Moving on from picture books

[hungrycaterpillarz]

Has anyone got any recommendations for books for approx 4 year olds that are a step up from picture books? So still illustrated but not quite the length of chapter books aimed at 5-8 year olds?

It seems that everything is either a picture book with a few lines per page or much longer - 100 pages or so, and designed to be read by the child themselves. I still want to read to my son, but the standard picture books are a bit short now, would be good to get a page or so of text rather than a few lines.

The Mr Putter and Tabby books are lovely. They usually have about 5 chapters I think but very short and not much text per page.

some of these are a little dated, but my dc have enjoyed reading my old copies recently! They have lovely illustrations
The Big Alfie And Annie Rose Storybook
Burglar Bill
Funnybones
Old Bear and Friends
Tales from Brambly Hedge
Dogger and Dogger’s Christmas

Thanks @Forgottenmyphonethese are just the sort of length I had in mind - where you get a good page of text instead of a sentence. I’d forgotten about Dogger!

I wonder if there are any modern books in this style/length….feels like all the recent books we see in the library are much shorter.

Lots of the David Walliams picture books are quite wordy and the Sir Charlie Stinky Socks is good.
There’s a whole load of Moomin books with full colour illustrations but quite a lot of text.

The Unicornia books are perfect for this stage - nice stories with big colourful pictures on every page. About 7 chapters per book.
probably more for girls than boys

I have a range of children’s books that are picture books but with slightly longer text. Perfect, I think for what you are looking for. Felix Fleetfoot is one of ten books in this series or you can buy the combined stories in the collection books (2).

Rabbit and Bear

Percy the Park keeper series.
Jane Ray is lovely - The Dolls House Fairy and one about a Mermaid plus others. My son liked them as much as my daughter.
Tom Docherty - Ruby Nettleship and the Ice lolly adventures
Helen Docherty ( his wife) - the Snatchabook, The knight who wouldn’t fight and others.

It is also worth exploring a local bookshop and speaking to the owner. Many have a great deal of knowledge about modern books. Or contact the Docherty’s on social media - Helen is very responsive and passionate about children’s books; she would be delighted to advise re lesser known current writers.

Please avoid David Williams, at the risk of sounding old, he is vile, crass and cruel and this is so evident when reading his books. Plus they are badly written! I know Dahl could also be very cruel, but at least his books could be very funny and were well written.

This is an excellent recommendation - they are just right in length and humour.