Books like Father Christmas Goes on Holiday
By Raymond Briggs
For the kid who thinks Father Christmas needs a rest too, this follows him off-duty and out of his sleigh for once. Wry, grumbly, and quietly funny, with a comic-strip warmth throughout.
A young girl visits her eccentric grandfather, where nothing is normal — tea comes in flower pots, and cleaning the house means mowing the rug.
A cast of insects — damselflies, beetles, and a pill bug named Icky — watches a tiny shoot grow into a plant, builds a tree fort in its branches, and faces something horrible that swoops down from above.
A child imagines an entire day as a horse — galloping through familiar settings, wondering if they'd fit in their clothes, and whether a little sister would get a ride.
An alphabet journey where each letter unfolds into a densely packed illustration, from Armored Armadillos Avoiding an Angry Alligator to Horrible Hairy Hogs Hurrying Homewards, hiding dozens of matching objects to hunt for.
A boy named Nicholas wakes up to find a witch has cast a body-swap spell on him overnight, trapping him inside his cat Leonardo while Leonardo goes off to school in his place.
Two best friends who've already played every game, baked every cookie, and painted every picture decide to try something harder: standing perfectly still and doing nothing for ten whole seconds.
A journey around the world explores real homes shaped by their surroundings, from bedrooms carved into Spanish mountains to a floating house in the Netherlands that rotates to catch both the sunrise and sunset.
A collection of children's own definitions for everyday things — a hole is to dig, a face is so you can make faces — told in the funny, backwards logic only kids have.
A devoted family dog is left in charge of the baby for an afternoon, and what unfolds between them is captured entirely through wordless, expressive pictures.
A hungry house cat slips out into the backyard and stalks twelve different birds one by one, but every single time, the bird flies off and the cat is left with nothing but a mouthful of feathers.
