Oh Dear, Look What I Got! (The Guardian Best Children's Books of 2025)

"A guaranteed hit for the storytime set, from a team whose talents haven’t aged a day."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

The incomparable creative team behind We’re Going on a Bear Hunt reunite for a read-aloud comedy of misunderstandings that has all the hallmarks of a classic.

I went to the shop to get me a carrot.
Oh dear! They gave me . . .
. . . a parrot.
Oh dear! Look what I got.
Do I want that? No, I do NOT!

As a hapless boy goes from shop to shop, requesting a series of perfectly reasonable items—a hat, a coat, a cake, a chair—he finds himself thwarted at every turn, amassing instead a growing menagerie of animals who happily follow him on his errands. It’s not until he finally asks for a cup that he’s proffered a wriggly creature that solves his dilemma . . . or does it? Adding delicious momentum to Michael Rosen’s rhymes (and mastery of the page turn) are an expressive crew of animal characters rendered as only Helen Oxenbury can, making for a timeless story guaranteed to beg many repeat readings. Oh dear!

Michael Rosen is a poet and the author of many books for children, including the international bestseller We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, which won the Nestlé Smarties Children’sBook Prize; A Great Big Cuddle, illustrated by Chris Riddell;and Michael Rosen’s Sad Book, illustrated by Quentin Blake. He received the Eleanor Farjeon Awardfor services to children’s literaturein 1997 and served as Children’sLaureate in the UK between 2007 and2009. Michael Rosen lives in London.

Helen Oxenbury is a two-time winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal and the 2015 Carle Artist Honoree. She is a celebrated illustrator of many well-loved books, including Charley’s First Night and When Charley Met Grampa, both by Amy Hest, Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen, and There’s Going to Be a Baby by her husband, John Burningham. Helen Oxenbury lives in London.