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). 

Back in 2012 we ummed and ahhed lots over Anthony Browne's "The Tunnel" before giving it a 5 out of 5 star rating, and a book of the week award.

It's a book that has often ended up in our library pile, Charlotte cannot resist its lure though it's probably one of the darkest (and scariest) books for under 7s. Please bear in mind that I use the age guidance loosely there, as we always do on the blog when it comes to age ratings. So why is it scary? Or more to the point, why do children like books that purposely set out to give them a fright? Let's delve in and investigate...

"The Tunnel" starts out fairly harmlessly describing a typical sibling relationship between brother and sister. The older brother is boisterous, probably quite naughty, likes to play out and fight and misbehave. The younger sister is quiet, thoughtful, bookish and indulges in flights of fancy thanks to her love of fairy stories.

The two rarely see eye to eye and constantly squabble, so one day their exasperated mum sends them out to play - together!

The draw for Charlotte is what happens when the pair discover a mysterious tunnel while out playing. The brother decides to investigate, and crawls through the tunnel without so much as a second's thought. The sister worries, it looks spooky, it smells and no good ever came of crawling through a dark spooky smelly tunnel.

When her brother doesn't come back, the sister has no choice but to follow him to find out what's happened. Shocked to discover a strange wood on the other side, she summons all her courage and tries to find her errant brother.

At this point in the book, Charlotte usually cuddles a little closer - as Anthony Browne's vivid and mischievous imagination conjures up the most darkly delicious images, hiding faces and shapes amongst the trees, playing with the mind as his descriptive text ramps up the tension. When we discover the brother's fate, the story really does take an even darker turn - but there is hope...

In time honoured fashion we won't ruin the story too much, suffice to say that I distinctly remember the first time we encountered this book and the effect it had on Charlotte back then. Two years on, it's still immensely powerful and though Charlotte swaggers with mock bravado that it's not nearly as scary as all that, she still cuddles tightly as the story tightens the thumbscrews of fear, and taps into a child's deepest darkest fears expertly.

Charlotte's best bit: Spotting the hidden menaces in the woods.

Daddy's Favourite bit: Like Anthony Browne's other work, this is a dark and delicious treat - probably a little too scary for the very young but destined to be a book they can't get enough of once they're older.