- Picture Books
- Ages 3–7
- Everyday Life
The Wonder
A gentle, uplifting picture book about noticing tiny moments of beauty even on a gloomy day. Best for children who benefit from calm, hopeful stories about attention, gratitude and emotional reframing.
- Best for3–7
- FormatPicture
- Length32 pp
- Read aloud~6 min
The vibe
What it’s like.
Style
- Lyrical
- Conversational
Tone
- Gentle
- Warm
- Heartwarming
- Thought provoking
- Inspirational
Themes
Experience meters
What’s it about?
The story.
Daniel is having the sort of day where everything seems grey, wet and unlucky. Walking through the rain with his mum, he expects the day to stay miserable, but a chance encounter and a moment of beauty begin to shift how he sees the world around him. The Wonder is about noticing small sparks of joy: music, kindness, little details in the street, and the quiet lovely things that can be missed when a bad mood takes over. Tom Percival's illustrations support that emotional movement, allowing gloom and brightness to sit side by side. This is a recent, reflective picture book rather than a joke-driven story, and it sits neatly with Percival's broader work on emotional literacy. It is especially useful for sensitive children, mindfulness-style reading and conversations about looking again when a day feels difficult.
Fit check
Right for your child?
Where it lands by age
- 1
- 3
- 5
- 7
- 9
- 11
- 13
- Best fit · 3–7
- Read aloud · 3–8
- Independent · 5–8
Prose load
Light
Visual support
Very high
Reluctant-reader friendly
Very
Read-aloud quality
Strong
Works well for
- Reading aloud
- Bedtime
- Reading together
- Gift-buying
- Reluctant readers
Nothing in the book is likely to concern most parents. Safe to recommend without preview.
Bedtime suitability
5 / 5 · Bedtime-friendly
Sensitive-child
4 / 5 · Good fit
Graphic intensity
1 / 5 · None
Best for
- Mindfulness
- Noticing beauty
- Bad days
- Gentle emotional literacy
- Hopeful reading
Avoid if
- Wants laugh out loud funny
- Wants fast plot
- Prefers high energy books
Particularly good for children who are…
- Anxiety and worry
- Interested in art and creativity
- Low self esteem
In the classroom
How it works in school.
A warm Tom Percival read-aloud about holding onto a sense of wonder — a lovely prompt for talk about curiosity and gratitude.
A book children love that happens to support school — never a stand-in for the texts a class is taught with. Reviewed for the classroom · June 2026.
Why it lands
Why they love it.
Why kids love it
The specific weight is the grey day shifting — Daniel walking through the rain certain the day is ruined, a chance encounter and a small piece of music nudging him into noticing tiny lovely things. The Percival picture book in his most observational register.
- Making a difference
- Family belonging
Why parents love it
The Tom Percival quiet-attention picture book — emotional reframing on a bad day, gloom and brightness allowed to sit side by side, mindfulness-shaped storytelling. Useful for sensitive children and the screen-free quieter end of bedtime.
- Bedtime appropriate
- Conversation starter
- Beautiful illustrations
- Quick to read
About the author & illustrator
Tom Percival.
If you liked this
Three ways out of this book.
If you liked this, try…
Lateral matches. Same shelf, different texture.
Come into this from…
Easier or preparing reads — perfect lead-ins.
Where to go next…
Escalation reads — a step up in scale, silliness, or stakes.
Buy or borrow
Pick up a copy.
- Bookshop.org ↗
- Waterstones ↗
- Amazon UK ↗
- Hive ↗
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