Books like Ella Bella Ballerina and Swan Lake
By James Mayhew
For the kid who twirls through the living room and begs to hear the same ballet music on repeat, this one turns a dance class into a doorway. Dreamy, graceful, and touched with old-theatre magic.
A young boy sets off on a moonlit walk armed with only an oversize purple crayon, drawing his own path through woods, seas, and dragons before finding his way safely back to bed.
A collection of poems imagines a curious inn run by poet William Blake, where dragons, angels, and a Man in the Moon all check in for the night.
A boy falls asleep holding a book and drifts into a wordless dream world where chess pieces come alive, a dragon appears, and landscapes shift from canyons into cities before his eyes.
A boy longs to catch the rainbow he spots outside his window, and imagines all the wonderful ways he could play with one of his own.
Three children find a bag of chalk at a rainy playground and discover that whatever they draw with it springs to life right off the pavement.
A poor boy who longs to paint is given a magic paintbrush that brings to life whatever he creates, until a greedy emperor sets out to capture him and claim its power for himself.
One ordinary Tuesday evening, a pond full of frogs suddenly rises into the air on their lily pads and drifts off to explore the sleeping town nearby.
A drowsy kitten chases a mouse right through a framed poster on the wall, tumbling into a chase across famous artworks and through history — and then must find his way back home.
A young painter defies a male-dominated art world by pouring paint straight onto canvas and pushing it with mops and squeegees, inventing a whole new way to make pictures.
A journey through a string of impossible moments — a swing that soars past treetops, a bike path made of falling leaves, balloons that turn a gray sky postcard-perfect — where the everyday world quietly becomes something else entirely.
A family of kids and babies fills the house with jazz — humming, drumming, tapping piano keys, and swaying to a beat that carries them all the way to sleep.
A wide-awake girl insists she can only sleep in a blue room, so her mother brings flowers, tea, and lullaby bells — until moonlight itself swirls in to solve the problem.
