The High Street by Alice Melvin

Sally's in the High Street and this is what she needs ...

a yellow rose,

a garden hose,

a bunch of grapes,

some roller skates,

a cockatoo,

a tin kazoo,

a Persian rug,

a stripy jug,

a cherry tart,

a candy heart.

As you turn each page we see Sally enter each shop to make her purchases. Number one is a sweet shop; number two is a bakery; the china shop is number three; and there are antiques in number four. You can probably guess where she finds cockatoo, roller skates, grapes, and a hose but how will she find a yellow rose?

Each shop has a short rhyming text description and a fold out so readers can head inside each store. 

This shows the way the pages in this book fold open

There is something so deliciously old-fashioned about The High Street. ... From sweetshop to hardware shop, from antiques shop to greengrocer’s, for many children, looking inside these shops via the medium of this book will be a real discovery ... The High Street manages to convey the sense of wonder that a child would feel when entering these shops. The clever use of flaps allows to have first a view of the shop closed and as Sally enters, the young reader can open the flap and find himself stepping inside the shop too ... Library Mice

In 2007 you could even buy a little flat pack to go with The High Street:

From the author web page: A little girl called Sally travels down the titular High Street with a very eclectic shopping list. As she visits each shop the reader can open up the throw-out pages to reveal the life behind the shop front. I have always loved doll’s houses, and I think this book grew out of fond memories of opening up a tiny house to peep at the hidden world inside. I wanted to fill the book with details of the life both in and above the shops: the bustling café above the bakery; the band practicing in the music shop and the pigeon loft in the pet-shop roof. Now translated into nine different languages it's lovely to know that this book has been enjoyed around the world.

On social media I saw a post with a list of books that could be perfect for budding architects and this book The High Street caught my eye. Luckily for me I found it in a library this week. 

The post listed six titles - here are the other five: Georgian House Picture Book (Usborne); The House with the Little Red Door (Thames and Hudson); At Home in a Book (Penguin); Our House by Trudie Trewin (Scholastic); and Need a House call Ms Mouse.

Here are some other books I'd add to this list.:

A House that once was

If I built a house

The Hidden House

Boy oh boy I do wish I had discovered this book The High Street when it was published in 2011. I would most certainly have added it to my school library and possibly even gifted it to a friend or two AND I would have loved to put this book into the hands of a Kindergarten teacher to read alongside the Squeak Street series by Emily Rodda. This book would also be a fabulous read aloud to a preschool group. AND I now discover Alice Melvin is the illustrator of this book which I own and love:

Mouse's Wood

You could also pair The High Street with other stories about shopping lists with repeated refrains such as Shoes from Grandpa (Mem Fox); and Don't forget the bacon (Pat Hutchins).

This is the Bear by Sarah Hayes illustrated by Helen Craig

This is the Bear is a perfect preschool book. It has a cumulative tale format. Sadly this book is out of print. It was originally published in 1986 - so this is the 40th anniversary!  I do wish Walker Books UK would republish this book and others from the 'This is the Bear' series. These books were also produced in a Big Book format and set out to read as a play. 

This is the bear who fell in the bin. This is the dog who pushed him in.

This is the man who picked up the sack. This is the driver who would not come back.

This is the bear who went to the dump and fell on the pile with a bit of a bump.

Companion book:

Dougal the Garbage Dump Bear

Here are the other books in this series:

Walker Books UK published these books for their series called "Reading Time".  There were titles such as Big Bad Pig by Allan Ahlberg; Our Dog by Helen Oxenbury; and Have you seen Crocodile? by Colin West.

You may already know art by Helen Craig. 

The Pumpkin man and the Crafty Creeper

(This book is a fabulous one to read aloud)

Jam

The Night of the Paper bag Monsters

This goes with Charlie and Tyler at the Seaside

There are 67 Angelina Ballerina books!

Carnival of the Animals by Marianne Dubuc

The title of this book did mislead me but in a good way. I immediately thought of the famous music Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns and so I thought this book could be linked to the 2026 CBCA slogan A Symphony of Stories. I do have a small collection of picture books that feature this famous piece of music in a Pinterest collection. 

I picked up this book by Marianne Dubuc at a recent charity book sale. It was published in 2012 and so is long out of print. This book is fun, but it does not readily relate to the famous music or the book week slogan. 

The elephant dresses up as a parrot

The parrot dresses up as a tortoise

Each double spread in this book shows an animal and then on the next page the animal is seen in fancy dress. Australian children will laugh over the platypus and everyone will enjoy the final party or carnival scene. I have put illustrations here are from the French edition of this book.

Carnical of the Animals was considered for the Governor General's Award for French-language children's illustration. The English version is called Animal Masquerade (2012). It was named an Outstanding International Book by the USBBY.

Marianne Dubuc (born 1980) is a talented Canadian writer and illustrator. She creates wonderful books for children. Marianne lives in Quebec, Canada. She was born in Montreal. She studied graphic design at the Université du Québec à Montréal. This helped her learn how to design and draw. Her very first book was La mer (2006). It was later translated into English as The Sea (2012). Her second book, Devant ma maison, became very popular. It was translated into more than 15 languages! Today, her books are available in 25 different languages around the world.

I previously talked about these books by Marianne Dubuc:

Up the Mountain

The Lion and the Bird

The Bus Ride

Here the CBCA 2026 poster:

Read me a book by Barbara Reid

I volunteer in the children's library at Westmead Children's hospital here in Sydney. In 2011 Scholastic Australia (who support this library) published or reprinted this small format book from 2003 as a promotional publication. I found a copy in our give away box.

"This little book is a gift from the Book Bunker, the special library for the young patients at The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney. ... Experts say that reading to our children for just ten minutes a day will make the difference. They suggest that we read one favourite book, one familiar book and one new story each time."

Here is the text of this sweet little book which has wonderful plasticine illustrations. Read more about her work here. I am hoping Barbara Reid might be one of the speakers at the IBBY Congress in Ottawa this year. 

This is a simple and very format book but the message is important!

Tell me a story, 

Read me a book, 

Bounce me a poem, 

Let's take a look. 

Read around the garden, 

Upstairs and down, 

Underneath the covers, 

Read around the town. 

Tell it one more time, 

Pick out something new, 

The very best beginning is ... 

to read a book with you!

Read Me A Book was initially commissioned by the Government of Ontario’s Early Learning Initiative and was distributed to newborn children across the province. Original artwork from Read Me a Book was presented to the Toronto Public Library Foundation and is displayed in various branches throughout Toronto.

There is something rather comforting about small format books - I am thinking of Beatrix Potter and all the Miffy books. 

Companion book:

Read more here

My Tiger by Joy Cowley illustrated by David Barrow

Tiger loves to eat cake and only cake until he has a toothache. The dentist tells the boy his tiger must not eat any more cake. What will the tiger eat if he is banned from eating cakes? She suggests he should eat the same food as other tigers!

Just look at that cover - we can only see part of the huge tiger and a couple of discarded cupcakes. If you stretch out the cover you will see the rest of the tiger and his face as the boy is pulling him by his tail dragging him to the dentist.

Back cover

The illustrations in this book are fantastic - this tiger has an even better face than the famous tiger in The Tiger who Came to Tea.

The Tiger who came to Tea by Judith Kerr

Gecko Press blurb: My tiger loved cake, and I went with him to the cake shop. Then he got a bad tooth, so I went with him to the dentist. My tiger didn’t like sitting in the waiting room, climbing onto the dentist chair, being told by the dentist what to eat. Especially when she said no more cake! What’s a tiger supposed to eat? A bossy adult is made to look silly and a charming tiger wins the reader’s heart in this subversively funny story about a love of cake and the pull of natural tiger instincts.

The timing of reading this book is PERFECT because I just had a terrible experience with a dentist - and then I tried to book an appointment with a kinder lady in the same practice only to be told she couldn't see me for at least a week and that very same day I found this Joy Cowley book - I feel like asking the tiger from this story to help me! I know we want children to feel confident about visiting the dentist but reading this book where (spoiler alert) the way the dentist is eaten by the tiger felt so good just after my horror experience. 

A trip to the dentist is inevitable after one too many sweets causes a toothache. The encounter is unnerving for both parties, and the tiger is advised to avoid cakes for good, leading to an unexpectedly dark yet hilarious ending as the big cat opts for a diet more suited to his needs. New Zealand author Cowley has crafted a vivid story grounded in simplicity, while Barrow adeptly conveys the titular beast’s intimidatingly vast size and imminent danger. The feline playfully contorts his body to fit the page as those around him look on in consternation, and when the child peers into the big cat’s gaping maw, the perspective switches to inside the tiger’s mouth, his jagged teeth filling the page. But Barrow also gives the tiger an expressive, almost childlike face. His human friend’s matter-of-fact, almost deadpan narration will lull readers into a sense of calm before ending on a surprising yet satisfying last note. A deeply amusing, wonderfully subversive look at defying expectations and watching what you eat. Kirkus Star review

Companion books:

There's a tiger on the train

There's a lion in my cornflakes

We found a cat

Joy Cowley is one of New Zealand’s most celebrated authors. In 1992, she was awarded an OBE for services to children’s literature; and the following year she was granted an honorary doctorate from Massey University, as well as being awarded the Margaret Mahy Medal and a DCNZM (A Damehood in the old honour system). In 2002, the Joy Cowley Award was established in her honour. Most recently, Joy received the New Zealand Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction for 2010. Joy Cowley was born in 1936 (89 years old). I wondered if My Tiger was perhaps a book she wrote in the past and that it perhaps has been published with different illustrations and reading a Facebook post from the publisher I have found the answer (which oddly was not included on the imprint page). My Tiger was first published in 1980 with illustrations by Robyn Belton; then again in an anthology by Gavin Bishop titled Just One More. 

David Barrow is UK illustrator. I previously talked about Have you seen Elephant and Budgie by Joseph Coelho. Gecko Press visit his studio.

Derek by Anne Donaldson illustrated by Matt Shanks

Bookseller blurb: Derek is a fish with many questions. Why is the universe round? Where do bubbles come from? Why does food rain down from above? But the question Derek asks himself more than any other is: ‘Why am I alone?’

I actually gasped when I turned the page and read that question - Why am I alone?

The solution is unexpected, delightful and hilarious.

Derek is a debut picture book for Anne Donaldson (her book/s will be in good company on your library shelves beside the famous Julia Donaldson!) and here are other books illustrated by Matt Shanks. 

Here is part of the ReadPlus review:

The wonderfully sparse illustrations are full of extra inferential information and make brilliant use of perspective and proportion. The front cover foreshadows Derek as a curious, wide-eyed fish in a big world. Observant endpaper readers know from the beginning of the story where Derek is (a pet fish shop) but it is never explicitly said.  Derek is a curious fish; among other things he wants to know why the (his) universe is round and why the (his) earth is pink. ...  The big creatures that Derek sees 'when food rains down' are shown just as a giant hand (as would be seen by Derek) and poor Derek is desperate to know why he is all alone. Adventurous Derek decides to make contact with the big creatures above but try as he might they are never that interested in him. There's a great little goldfish joke here as it is noted 'they must have very short attention spans'. 

Derek is a 2026 CBCA Early Childhood Picture Book Notable title. I have not read all of the 2026 Notables in this category, but I am hoping Derek will make the shortlist of six. 

Here are the judges' comments:

Check out this post from Kinderbookswitheverything where you will find lots more goldfish books. 

Companion books:

Paul meets Bernadette

Aquarium

Poor Fish isn't directly linked with Derek but it is a wonderful book to read aloud to Grade One or Two

For middle primary readers try to find these two books (short novel and a picture book):

Growing Home (Highly recommended)

Whale in a fishbowl