Picture Book Suggestions

We have everything you need to help bring out the love of reading in your child. Check out our favourite new titles (directly below), our authors who can do no wrong, and our perennial favourites.

You

By Stephen Michael King

The perfect book for making someone feel special and loved. This book has colors and music and opposites and talks about all the beautiful things in the world, always coming back to the most beautiful part being "you." Simple text and cute illustrations make this book come off as one of the sweetest books we've read in a long time. It's a message everyone, not just kids, needs to hear every once in awhile.

Kiss Me (I'm a Prince)

By Heather McLeod
Illustrated by Brooke Kerrigan

We start with a little frog who wants to be kissed, but Ella just won't kiss him. Even after he explains that she will become a princess and he will turn into a prince, Ella just won't pucker up. The reason? Because being a princess, with all that responsibility and duty, doesn't sound like it leaves a lot of time for playing and getting dirty. So she doesn't kiss him and they play together, as frog and girl, for a long time. But one day someone from the palace comes looking for the prince and he must decide whether he wants to be kissed or whether he wants to go on playing. The resolution is a good one (which I won't tell you - it's a picture book, you have time to read it yourselves) and I like how this book never reinforces stereotypes and prioritizes play. A great read for anyone looking for fairy tales, a great story, fabulous illustrations and playfulness - and who isn't looking for those things?

Press Here

By Herve Tullet

Within seconds of coming into the store, the publishers had already sold out of the first print run and are now going into reprint. We will have it in stock the second it becomes available again. That's how awesome this book is. This in an interactive book where it asks you, first to press on a yellow dot. The consequence of pressing is shown on the next page as there are now two yellow dots. More and more dots appear, and then you have to shake them to different areas of the page. It's truly a book you can play with! The single touch of a finger sparks a whimsical dance of color and motion in this joyful celebration of the power of imagination.

Fancy Nancy: Aspiring Artist

By Jane O'Connor
Illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser

This may be our favourite Fancy Nancy (aside from the original book, of course). Nancy decides to become an artist during spring vacation, as her best friend, Bree, is out of town. She has fun with glitter and paints, and goes on field trips with her silly friend Lionel, and has an art show in her backyard. Nancy shows us that it takes dedication, imagination and a huge sense of fun to be an artist, all while giving us the same great vocabulary boosters she always does. Creative juices and strikes of inspiration abound in this new book in the Fancy Nancy series.

Small Saul

By Ashley Spires

If you haven't read Spires' Binky graphic novel series, then go and read it now! And then pick up her picture book Small Saul. Hilarious illustrations help to tell the tale of a would-be pirate who loves the sea-shanties and the life on the ocean, but just can't seem to fit in with the burping and violence of the other pirates aboard The Rusty Squid. Amidst all the humourous moments, this carries a message about being yourself, about how others can come to appreciate differences, and about how "fitting in" doesn't mean you have to give up who you are.

Flip-O-Saurus

By Sara Ball

We love this dinosaur book and its new companion book Flip-O-Storic. It's a flap book, where if you match all the flaps together, you get an actual dinosaur with the scientific facts about the shape of its head, torso and tail.But if you mix and match the flaps, you can create 1000 different imaginary dinosaurs and, because you know the facts, you can see what each imaginary dinosaur would be able to do! Science + Imagination + Dinosaurs = FUN!

Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad

Written and Illustrated by David Somar & Jacky Davis

Ladybug Girl and the whole Bug Squad return in a tale of heroics, bossiness and, of course, basset hounds. The Bug Squad is coming over to play. Lulu knows just what they are going to do, but when things don't go just the Lulu planned, some Bug Squad feelings are hurt. We love how Lulu's alter ego, Ladybug Girl, is always strong enough to do the right thing and how her hero wings can make it easier to remember than when the going gets tough, the tough start apologizing for being so bossy.

Lost and Found

Written and Illustrated by Shaun Tan

Finally, the out-of-print stories of The Red Tree, The Lost Thing, and The Rabbits, are back in print again in this picture book omnibus of some of Tan's greatest work. In The Red Tree, a young girl finds that there is hope even in the bleakest day. In The Lost Thing, a man is reminded of how in the business of our day, the strange and spectacular often get overlooked and dismissed. And in The Rabbits, Rabbits are compared with people, taking over a land and ravaging it beyond repair. These stories are poignant and beautiful and cover topics that are not often dealt with in picture book format. A must-read.

Authors Who Can Do No Wrong

Julia Donaldson, Marie Louise Gay, Oliver Jeffers, Leo Lionni, Todd Parr, Peter H. Reynolds, Dr.Seuss, Shaun Tan, Melanie Watt, Mo Willems

Perennial Favourites

  • A Book by Mordicai Gerstein
  • Chickens to the Rescue! by John Himmelman
  • Clever Rachel by the Debbie Waldman
  • Earth to Audrey by Susan Hughes
  • The Empty Pot by DEMI
  • The Fancy Nancy series by Jane O'Connor
  • I Will Make Miracles by Sue Morgenstern
  • Katie Loves the Kittens by John Himmelman
  • The Ladybug Girl series by David Soman
  • The Librarian of Basra by Jeanette Winter
  • Meerkat Mail by Emily Gravett
  • Mister Got to Go by Lois Simmie
  • My Librarian is a Camel by Margriet Ruurs
  • Once, I Ate a Pie by Patricia MacLachlan
  • Pete & Pickles by Berkeley Breathed
  • The Skippyjon Jones series by Julie Schachner
  • Something from Nothing by Phoebe Gilman
  • The Sound of Colors by Jimmy Liao
  • Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton