Illustrated Books: Our Family's Favourites

These are a few beautiful, heartwarming or just funny illustrated books that our family gathered during the years. They are not as famous as they deserve.
I (we) love them because
  • the stories are quirky and surprising and can be at times very deep;
  • they are great for "aloud-reading", making funny voices, adding emphasis where it is needed, letting your child to learn & shout punchlines at the right moment;
  • illustrations are stunningly beautiful and have the rare quality of being "fun-to-look-at"
  • repetition, repetition, repetition that young children love
  • they bring back memories (ok, this applies only to my family, but I promise it will work for you as well, only the memories will be different I guess)

The Troll by Julia Donaldson and David Roberts. A troll impatiently waiting under a bridge, a crew of lousy pirates and a surprise finale. A surreal story by the uber-famous author of the Gruffalo, we even turned it into a play for our extended family during a Christmas holiday.

By the same authors, follow Jack while he braves the sea to save his granny in Jack and the Flum Flum Tree. Great if you like rhymes and making funny noises.

Captain Toby and Sheep in wolves clothes by Satoshi Kitamura. Satoshi Kitamura is a genius, his stories are quirky and full of nonsense.

Halibut Jackson by David Lucas. A sweet, heartwarming story about overcoming your shyness, with stunning illustrations.

That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown (and all the books of the Emily Brown series) by Cressida Cowell and Neal Layton. The spoiled Queen Gloriana wants Emily's rabbit Stanley at all costs and will try *everything*. Fun, fun and more fun.

The Fabulous Fairy Feast by Sue Heap is colorful, full of magic and teaches not to mess around with magic wands, especially if you are a frog.

An absolute favourite of mine, Good Days Bad Days by Catherine and Laurence Anholt: because it's never too soon to learn that life can be hard but still worth living to the full.

You may have seen the TV show and the books that come with it, but the original Octonauts books by MEOMI are a gem - and quite different from the show too!

And finally, two books for younger children that we have spent endless hours reading: Hooray for Fish by Lucy Cousins ...





... And Faster, Faster! Nice and Slow! by Nick Sharratt and Sue Heap.

And that's all! Enjoy!

One final final thing: the images are picture I have taken from copies of the books that we own. Do I have permission to publish them? Not really, if it is an issue please get in touch and I will remove them promptly.


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