Kate Kellaway April 2, 2012

Picture books for Easter – gallery

From naughty and artistic dogs to singing ducks and six little chicks, discover the most delightful picture books for under-7s this Easter

Easter Children's Books: Easter Children's Books - Oh No George by Chris Haughton — Oh No George by Chris Haughton, published by Walker Books George is a red reprobate of a dog. Even the set of his jaw will amuse children as he asserts: 'I'll be very good.' George's virtue starts to wobble in a way anyone who has ever been tempted by anything will swiftly recognise. A ruined birthday cake, a petrified cat, a hole in the ground follow fast.... The pictures are bold, dashing and minimalist against brilliant orange. The writing is cannily judged for reading aloud because it alternates between questions: 'What has George seen now?’ and the exclamatory refrain/chorus: 'Oh No, George!' (3+)
Photograph: Chris Haughton/Walker Books Photograph: Chris Haughton/Action images

Easter Children's Books: Easter Children's Books - Leave me Alone by kes Gray & Lee Wildish — Leave Me Alone: A Tale of What Happens When You Face up to a Bully by Kes Gray and Lee Wildish, published by Hodder Bullying is a difficult subject but Kes Gray tackles it here with forthright intelligence. 'Leave me alone' is the refrain upon which the story builds. The bully is imagined as a giant who casts a long and bulky shadow on an emerald green hill. "A giant full of nasty words,/A giant huge and strong,/Who casts a shadow over me/That's kilometres long.” Lee Wildish’s illustration is simple and mournful – the boy’s face look like a folorn pumpkin. But his trusty friends stand up to the giant whose bulky shadow vanishes from view forever. (3+) Photograph: Lee Wildish/Hodder

Easter Children's Books: Easter Children's Books - Dog Loves Drawing by Louise Yates — Dog Loves Drawing by Louise Yates published by Jonathan Cape Anyone unfamiliar with Dog Loves Books has two treats in store. Yates’s sequel has a sparing elegance and proceeds with gusto. Everyone, she seems convinced, has a drawing in them. The pencils look so real that you could pick them off the page. They could not be more inviting – that is the point. A small white dog sketches ducks, stickmen, a pink owl – and they seize pencils too. The harmony is disrupted only when someone unwisely sketches a monster. (For artists of all ages) Photograph: Louise Yates/Jonathan Cape

Easter Children's Books: Easter Children's Books - Singing Mermaid by Julia Donaldson/Lydia Monks — The Singing Mermaid by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Lydia Monks, published by Macmillan A gorgeous, glittery, girly book starring a mermaid with a shimmering turquoise tail. She has a surprisingly cheeky face – a little vulgar even – but perhaps that is what they are like. And whatever one feels about her features, one can bask in glorious holiday colours. One also warms to our children's laureate’s tip-top, adventurous ballad which will hold its readers captive - like the mermaid herself who is held hostage by a circus. Never fear: the ending is happy as happy endings get. (3+) Photograph: Lydia Monks/Macmillan

Easter Children's Books: Easter Children's Books - Socks by Nick Sharratt and Elizabeth Lindsay — Socks by Nick Sharratt and Elizabeth Lindsay, published by David Fickling Books Pull your socks up before embarking on this exuberant book because you will need to be in the right exclamatory mood to perform it. It launches itself with the wake-up call: SOCKYWOCKYDODAH – and then the manic wordplay starts. A cockerel becomes a sockerel, a hipposockamus is in the offing and Goldysocks has bright yellow socks in lieu of braids. It is a shameless romp that even suggests that a socksophone might be easy to play. It has contagious gaiety, pace and energy and is tremendous fun to read aloud. Sock it to 'em. (2+) Photograph: Nick Sharratt/David Fickling

Easter Children's Books: Easter Children's Books - Eric!...the Hero? by Chris Wormell — Eric!...the hero? by Chris Wormell published by Jonathan Cape Eric seems to be no good at anything. He wears an ill-fitting brown suit and is not even up to escape : 'the running part, at least...' Chris Wormell takes the charming step of including himself in Eric's struggles. He explains: 'Sometimes it takes a while to find out what you are good at it. It did with me.' What Wormell is superlatively good at is lucid, vivid, engaging illustration and this morale-booster of a book is his best yet – especially the moment when Eric squares up to a shaggy monster who also suffers from low self-esteem. (3+) Photograph: Chris Wormell/Jonathan Cape

Easter Children's Books: Easter Children's Books - Arthurs's Dream Boat by Polly Dunbar — Arthur's Dream Boat by Polly Dunbar, published by Walker Books It is through pictures that this story surges forward. Arthur dreams of a boat (you see it pictured perkily on his head). But his distracted family have no interest in hearing about his dream until it engulfs their reality. Suddenly, they are at sea and need to board his dreamboat. The floundering family is drawn with verve. Arthur’s mother swims and talks and tries to keep her nail varnish above water while the father is seen not drowning but waving and the family goldfish dives to freedom. It is a story that allows a child to feel important – and heard. (3-4) Photograph: Polly Dunbar/Walker Books

Easter Children's Books: Easter Children's Books - Just Ducks by Nicola Davies — Just Ducks by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Salvatore Rubbino, published by Walker Books Male ducks are silent types and female ducks are noisier....and that is only the start to Nicola Davies's ducklore. She confides in us about the inordinate time ducks take to finish breakfast and explains that they often turn out to be excitable wooers. But the chief charm of this book is not only that it does not overload children with information but that it is illustrated by Salvatore Rubbino who shows off an irresistible, breezy talent as he illustrates a day in the life of ducks. (4+) Photograph: Salvatore Rubbino/Walker Books

Easter Children's Books: Easter Children's Books - The Scar by Charlotte Moundlic and Olivier tallec — The Scar by Charlotte Moundlic, illustrated by Olivier Tallec, published by Walker Books This is an exceptional attempt to tell a story about a child whose mother has just died. What makes it impressive is Charlotte Moundlic’s empathetic refusal to skirt round grief. There is a readiness to look at death without pretence. But it is not a book for believers – there is no promise of heaven. Instead, there is a grandmother's loving hope that the boy's mother will live on in his heart. Olivier Tallec's intense, non-literal illustrations also ring true. A rare solace for a bereaved child. And a sentimental education for everyone else. (4+) Photograph: Olivier Tallec/Walker Books

Easter Children's Books: Easter Children's Books - Croc and Bird by Alexis Deacon — Croc and Bird by Alexis Deacon, published by Hutchinson This unusual, unsentimental story begins with two white eggs that look companionable and interchangeable. But out of one, a fledgling emerges and, from the other, a baby crocodile. Croc and Bird cannot hope to be brothers but, in Deacon's custody, are soul-mates who forage and huddle together, wings against scales, to keep out the cold. The bird calls its nest 'our home' – impractical for Croc but he does not grumble. A delicate, poignant, exquisitely drawn exploration of affinity with no need for a clumping moral. (2+) Photograph: Alexis Deacon/Hutchinson

Easter Children's Books: Easter Children's Books - Doodlepedia, Dorling Kindersley — Doodlepedia: Doodle and Discover a World of fascinating Facts published by Dorling Kindersley This wonderful, carefree, novel book belongs in a category of its own. A picture book where readers are in on the act. It is a lucky dip for compulsive doodlers who may helplessly find themselves acquiring a succulent fact or two along the way. A favourite page: a shark's belly which informs us that scientists have found bizarre objects – from sun hats to torpedoes – inside sharks and then urges us to doodle our way into the belly of a shark and get cracking with sharp pencils and hungry imaginations. (5+) Photograph: Dorling Kindersley

Easter Children's Books: Easter Children's Books - A Bus Called Heaven by Bob Graham — A Bus Called Heaven by Bob Graham, published by Walker Books This bus is worth waiting for. Watch it spray-painted by a little bloke in a beanie hat. It is a hippy style bus with a sunburst on its roof. This intricate, captivating Amnesty-endorsed story is about community. The mysterious bus appears out of nowhere and is rapturously occupied by children. When the thug from the ‘Boneyard’ (a bit like an officious immigration officer) shows up to tow the bus away, little Stella, a mysterious child described as ‘the colour of moonlight’, sees him off. A subtle, phenomenally detailed, moving tale. (4+) Photograph: Bob Graham/Walker Books

Easter Children's Books: Easter Children's Books - Big Adventure of the Smalls by Helen Stephens — The Big Adventure of the Smalls by Helen Stephens, published by Egmont Helen Stephens works within a tradition – their are traces of Edward Ardizonne and Ludwig Bemelmans in her lovely, confident illustration. Small Hall is a house to rival Downton Abbey in ostentation and conveyed with merry flourishes. It is about two children spying on a grown-up party. Their interventions are glorious, fantastical and acrobatic (especially the moment of hiding under a silver salver, held aloft by oblivious butlers). And their wonderful sleepless spree goes unpunished. A nice antidote to the more plodding picture books that scheme to get children to nod off. (4+) Photograph: Helen Stephens/Egmont

Easter Children's Books: Easter Children's Books - Six Little Chicks by Jez Alborough — Six Little Chicks by Jez Alborough, published by Doubleday Jez Alborough gives Chick Lit a good name. This is a safe Easter choice – if you don't mind the sure-fire formula. A big bad wolf menaces a dippy mother hen and can't wait to sink his teeth into her chick population. The big, unpretentious illustrations are guaranteed to deliver a scary thrill as the fox comes far too close for comfort. The book has a bright, jolly and yet predatory feel. The chicks are intensely yellow and the fox has fearsome green eyes – dreaming of a snappy Easter. (2+) Photograph: Jez Alborough/Doubleday

Easter picture books: Frank and Stan illustration by Mark Robertson — Frank 'n' Stan by M.P. Robertson published by Frances Lincoln Frank hopes he might one day have a baby brother but his mother is non-commital. So Frank 'n' Stan by M.P. Robertson published by Frances Lincoln Frank, a resourceful child, takes matters into his own hands and builds a brother. Huge lanky, cranky Stan – a green robot – is the result. Told with humour and poise, M.P. Roberston shows how Stan feels when Frank’s baby sister is eventually born. He leaves home for an arctic wasteland until Frank rescues him. As tactful a way of exploring sibling rivalry as could be imagined. Lovely – for all those with siblings on the way or already in situ. (2+) Photograph: MP Robertson/Frances Lincoln

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