Picture Book - Lost and Found - Oliver Jeffers (Author & Illustrator)

Picture Book - Lost and Found - Oliver Jeffers (Author & Illustrator)

Recomended for - Babies/Toddlers/Younger Readers

I'm trying to gather up everything I can find by Oliver Jeffers, as he's easily been one of my favourite picture book writers that I've discovered over the last year or so (and he's a fine illustrator too). I've discovered several books with a friendship between a boy and a penguin, and this is the first.

When a boy finds a penguin on his doorstep, he thinks he must be lost and tries to help him find his way home, eventually landing at the South Pole. As he leaves though, he notices that the penguin is still sad, and realises that he was just lonely. Will he make it back in time though to find the penguin and his new best friend?

I'm happy to say that, yet again, Oliver Jeffers has come up trumps. While it's not on the highest level with The Hueys in The New Jumper, Stuck or This Moose Belongs To Me, it's close, and well worth checking out. The slightly eccentric humour that Jeffers does so well is present, especially as the boy tries to ask various parties (including some random birds, which is hilarious how it happens) about where the penguin might belong. I also very nearly burst into tears in the last couple of pages (that's not unusual, but I've never done it reading a picture book before!) - there's a scene that's so touching, I wanted to force everyone else to read it straight away afterwards. There was no-one around though, so I had to read it myself again, which was absolutely fine by me.

It's almost become too easy to predict, but you have to check this out, and everything else Oliver Jeffers has done.

9/10