I’m often asked about what I like to write and why. It may seem obvious, but often it’s a very telling question for authors — a mystery writer will say they love writing poetry or a romance novelist will admit to secretly writing short horror stories under a pen name.

I’m a picture book writer at heart. I adore the clever storylines, the interaction between words and illustrations and the creativity that can be sandwiched into such a short format. And my mind naturally works in 400 word chunks. (It’s actually weird how often a story comes in at 400 words, give or a take a sentence.)

But what I don’t often say, is that I love to push the boundaries of what picture books can be – breaking rules, trying things that you ‘can’t do’, writing about non-traditional topics. Case in point, my character Arabella in Arabella and the Magic Pencil erases her brother. (A mother at a reading once gasped out loud when I read that line.) In Allen the Alien, a lost alien wreaks havoc in a town by doing things kids love to do, but to the ultimate extremes.

So when I discovered the list “The Most Astonishingly Unconventional Children’s Books of 2024” from Travis Jonker, I knew these were my kind of books. Ones that don’t conform. That don’t follow a script.

These are mind blowing, mind bending books. And why not? Kids’ imaginations are boundless so why shouldn’t picture books be too?

Check out the list and let me know what your favourite, rule-breaking picture books are.