21 books like Cave Baby

In a sense, our new title Babies, Babies Everywhere! Is a homage to this lovely book, which the Ahlbergs made when they realised that their baby, Jessica, was much more interested in the Mothercare catalogue than in the picture books aimed at her age group. We wanted to update it with a more typical 21st-century bunch of babies and their diverse families.

The baby in this book won’t eat anything he’s offered – a situation most parents will identify with – until, in despair, his mother finds an avocado in the fruit bowl. From then on he has a favourite food – and it turns him into an immensely strong superhero!

“Mog loves babies!” says the poor cat’s owners but this is not strictly true. Mog just wants to snooze undisturbed but a visiting baby soon puts paid to that. Her expressions are brilliantly done as the baby takes more and more liberties. When Mog escapes out the window, the baby follows, with almost catastrophic results in the road outside. But Mog saves the day - and the baby - and is rewarded with a gigantic fish. 

It’s a family of badgers but Frances has some very human emotions about having a baby sibling. She is not outright hostile but does pack a rucksack with snacks and runs away – as far as under the dining table. Her very understanding parents handle it in an exemplary fashion and Frances sees there are advantages to being the older sister, since babies can’t eat chocolate cake.

This gem of a board book creates a quiet sense of joy as an adorable little Korean girl dons her white snowsuit and red scarf and sets out with her puppy to explore the newly soft and snowy landscape.

“Pat, pat, pat,” and “Roll, roll, roll,” she goes with her growing snowball past brown bears, forest animals, and polar bears, to a frozen lake where other children play, skate, and make snowmen, and, finally, into to a glorious fantasy scene that will have your kid in wonder!

The fresh, loose, mixed media illustrations created in shades of black and white, with a touch of red, evoke the quiet wonder of a snowy night. The illustrations are masterfully simple and focused, yet beautifully detailed backgrounds set the stage for this wondrous adventure.

Poor Fergus is no good at hiding. In this funny seek-and-find book, Fergus, a big brown bear with glasses, gets tips from the narrator on how to get better at hiding. As the story goes on, Fergus starts to blend in better with the crowds, and it gets trickier and trickier to spot him. It’s a great read-aloud, and kids will find it hilarious how bad he is at hiding at first. But they’ll need to use their eagle eyes when all the fun characters from the book come together in a big crowd at the end.

Growing up in a snowy winter playground, my kids lost a lot of mittens and The Mitten, by Jan Brett, illustrated in her detailed Scandinavian style, sparked their imaginations as to what fate may have befallen them.

Nikki, unwittingly drops his white mitten, lovingly knitted by his grandmother into the snow. It is soon discovered by a mole. Then, one beautifully illustrated forest animal after another, increasingly larger, cozy into the ever-expanding mitten; including a huge bear and, finally, a little mouse, with whiskers that tickle the bear’s nose!

The decorative borders surrounding the main dialogue hint at the story to come, allowing kids to guess what’s next. This gem of a board book provides so much visual detail to be discovered by curious little readers, that it will become a winter staple, never the same twice.

First published in 1960 this is a beautiful example of illustration in book form. From my contemporary perspective as an animal lover there is a sense that this book celebrates the tendency we have as humans to capture and own animals, with zoos, farms, and pet shops filling almost every page. To me, this book celebrates a naïve adoration and love of nature that doesn’t necessarily fit with the modern need to protect and preserve the natural habitats that humanity has spent generations pillaging. I’d like to think that this is a beautiful conversation starter about how we can best appreciate the natural world. 

To me, this book has a great combination of sleepy and silly elements. The illustrations are warm and cozy, and throughout the book, Bear snores happily in the background.

My kids and I love that while Bear sleeps, a party starts forming in his cave. We love seeing the party grow until Bear wakes up to discover what’s going on.

A lot of speculative fiction involves “basic” technologies like animal domestication, farming, and written language. This well-organized, thoroughly sourced non-fiction book will tell you just how difficult developing all that stuff was on our planet, let alone in whatever fictional universes you may find these technologies in! I will never again take charcoal, or the concept of zero, for granted.

Aside from the book’s valuable content, its language is simple. The author integrates the facts into the fiction that our time machine has broken down, stranding us in a previous era where we are a long, arduous journey away from ever eating microwaved ramen again. North also points out, at every opportunity, all the ridiculousness and hilarity involved in invention, civilization, and attempting to do everything by ourselves. Please, read the footnotes in this one.