Picture books — Holiday Reading 2012

Pamela Allen Mr McGee and the elephants (New Zealand): Here’s another adventure of Mr McGee, this time with elephants, one, two and three. A chance to perform and share the fun, so come and join in everyone.
Catherine and Laurence Anholt Babies, babies, babies!: Babies love eating, babies love playing, babies love laughing! A special funny bunny is hiding in the illustrations. Can you find him?
Mac Barnett Extra yarn: With a supply of yarn that never runs out, Annabelle knits for everyone and everything in town until an evil archduke decides he wants the yarn for himself.
Graeme Base Little elephants: The wheat is ripe, but the harvester is broken and a plague of locusts is on the way. It looks as if Jim and his mother may lose the farm. But when Jim show kindness to a stranger, their fortunes are set to change in the most surprising way imaginable!
Gavin Bishop Bruiser (New Zealand): Bruiser is a machine on a mission, ploughing up hillsides, trampling down paddocks and crushing rocks. Until, one day, a little chick and a nest fall right in front of him. What will Bruiser do?
Megan Bowers-Vette Mangu and mā (New Zealand): A first focus board book for babies, with an emphasis on kiwiana.
Ben Brown The Great Orlando (New Zealand): Sunday Jones is a boy with a loving mother who protected him from a miserable and cruel father. Then his mother dies, leaving Sunday’s father to make his life a misery. For the end of year concert, Sunday decides he will be a magician, The Great Orlando, and for his final act, he disappears… Illustrated by Helen Taylor.
Anthony Browne One gorilla: One gorilla, two orang-utans and three chimpanzees. Explore the family of primates and learn to count from one to ten with all the colour and drama of the natural world.
John Burningham Tug of war: Hare, Hippopotamus and Elephant live together, but not happily, for Hippopotamus and Elephant are forever teasing poor Hare. One day, Hare decides to teach his friends a lesson, and so the great tug of war begins.
Sue DeGennaro The pros and cons of being a frog: Frogboy and Camille are best friends, but they are very different. Camille speaks in numbers and Frogboy likes to dress up. With Camille’s help he finds that dressing up as a frog is perfect for him, but when he tries to convince his friend to be a frog too, his plan goes terribly wrong.
Lynley Dodd Slinky Malinki early bird (New Zealand): Slinky Malinki likes to wake up very early in the morning. He thinks his family should too, but do they agree?
Michaël Escoffier A mammoth in the fridge: If you find a mammoth in your fridge, there are two questions you should ask: How did it get there? and How do you get it out? A surreal and very funny book.
Candace Fleming Oh, no!: A series of animals falls into a deep hole, followed by a hungry tiger, only to be saved at last by a very large rescuer.
James Foley In the lion: In the city there’s a zoo. And in the zoo there’s a lion. And in the lion there’s…
Catherine Foreman The cat’s pyjamas/Ngā kahumoe o te ngeru (New Zealand): A cat has a different pair of colourful pyjamas for every night of the week, and every night they lead to the most delightful dreams. Well, nearly every night!
Michael Foreman Friends: Bubble is a goldfish, who swims round and round unhappily in his tank. Cat is his friend and wishes he could show him the world. One day, Cat has an idea to set Bubble free. But is Bubble ready to swim off into the world and leave behind his friend? A sweet story with beautiful illustrations.
Edward Gibbs I spy on the farm: Look through the hole and use the clues to guess; then turn the page to reveal the animal. Children will learn to predict the animals by noise, colour and eventually letter.
Gus Gordon Herman and Rosie: Set in New York, this gorgeous picture book is a story about friendship, life in the big city, and following your dreams.
Emily Gravett Matilda’s cat: Climbing trees, playing with wool. Matilda is sure her cat will love these things, but he doesn’t seem very enthusiastic. Undaunted, she thinks up new ways to amuse her reluctant playmate. Tea parties? Dressing up? Or what about a nice bike ride? As the beleaguered cat goes from nonplussed to terrified, Matilda gets more and more frustrated. After all, what use is a pet if it doesn’t want to play?
Michael Hall Cat tale: Three adventurous and inquisitive cats named Lillian, Tilly, and William J. have an exciting afternoon playing together. A bright, colourful and clear book.
Chris Haughton Oh no, George!: Harris is off to do some shopping. “Will you be good, George?” he asks. George the dog hopes he can. He really wants to… but chocolate cake is just so very delicious and he does love to chase cat… What will George do now?
Julia Hubery A hare, a hound and shy mousey brown: There’s a hare in the air, there’s a hound on the ground, and watching them both is shy Mousey Brown… and so begins an enchanting adventure, complete with danger, silliness, bravery and romance. Mouse is tiny but bold, Hound is vast and menacing, Hare doesn’t have a clue and, between them, someone has to come out on top.
Julie Hunt The coat: The coat stood in a paddock at the end of a row of strawberries. It was buttoned up tight and stuffed full of straw and it was angry. ‘What a waste of me!’ it yelled. Then along came a man. ‘I could do with a coat like that,’ the man said. Together, swooping and swinging, they travelled to the Cafe Delitzia, and had the night of their lives. Illustrated by Ron Brooks.
Oliver Jeffers This moose belongs to me: Wilfred thinks he owns a moose, but does the moose know? And who is the old lady who calls him Rodrigo? A story set in sweeping landscapes.
Jon Klassen This is not my hat: From the creator of the bestselling and award-winning I want my hat back comes a second wry tale. When a tiny fish shoots into view wearing a round blue top hat (which happens to fit him perfectly), trouble could be following close behind. So it’s a good thing that enormous fish won’t wake up. And even if he does, it’s not as though he’ll ever know what happened, will he?
Leonore Klein Henri’s walk to Paris: A boy named Henri from the small city of Reboul, France decides to try to walk to Paris to see the sights, until he stops along the way to take a nap under a tree and loses his direction.
David LaRochelle It’s a tiger!: A child imagines that he is in a story where he encounters a tiger at every turn. Will he be able to escape in the mountains? On an island? In a cave? A fail-safe read-aloud reminiscent of We’re going on bear hunt.
Peter McCarty The monster returns: When the monster that Jeremy created threatens to return, Jeremy enlists his neighbours to help him with a creative solution to the problem.
Margaret Mahy The man from the land of Fandango (New Zealand): The man from the land of Fandango is coming to pay you a call! He wears a hat with a tassel and a polka-dot tie — and he juggles and bounces and dances with bears, bison, baboons, kangaroos and even dinosaurs. He’s wonderful and amazing — so watch out for him, and watch carefully — because he only appears every 500 years!
Margaret Mahy Mister Whistler (New Zealand): Absentminded Mister Whistler always has a song in his head and a dance in his feet. In a rush to catch the train, he is so distracted he loses his ticket. Is it in the bottom pockets of his big coat or the top pockets of his jacket? Perhaps he slipped it into his waistcoat. Where is Mister Whistler’s ticket? Illustrated by Gavin Bishop.
David Melling Hugless Douglas and the big sleep: Douglas is very excited about Rabbit’s sleepover, but he collects so many friends along the way that soon it’s a big squash in Rabbit’s small burrow! Can Douglas think of a way for them all to get some sleep?
Kate Messner Over and under the snow: Over the snow, the world is hushed and white, but under the snow is a secret world of squirrels and snowshoe hares, bears and bullfrogs, and many others who live outside in the woods during the winter.
Kyle Mewburn Seesaw Po (New Zealand): Po the hippopotamus and his friends love the playground, even though Po is so big that he has trouble fitting on! In the end, however, his kindness to a tiny ant is repaid in an unexpected way.
Christoph Niemann That’s how!: A very imaginative boy answers a girl’s questions about how different kinds of vehicles work. Don’t expect to find factual information here, but be prepared to laugh!
Alison Reynolds A year with Marmalade: When Maddy’s family relocate for a year, she must leave behind her cat, Marmalade, and her best friend Ella. The story of the growing friendship between Marmalade and Ella is set against a backdrop of the changing seasons.
Michael Rosen Blue: One evening when Raffi can’t sleep, a magical flying cat called Blue appears and takes him on an adventure through the night sky. The next day, Raffi feels a little bit different. He is happier, and has more confidence. He even finds himself reassuring his brother that walking home in the dark is no problem at all; it’s fun! Illustrated by Michael Foreman.
Michael Rosen Te haere ki te rapu pea/We’re going on a bear hunt: The classic picture book has been translated into Re Reo Māori by Kawata Teepa!
Nick Sharratt My Mum and Dad make me laugh: Mum is crazy about spots, Dad loves stripes. No wonder they make their son laugh, mind you, they think that he’s funny in his grey plain clothes. Packed with glorious patterns of stripes and spots, this book also contains a clue on each spread as to the nature of the little boy’s obsession.
Bob Shea I’m a shark: A boastful shark is not afraid of anything, which impresses his underwater friends until they ask about spiders.
Mark Sommerset I love lemonade (New Zealand): After being tricked into eating Little Baa Baa’s Smarty tablets, Quirky Turkey decides it is payback time. But has Quirky got what it takes to pull the wool over Baa Baa’s eyes? A followup to the comedic Baa baa smart sheep.
Martin Springett Kate & Pippin: Photographs and simple text reveal the true story of a fawn which, abandoned by her mother and brought to live on a farm, is raised by Kate, a Great Dane which has never had puppies of her own.
Philip Stead Bear has a story to tell: It was almost winter and Bear was getting sleepy. But first, he had a story to tell. And so Bear sets out to tell his friends, but with winter fast approaching they are all far too busy to listen. Will anyone be awake to hear his story?
Naoko Stoop Red knit cap girl: In the forest, there is time to wonder about everything. Red Knit Cap Girl wonders about flowers, butterflies, leaves and clouds. But, most of all, she wonders about the Moon. A gentle story, illustrated on wood grain by the author.
Sally Sutton Demolition (New Zealand): Busy workers and noisy machines demolish an old building and build a new playground. Includes a pictorial glossary of all the machines with a short caption of what each machine does.
Tjong Khing The The birthday cake mystery: Whose birthday party is it? What mischief are the three monkeys making? Who steals the necklace? And will Dog ever finish making the birthday cake? There are multiple stories to find and follow, and countless things to discover in this wordless book from Gecko Press.
Leo Timmers The magical life of Mr Renny: A colourful picture book about Mr. Renny, an artist who suddenly finds his paintings coming to life. Published by Gecko Press.
Hervé Tullet The book with a hole: As each page is turned, the hole in the centre of the book becomes a space for different things. Questions and activities encourage children to imagine the various possibilities. By the author of Press here.
Mo Willems The duckling gets a cookie?!: Pigeon is very angry when the duckling gets a cookie just by asking politely.
Mo Willems Goldilocks and the three dinosaurs: Once upon a time, there were three hungry Dinosaurs: Papa Dinosaur, Mama Dinosaur and a Dinosaur who happened to be visiting from Norway. One day for no particular reason they decided to tidy up their house, make the beds, and prepare pudding of varying temperatures. And then for no particular reason they decided to go someplace else. They were definitely not setting a trap for some succulent, unsupervised little girl. Definitely not!
Jeanne Willis Hippospotamus: Hippopotamus had a spotamus on her bottomus! It’s Measles! said Weasel. It’s Hippopox! said Fox. It’ s Jungle Fever! said Beaver. But in the end the spotamus turned out to be something hilariously unexpected.
Salina Yoon Do cows meow?: Do cows sing? Do cows coo? All I know is cows go moo! Lift the flaps of this colourful and bold book.