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Edith: The Girl Who Was 100 Years Old by Catharina Valckx tr. Antony Shugaar

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 25 May 2026

Publisher: Gecko Press
ISBN: 9798348029685

“Though the story features succinct chapters and spare text, translated from French, its philosophical underpinnings have a surprising heft. To grow old and die truly is an awfully big adventure in Edith’s case, and one worth fighting for. Valckx’s gentle full-color illustrations subtly show Edith growing up, initially in the 1920s and then pursuing her destiny in the present day. These simply rendered images adeptly highlight the poor girl’s misery (including never having a friend who won’t outgrow her) and eventual (much deserved) triumph. Few books have felt happier than when a character offers a gleeful, ‘I’m going to have lots of new problems.’ A sparkling celebration of life rooted in change, aging, and the necessity of death itself.” KIRKUS

ACHUKA seems to love everything published by Julia Marshall at Gecko Press and we simply ADORE this chapter book.

Edith was born at a time of magic and fairies.

 

As a newborn, Edith received two gifts: the ability to bring any object to life and eternal childhood. That’s why today, 100 years later, Edith is celebrating her centenary as a ten-year-old. What will she wish for this time? Certainly a new life—being ten forever has its downside.

On her birthday, Edith sets off to find the fairy who bewitched her and reverse the spell. She takes her only friends, a wise dog and a talking lemon, to find herself a future she can live with.

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A post shared by Catharina Valckx (@catharinavalckx)

Catharina writes, on her website:

I grew up in a village in the suburbs of Paris
I was twelve when they set foot on the moon for the first time

I have four sisters
but no brothers

my parents are Dutch, and so am I
but I write more easily in French than in Dutch

I followed two courses at artschool
a long time ago

I made paintings with titles like
‘so alone and no money’
and a film starring a real pig
with music by Bach

but eventually
I fell in love
with children’s literature

I live in Amsterdam
with my life partner

our son is an adult now
I recently made a book with him!

Others: A Story for All of Us by Kobi Yamada ill. Charles Santoso

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 7 Apr 2026

Publisher: Random House Inc
ISBN: 9780593839676

You have to wonder what they’re thinking. The other people.
They’re not from here. They’re over there.
They’re different.


Standing by the hedge that divides them, two children wonder what the people on the opposite side are like. They’re not like us, one child insists. The other child wonders: How are they different? Can they fly? Do they have tentacles?

Are they machines? Or are they human? And if they are, do they think and feel? Maybe, just maybe, the people here and the people there are not so different after all.


Written with gentle humor and illustrated with spare, emotionally powerful pictures, Others is a thoughtful exploration of how our assumptions can prevent us from connection and a beautiful reminder that we are all human beings living together on this earth.

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A post shared by Kobi Yamada (@livethegoodstuff)

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I am Ray’s Imaginary Friend by Brian Moses ill. Bethan Welby

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 16 Mar 2026

Publisher: Scallywag Press
ISBN: 9781836300342

See also:
On Poetry Street [ACHUKA Book of the Day 27 Jun 2024]
Selfies With Komodos [ACHUKA Book of the Day 30 Jan 2023]
The Best Ever Book of Funny Poems [ACHUKA Book of the Day 18 Mar 2021]

“Quietly brilliant, this is a book that explores coping with change and becoming mentally stronger and the powerful influence of empathy.” RedReadingHub
“Beautifully illustrated throughout with the illustrator sensitively capturing scenes from the story.” ThroughTheBookshelf

A debut verse novel from one of the UK’s most established children’s poets.

 

 
 
 
 
 
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Ray loves life in his village, until one day he hears his parents talking about moving house. Horrified by the idea, Ray invents an imaginary friend to talk to and even runs away.

Eventually Ray is able to accept the move, and also the Ukrainian refugee mother and child who come to live with his family in their new home.

As Ray finds his feet again, the Imaginary Friend wonders if he is needed any more, or if he can also move on?

 

 
 
 
 
 
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You can follow the South Devon-based illustrator on

Your Forest (Board book) by Jon Klassen

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 18 Apr 2025

Waterstones
Bookshop

See also:
The Skull [ACHUKA Book of the Day 7 Jul 2023]
The Three Billy Goats Gruff [ACHUKA Book of the Day 16 Jan 2023]
The Rock From The Sky [ACHUKA Book of the Day 6 Apr 2021]

One in a set of three companion board books for the youngest of children.

“A comforting board book about imagination and safe spaces from the legendary author of I Want My Hat Back that creates a charming forest from a handful of familiar objects.” Waterstones
“Full of the usual Klassen charm, young children will enjoy the simple and straightforward way this book is written, while adults will appreciate the deadpan humour.” The Scotsman
“Klassen’s inimitable blend of cozy and curious is on flagrant display… Readers will experience both the comfort of putting a community of anthropomorphized objects to sleep and the power of creating it in the first place. Pure unmitigated sleepy-time pleasure.” KIRKUS
“The whole process mimics and encourages a toddler’s drawing activity, adding things to negative space to create art that tells a child-friendly story. In short, Klassen has crafted three unassuming master classes in picture-book making for the youngest listeners/viewers.” Horn Book

This is your sun.
It is coming up for you.

These are your trees.
They can go over by the sun.

With a minimal tableau of familiar objects and a gentle rhythm suited for reading aloud, a forest and all its items – a cabin, some rocks, a (nice) forest ghost, a stream, a bridge – are assembled, ending with bedtime as the sun goes down. This is a forest for a young child to have whenever they want to go there.

The Mystery of the Thinking Rabbit by Clarice Lispector ill. Kammal João tr. Benjamin Moser

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 3 Apr 2025

Waterstones
Bookshop

“This surrealist picture book in translation describes the enigma posed by white rabbit Joãozinho, who escapes from a close-barred, heavy- lidded hutch again and again without others discovering how… It’s a surprising, sparkling meditation on an animal’s nature and inner life. ” Publishers Weekly
“There’s a buoyant, joyful absurdity to the story, helped along by Kammal João’s kinetic illustrations of a bunny with important places to be.” New York Times

A chatty rabbit dares you to solve how he keeps escaping his hutch in this whimsical detective story perfect for reading aloud with animal lovers ages 5 to 9.

Joãozinho is an ordinary rabbit, happy and hungry. Ideas come to rabbits when they scrunch and unscrunch their noses, but as anyone who has seen a rabbit knows, they do this nonstop. In order to sniff out one single idea, they have to scrunch their noses 15,000 times. Joãozinho comes up with an idea as good as the smell of a fresh carrot. He’s finally figured out how to escape from his rabbit hutch in order to find more food. Joãozinho soon becomes an escape artist—but how does he do it? That’s a mystery he dares you to solve.

Clarice Lispector, one of the foremost writers of the twentieth century, wrote this story for her son Paulo, a lover of rabbits when he was small and, as she writes in her introductory note, “had yet to discover stronger affections.”

You can follow the illustrator on
https://www.instagram.com/kammal_joao/

Kammal João graduated in visual communication with a postgraduate degree in somatic psychomotricity from the Anthopos institute – Rio de Janeiro. 

In 2018 he presented the individual exhibitions, “Alegria da matéria”, gallery Z42 – Cosme Velho, Rio de Janeiro – curated by João Paulo Quintela and the exhibition “Encenação menor”, at the IBEU gallery – Botanical Garden also in Rio de Janeiro – curated by Cesar Kiraly. He has works in the MAR collection, Rio Art Museum, and the Vista Alegre museum in Ílhavo, Portugal.

Clarice Lispector’s foreword to her story is worth quoting in full:

This story only works for children who like rabbits. It was written at the request-order of Paulo, when he was small and had yet to discover stronger affections. The Mystery of the Thinking Rabbit is also my discreet homage to two rabbits that belonged to Pedro and Paulo, my sons. These rabbits gave us a lot of headaches and lots of delightful surprises. Because the story was written for exclusively domestic use, I left a lot of room for oral explanations. I beg forgiveness from fathers and mothers, uncles and aunts, and grandparents for the forced contribution they’ll have to make. But at least I can guarantee, from personal ex-perience, that the oral part of the story is the best part. It’s very nice to talk about rabbits. In any case this “mystery” is more of an intimate conversation than a story. That’s why it’s much longer than its apparent number of pages. It really only ends when the child discovers other mysteries.

Hannah and the Violin by Satoshi Kitamura

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 26 Feb 2025

Waterstones
Bookshop

See also:
School For Puppies [ACHUKA Book of the Day 12 Dec 2024]
When Creature Met Creature [ACHUKA Book of the Day 1 Mar 2022]
Lily Takes A Walk
The Smile Shop

When Hannah spots a leaf on the grass, she thinks it looks like a violin, and decides to see if she can play it. Soon everything is singing and dancing to the music.

A joyful book that celebrates play, creativity and the imagination within us all.

Satoshi Kitamura currently lives in Japan, but spent many years in London where he created a fan base amongst bookshops and educators. He has created over 20 picture books, and illustrated many more winning awards such as the Mother Goose Award, Silver Award for the Smarties Prize, and the National Art Library Illustrations Award. ACHUKA loves his work.

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Cloud Boy by Greg Stobbs

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 25 Feb 2025

Waterstones
Bookshop

“The joy of this story is that the people around him realise he can’t be boxed in and made to be like them – they need to allow for his tendency to float into the clouds. They adapt their way of helping him navigate everyday life, to everyone’s benefit.  The gorgeous illustrations are full of energy and colour, with Bobby’s ‘wonderings’ depicted in a bright pink. A joy of a book.” BookTrust

This is a great picture book about a boy who always has his head in the clouds. He’s easily distracted — both by things he actually sees and by things he imagines. He’s the archetypical disorganised daydreamer who finds it hard to concentrate on one thing at a time. Greg Stobbs creates his world in words and pictures that are warmly entertaining and liberating. In the middle of the book Bobby tries hard to be like other people, and other people try and help him to be like them. And it works…

But he ends up wanting to go back to being like he was. So… 

This is such an effective spread.

When Bobby gets distracted, he starts to float. Everyone tries to help him, but there are so many sights and sounds and smells which draw his attention away from everyday things.

Bobby would like to concentrate like his friends, but it’s very hard, so his family and friends come up with all sorts of clever plans. But a string tied around Bobby’s ankle just makes him feel empty inside.

In this uplifting story, Bobby’s friends and family might just learn that the best way to understand Bobby to think a bit like him. 

Greg Stobbs describes himself as a daydream transporter and imagination inflator. You can follow him on

 

 
 
 
 
 
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A Dog’s Tale: The Story of a Little Dog with a Big Imagination by Kiko

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 10 Feb 2025

Waterstones
Amazon

I commented last year that books from Post Wave Publishing, a newly-formed UK subsidiary of an established publisher in China, always impressed on first handling but that on closer examination often disappointed. I am pleased to say that one of their first titles of 2025 has both style and substance.

The colour mood of the artwork cleverly matches the atmosphere in each part of the story. The design of the book allows for a variety of page layouts: sometimes broken into several graphic novel style panels, at others allowing for a full double-page spread of a single illustration, such as the one in which stormy Hokusai-like waves threaten a tiny pug in the lower right-hand corner.

Children will enjoy spotting reminders of the dog’s imaginative adventure in the closing spread. 

One-Eyed Patch, a brave pug with the spirit of Indiana Jones, lives a life full of extraordinary adventures on the sea. After a storm tosses him overboard, he’s saved by Moby the sperm whale and finds himself on an island of friendly elephants.

But a mysterious voice beckons him to New York, where a new adventure awaits. Who could it be calling him back? Perhaps One-Eyed Patch is in reality a much-loved little dog with a big imagination!

Kiko lives in Paris on the fifth floor. That’s where he tinkers with drawings for young and old. When he’s not drawing, he strums his guitar and taps his foot, picks up his daughter from school and runs nose in the air.

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A Wild Walk to School by Rebecca Cobb

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 12 Aug 2024

Waterstones
Bookshop

“A delightful book — Cobb’s words are simple, and her drawings quietly expressive: together, they cleverly contrast the wildness of the children’s imaginative world with the familiar routine of a weekday morning.” Telegraph

Rebecca Cobb perfectly captures the epic adventure getting the kids to school on time can be, 

It’s time to walk to school and mum wants the children to get there on time. But what Mum doesn’t realise is that the hill is in fact the tummy of a sleeping giant and it’s important to tread carefully when the floor turns to lava! It’s just as well Mum has these two Brave Explorers with her.

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This video conversation between Rebecca Cobb and Jane Porter from three years ago is well worth a watch:

The Boy, the Troll and the Chalk by Anne Booth ill. David Litchfield

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 21 June 2024

Waterstones

There’s only one child who can’t turn their back on the troll at the edge of the playground. One day, he takes his chalks up to the mouth of the cave. He draws a flower with every petal coloured in but one, and leaves the chalk behind. The next day, the flower has been completed. Day-by-day, the boy and the troll finish each other’s drawings, until they each draw a portrait, showing a boy holding hands with a fierce, scary troll. “But you’re not a troll,” says the boy. “You’re a boy – just like me.”

Patience, kindness and the power of art win out in the end as the two boys wordlessly draw together. Soon all the other children gather to join in with the game. Everyone forgets that there was a troll inside the cave.

Because, outside the cave, there is so much to draw.

This touching story shows the power of kindness, art and imagination, in the face of isolation and difficult emotions, and delicately embodies the philosophy of art therapy. The beautiful, textured illustrations are also a joyful celebration of pavement art that is sure to have little ones reaching for their own chalks.

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A post shared by David Litchfield (@david_c_litchfield)