- Picture Books
- Ages 3–7
- Comedy
Don't Think of Tigers
An interactive, hilarious picture book where a magic book promises to draw any animal you imagine, on one condition: whatever you do, don't think of tigers.
- Best for3–7
- FormatPicture
- Length32 pp
- Read aloud~6 min
The vibe
What it’s like.
Style
- Conversational
- Second person
- Comedic
Tone
- Funny
- Silly
- Whimsical
- Warm
Themes
Experience meters
What’s it about?
The story.
This is a magic book, and it can draw any animal you can imagine, just think of one and turn the page. There's only one rule: don't think of tigers. Of course, the moment you're told not to, tigers are all you can think of, and soon the pages fill with big cats of every wobbly, wonderful description: an eight-legged tiger, a tiger in a tie sipping coffee, a mer-tiger, a tiger with its bits scattered all over the spread. As the increasingly exasperated narrator tries and fails to keep tigers out, something surprising happens: all that accidental practice makes the drawings better and better. Alex Latimer's playful, break-the-fourth-wall picture book is a laugh-out-loud read-aloud with a warm, sneaky message underneath about creativity, persistence and the value of getting things gloriously wrong on the way to getting them right.
Fit check
Right for your child?
Where it lands by age
Made for reading aloud to children of about 3 to 7, when the don't-you-dare premise lands hardest. Early readers of 5 to 7 will enjoy performing it themselves, and it's a reliable group read.
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- Best fit · 3–7
- Read aloud · 3–7
- Independent · 5–7
Prose load
Light
Visual support
Very high
Reluctant-reader friendly
Very
Read-aloud quality
Excellent
Works well for
- Reading aloud
- Reading together
- Gift-buying
- Reluctant readers
Nothing in the book is likely to concern most parents. Safe to recommend without preview.
Bedtime suitability
3 / 5 · Workable
Sensitive-child
5 / 5 · Good fit
Graphic intensity
1 / 5 · None
Best for
- Funny reads
- Read aloud
- Interactive books
- Creativity
Avoid if
- Wants quiet bedtime
- Wants a plot
Particularly good for children who are…
- Interested in art and creativity
In the classroom
How it works in school.
A brilliant interactive read-aloud that sparks drawing and creative-writing activities and gently models the idea that mistakes are part of getting good at something.
A book children love that happens to support school — never a stand-in for the texts a class is taught with.
Why it lands
Why they love it.
Why kids love it
Being told not to think of tigers makes it impossible to think of anything else, and the joke of the book filling up with sillier and sillier tigers, an eight-legged one, a coffee-drinking one, is the kind of interactive mischief children beg to read again.
- Trickery and cleverness
- Breaking the rules safely
- Secret skill
Why parents love it
The kind of book that turns story time into a game, with a genuinely funny running gag and a gentle message about practice and imperfection that never feels like a lesson. Great fun to perform.
- Shared humour
- Quick to read
- Conversation starter
About the author & illustrator
Alex Latimer.
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