10 best kids' picture books: Keep under-fives entertained

The hilarious Oi Frog! books have fast become classics in their own right, selling millions of copies and winning a host of awards. Oi Frog! Is the first in the series (the sequels are Oi Dog!, Oi Cat! and Oi Duck-Billed Platypus!) and charts the escapades of a frog who discovers that all animals have special places to sit.

Cats sit on mats, hares sit on chairs, mules sit on stools and gophers sit on sofas – but the frog is adamant that he doesn’t want to sit on a log. It’s impossible to read this comical, rhyming story without a smile on your face, whether you’re two or 42.

Comedian Matt Lucas originally sang his Thank You, Baked Potato song on TV 20 years ago but rewrote it in March to raise money for Feed NHS, a charity providing hot meals for NHS staff working in critical care during the coronavirus outbreak. The song has raised thousands of pounds and has now been turned into a picture book with an important message.

Illustrated by Scott Coello and dedicated to NHS workers everywhere, it stars a smiley baked potato who encourages readers to wash their hands, stay indoors, keep their distance and not touch their faces. There’s also a range of fun indoor activities to try, such as making rain sticks, creating a thankful jar and playing musical statues. Entertaining and educational.

Pre-schoolers will enjoy this enchanting story about friendship, reading and books. Grizzly bear George suddenly realises there’s more to life than fishing, chatting to his siblings and telling the same stories over and over again. When he finds a book under a tree he decides to head to the nearest town and ask the owner of the book to teach him to read – much to the hilarity of his family.

Emma Chichester Clark is one of the UK’s best-loved children’s authors and her illustrations are a joy to behold. She created the hugely popular Blue Kangaroo series and has also illustrated books by luminaries like Roald Dahl, Michael Morpurgo and Quentin Blake.

Written by Rachel Bright and illustrated by Jim Field, this is the tale of two greedy squirrels and their race to grab the very last nut of the season. The pair have very different personalities. Spontaneous Cyril has spent so much time partying that his cupboard is bare while Plan-Ahead Bruce has a stash of food already but wants to stockpile more.

With its rhyming text and witty storyline, this is a book that celebrates the pointlessness of squabbling and the joy of friendship. For young readers who’d like to read more by this duo, their other books include The Lion Inside and The Way Home for Wolf.

One of the most original picture books of recent years, this is the tale of Duncan, a little boy who loves drawing. But there’s trouble ahead when Duncan finds a bundle of letters inside his crayon box.

The notes are from the crayons themselves – and they’re not happy. Beige reckons Brown gets all the best colouring work, like bears, ponies and puppies, White is fed up of only colouring in snow, Blue is “short and stubby” from being used too much – and so on.

Written by US film director Drew Daywalt and illustrated by the multi-talented Oliver Jeffers, The Day the Crayons Quit proved such a hit that they have produced several other crayons books, including The Day the Crayons Came Home and Love from the Crayons.

Millions of children around the world have been captivated by Eric Carle’s charming tale of an insect who chomps his way through an enormous quantity of food before turning into a beautiful butterfly.

This much-loved picture book has been translated into more than 30 languages and has sold a copy every minute since it was first published in 1969. With its colourful collage illustrations, finger-sized holes to explore and a deceptively simple story, the board book edition is perfect for introducing babies and toddlers to the joy of books.

Kes Gray has entertained youngsters everywhere with books like Oi Frog! (featured above). Here he teams up with Fred Blunt to produce the story of Flinty Bo Diddle, a crazy-looking character with bright red hair and a lustrous beard.

Flinty is busy composing a tune for his fiddle and it’s all going according to plan when one of the notes steps out of line and dares to do a “dum” instead of a “diddle”. No matter how hard Flinty tries he can’t get the errant note to diddle like it’s supposed to. A laugh-out-loud story for parents and children to share together.

Every child should read this timeless classic by Judith Kerr, who died last year at the age of 95. When she was nine she escaped from Nazi Germany with her mother and brother, later settling in London and making her name as an award-winning author and illustrator.

She achieved huge success with The Tiger Who Came to Tea, which was first published in 1968 and has never been out of print since. It tells the tale of a little girl called Sophie and her mum, who are sitting down to tea when a large stripy tiger arrives at the front door to join them. But is there enough food in the house for everyone?

Former children’s laureate Julia Donaldson has written scores of children’s books, including The Gruffalo, Stick Manand the What the Ladybird Heard series, but The Detective Dog is one of our favourites.

Published in 2016 and beautifully illustrated by Sara Ogilvie, this rhyming story follows the adventures of Nell, an intrepid dog detective with a keen sense of smell. One day Nell and her owner arrive at school to find that all the books have disappeared. With help from the children, Nell is soon hot on the tail of the book thief.

Harvey the hare reckons he’s “as brave as a bear” and isn’t scared of anything. He pleads with his brother Buster to play but Buster wants a quiet snooze and dares his younger sibling to snatch a peach from the local farm instead.

The dare takes a hair-raising turn when Harvey encounters some unexpected foes along the way, leaving Buster to scramble to the rescue. This sweet tale of brotherly devotion, published in paperback this year and told in rhyme, is just the ticket for under fives.