Branching Out: Books for Fans of Supertato

This is the story of one excitable pea in search of somewhere more fun to be than a plate of food at dinner time! Primary classes love The Runaway Pea for its exciting storyline, vibrant illustrations and a good dose of humour. The food-based characters add a fun element, making the story enjoyable and engaging for young readers. We love the expressions of surprise on the vegetables’ faces as their little green friend catapults himself off the plate and lands with a splat in a pile of ketchup. A series of mishaps follow, until the little pea accidentally finds himself making a brilliant new start.

With its playful themes of friendship and spirit of adventure, along with rhyming verses and repetition, this ensures a lively and entertaining storytime that young children always giggle along with.

This is the story of ten sausages whose plot to escape the frying pan does not go to plan. Children familiar with the rhyme ‘Ten Fat Sausages’ will appreciate the humorous take on the sausages’ fate, knowing that they are meant to go ‘pop’, ‘sizzle’ or ‘bang’ but seeing instead a group of wily sausages who come up with a bid for freedom instead. From incidents with ceiling fans and blenders to encounters with family cats, the sausages’ funny attempts to escape lead to their downfall.

This is a funny counting story for children who can suspend their disbelief and giggle at the silliness of this unlikely rhyming tale. There are plenty of details to spot in the illustrations and the tale will appeal to children with a particular sense of humour and those who enjoy a bit of a ‘silly sausage’ moment.

Funnybones follows the adventures of a well-loved family of skeletons.

These classic stories are full of humour and provide a great curriculum link into finding out about what lies inside the human body, or simply to read for the sheer delight of enjoying the characters and their night time adventures.

A superhero story with a difference…. and lots of cheesy puns! When Supermouse holds auditions in Mouseopolis for The League of Remarkable Rodents, he isn’t sure he has found the best animals for the job. That is until Mount Fondue explodes and cheese covers the town. With Supermouse facing a cheesy end, the League of Remarkable Rodents zoom to the rescue. Will they save their hero or is he truly “fondoomed”?

This book is full of cheesy puns which are laugh-out-loud funny and make this book an enjoyable read for adults and children. Each page features flaps to lift and holes to see more of the story making it an interactive experience. The story is told through speech bubbles and text and is enhanced by great, brightly-coloured illustrations. With just the right amount of peril for our hero and some daring deeds, this has become a firm favourite already.

This super-popular picturebook that combines pirates, dinosaurs and plenty of action is always in high demand in the classroom.

While searching for some coloured pens to finish his dinosaur drawing at school, Flinn discovers Captain Stubble, a real pirate captain, in the art cupboard. Stubble informs Flinn that his ship, the Acorn, has been stolen, and he needs Flinn’s help to retrieve it. Flinn becomes the captain, and they set sail on an old pirate ship. However, they soon discover that the Acorn has been taken over by pirate dinosaurs! After a fierce battle, Captain Flinn and his crew regain control of the ship. They then return to the harbour undetected, sneaking back into the art cupboard …without the teacher realizing they were ever gone. We just love this brilliantly fun and imaginative picturebook that cries out to be read over and over again.

This is a fun superhero-themed story book that helps to get younger children counting. When Pasta Man’s supply of Pasta Power runs out, he needs all of the help he can get to outsmart the spicy supervillainess Madame Chilli.

We love Caryl Hart’s tongue-twisting rhymes and Nick East’s lively illustrations, capturing the cast of imaginative superhero characters in this unique counting book.

Jory John and Pete Oswald’s The Big Cheese is a brilliant addition to the fantastic Food Group series, which includes The Couch Potato and The Smart Cookie. This witty fable introduces a high-performing cheese, who learns a big lesson about competitiveness and winning when a new rival appears.

Many young children struggle with keeping winning or losing in perspective, and this story provides a good way to discuss sportsmanship and the benefits of sport without focusing purely on winning.

Jory John’s witty narrative and Pete Oswald’s expressive illustrations perfectly capture the Big Cheese’s journey from pride to newfound empathy with brilliant humour and appeal. It’s a superb, cheese-pun-filled tale that subtly shows how losing is not always negative, and that celebrating others’ successes can be just as rewarding.

Dotty is a plain doughnut in a shop full of exotic doughnuts. She is desperate to be noticed, so she tries to transform herself into another kind of doughnut that someone might pick. This is a wonderfully dotty book, featuring all sorts of wild-flavoured doughnuts such as Bubble Gum, Matcha Madness or Lemon Meringue – all of them superstars in Dotty’s eyes!

The story teaches you to love yourself for who you are in a very comical and engaging way. The illustrations are bright and bold, and even plain Dotty looks pretty fabulous with her red rimmed glasses. There is something incredibly appealing about the doughnuts in this book. Younger children will love the look of this book, and older children will enjoy the humour, and as the tagline says, “Being yourself is fabulous”.

Pop follows the story of some corn as it falls from its storage bag into a warm pan. As the pan begins to heat up, the corn kernels can feel something happening to them. Happily, they begin to transform into popcorn. Initially, there is just one piece of popcorn but throughout the book, more popcorn is made until all the corn is popped. The pun-filled story ends with all the popcorn watching a ‘corny’ movie.

This bright and fun story provides a great opportunity to practise basic counting as one piece of corn transforms at a time. The book has the numbers displayed clearly to support children with number recognition. The book has a wonderful rhyming verse that makes it a great read-aloud book. The repeated use of the word Pop throughout means younger children can help read the word themselves and get involved with the storyline.

The bright and engaging illustrations bring to life this interesting story and make this book a joy for younger children to look through and a must-read for Early Years story times.