83 books like Where Is Tippy Toes?

This book is full of unexpected delights from beginning to end.

The first spread states, “ROAR!! Goes the…” opposite a cutout that shows a tiger driving. The next spread says, “…TRUCK that rumbles up the road,” and shows the tiger driving a truck with a crate of tacks tumbling onto the road.

Likewise, “Hiss…goes the CAR that gets a flat tire,” driven by a snake. A parade of vehicles gets held up behind them until a coyote-driven police car (Awooo!) and beaver-driven tow truck (chomp!) save the day.

Cushman’s illustrations contain even more visual jokes. The sloth passing the pile-up on the sidewalk while pushing a tennis-ball-footed walker made me laugh out loud, even without a vehicle- or animal-loving toddler to read it to.

What's not to love about the bouncy, perfect rhyme and zany illustrations of a day at the zoo packed with action and humorous touches? But this board book has more subtle layers, too. While the first few spreads show the zookeeper getting animals ready for opening, the viewpoint shifts to the animal's thoughts on the humans:

My, what silly things they do,/ all these creatures at the zoo.

The following pages detail actions common to people and zoo animals like dancing feet, carrying babies, and shrieking. I've often thought that if we humans could keep in mind that we’re animals, too, we’d be better at sharing the planet with them. This simple and simply hilarious book does that in a way humans of all ages can appreciate.

My daughter, a children’s librarian, says this storytime favorite is sure to delight the toddler crowd.

It’s packed with interactive fun, with invites to hi-five various animals. “Hi-five a lion. Hear him GROWL. YOO-HOO-HOO! Hi-five an owl.” Each one’s paw or wing is sized just right for toddlers to do just that on this sturdy board book (A Never Bored Book!). They can hi-five both antlers on a moose and, at the end, “Hi-five an octopus, I say. But only if you have all day!”

The final spread encourages the toddler to high-five the reader.

Parents and older siblings will join me in identifying with the sleepy-eyed family members shown here, while toddlers will cheer on the wide-eyed baby.

The text is a litany of everyone and everything that is sleepy, with the title repeated throughout the day’s wind-down. “Sleepy moon,/ sleepy stars,/ sleepy night sky./Everyone’s sleepy/ but the baby,/ why, why, why?” In the final spread, the baby joins both dozing parents in dreamland. Parent readers can only hope their little one isn’t giggling too hard to follow suit.

I Am an Artist takes the idea of making art everywhere and out of everything to the extreme–with hilarious results.

Altés’ protagonist goes above and beyond (literally) in his efforts to create, but sometimes the creative chaos goes a little too far for his mother’s liking (although the cat doesn’t seem to mind). Of course, he knows exactly what to do to make his mom happy: more art! If you’re anything like me, your creative juices will definitely be overflowing after reading this one.

Poor Nat the Cat just wants to take a nap, but the intrusive narrator won’t let him. The incongruity of the narrator’s words and Nat’s actions pack a comedic punch on every page, just as the brilliant See the Cat and See the Dog books do.

Lerner managed to create this gem with few words and sparse illustrations, which is incredibly difficult. And good news—the Nat the Cat books are now a series. 

As I am of Bosnian heritage, I always love reading books about my culture.

The name Amra is very common in Bosnia and yet is very uncommon everywhere else, so it was a particular thrill for me to read a book by another Amra. This memoir is about Amra's experiences living under siege in Bihac during the Balkan War of 1992-1995 which gives an amazing insight into the hardship and heartbreak of war.

Maci, the cat that Amra and her family adopted who arrived at their town as a refugee, was such a beautiful soul and helped give Amra hope and fight for life, when it seemed that none was to be found.

The writing was beautiful and evocative. I keep seeing Maci in my mind's eye. I also have to say that the cover was absolutely stunning, and I loved the use of the image in the novel to… show more.

Everyone I love who’s seen my shelf knows how much I love this picture book. I adore the simple ink drawings; it’s all I need to understand to story.

I never expected a 32-page book to break me like this. It makes me want to hug my cat Marlie and never let go (to her annoyance). To me, it explained life and death so perfectly—when one goes away, another comes into our lives.

“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. 

This simple children’s book shares the story of the death of a beloved pet and the subsequent processing of the loss. It has a gentle and clear approach, without any suggestion of an afterlife but rather an appreciation for all the wonderful things about the pet who is gone. 

If you are interested in continuing bonds with a child after a loss, this is a nice way to approach and expand on the topic.