During the National Year of Reading, I thought I should look for some different books to read aloud at the nursery where I work. I found just the book to inspire me at my local library: Rattletrap Car, by Phyllis Root, illustrated by Jill Barton.

Why has it taken me so long to discover this wonderful book? What if I never had? My experience of the English language would have been so much the poorer. How have I been working with young children for so long and not known of the existence of razzleberry dazzleberry snazzleberry fizz? Thankfully now I do, and I also understand to what uses chocolate marshmallow fudge delight can be put.

Jill Barton, Phyllis Root, picture book

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Picture books often have a simple story line with a strong rhythm and plenty rhyming words: Doing the Animal Bop by J. Ormerod and Lindsey Gardiner begins ‘If you like to dance and you sometimes sing, Why don’t you do the animal thing?’ It is hard for children to resist the urge when this is read aloud to get up and try to move in the same way as each animal that appears in these pages, jiggling and jiving, waddling like a duck or stomping like a rhino.

This is not really a story at all, more of a poem that introduces a series of animals, one on each double page, concentrating on the way they move and the sounds they make.

J. Ormerod, Lindsey Gardiner, picture book

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Who Do You Love? is an exceptionally cute and special book that would be ideal for any young child – boy or girl – despite its very pink cover! On a recent visit to the library my six year old daughter picked it up to borrow along with a number of others, and it was this book that she wanted to read first. In fact I first really appreciated what this lovely book was like as I drove home from the library and overheard her reading it to her younger sister!

Mandy Stanley, picture book

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Stormy Weather by Debi Gliori really is the perfect bedtime book for small children – even though you might not think it from the title. This is an absolutely gorgeous book telling of little ones across the world curling up safely and going to bed even when the weather is not too good. It depicts all sorts of small creatures cuddling up with their mummies and it cannot fail to make you go ‘aaahh!’ as you are reading with a small child.

Debi Gliori, picture book

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My Penguin Osbert is a delightful picture story book written by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel and illustrated by H.B. Lewis. It is a story that is told with much warmth and humour but also delivers a slightly more serious message which is that if you are given something that you ask for you have a responsibility to look after it. In this story, the main character who is a little boy but we don’t know his name has been given a real live penguin by Santa Claus. However, he soon discovers that looking after a penguin is ever so slightly tricky!

Elizabeth Cody Kimmel, H.B. Lewis, picture book

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My daughters love picture books and they always make a beeline for these whenever we visit our local library. Normally it is the picture on the front cover that inspires them to pick up a book and start reading and this was definitely the case with ‘There’s No Such Thing as Monsters!’ where on the cover we see a very cute cuddly bear peeking out from under the bed covers with only his startled eyes showing! The girls couldn’t wait to read it!

‘There’s No Such Thing as Monsters!’, which is written by Steve Smallman and illustrated by Caroline Pedler, tells the story of two bears.

Caroline Pedler, picture book, Steve Smallman

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Flinn, a seemingly ordinary boy who likes pirates and dinosaurs, is on a school trip to see dinosaur skeletons at a museum. He and his friends are in awe of the huge skeleton of the giganotosaurus, which the guide tells them was even mightier than Tyrannosaurus Rex. They are also intrigued when the guide shows them an empty glass case from which Captain Rufus Rumblebelly’s treasure was stolen the night before.

Flinn and friends follow a trail of feathers and gold coins, thinking that it might hold a clue to the treasure.

Giles Andreae, picture book, Russell Ayto

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Flinn, like so many other boys his age, loves dinosaurs and pirates. One day at school his teacher sends him to a walk-in cupboard to look for the pens he needs to colour a dinosaur picture. While inside, Flinn hears the sound of a man crying. He is amazed to find Captain Stubble, a pirate, shaking and shuddering on the floor under a curtain. The reason for Captain Stubble’s despair is that his ship has been stolen. Flinn offers to help him get it back, and out of nowhere three of his friends appear, all clamouring to join in the adventure.

Giles Andreae, picture book, Russell Ayto

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‘Aliens in Underpants Save the World’ is a fabulously funny book that is bound to appeal to most children’s sense of humours. Well any mention of underpants is usually enough to have my daughters in fits of giggles! It is written by Claire Freedman and illustrated by Ben Cort, and provides a sequel to their book ‘Aliens Love Underpants’.

In this book, the aliens spot a giant meteorite heading towards Earth that has all the scientists baffled. No one knows how to stop it but the aliens realise that if they don’t do something quickly, their source of underpants will not exist and then what will they do?

Ben Cort, Claire Freedman, picture book

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A boy and girl try to convince their parents to let them get a dog; they say it could guard the house and play with them. Mum and dad protest at first, saying that dogs need to be fed and walked, and they make a lot of mess. The children promise that they will take care of everything, and Mum gives in. The children set off for the Dogs’ Home, pushing the baby in the buggy. Their parents stress that they must get a dog with a pedigree.

John Burningham, picture book

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Reading aloud is an ideal activity to follow a free play session when the children are ready to sit still and be calm for a while. It fosters listening skills that are the basis of the learning process, encourages a love of books and instils a desire in the children to be able to read the stories themselves. Whilst the children I read to love traditional tales such as The Gingerbread Man or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, we usually read contemporary stories. I’m listing some of our favourite books here.

Shark in the Park by Nick Sharratt (Corgi Childrens, ISBN 0552549770) is the story of a young boy, Timothy Pope, who goes to the park with his telescope (which obviously rhymes with his name). Each time he looks through the telescope, he sees something that looks like the black fin of a shark, so he shouts out ‘There’s a shark in the park!’. This is repeated several times throughout the book, and the children know when it’s coming and love to shout the phrase out themselves each time.

Helen Oxenbury, Kathryn White, Michael Rosen, Michael Terry, Nick Sharratt, picture book, Sally Chambers

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