Lisa's Top 5 Sophisticated Picture Books

Lisa and I have spent a couple of mornings this week up at Mahurangi College talking to the Year 7 and 8 students about what you can find at the library, and all the things you can do with your library card.

One of the things we were showing off were the picture books which are for older kids. These are what we call Sophisticated Picture books and you can find them in various places on our shelves. Some are still in the children's picture book sections, but others are shelved in childrens (and sometimes even teen) fiction or in the fun books.

Here is Lisa's Top 5.

1. Woolvs in the Sitee. Margaret Wild. Illustrator Anne Spudvilas. You only have to look at the title of this book to realise that there is something a bit different here. The text is spelt phonetically but you read it quite easily. However in combination with the contrasting dark and light of the illustrations, it leaves you with a very weird feeling that completely suits this sinister story.


2. Home and Away. John Marsden. Illustrator Matt Ottley. John Marsden writes a lot of children's fiction and is particularly well known for his series Tomorrow, when the war began. This picture book also has war as a central theme but with a slightly different approach as it follows the story of a family broken apart by war, famine, violence and prison. The illustrations are alternatively adult and childish which adds extra poignancy.


3. Although a lot of picture books are classed sophisticated because of their content (such as the two above), they are not all like this. Lisa hadn't seen Where's My Cow? by Terry Pratchett and illustrated by Melvyn Grant until I showed it to her at the beginning of the week, but she quickly fell for it's charm. This is a "Discworld picture book for people of all sizes". It's the story of one of the Discworld characters reading a book to his young son. However he can't help embellishing the story to make it a little less boring.


4. If you asked a room full of people Why did the chicken cross the road? you would probably get a whole range of answers. This book asks 14 of the "funniest and most talented artists around" for their ideas and this book is the result. It is a simple idea, well executed.


5. The list would not be completed with one of our favourite's Tadpole's Promise by Jeanne Willis and illustrated by Tony Ross. This is a book we often read aloud to older classes and we often see the teachers chuckling away as well. A picture book which really does have a twist in the tale.