Most Popular Books by Satoshi Kitamura

Celebrate the power of a smile in this deceptively simple story set in a multi-ethnic market. A small boy is planning how to spend his first ever pocket money when disaster strikes and he's left with only one coin. His day seems to be ruined until he sees a Smile Shop. In a surprise ending, the world is put to rights and suddenly the whole world is smiling again!

A modern day boy visits the stone age and learns about prehistoric life.

This is my hand. It can do all sorts of things. Most of the time it does good things, but sometimes... Kitamura introduces us to the wonders of something as simple as your hand – it can push, it can pull. It can paint, it can pat. And when your hand has a bad habit, it can pick your nose! Award-winning author and illustrator Satoshi Kitamura unfolds a wonderful celebration of the simple hand, also starring a favourite Kitamura character, Boots the cat.

"What if the world was just one colour? What would it look like? Could you paint it? Look inside and see?"--Back cover.

Cat wants to take a nap but he has trouble finding a suitable place.

Millie loves hats, but she can't afford to buy any of the beautiful ones in the hat shop. But the shopkeeper has an idea. He produces a box containing an amazing hat with the most perfect shape and color imaginable—if Millie dares to imagine it. Millie does dare, and soon she sees not only her own marvellous hat, but everyone else's hats as well.

Lionel is going to a party today, so he must do something about his bad hair. He finds a barber who has lots of crazy suggestions for hairstyles, from dandelion hair to octopus hair! Will Lionel find a style that suits him?

In an attempt to break his artist's block, Pablo the elephant travels to the countyside to paint a landscape for the Hoof Lane Art Club exhibition and has an extraordinary experience.

A young boy spends an unusual day after awakening to find that he and his cat have switched bodies.

Alex doesn't want an ordinary pet, he wants a dinosaur.

Duck goes for a walk on a rainy, windy, muddy day.

Squirrel considers keeping his walnut in a bird's nest, under a rock, or even in the hollow of a tree; then finally he finds the perfect place for it.

A simple text where a visit to an art show causes a girl to imagine what the world would be like if it was wholly yellow, red or blue. Realising that the world actually consists of all the colours of the rainbow, she paints lots of multicoloured pieces of art herself.

Dog is thirsty, but every time he finds some water it turns out there is a reason he cannot drink it.

"When Lily takes a walk, she sees only the evening star & the ducks on the canal; but her dog Nicky sees sea serpents & vampires lurking in the shadows. A delightful story ... children will enjoy its double world of fantasy & reality."-Kirkus Reviews "Addresses the subject of childhood fears. A gatefold last page reveals a heart-stopping finale for Nicky (& a hilarious coda for readers). Children will enjoy identifying with Lily & feeling superior to Nicky, who in fact experiences many of the fears they themselves are prone to. Nicky's overactive imagination gives this stroll a delicious scariness; inventive details on each page make this a walk well worth taking."-Publishers Weekly

Woolly the sheep cannot sleep and so he sets off into the surrounding countryside to try and find ways to make himself tired.

It's all about the joy of making music, and finding an appreciative audience. Igor has a loud and distinctive voice, and he cannot sing in tune. He is drummed out of the Dawn Chorus for not being musical enough, so he takes singing lessons. But his teacher says that not only is he always out of tune, he has no rhythm either. Poor Igor. He goes off into the desert, where at least he can sing to himself without being asked to stop. He builds a nest on a big rock, and starts to sing. But the rock is in fact a gigantic bird - a Dodo - who likes his music so much it wakes up in order to join in.

In these two animal stories from the Caribbean, find out in the first why Tiger wanted to get rid of all the other animals and keep the jungle for himself and what clever Anansi did about it, and in the second how shy Owl nearly lost everything because he didn't have the courage to show his face.

This illustrated alphabet for the very young uses animals and objects to portray each letter of the alphabet. Satoshi Kitamura was awarded the Mother Goose Award in 1982 for his book Angry Arthur.