The joyous world of children’s books is known to flow with colours, illustrations and words that teach little ones lessons on imagination and wonder. It is also true that there is still much to be derived from the miraculous realm of picture books even after growing up. Here is a list of children’s books that double as collectibles, bringing diversity and richness to any bookshelf.
The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane
This gorgeously illustrated book revives twenty nature related words dropped from the Oxford Junior Dictionary due to children’s disuse, replaced by digital terms like blog and voice-mail. Lamenting this shift from natural to virtual, Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris create a ‘spell book’ to summon these lost words. The project sparked a grassroots campaign placing copies in schools and hospices, celebrating language and nature.
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy
This book comes in the form of a charming little feel good story of life and the wisdom that comes with it, the love and friendship of family who come in all shapes and sizes. It has hand drawn illustrations, which really enhance the simple yet profound moral of the story.
I Talk Like A River by Jordan Scott
In this stunning picturebook illustrated by Sydney Smith, a boy wakes up each day ‘with the sounds of words all around’, but he cannot smoothly form and express those words. His father takes him to the river to walk quietly and look at the bubbling, churning water, which crashes and whirls just like his speech.
The Night Life of Trees by Tara Books
Recreated from original art by three of the finest living artists of the Gond tribe, Ram Singh Urveti, Bhajju Shyam and Durga Bai, the book is silk-screened by hand on black paper, each page an original numbered art print. Each painting is accompanied by text inviting the viewer into the Gond imagination, where the practical, aesthetic and spiritual aspects of the natural world are inseparable, and trees, central to life, reveal their luminous spirits at night.
A Stone Sat Still by Brendan Wenzel
With gorgeous, muted, sometimes a little abstract artwork and a gentle, rhythmic, evocative text, this picture book presents a stone. Depending on the time of year or which animals are near, the stone can be different things: a pebble to a moose, a hill to a bug. But the stone is also always itself, sitting where it sits as everything changes all around it.
My Heart by Corinna Luyken
A very simple book that is hefty and powerful, this is a simple rhyme for all ages, young to old. The artwork is delicate and uses shadows and shapes hidden all over, with a black, white and yellow palette. As you read, hearts appear across the pages. It is about knowing you have control over your heart, how some days it is open, some days closed, small or growing.
Words Platform Desk
Date 6.5.2026