A selection of children books for your inner child

Just what is the Gruffalo?
He has terrible tusks… and terrible claws… and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws.
But do all those things make him the scariest creature in the deep dark wood? One brave little mouse with a big imagination doesn’t think so!
When Mouse takes a stroll through the woods, he meets a fox, an owl, and a snake who all want to eat him. So clever Mouse scares them off by warning them about the gruffalo who lives in the forest, a monster with terrible teeth and terrible claws.
But what happens when Mouse’s invented monster turns out to be real?

Britta Teckentrup
First published February 28, 2022

Filled with gorgeous, richly textured, and softly colored illustrations, this book about navigating childhood fears will help young readers understand that everyone gets scared no matter how big or little you are.
This charming and relatable story about being afraid brings back Big Hedgehog and Little Hedgehog, two of Britta Teckentrup’s many marvelous characters who embody human emotions young readers can identify with and easily understand.
From dark basements to deserted streets, swooping birds to cars’ glaring headlights, menacing foxes to friendly cats, the two friends spend a day and evening confronting things that are both frightful and harmless. As the two hedgehogs walk through their neighborhood, they talk casually about their fears and strategies for dealing with them—whistling, holding hands, counting, being still, and accepting kindness. Few children’s illustrators working today are able to capture nature’s lush colors and textures quite like Teckentrup.
Vibrating with warmth and charm, this gentle story offers valuable skills for identifying and dealing with the things that make us scared.
A new adventure where Franklin and Luna follow their friend the tortoise into a dusty fairy-tale kingdom. Who will they meet there?
Franklin and Luna are back again and this time it’s Franklin’s birthday! Luna and all the villagers are planning a surprise party. While the party is being set up, Luna takes Franklin book shopping, and Luna’s tortoise, Neil, finds a padlocked book of fairy tales and can’t help picking the lock. But when he peers inside, the book swallows him whole!
Franklin and Luna dive into the book to rescue Neil and tumble into a cobwebbed forest where they meet dusty fairy-tale characters who have been trapped inside the pages for hundreds of years.
In this new Franklin and Luna adventure, the adorable duo meet three pig architects, a wolf with a New Age attitude, and a very bored princess. Desperate to be brought to life, these fairy-tale characters join Franklin and Luna on their hunt for Neil, realizing that the only way to escape the book is to trek all the way through it.
Find out if Franklin and Luna find Neil and make it back in time for Franklin’s party in this exciting, new, picture-book adventure. In the third volume of the Franklin and Luna series, well-loved fairy-tale characters are vividly and wittily recreated to great effect.
See a duck take to the water of friendship in this gorgeously warm, funny book about the joy of making an unexpected connection.
Duck is not like other ducks. Duck doesn’t like water and is perfectly fine alone, thank you very much. But then, one dark and stormy night, an outgoing, water-loving, and very lost Frog turns up at Duck’s door. Can this odd couple find Frog’s home? And will they find friendship along the way?
Ash is feeling lonely. She wishes she had someone to play with. Then a sad elephant comes along and Ash has an idea that will cheer him up.
Soon she is sharing her idea with lots of animals in the forest. A warm-hearted story about sharing with others.

Flooded is the funny and beautifully illustrated tale of animals who live in a city that is ever so slowly flooding.
The flood comes gradually at first. All the animals ignore the obvious and go about their busy lives, disjointed from one another and preoccupied by their own problems.
Eventually, the flood water reaches a height that they can no longer ignore and they have to work together to save their city.
All the animals join together in a line and pull out the plug that is drowning the city.
This is an exceptionally illustrated story that teaches a message not to let problems fester and with a little team work and community spirit, no problem is insurmountable.

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