Age 4
The Lost (and Found) Balloon by Celeste Jenkins & Maria Bogade
The Story: Molly O’Doon ties a note to her red balloon and lets it loose to see who will find it. It floats up and away and over the town until the sun goes down. It floats all night, over the water and then lands in Katie’s garden. Katie has just moved house and when…
Amazing Aeroplanes by Tony Mitton
If you are planning a holiday that combines planes and small children I recommend this colourful, non fiction picture book to introduce the experience of flying. We bought it for our daughter (who first flew at the age of four months) and its bold, bright pictures and easy to read, simple rhyming text were an…
Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins
I often borrowed Rosie’s Walk from the library as a child and bought my own copy when I was doing my teacher training. I have read it to my daughter since she was small and now she is excited that she can ‘read’ it by herself, there are less than thirty five words in the story so…
Caryl Hart recommends Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell & Helen Oxenbury
The Story: There once was a duck who had the bad luck to live with a lazy old farmer. The duck did the work. The farmer stayed all day in bed. Poor Duck. He is so tired, and fed up that the other animals make a plan to get rid of the lazy old farmer once and…
Mole’s Sunrise by Jeanne Willis & Sarah Fox-Davies
Mole’s Sunrise is a beautiful story to introduce children to blindness and the use of the senses.
The Hundred Decker Bus by Mike Smith
Come and join The Hundred Decker Bus on its colourful journey (and don’t forget your swimsuit, it even has a pool!).
Rachelle Meyer recommends The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear
The Story: The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea, in a beautiful pea green boat… so begins one of the most treasured classic children’s poems in the English language. Their voyage on the sea continues for a year and a day and they eventually land, marry and feast in the land where the bong tree…
The Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson & Rebecca Cobb
The Paper Dolls is a beautifully gentle story about a childhood activity which encouraged us to make our own paper doll chains 🙂
Avocado Baby by John Burningham
My daughter loves avocado (it was one of the first foods I ever gave her) so she was very excited when she first found Avocado Baby in the library. The book came home so often that I bought her her own copy!
Mrs Pepperpot Learns to Swim by Alf Prøysen & Hilda Owen
I loved reading the Mrs Pepperpot stories as a child and they have lost none of their magic now that I am an adult. Mrs Pepperpot has a very peculiar characteristic, she shrinks (without warning) to the size of a pepperpot (hence the name!). I was very excited when I discovered picture book versions of…
