Engaging Picture Books

Improve your child’s reading confidence by choosing fun picture books they’ll want to read again and again.

Learning to read comes so much more easily to children who have stories read to them. The exposure to words – both through their eyes and their ears – helps children to learn to recognise letters, understand the rhythm of language, and even that you read a book from top to bottom, left to right. We’ve chosen five excellent books to read with your child to help grow their confidence in reading. These books are cleverly written and illustrated with few words, so they’re easy for children to remember. The authors use repetition alongside clues in the pictures for children to decode. At first, children will “read” from their memory, as well as prompts from the illustrations. Celebrating this success with your child will encourage them to read more; before you know it, they’ll be reading for real.

Duck Duck Moose

This wonderfully simple book is loads of fun to read aloud and perfect for teaching children to read with expression. Inspired by the game Duck, Duck, Goose, the author cleverly introduces one more word, “moose”, using just three words in the entire book to create a beautiful story about friendship and fitting in. Have fun reading it aloud together and matching your expressions to what’s happening on the pages – it’s magic watching children make the connections between the words and the pictures. The book is beautifully illustrated with a sense of fun and fabulous facial expressions in a bright palette of oranges and greens. Duck Duck Moose is written and illustrated by Lucinda Gifford and published by Allen and Unwin.

Open Up, Please

This book is an absolute gem and perfect for even the smallest child to “read” as it only has two words – and one of them is “thanks”, which is a great word to practice! It’s a lift-the-flap book, which most children find irresistible, and the illustrations are simple and engaging. The ending is a terrific surprise and a great prompt for discussion about safety, consequences, point-of-view and not always being able to see the full picture. Or you can just have a giggle. Open Up, Please is written by Silvia Borando, illustrated by Lorenzo Clerici and published by Candlewick Press.

Orange, Pear, Apple, Bear

This playful book appears pretty simple, but it’s actually a cleverly-designed invitation to play with words. It introduces each of the title words (orange, pear, apple, bear) alongside a picture – and then starts to mix them up, offering all different combinations. There’s an “orange bear” next to a bear with orange fur and an “orange, bear” alongside a bear who’s eating an orange. It’s perfect for encouraging children to use the pictures to decode the text and develop their visual literacy skills. There’s also interesting endpapers to help get your children hooked on checking out endpapers in books. Orange, Pear, Apple, Bear is written and illustrated by Emily Gravett and published by Macmillan.

When I’m Older

This story repeats four of the first sight words kids will learn at school (I, can, be, a), giving little readers plenty of practice reading them aloud, as a ball of bright blue and black clay ponders what he may be when he grows up. The possibilities are endless (particularly when you are clay!). Each suggestion is illustrated with a creative clay creation, which gives little readers a visual clue to work out the new word on each page. The rhyming helps too. It’s fantastic for developing confidence and encouraging children to read. The book has a great message too: at the end, the little clay lump is perfectly happy being himself for now, which is just right. When I’m Older is written by Sydney’s Neil Flory (with cute handwriting by his son Isa), illustrated by Somak Chaudhary and published by Allen and Unwin.

Where is the Green Sheep?

Kids love searching for the green sheep in this book that introduces children to all sorts of concepts such as here and there, up and down and; near and far. After reading this story together a few times, you could take turns with your little reader, reading a sentence each, with the book giving children clues to the next phrase through the use of rhyme, repetition and brightly coloured illustrations. Where is the Green Sheep? is written by Mem Fox, illustrated by Judy Horacek and published by Penguin Books.