What do you love most? Is it your family and friends? Or is it your new shoes? Or a sport, or a stranger who needs your help, or books or yourself! We recommend our favourite picture books about that big emotion: LOVE.

Under the Love Umbrella by Davina Bell & Allison Colpoys

We all need a love umbrella sometimes. When life doesn’t turn out the way we want it to (when you’re left out of a game, when you lose a friend, when you’re scared in the dark), this picture book creates the most comforting and reassuring of symbols: a giant umbrella of love being held over you by the people who care for you.

With eye-catching technicolour illustrations, and smooth rhyming text, this is the perfect book to share with the little people under your love umbrella. For ages 3 and up.

Love Makes a Family by Sophie Beer

Utilising direct and effective text and Sophie Beer’s cheerful illustrations, this rainbow-hued book shows families engaging in activities that bring them together. There are families with two mums, two dads, one parent, or one of each, and from a variety of cultural backgrounds in this inclusive board book. Whether it’s baking a cake, finding something lost, watching amateur theatrics or splashing in puddles, the common denominator these families have is love for each other. For ages 2 and up.

Other books about loving families:

• We Are Family by Patricia Hegarty & Ryan Wheatcroft
• You can also find plenty more suggestions in our posts, Joyful picture books about family life and Picture books that celebrate the variety of family life .

I Love Me by Sally Morgan & Ambelin Kwaymullina

Express how much you love yourself in this exuberant picture book with fabulously vivid and joyous illustrations. I Love Me is full of rhyming affirmations that encourage kids to love their insides and outsides: their physical features, bodies, their emotions and personalities, the activities they like to do, and some funny reasons too. It’s impossible not to get caught up in a wave of self-acceptance and self-esteem when reading this book! For ages 3 and up.

Other books about self-love:

• Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love
• Being You Is Enough: And other important stuff by Josh Langley
  

My Two Blankets by Irena Kobald & Freya Blackwood

Cartwheel has fled war in her home country and come to Australia with her aunt. She finds her new surrounds cold, unwelcoming and lonely, and wraps herself in an orange blanket of memories from home. One day, at the park, a local girl waves at her, but Cartwheel is too startled to respond. The next day the girl talks to Cartwheel, and Cartwheel finds herself with a new friend who teaches her words in a new language. Gradually Cartwheel weaves a new blanket of experiences and memories in Australia that is as comforting as her old blanket.

This lovely picture book uses colour to great effect to describe isolation and friendship, dislocation and belonging. It shows how compassion, generosity, kindness and love can improve young lives. For ages 4 and up.

Other books about compassion:

• Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena & Christian Robinson
• Room on our Rock by Kate Temple & Terri Rose Baynton
• You can also find more recommendations of children’s books about refugees & asylum seekers here.

Lucy’s Book by Natalie Jane Prior & Cheryl Orsini

Lucy goes to the library every Saturday, and one day she finds her perfect book. She loves it so much she borrows it again and again. Her friends are curious, so they take turns borrowing, sharing and passing on the book, until it’s been all over the world and is so worn out it gets retired from circulation. Lucy’s mum tries to buy the book but can’t find a copy anywhere, and it seems as if Lucy will never get to read her beloved book again. But Lucy’s friends and her community look out for her, and there’s a happy ending to this story.

Any true book lover will relate strongly to this story. A nice touch is that each child reacts differently to the book; it’s a book that means something different to each reader. For ages 4 and up.

Other things to love:

• Go Go and the Silver Shoes by Jane Godwin & Anna Walker (shoes)
• The Dress and the Girl by Camille Andros & Julie Morstad (a dress)

Wrestle! by Maya Newell, Charlotte Mars, Gus Skattebol-James & Tom Jellett

Gus loves professional wrestling so much he would like to dress as a wrestler for the Mardi Gras Parade, but his mums, Jen and Jamie, are not so sure. After Gus and his sister Rory have a little wrestling accident, his mums ban the sport. Gus and Rory conspire to make up a new sort of wrestler, one who is kind and respectful of others, and the whole family ends up marching happily in the parade.

This sweet picture book is based on, and co-authored by, the real-life young wrestling fan Gus from Newell’s documentary Gayby Baby. The complex negotiations of family life are handled excellently; I’m sure many kids and parents will relate to the tension that occurs when their tastes and passions do not align! For ages 4 and up.

Other books about loving sport:

• Why I Love Footy by Michael Wagner & Tom Jellett
• Dogs Don’t Do Ballet by Anna Kemp & Sara Ogilvie

Leanne Hall is a children’s and YA specialist at Readings Kids. She also writes books for children and young adults.