Casting eyes back across the blog over the years, I'm always surprised by how 'soon' C developed a taste in darker picture books. I feel like I may have egged her on a bit, probably to the complete exasperation of my wife who always thought that darker books would give C nightmares.

Yet quite the opposite happened and I think even though there was a period of time when she wouldn't sleep and wouldn't settle (all parents must go through this, it's almost a rites of passage), it was never because of books - dark or otherwise.

Anthony Browne belongs in our #Booky100Keepers list for obvious reasons. His books are perfect, his books are extremely beautiful. His books are extremely clever and he's one of those creatives who seemingly gets away with turning the whole UK children's picture book 'rule model' on its head (thank goodness).

The first Anthony Browne book we borrowed from the Library (then later bought) was "The Tunnel" - oft billed as a surreal and dark depiction of the often stormy relationship between siblings, but to us a tale that instantly feels like it could've been swiped from the legendary luminaries of dark fairy tales, the likes of The Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Anderson.

But Anthony might allude to classic tales like those, but works his own original stories up from a relatively simple idea (the thought of a brother and sister needling each other) and turns it into a dark fantastical journey through those bits of our imagination that prissy ne'er do wells would probably like us to keep under wraps.

Anthony Browne's illustrations are amazing pieces of art.

Each and every time we read one of his books, even the fantastic "Willy" series, we spot little details, in-jokes, pop culture references, hidden objects, mysterious shadows and shapes that aren't always apparent on a first read through, but are noticed later on (AB even makes a point of turning some of his books into a bit of a 'spot the object' game - a mechanism that elicits absolute delight in young readers as they pick their way through each story).

In later years we've gone back to these books as a means of noting all the places where AB pays due homage to classic artists, classic movies, or just cleverly works in brilliant nods to diversity and LGBT, ensuring his books are universally loved and revered by the widest possible audience.

Even when he's writing and illustrating an "Issues" book (such as the truly brilliant "What If"), he manages to do so without turning the theme into a boring 'grown-up' finger wagging lecture about how to cope with anxiety, worry or shyness.

Instead he sets out to create an entertaining story first before deftly weaving the story's moral into the mix.

We've read an awful lot of his books (not every single one but I'd dearly love to catch up with them all one day and even C still loves finding new ones from time to time, ones we haven't read before whenever we take a trip to the library or our local book stores) and he is, without doubt, one of the most important creative talents we've come across in the ten years of this blog.

You really just cannot go wrong with any of his books, they're all equally brilliant but we'll always have a soft (dark) spot for "The Tunnel" above all others.

Original Review Links (this is going to be quite a list!)

The Tunnel (original review)

Revisiting "The Tunnel" by Anthony Browne (Walker Books)

ReadItDaddy's Final Picture Book of the Week for 2019: "The Tunnel" by Anthony Browne (Walker Books)

What If...? By Anthony Browne (Doubleday Children's Books)

King Kong by Anthony Browne, Adapted from the story by Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper (Picture Corgi)

ReadItDaddy's Book of the Week - Week Ending 2nd May 2014 - "Me and You" By Anthony Browne (Picture Corgi)

Booky Advent Calendar Day 13: "Willy and the Cloud" by Anthony Browne (Walker Books)

ReadItDaddy's First Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 13th October 2017 - "Hide and Seek" by Anthony Browne (Picture Corgi)

Into the Forest by Anthony Browne (Walker Books)

Knock Knock, Who's there? By Sally Grindley and Anthony Browne (Picture Puffin)

Through the Magic Mirror by Anthony Browne (Walker Books)

Willy the Dreamer

Ten things we'd like to see dads doing in "Dad Picture Books" for Father's Day - A ReadItTorial

Gorilla

Bear Hunt

Zoo

Willy and Hugh

Willy the Champ

Our final Picture Book of the Year may not be something that was published this year (in fact it was published for the first time almost 30 years ago! Wow!), but it's a book that we were prompted to re-buy recently after being completely hypnotised by it in a bookshop.

"The Tunnel" by Anthony Browne is one of those 'dark' children's books you always hear about, you know, the ones the industry seems to have taken a pass on in recent years. Yet here is the perfect modern fairy tale, every bit as edgy and faintly menacing as classic tales from Hans Christian Andersen or the Brothers Grimm - but with a contemporary look and feel which - even after 30 years - still feels timely and relevant.

Once upon a time a brother and sister lived a fairly happy and ordinary life. Like most siblings, they were prone to fighting and arguing with each other, with either one annoying or playing pranks on their sibling.

When their mother eventually tires of their bickering, she sends them out to play - and the mischievous brother finds a strange tunnel, and can't resist exploring it.

The sister is left all on her own, and when the brother doesn't reappear, she confronts her own fear head on, and crawls into the tunnel after him. What she finds on the other side is an unexpected, magical and thoroughly menacing new land that seems to have sprung to life from her own fairytale-obsessed imagination.

So many hidden images tucked into Anthony's amazing paintings. See what you can spot!

The story maintains an air of making the reader and the main character thoroughly uncomfortable, at times you're convinced you're being watched as well as the poor sister in the story. With good reason, as the illustrations feature all manner of mystical shapes, beastly and menacing, ready to eat you all up!

When the sister finally finds her missing brother there's a chilling shock in store - one we're desperate not to spoil for you, suffice to say beware when checking this book out on Amazon as one of the images has a whomping great big spoiler in it!

If you've never encountered any of Anthony Browne's books before, they're all fantastic - every single one of them, the man is incapable of writing / illustrating duff books, and this is probably our favourite of all of his brilliant 'hidden image' books (we're also huge fans of his brilliant Chimpanzee books featuring hapless hero Willy).

If you want to see what folk really mean when they talk about dark children's books, here's one of the finest examples, still as good on a re-read as it was when we first got it out of the Library many, many years ago. Thoroughly recommended!

Sum this book up in a sentence: A dark and delicious modern fairy tale wrought with Browne's expert eye for playing on your visual sense as you read through this superb story.

"The Tunnel" by Anthony Browne is out now, published by Walker Books (self purchased - not supplied for review). 

Our first Picture Book of the Week this week restores our faith in there still being deliciously dark books to warm our cockles as the cold weather draws in...

We're mixing a selection of Christmassy and non-Christmassy books for this year's Booky Advent Calendar (mostly because it's a bit of a case of slim pickings trying to find great festive books for middle graders).

Nevertheless we'd still recommend any of our December book reviews as stocking fillers - including this utterly gorgeous new book from an Author-artist who really formed a huge part of Charlotte's early reading journey.

We've reviewed countless Anthony Browne books on the blog and we never tire of his amazingly detailed illustrations, cleverly observed themes and glorious characters.

Willy the Chimpanzee has been the star of many books and in the latest adventure, Willy wants to go out for a stroll and a picnic in the park.

Strangely, as Willy steps out of his front door, the sun is shining everywhere and there's not a cloud in the sky - that is until Willy continues his journey and realises he's being followed. Followed by a cloud.

It hangs over his head, and follows him all the way to the park. Poor Willy must sit in the shivering shade while his Gorilla chums are all excitedly soaking up the sun.

Willy even tries to report the cloud to the police as it follows him home. I'm sure you can imagine how well received that was!

Poor Willy, what is he to do? Well there's only one thing for it - Sing and Dance in the rain!

Anthony Browne is gently alluding to many things in this story. At times it feels like he's writing about anxiety and depression, and Willy's expressions when the cloud is really dogging him reflect that perfectly.

Best of all is the moment when Willy finally realises what he needs to do - and takes those first faltering steps back out of the house. Those are beautiful book moments where you are left in no doubt that Anthony Browne is a master of his trade.

Hooray for Willy and hooray for books that are as touchingly brilliant and beautiful as this.

Charlotte's best bit: Expertly spotting influences of Matisse, Mondrian and William Morris in Willy's friends' clothing (I taught her well, it seems!)

Daddy's favourite bit: A gentle and delicately handled book about depression and anxiety, exquisitely detailed and beautifully told. We always expect brilliance from Anthony and we've never been disappointed yet!

(Kindly supplied for review)

"Willy and the Cloud" by Anthony Browne is out now, published by Walker Books. 

King Kong is a character with almost limitless and timeless appear. When I was a kid, the '70s Kong movie was quite literally huge and I also remember watching the original Merian C. Cooper movie starring Fay Wray on TV.

Since then we've also had Sir Peter Jackson's treatment of the movie but who better to put together a version for children than an author-illustrator who conjures up the most amazing simian stories, Anthony Browne.

Browne's version of Kong isn't a toothless treatment for children, but a very faithful adaptation of the original story wrought in Browne's utterly divine illustrative style. Telling the story of young Anne Darrow, a would-be ingenue who falls on hard times and is rescued by a slippery movie director and producer to star in an upcoming blockbuster. Anne meets Carl Denham and is whisked off with his production company to the mysterious Skull Island, reportedly the home of a fantastical beast known only as Kong.

Kong is a gigantic gorilla, fearsome and mighty and Anne is captured and offered up as a sacrifice to the beast. Rather than wolfing her down in one gulp though, Kong rescues Anne and falls in love with her. His ultimate undoing as he tries to protect her at great expense to himself as Kong is captured and paraded as an attraction by the nefarious Denham.

You're probably familiar with the rest of the story, and what happens when Kong is let loose on New York and runs amok. With movie-like pacing and a frenetic energy showing that Browne obviously had a huge passion for the subject matter, we're treated to his rather fantastic vision of Kong and his supporting cast, gloriously rendered with Browne's trademark gift for hiding exquisite detail in each panel spread.

It's fairly wordy for a children's picture book so might suit older readers more, but we were completely enthralled and dazzled by this. I'd love to show Charlotte the original movie to see what she makes of it but I'm worried that she might end up sobbing at the end as Kong meets his terrible demise.

Charlotte's best bit: Picking out all the hidden gorillas throughout the book and discovering (with a little help) that Anne Darrow is the spitting image of Marilyn Monroe

Daddy's Favourite bit: A glorious and luxurious version of a well-loved story, showing Browne's obvious passion for the subject matter and unique gift of putting his own touches to make it fairly child-friendly. A stunning book.

Goldilocks is one of Charlotte's favourite traditional stories. I think it's because Goldilocks is a bit of a subversive devil-may-care character who is a little naughty, and gets away with it too (depending on which version of the story you read).

When you hear that Anthony Browne has reworked the story and given it a poignant contemporary message, you sit up and take notice. Not just because Anthony Browne's artwork can sometimes carry some of his less impactive books, but because he is a writer who can truly deliver on a promise like that.

So Goldilocks in "Me and You" isn't really a character from the wrong side of the tracks, she's not really naughty either - Goldilocks here is a poor girl separated from her mother during a trip to town, whose curiosity leads her to the bear's house. The 3 bears in the story seem to have a privileged life, comfy surroundings, a house full of light and colour and plenty of food on the table. This is definitely not the impression you get about Goldilocks' home life at all.

The beauty of this book is that the story unfolds largely thanks to the reader. Your interpretation of what you're seeing, and your interpretation of what you're reading (and reading into Anthony Browne's subtle theme woven between the threads of the traditional story) is so utterly clever and thumbs the heartstrings rather beautifully. Not least of all when the story reaches a climax that wasn't in the original, but works absolutely perfectly.

This book is a few years old now but it so deserves a lot more attention. If you think you've read every single take there is on Goldilocks, make room for one more, this is superb.
Charlotte's best bit: The great 'reaction' when Goldilocks realises the three bears have come back home

Daddy's Favourite bit: One of the best retellings of Goldilocks, proving that Anthony Browne engages and works with the reader in such subtle and wonderful ways. An important book this, and it so deserved a lot more attention. Go find it in your library or pick up a copy if you can.

We're huge Anthony Browne fans on the blog, and it's great to discover a book that he's illustrated for another author - and a book we haven't seen before at that.

"Knock Knock, Who's There" is another book that features a dad reading to his child at night - but we'll get to that very important bit in a moment. As a girl lies in bed, there's a gentle knock knock at the door. Who is outside though?

Is it a dragon, rather peckish for something small and cuddly to eat for his tea? Perhaps it's a ghost, scary and spooky clanking chains. Perhaps it's a nasty witch who wants to turn you into a jumping frog.

Panic not, it's actually none of the above - but a rather mischievous daddy who hasn't quite got the hang of "settling children before sleep".

Nonetheless we loved this, it's got that trademark Anthony Browne spooky surreal touch to it, with Sally's fun and spooky story making it just the right side of tingly and spooky to keep children wondering who's at the door right until the end of the book.

Charlotte's best bit: The ghost! Wooh!

Daddy's Favourite bit: Another great booky dad, though I'm sure this one got a good ticking off from his other half after spooking the poor girl (though a big daddy cuddle helps hugely!)