Kitten Corner: Quiet Picture Books

Here’s the second part of my picture book round-up, this time focusing on quieter, sweeter books – if you missed the first, funny post, it’s here! All of these were sent to me free of charge, but as ever that doesn’t affect my opinions.

All the Animals Were Sleeping by Clare Helen Welsh and Jenny Lovlie, from Nosy Crow

This gorgeous story follows a little mongoose as he runs home to bed, passing lots of different sleeping animals in the Serengeti. It’s absolutely beautiful, with lyrical writing that manages to be poetic without rhyming, and gorgeously warm, softly-coloured artwork that really evokes sunset, nightfall, and sleepiness. There’s a wonderful array of unusual animals (and a fact file at the end about them!) and lovely repetitive elements of three prepositions and the line ‘all the animals were sleeping’, that beg to be read aloud. Possibly my favourite book in this post!

Time to Move South for Winter by Clare Helen Welsh and Jenny Lovlie, from Nosy Crow

Another book by the same author and illustrator pair, and this one is similarly gorgeous. Where the Serengeti was warm yellows and pinks fading into night-time blues, here we get to see the icy blues and whites of the Arctic change to brighter colours as a little tern flies south for winter. It also has the repeated prepositions and title phrase, so is perfect for reading aloud, and the illustrations are simply magical (I love the geese in flight).

I Love You More Than All the Stars by Becky Davies and Dana Brown, from Little Tiger

This sweet book has a lovely rhyme throughout about how big and powerful love is, which I really enjoyed, but what makes this stand out from similar books is the beautiful design. The text and illustrations are silver on dark backgrounds, with the text changing size and shape to suit the artwork, which makes it feel very magical and special. This would be a great book to share with a loved one.