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I like to pride myself on having a pretty vast knowledge of children’s lit but every now and then a book or an author will slide past my radar undetected and when they finally come to my attention I’m appalled that I didn’t know about them before. Britta Teckentrup is one such author. I stumbled over her dreamy board book Tree: A Peek-Through Picture Book last year, only to find out that she’s published dozens and dozens of books and they’re all equally dreamy. Here are just a few to whet your appetite!
Written and Illustrated by: Britta Teckentrup
Number of Pages: 32
Age Range: 4-8
Rating: 4.5/5
Busy pages are filled with similar looking paired pictures except for one stand-alone item that looks similar to the others but doesn’t have an exact match. Can you spot the ice cream cone that doesn’t fit in or the sock that is missing its mate?
Written and Illustrated by: Britta Teckentrup
Number of Pages: 32
Age Range: 2-5
Rating: 5/5
I may be a little partial to this one because I love penguins so much but I think you’ll find it hard not to love too. Little Penguin is missing his friend who lives far away and embarks on a journey to visit her. The pages have lift-the-flap portions that show penguin maneuvering over and under seaweed, climbing from the bottoms to the tops of icebergs and so on. A great illustration of opposites and prepositions…and cute penguins to boot!
Written and Illustrated by: Britta Teckentrup
Number of Pages: 32
Age Range: 2-5
Rating: 4/5
Similar to Herve Tullet’s Press Here, the reader is encouraged to shake, tilt and shout at the book in an effort to help the main character Ellie clear her bathtub of uninvited guests. Great fun!
Written and Illustrated by: Britta Teckentrup
Number of Pages: 96
Age Range: 6-10
Rating: 4.5/5
This one is the most ambitious of the lot, geared toward slightly older readers. Each spread has a gorgeous illustration and a couple of paragraphs about an egg related subject. There’s no real rhyme or reason to what is covered or when but you’ll read about how eggs get their colors, the size range of bird eggs, some of the mythology and religious symbolism surrounding eggs, even a snippet about Faberge eggs. It’s really lovely and informative though probably not something that could be used as a reference for say a science project (except maybe for inspiration.)
Are there any authors out there you’d consider hidden gems? I’d love to discover more!