Aino-Maija Metsola
Alone Together by Clayton Junior
My First 123 by Shirley Hughes
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