Adele and Simon and Dahlia by Barbara McClintock

Firstly, I must apologise for the quality of these photos. In no way do they do justice to these two beautiful books. Dahlia is out of print, but available second hand from Amazon.com and I got Adele and Simon from Book Depository. I have both in hardcover(I'm not sure they come in paperback?) but really, its the only format worthy of these lovely, lovely stories. 

My favourite of the two is Adele and Simon, which begins when Adele collects her little brother from school. That's him below, in the yellow scarf. His school is in Paris, in the early 1900's. Read on - ALL the illustrations are as lovely as this one.

As they travel through the city (the endpapers are an old Baedeker map, showing their route), Simon loses his belongings  and the reader gets to find them. The detail is stunning and its not too easy to find everything. Just hard enough, I'd say. As well as that, its a nice story and wonderfully, you can find the same people popping up page after page. It cost me almost twelve euros and is well worth the price. Perfect for boys or girls age three to six.

Dahlia, by the same author is set in similar times, but in a New England-ey setting. Charlotte, a little tomboy is given the gift of a pretty doll, and the story follows their first day together. Also perfect for boys or girls, again ages three to six.