The You Choose books from Pippa Goodhart and Nick Sharratt are full of fun and nearly endless possibilities. So if you and your family enjoy them, what could you try next? We’ve got some ideas and we want to hear your recommendations, too…
Anna McKerrow
The hugely popular You Choose by Nick Sharratt and Pippa Goodhart provides the young reader with a fantastic series of choices on every page.
If you were hungry, which of the delicious-looking foods would you eat? Which of the jazzy clothing options will you choose? Where will you choose to live – a fairy castle, a windmill, the Taj Mahal?
Now accompanied by You Choose Your Dreams and You Choose in Space, there are even more amazing choices for preschool children. But if you feel like moving on, here are some suggestions – and we’d love to hear yours!
If you feel like moving on to picture books…
The classicWould You Rather… by BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award winner John Burningham presents children (and adults!) with a thought-provoking array of unusual choices in a slightly different way – from ‘would you rather eat supper in a castle, breakfast in a balloon, or tea on the river?’ to, ‘would you rather be made to eat spider stew, taste slug dumplings, chew mashed worms, or drink a snail shake?’
There’s also a recent addition, More Would You Rather, in which John imagined even more squeamish and delightful choices!
A classic for children, Would You Rather… presents an alternative to a traditional story by imagining a mixture of fantastical and real-life choices. It’s great for building confidence with little ones about making their own choices for their own reasons.
Would you rather serve a meal to a very polite rat or a very bad-mannered cat? John Burningham’s hilarious sequel to Would You Rather… poses this and other vital questions. A brilliant book you can turn into a game, which also ends with a particularly snuggly bed.
If your child enjoys flip books…
Have a look at Nikki Dyson’s Flip Flap Dogs or Axel Scheffler’sFlip Flap Ocean, – both published by Nosy Crow – which allow you to choose and create new and silly combinations of dog or ocean animal.
Featuring Axel Scheffler’s bright, friendly and recognisable animal illustrations and a lighthearted rhyming text, children can also mix the animal names, poems AND animal pictures up to create amusing hybrids.
If you’re looking for another brilliant vocabulary-building book…
Why not try Dorothee de Monfriend’s A Day With Dogs, Natasha Durley’s Creature Features, Susan Steggall’s The Life of a Car or Katie Abey’s We Wear Pants?
In their different ways, all four books enable the reader to learn and spot a variety of types of thing, from daily activities to types of clothes and different kinds of vehicles.
This large format book about nature features tough card pages full of brightly illustrated animals, organised by their special features: excellent for young readers building their vocabulary and learning about the natural world.
For older primary children…
Older children might enjoy books like Aaron Becker’s Journey trilogy (Journey, Quest and Return) – three wordless books that enable the reader to create their own story from the rich, vibrant pages.
And Chris Van Allsburg’s The Mysteries of Harris Burdick is a sepia-toned treat of surprising images which children can make their own creative choices from, either out loud or by writing their own stories.
A man called Harris Burdick leaves a set of drawings with a publisher, with the promise of returning with the stories the next day, and then disappears, never to be heard from again.
Your suggestions
As always, we asked you to recommend your own favourites, or books you think fit the bill after You Choose - and boy, did you deliver! Here are just some of the ideas you came up with:
Over on Instagram, there was lots of love for You Choose – and @katie_the_snook had a fabulous suggestion. ‘We love reading the Benedict Blathwayt Little Red Train books,’ she said. ‘So much detail in every page. We like to spot the stories in each story!’
The Wimmelbooks series is ‘going down a storm’ with @Bompalomps: ‘Endless conversation prompts and I love the suggestions on the back on how your child can enjoy different elements as they get older.’
@KarenFarish suggested trying The Runaway Dinnerby Allan Ahlberg, while fabulous author Perdita Cargill opted for Sally Gardner’s The Fairy Catalogue: ‘I think that one was still being secretly enjoyed at the same time as I, Coriander! Great writer to get hooked on.’
If you fancy sticking with Nick Sharratt, @tracyshopkins recommends his collaboration with Hilary Robinson, Mixed Up Fairy Tales - and went on to suggest Richard Scarry’s Cars & Trucks & Things ThatGo, too: ‘Funny, conversation-generating and fantastic for kids who like to spot things! My son’s first favourite book.’ We’re sold.
And finally, if you just can’t quite move on from YouChoose, how about just experiencing it differently? ‘Just took my little one to see the Nonsense Room Productions stage show of this,’ Nicola on Facebook said. ‘She loved it – they really bring books to life. It’s fab. Helps them want to read, too!’ Sounds pretty good to us..
Join in!
Those are some of our ideas – but what about you? What do you love reading?
Let us know by messaging us on social media @BookTrust using the hashtag #WhatToReadAfter
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