Children's picture books

This ingenious pop-up book is perfect for reading to your small pirate-fancier. A pirate ship, lighthouse and sea monster are just a few of the quite large and detailed pop-ups as you turn the pages.

When you are finished, the whole book also unfolds to become a 3-D play mat, complete with stand-up card pirates and sea creatures. There is plenty of fun to be had here.

- Janice Murphy is an ODT subeditor.

 

• In this delightful story for children 0-5, by Aucklanders Pearse and Klepatski, a little boy has a busy day with his daddy - from reading, playing and drawing inside, to a visit to the park with the swings, ducks, birds and bees, and home for dinner and bed.

The rhyming text carries the story along, there is humour and affection in the words and beautifully rendered coloured pencil illustrations, with the toddler ''helping'' and Daddy trying to maintain control, and an ending parents and caregivers will be able to identify with.

 

• Clara Button and her brother Ollie are back in the second story by two British fashion and design experts. Clara loves making clothes for her toys, and Ollie loves inventing. A wedding invitation gives them the opportunity to put their creativity to the test, even a mishap with a dye bottle becomes a chance to shine.

Colourful and richly detailed illustrations, and messages about creativity and diversity, make this very British book a gem which will delight little girls about 3-7, and their mothers and grandmothers.

 

• This richly illustrated New Zealand story is aimed at children 5-9. A young girl and her Croatian grandmother are gathering pipi on the beach as the godwits prepare for their epic migration, leading to a conversation about the birds and the history of New Zealand's immigrants.

This is a book about courage and resilience and has an introduction by former prime minister Helen Clark, now administrator of the United Nations Development Programme.

- Helen Speirs is ODT books editor.

 

• With an abundance of tutus and technical terms this story is custom-made for ballet-obsessed girls. One day a dance teacher meets a small girl desperate to be a ballerina. Despite the odds, and through sacrifice, injuries and hard work, the girl grows up to be a prima ballerina.

The cycle is complete when she retires from performing and takes over the dance studio. It's a sweet story about perseverance and the importance of good teachers, and the illustrations capture the movement beautifully.

 

• If you can get past the moral that your day is only as good as your hair, then this is a fun, good-looking book.

Bella is having a bad hair day but her parents are too busy to help and the other characters just make things worse. It's a ''horrible horrific horrendous hair day'' and it only gets better when Mum finally comes to the rescue.

There isn't much of a story but the language is playful and the illustrations have a wonderful Dr Seuss flavour.

- Laura Hewson is an ODT subeditor and mother.