Why am I passionate about this?

I’m Anne Lambelet, author-illustrator of Maria the Matador. The greatest compliment to any author-illustrator is that a child wants to keep spending time with your book after the first read-through is over. As an avid childhood reader who has maintained a passion for kid lit into my adulthood and my career, I’ve read a lot of picture books in my life, but the ones that have stuck with me are the ones that demanded a second, a third, even a fiftieth look. For that reason, I’ve chosen the following topic for my list of recommendations.


I wrote

Maria the Matador

By Anne Lambelet,

Book cover of Maria the Matador

What is my book about?

Maria loves tea parties and dancing and wearing her hair in pigtails, but more than anything, Maria loves churros. So,…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Eleventh Hour: A Curious Mystery

Anne Lambelet Why did I love this book?

Really anything by Graeme Base could go on this list. He’s a master of packing exquisite detail into every bit of a picture, but The Eleventh Hour particularly holds a special place in my heart. As a child I spent hours searching every page, decoding musical notes, ciphers, and hieroglyphics, unraveling both visual and verbal riddles trying to figure out “whodunit”. I even roped my parents into helping me find the clues, and I feel like they were just as enthralled as I was. The beautiful illustrations and rhyming verse would make this a fun story on its own, but the hidden mystery embedded in every page makes this book a masterpiece. 

By Graeme Base,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Eleventh Hour as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When Horace the elephant turns eleven, he celebrates instyle by inviting his exotic friends to a splendid costume party. But a mystery is afoot, for in the midst of the games, music, and revelry, someone has eaten the birthday feast. The rhyming text and lavish, detailed illustrations each provide clues, and it's up to the reader to piece them together and decide whodunit!"The fun of poring over the pictures is matched by the enjoyment derived from the textwitty, ingenious verses." -- Publishers WeeklyGraeme Base is the author of many award-winning books for children, including Animalia (Puffin), The Sign of the…


Book cover of Rivers: A Visual History from River to Sea

Anne Lambelet Why did I love this book?

Again, Peter Goes could have multiple books here if this list were longer, but if I have to pick just one, it’ll be Rivers. Non-fiction books usually pack in a lot more information than fictional stories so you usually have to spend more time with them to absorb everything, but the thing that makes Rivers so special amongst non-fiction books is the presentation of information. Facts and legends flow across heavily illustrated maps, in and out of animals, architecture, mythological figures, and cultural vignettes. Each bit of imagery and text corresponds to the path of the river, mirroring its meandering journey across the page.

It’s a lot to process, but Goes’s graphic illustrative style and limited color palette prevent compositions from feeling too busy and overwhelming. Every time I come back to this book, I notice something new or learn a fact that I missed before. I don’t think looking at it will ever get old. 

By Peter Goes,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Rivers as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 7, 8, 9, and 10.

What is this book about?

This breathtaking journey along the most important rivers in the world takes us from the Nile to the Amazon, the Mekong Delta to the Mississippi, the Murray to the Waikato.

Our seas and rivers tell a compelling story about our planet. Through tracking the life source of people, animals and the land itself, Peter Goes brings alive our history and our lives today. Each illustration includes major events and historical figures connected with its river, but also favorite stories and icons. This absorbing, playful book shows who we are, how we live and the myths we weave around our people…


Book cover of The Arrival

Anne Lambelet Why did I love this book?

Like non-fiction picture books, wordless picture books also inherently demand spending a little more time with the illustrations. Every visual detail has the potential of adding another layer of understanding to the story, and no story is more layered in its detail than Shaun Tan’s The Arrival. Tan’s pictures don’t depict what the immigrant experience looks like so much as how I imagine it feels. Everything the main character encounters in his new home seems confusing and spectacular and strange, and when other immigrants share their own journeys with him, the worlds they came from look just as spectacular and alien.

Yet, through Tan’s expressive, intricate illustrations the viewer can still decipher the truth of the emotions behind the whimsical imagery. The way I experience this book has evolved as I’ve grown up, but I love that it’s only gotten richer over time. As a child, it captured my imagination, but now it captures my heart. 

By Shaun Tan,

Why should I read it?

10 authors picked The Arrival as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

What drives so many to leave everything behind and journey alone to a mysterious country, a place without family or friends, where everything is nameless and the future is unknown. This silent graphic novel is the story of every migrant, every refugee, every displaced person, and a tribute to all those who have made the journey.

THE ARRIVAL has become one of the most critically acclaimed books of recent years, a wordless masterpiece that describes a world beyond any familiar time or place.

Sited as No 35 in The Times 100 Best Books of all time. It has sold over…


Book cover of The Jolly Postman: Or Other People's Letters

Anne Lambelet Why did I love this book?

There are so many wonderful, interactive pop-up books out there that kids could pore over for hours (Dragonology, Pirateology, and Wizardology all come to mind immediately) so I can’t quite put my finger on why, as a child, this book ended up being the pop-up book that I spent the most time with. The lilting verse of the story makes the narrative flow quickly and effortlessly, and every piece of mail has a new set of puns and fairytale references that are accessible to children but make adults laugh too.

I think the part I loved most though is that it felt like looking at real mail. I felt like I was handling actual fairy tale characters’ actual letters, postcards, and catalogue advertisements. Sometimes I skipped the story entirely, just dumped out the letters, and played postman myself, and for sparking that level of engagement, I have to include The Jolly Postman on my list. 

By Allan Ahlberg, Janet Ahlberg (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Jolly Postman as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 4, 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

Read and play with The Jolly Postman - Janet and Allan Ahlberg's much-loved classic
The Jolly Postman or Other People's Letters has been a favourite for children ever since its first publication in 1986. Children can take each colourful letter out of its envelope and discover for themselves what well-known fairy-tale characters are writing to one another.

The Jolly Postman has delivered the mail . . . what could possibly be in the letter from Goldilocks to the Three Bears? There is a message for the Wicked Witch . . . but who would write to her?

As the postage…


Book cover of Masquerade

Anne Lambelet Why did I love this book?

I’m not necessarily including Masquerade because of its objective quality as a picture book. It’s the concept behind it that really captures my imagination. Similar to The Eleventh Hour, each illustration has a seek-and-find element as well as several embedded puzzles and codes. If you put all the clues together, they solve a mystery. However, unlike The Eleventh Hour, Masquerade’s mystery wasn’t originally relegated to the pages of a book. The solution revealed the location of a real-life buried treasure. You read that correctly. Author-illustrator, Kit Williams, actually went out in secret and buried a jeweled, golden hare at a location in Britain known only to him.

Since this book was published a few decades ago, the hare has already been found, but I think Masquerade still deserves to be on this list. Williams’s illustrations are beautiful in their own right, and his ambitious idea inspired an entire genre of “armchair treasure hunt” books. The treasures of some of them are still, to this day, waiting to be found. 

By Kit Williams,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Masquerade as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In paperback, the book that touched off the treasure hunt of the century-with a full explanation of the Masquerade Riddle.

For three years, treasure-seekers from both sides of the Atlantic sought a fabulous golden hare buried by artist Kit Williams. Williams had devised an unusual guide to the hare's whereabouts: a multilayered riddle that he told in a fairy tale of his own imagining, and presented in dazzling, cryptic, paintings.

When the hare was finally unearthed by a British engineer, many were left wanting to know exactly how the clues worked out. In this paperback reprint of Masquerade, the author…


Explore my book 😀

Maria the Matador

By Anne Lambelet,

Book cover of Maria the Matador

What is my book about?

Maria loves tea parties and dancing and wearing her hair in pigtails, but more than anything, Maria loves churros. So, when Maria sees a poster advertising a lifetime supply of churros to the winner of a bullfighting competition, she has to enter. Unfortunately, she isn’t as big, as fast, or as strong as the other matadors. But maybe those things don’t matter? Instead of strength and speed, what Maria really needs are courage, creativity, and most of all, kindness, to win the day and her beloved churros.

With stylized illustrations inspired by vintage Spanish posters, I’m hoping the story and the pictures in this book will keep kids coming back again and again. 

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Curiosity and the Cat

By Martin Treanor,

Book cover of Curiosity and the Cat

Martin Treanor Author Of The Logos Prophecy

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Illustrator Reader Jester Quantum physics buff

Martin's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

Curiosity is certain she saw fairies at the bottom of the garden. Little does she know . . . they saw her first.

Emotionally abandoned by her mother and infatuated by a figurine of a fairy ballerina she discovers in an old toy shop, eight-year-old Curiosity Portland steals the figurine, unleashing strange and frightening happenings around her home, which, in turn, reveals a disturbing family history. 

An ominous tale of faerie folk.

Curiosity and the Cat

By Martin Treanor,

What is this book about?

Curiosity is certain she saw fairies at the bottom of the garden. Little does she know . . . they saw her first.

Emotionally abandoned by her mother and infatuated by a figurine of a fairy ballerina she discovers in an old toy shop, eight-year-old Curiosity Portland steals the figurine, unleashing strange and frightening happenings around her home, which, in turn, reveals a disturbing family history.

An ominous tale of faerie folk.



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