A Sampling Of My Favourite Children's Books

Today We Have No Plans

Jane Godwin & Anna Walker

Opening Line:
On Mondays as the sun comes up
My clock gives me a fright
We eat our breakfast in a rush
'Where's my shoes? Who's got my brush?
I left it here last night.'
I pack my lunch, my homework book
'Mum, you need to sign it, look!'

'Today We Have No Plans' details the typically busy week of a small family, with school, swimming lessons, grocery shopping and sports, except for Sunday. The last day of the week is left unplanned, full of perhaps baking, building, lazing, pancakes for breakfast, and tv.

Sunday is "When Mum and Dad at breakfast time
They smile, sit back and say,
'This is a time that's just for us
We have no plans today.' "

Journey 

Aaron Becker

(No Opening Lines.)

A little girl sits bored outside her house, perhaps pondering what to do, when she finds a red marker on her floor. Using it to draw a door, she escapes the house into a forest, a city, a sky full of airships. Her marker helps her in all her troubles, being able to conjure boats, balloons, and magical flying carpets. She finds a caged purple bird that she helps lead to freedom, and it takes her to a boy with a purple marker (a hint to the recently released and beautiful sequel).

Look, A BOOK! 

Libby Gleeson and Freya Blackwood

Opening Line: Look, a book!

A boy and girl are walking along when they find a book. The landscape shifts around them, becoming quite surreal as they go on a sort of adventure through dusty plains and blue water. A narrator reminds them how to take care of a book, so that they "can read it, again and again and again."

The Red Tree

Shaun Tan

Opening Line: sometimes the day begins with nothing to look forward to

A little girl wakes up in a world that seems to be a manifestation of her lonely and lost feelings. Swarms of black leaves encompass her bed, a giant fish looms in the streets above, and she finds herself often alone, or in a tiny boat in a giant, angry sea. "Sometimes you just don't know what you are supposed to do, or who you are meant to be." At the end of a long and surreal day, she returns home and finds a little red tree, perhaps a sign of something to good to come.

(Find the red leaf on every page!)

The Curious Garden

Peter Brown

Opening Lines: There was a city without gardens or trees or greenery of any kind. Most people spent their time indoors. As you can imagine, it was a very dreary place.

A boy named Liam goes for a walk in the rain, and finds himself at the old railway. On the abandoned tracks he finds dying wildflowers and plants, and with the realisation that they need a gardener, he sets to work, and "the plants patiently waited while Liam found better ways of gardening." Eventually, the garden starts to spread, taking over the railway and even moving into the city: "A few plants popped up where they didn't belong. ... But the most surprising things that popped up were the new gardeners."

Everyone starts to take an interest, from little children carrying watering cans to adults mowing and pruning their new rooftop gardens. People are playing and picnicking outside again. The final image is the view of the city we started with, but now beautifully green and lush.

The Heart And The Bottle

Oliver Jeffers

Opening Line: Once there was a girl, much like any other, whose head was filled with all the curiousities of the world.

The little girl is shown enjoying all the wonders of the world with her father / grandfather, until he isn't there anymore. Not quite knowing how to handle this, she puts her heart in a bottle, in order to keep it safe. It seemed to work, but "in truth, nothing was the same. She forgot about the stars... and stopped taking notice of the sea." She grows up without noticing much of anything, until she meets a girl much like her childhood self. Wanting to wonder again, she tries, but fails, to take her heart out of the bottle herself, but succeeds with the help of the curiousity (and small hands) of the little girl.

"The heart was put back from where it came from. And the chair wasn't so empty any more." The final images are the (now grown-up) girl in the armchair, reading, her mind filled with wondrous things, and a forgotten, empty bottle.

So Many Days

Alison McGhee and Taeeun Yoo

Opening Lines: So many doors in all your days, so much to wonder about. Who will you be and where will you go? And how will you know?

The narrator constantly re-asks the opening line, all the while reminding the protagonist (and reader) of their good qualities, such as strength and bravery. The images are of a little girl and her dog, playing and having an adventure through the woods and across the sea.

When the opening question is repeated towards the end of the book, it breaks the routine and has the simple answer: "Sometimes you won't." The girl and dog tumble downwards through the sky, but land safely. The final words reassure: "You are loved more than you know."

The Sound Of Colours: A Journey Of The Imagination

Jimmy Liao

Opening Lines:
A year ago
I began to notice
that my sight was slipping away.
I sat at home alone
and felt the darkness settle around me.
But today I walked outside
into the thin gray rain
and made my way to the subway.
I have a journey to go on.
There are some things
I need to find.

Our protagonist is a blind young girl who sets off on a journey to find something lost. She takes the train, all the while imagining that it will stop somewhere strange, like the ocean, or the sky, and commenting on the things she remembers, or has heard. The illustrations of her surroundings sometimes seem to reflect a disconnect between where she is, and where she thinks she is, and it is up to the reader to decide if this is her imagination, or a surreal journey that the protagonist is not entirely privy to.