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Oh Dear, Look What I Got!

by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

Interest age: 2 to 5

Published by Walker Books, 2025

  • Funny
  • Picture books
  • Poetry and rhyme

About this book

A child goes to the shops to get a carrot, but things don’t really go to plan when they get a parrot instead. 

Next, it’s a trip out for a hat, but the shopkeeper hands the child a cat wrapped in brown paper. A request for a coat goes badly awry when a goat is offered instead, and a shopkeeper proudly presents the child with a bear when asked for a chair. What is going on? 

Yet, later in the day, there’s a knock at the door and a line of all the shopkeepers carrying the items that were asked for. Fantastic! 

This new story from national treasures Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury, the author and illustrator team behind the much loved We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, is full of warmth and joy. 

Oxenbury’s pencil and watercolour illustrations are deeply nostalgic, giving the book a comforting feel, even though this is a new book complete with a beautifully diverse range of characters. There’s so much brilliant detail to be found in her illustration that adults and children alike will love coming back to the book again and again to look at the cakes in the bakery and chuckle at the expressions of the animals. 

Rosen’s Dr Seuss-like text, with its bouncy rhyme and repeating call-and-response chorus, is perfect to read aloud; as ever, Michael Rosen is a master of the picture book, able to set up a story immediately and engage the reader with a simple but brilliant idea. 

Oh Dear, Look What I Got! is funny and sweet, with a simple message about making the best of things when they don’t quite go your way, and everything coming good in the end. Utterly delightful. 

About the author

Michael Rosen is one of Britain’s best loved writers and performance poets for children and adults. His first degree in English Literature and Language was from Wadham College, Oxford and he went on to study for an MA at the University of Reading and a PhD at the former University of North London, now London Metropolitan.

He is currently Professor of Children’s Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London where he co-devised and teaches critical approaches to reading on an MA in Children’s Literature, having done the same at Birkbeck, University of London. He has taught on MA courses in universities since 1994.

He was the Children’s Laureate from 2007 to 2009 and has published over 200 books for children and adults, including the recent bestseller Many Different Kinds of Love and On The Move.

About the illustrator

Helen Oxenbury was born in Ipswich and attended the Ipswich School of Art before moving to London to study at the Central School of Art and Design. Her career has spanned many fields, including design work in theatre, film and television. She started illustrating children’s books in 1964 and has published books across age groups, from classic board books for babies to collections of nursery rhymes for all ages.

Oxenbury is a two-time winner and four-time runner up for the Kate Greenaway Medal. She first won in 1969, when the two books cited were The Quangle Wangle's Hat, an edition of Edward Lear's 19th-century poem, and The Dragon of an Ordinary Family, a new story by Margaret Mahy. She won again in 1999 for her illustrated edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. For the 50th anniversary of the Medal in 2007, Oxenbury’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was named by a panel as one of the top ten winning works of all time. Along with her husband John Burningham, Helen won the BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.

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