Picture Books

For ages 3–7

These five sumptuously illustrated books are perfect for young readers still finding their footing in the written world. Lovers of the backyard and beyond will particularly delight in these tales of forests and pastures, dogs and cats, donkeys and frogs. In Marie Dorléans’s Our Fort, three intrepid friends set out to visit their secret refuge on the edge of the woods; they soon discover the sensory pleasures of nature, as well as its capriciousness. Esther Averill’s beloved feline protagonist—the shy black cat of Greenwich Village—returns for a celebratory romp in Jenny’s Birthday Book.

Based on a classic Chinese fable, The Frog in the Well by Alvin Tresselt follows a brave frog who decides to venture beyond his comfortable little well—the only world he’s ever known. In Roger Duvoisin’s Donkey-Donkey, the titular creature ties himself in knots trying to look like his barnyard friends, but finally learns to love his long, protruding ears just as they are. Finally, the Caldecott Medal–winning d’Aulaires bring us a retelling of a Chekhov story in Foxie: A dog with a “head like a fox and a tail like a cinnamon roll” runs away, joins the circus, but finds herself missing home.