My dear friend Nicci, who has impeccable taste in kids’ books, recommended Follow the Line by Laura Ljungkvist in a comment on this blog.

The latest book in the same series, Follow the Line Around the World was released in the US in May and is due out in Australia next month.

The concept at the heart of these books is one of those deceptively simple ideas that is very, very clever. The illustrations are based around a single continuous line that winds its way through the entire book to form a multitude of objects: buildings, faces, vehicles and animals. As a wise commissioning editor once taught me, sometimes the simplest forms of expression are the subject of a great deal of effort and thought. I’m sure that principle is true for the artwork in these books.

As a reader, you can’t help but obey the book’s title, and follow the line with your finger across each double-spread as it forms skyscrapers, sailing boats, fish, trees and more. Behind the main line sit flat shapes in bold retro colours, filling in selected detail. A typewriter font and lovely matt paper add to the retro impression. Sometimes I hold a book in my hands and am just so happy to count it as my own, and Follow the Line is one of these! As Nicci commented, this is a book that bears repeat reading, and will be especially appreciated by design-conscious mums and dads.

The author’s website illustrates the line in motion and is good fun.

Don’t forget to enter our current competition to be eligible to win a gorgeous book backpack – entries close shortly!

When I was little I loved a book called The Rabbits’ Wedding. It was written and illustrated in 1958 by Garth Williams, who is probably best known for his illustration of American classics Charlotte’s Web by E.B.White and also of the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I distinctly remember my dad reading this book to me and being absolutely besotted with it. Judging by all the customer reviews on Amazon I wasn’t the only one.

I have always been a bit of a romantic and quite sensitive to a love story in a book or on film and perhaps this book was the beginning of that. These two little rabbits, one black and one white, are best friends; they play all day together but every now and then the black rabbit stops playing and starts to look sad. “I’m just thinking about my wish,” says the little black rabbit to the white rabbit. “I just wish I could be with you forever and always”. Not even conscious as to the concept of marriage, I can really remember thinking how beautiful it was that the rabbits wanted to be together always.
And so all the rabbits in the forest come and dance a wedding circle around the two and the little black rabbit was never sad again because they lived in the forest together happily ever after.

The story is pretty simple but Garth Williams’ illustrations are what makes this book so special; the wide eyed rabbits are just divine and the little black rabbit makes my heart melt when he is sad. I still love this book today and I still believe in a good love/friendship story. (The Rabbits’ Wedding is still in print.)

Luckily I never realised that in its home of publication, the US, the book caused absolute controversy and was banned in some states because it portrayed a black and white rabbit getting married and was seen by some to be encouraging and promoting interracial relationships.

Katie and I thought we should start featuring some books on this blog that we loved as children, so we will write about one title each week. There is a wonderful blog which does this every day, Vintage Kids’ Books My Kid Loves, written by the talented Burgin Streetman. Burgin is so devoted to vintage children’s books and we love it.

One of the things I used to love about working in bookstores was when new boxes arrived from publishers. It was like Christmas every month, the anticipation and the joy of finding out what was inside.

Now I get that feeling when I walk into a bookshop to see what is new on the shelves and also when I’m browsing the internet, checking out other peoples blogs for new and exciting books.

A couple of days a go I came across Suzy Lee on Amazon. The book is Wave and it is wordless.

Suzy Lee is amazing and I must now have Wave on my bookshelf; have a look at her website here to learn more about this very gorgeous artist.

Wordless picture books are of course an art because the whole story must be conveyed convincingly in the illustrations. They are very important in education for prompting children to learn how to interpret stories and also to recognise a beginning, middle and end in story telling. Wordless books are great at home as well; younger children can enjoy explaining what is happening in the illustrations and older children can take it further by imagining alternate endings and additional plot lines. Wordless picture books are rewarding.

weheartbooks top 5 wordless picture books

1. Up and Up (Shirley Hughes)

I love Shirley Hughes and one of my favorite books as a child was Dogger, or David and the Dog as it is known in the USA (I’ll post about that one another time). She is one of the best known children’s author/illustrators in the world. Set out in comic strip style Up and Up consists of black line drawings against a sepia background. The story of a little girl who longs to fly, it is purely magical as you follow her journey: she gets her wish and off she goes up and up. Her personality is infectious and she always makes me smile as she drifts along until she is finally rescued by a man in a hot air balloon. There is so much to look at in this book which makes it a great tool for encouraging children to make up their own stories. It doesn’t even have to be about the main character, you could make up different stories for the others she meets along the way. Ages 3+

2. The Arrival (Shaun Tan)

Well I just think this award winning book is incredible, in fact Shaun Tan is incredible. The Arrival depicts the journey of a man who leaves home for a strange, fantastical land in order to support his family. The hundreds of drawings Tan worked on for this stunning book are partly a reflection of his own father’s journey to Australia and his struggle to fit into an alien culture. More than a book The Arrival is an awe-inspiring artwork; every time I pick it up I find new and amazing elements that I had missed before. Ages 8+

3. The Snowman (Raymond Briggs)

Regarded as a cult classic this picture book tells a story in pictures - 175 frames to be exact - of the one night friendship of a boy and his snowman. The boy lovingly creates the man out of snow and when he looks out of his window that night he discovers the snowman is alive. They take each other on a tour of their worlds, the boy of his house and the snowman of his wintery world. In the morning when the boy wakes up the snowman is gone, he has melted and all that is left are pieces of coal. This book is all about the joy of exploring and discovering new things, it is about new friendships and then the fond memories of those friendships. This book really does give children the opportunity to imagine their own ending to the story. 4+

4. Sunshine and Moonlight (Jan Omerod)

These are favorites of mine from childhood, I can remember borrowing them from the school library numerous times. In the last few years they have been re-published and are just as beautiful as I remember them way back in primary school. Sunshine follows the progression of a little girl’s day as she gets up out of bed and begins her daily routine. My favorite scenes are when she hops into bed with her parents while they read their morning papers; everyone in this house has a routine and they all fit into each other’s. Toddlers can compare their routine in the morning before childcare/preschool with this little girl’s. Jan includes so much detail that this is perfect for beginning discussion with children about their own routines. Sunshine won the Australian Children’s Book of the Year Award in 1982. Moonlight is similar to Sunshine but of course follows the routine on the other end of the day; cleaning teeth, bathtime and bed. Ages 2+

5. Tuesday (David Wiesner)

Reading Tuesday is like watching an M. Night Shyamalan film; it is weird, quirky, funny and enthralling. On this particular Tuesday around 8 in the evening a strange thing begins to happen, suddenly frogs/toads start to invade the town levitating on lily pads and seemingly having a great time. The frogs eventually return to their rightful homes BUT the big surprise is what is going to happen on the following Tuesday? Tuesday won the prestigious Caldecott Medal and Wiesner’s amazing speech is here. I love this quote from that speech

Fortunately, kids know funny when they see it. If, after reading Tuesday one evening before bed, they look out the window and see frogs flying by—well, we should all be so lucky.

Wiesner’s art is incredible and I can guarantee that parents will love this as much as their children. Ages 4+

Although we have used some very classic choices here there is also room for a special mention for the fantastic wordless books by wonderful Australian illustrator Gregory Rogers, The Boy, the Bear, the Baron and the Bard and sequel Midsummer Knight. Ages 6+

A guest post by Lisa, mum to Finnan aged 3 years, and Daisy, 6 months

Finnan was just over two and a half when Daisy arrived last November. We were reasonably confident he understood and was excited about getting a new brother or sister, but wanted a book to help illustrate the experience.

Do a search online and you’ll find there are lots of books on this topic. A few that are often recommended in good bookshops include Sophie and the New Baby and Penny Dale’s Big Brother, Little Brother. Both have classic illustrations, and are well-written tales of how life changes in a family with the new arrival. Za Za’s Baby Brother is more contemporary in style and directed at younger toddlers, with shorter text and the gorgeous primary colours of writer/illustrator Lucy Cousins, famous for the Maisy Mouse series.

I’ve always wondered if ‘new baby’ and other ‘topic’ titles could pre-empt behaviour issues before they’re there. (See Katie’s previous post on Toilet Training - “Why, oh why, do so many potty books picture the use of a potty as a hat? Isn’t this the last thing you want to show a toddler who hasn’t thought of it yet…?”)

‘New baby’ books often depict toddlers getting cross at the new baby or playing up when being ignored by their parents. What if your child hasn’t even considered getting upset until they read these books? Or am I being naïve in thinking an older sibling might not feel this?

Anyway, these misgivings made it really hard for me to commit to buying a new baby book for Finn. Instead, we read a few stories featuring babies or big brothers and talked about the characters in the ‘book family’ caring for each other - “like we do in ours, Finnan”. Worth a try anyway!!

However, early in my pregnancy I’d seen There’s a House Inside My Mummy by Giles Andreae. The little boy/narrator isn’t naughty or upset, he’s actually very caring towards his mum when she gets tired, and is very excited about showing the new baby his toys (especially the train set, a big tick for our Thomas-obsessed boy). So the message was good, illustrations bright and beautiful, but I didn’t buy it because the premise was just too bizarre for me to explain (especially when the author mentions Mummy’s door being ‘too tight’ - what is THAT all about??? Finn’s dad still hasn’t stopped sniggering …).

But a very kind work colleague gave us a copy for Finn when we revealed he was to get a sibling, and Finn loved it almost straight away. We read it almost every night in the last few months before Daisy was born and I think he was definitely well prepared for her arrival. Afterwards, we were given a great Dorling Kindersley book called Our New Baby which focuses more on the daily routine of caring for a baby, rather than bad behaviour.

The clincher for Finn was when he arrived at the hospital after Daisy’s birth and “the baby” gave him a new Richard Scarry book WITH STICKERS!!! as a hello present. He ended up getting a book or sticker book every time he came in to visit, on topics unrelated to babies, which kept him excited, gave him something to look at so visitors could coo over the new baby without fear of jealousy, and also entertained him. Finn and Daisy get along famously so far and I’m sure our reading times together are partly the reason!

Following my previous post on our favourite books about chooks, I learnt about a brand new book by Australian author Diana Lawrenson, and illustrated by Dee Huxley.

Paraphernalia’s Present tells the story of Dottie Devine, who lives by herself, and never has any visitors. Nobody has time to even say hello. But she has a chook, called Paraphernalia, who is her great friend and companion. One day, Dottie and Paraphenalia’s normal routines are disturbed, which causes some unexpected and happy outcomes. It’s a lovely story about friendship of different kinds.
You can tell this book has been well-researched, as the author subtly weaves in factual details of chook behaviour, and there is a nice fact sheet included on the last page of the book. Dee Huxley’s pastel illustrations are expressive and expansive.

For Melbournians, the author is appearing this Saturday 12 April at 10.30am at Readings Hawthorn for a reading ‘with props and charm’. We’re going to try to get along.

Meanwhile, our Lottie (not to be confused with Dottie) is doing brilliantly. Her eye is almost completely healed, and one of the only things she needs to worry about now is Rowan, who has taken to squatting next to her with arms outstretched, demanding a ‘Ug!’