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

Picture Book - Stuck- Oliver Jeffers (Author & Illustrator)

Picture Book - Stuck- Oliver Jeffers (Author & Illustrator)

Recommended for: Babies/Toddlers/Younger Readers

Oh, Oliver Jeffers. You make my life so good.

This is the third book by the author that I've read, and I'm yet to find anything that isnt utterly hilarious and compelling in any of them.

Floyd has got his kite stuck in a tree. No matter what he throws at it, he can't get it to come down. A ladder, the post-man, a house, an ocean-liner...that kite is well and truly stuck.

What skill it must take to make something as ordinary as getting a kite stuck in a tree to be so utterly captivating. The absurdity of the objects thrown, and the capacity of this tree to hold them, will have parent and child in stitches throughout. It's as wonderfully illustrated as ever, and ending will bring a smile that you can't easily remove, especially for those of us blessed with less than perfect memories.

If there's any children's author fast becoming a 'must-read-before-all-else', it's Oliver Jeffers. This man is a genius.

10/10

Picture Book: The Hueys in The New Jumper – Oliver Jeffers (Author & Illustrator)

Picture Book: The Hueys in The New Jumper – Oliver Jeffers (Author & Illustrator)

Recommended for: Babies/Toddlers/Younger Readers

It’s such a wonderful feeling when new books come into the library: that new book smell, the excitement of what might be inside, new ideas for displays and what to recommend to readers. It’s especially great when, having spotted a cover that catches your eye, you discover upon reading it that it’s everything you hoped it would be.

The Hueys in The New Jumper stuck out immediately with its orange and white design, and its intriguing depiction of ‘The Hueys’, who appear to be a distant cousin of the humble egg. They are all virtually identical, which is where the story gets its humour from. One Huey decides to knit himself an orange jumper, so that he can be different. Soon, all the other Hueys decide they want to be different by having a jumper, until all of them have one. It’s an excellent and humorous take on people trying to be individual but instead setting a trend, brought to life in a children’s story. The illustrations look like little sketches rather than the grand pictures you’ll be used to in most picture books, but I think it works really well, making the Hueys’ similarities all the more obvious.

If Oliver Jeffers has plans for more stories involving The Hueys, I can’t wait to read them.

10/10