- Animals
- Picture Books
- Ages 1–5
The shape of it
The shape of this universe.
Chris Haughton is an Irish illustrator and writer working in a distinctive flat, limited-palette style, a few brave colours per book, big simple shapes, a lot of negative space. The picture books are short, structurally rhythmic, often built around a small repeating bit (the chick gets lost, the dog gets it wrong, the lookouts plan their snack-stealing). Underneath the bright design there is a steady gentle ethic: be patient, be brave in a small way, look after each other. Goodnight Everyone, A Bit Lost and Shh! We Have a Plan have all become bedtime fixtures. Pitched at toddlers and preschoolers, the books also read aloud well to multi-age audiences because the design and the comic timing carry across.
Bold, gentle, beautifully designed picture books for toddlers and preschoolers, one of the safest read-aloud bets for the 1–4 bracket.
Cultural footprint
A shelf of evidence.
What Chris Haughton has done
- Bestseller list
- Major award winner
Cultural ubiquity
4/ 5Widely-known cultural fixture — just below household-name status.
Sensitivity
Low, and collection-wide.
Across the collection
All 7 books.
About the creator