Why We Love... Each Peach Pear Plum

A series by editor Roman Milisic on the secrets of good picture books. Episode 1: Each Peach Pear Plum, by Janet and Allen Ahlberg (Kestrel, 1978).

IT'S A PEACH

The books we read our children teach them what stories look like. An excellent children’s book will respect four things: A child’s intelligence; an adult’s time; the experience of reading together; and the creative process. But maybe there’s another quality to a good picture book— that it’s also a desirable object. Janet and Allen Ahlberg’s Each Peach Pear Plum bats 100 across the board. It’s clever and touching and eminently re-readable, and it’s just a lovely thing to have in your home.

THE OBJECT

Interestingly, the cover art of this comfortable 6x8 inch board book doesn’t feature a central subject, or any of its famous characters. Rather, its decorative vines recall an intricately-carved keepsake box. Its ornamental quality makes you want to place it face out on the shelf—every publisher’s hope. Inside, each bordered illustration reinforces the feeling of peering into a box and discovering new treasures in its multiple drawers.

THE GAME

What makes the book even more experiential is that Each Peach Pear Plum is an I-Spy game: Every spread has a simple verse that calls a character from the previous spread and then ‘spies’ the next character, familiar from a fairy tale. Parent and child get to find the character, and plenty more besides. 

THE NARRATIVE

At the same time, Allen Ahlberg’s rhyme is a delight to read. Both clever and lyrical, systematic, but never dull. Indeed, the text is such a clean little mechanism that it needs a touch of the organic. That’s why the first line is so critical: “Each peach, pear, plum”. It’s a fairytale incantation. I like to imagine that Alberg was looking for something to mimic the classic Fee Fi Fo Fum effect, and his solution wrapped in a verdant orchard theme and a yummy pay-off (pie!). Writers love it when inspiration delivers like that. 

THE ILLUSTRATION

Janet Ahlberg rose to meet the theme with a warm, folky, storybook pastoral palette and exquisitely detailed scenes full of jokes and fauna that kids can explore over and over. The seeming clutter is actually in structured segments, so it’s busy without being messy. The eye moves through each image from the primary to the secondary subject, and then into the rich details. You can sense it is highly planned. It is said that Janet spent many hours poring over proof copies, perfecting color, register and line-work. It’s not surprising that the book earned her a Kate Greenaway Medal for Illustration.

THE AUTHORS

The Ahlberg’s mastery of the elements explains why this 1978 book still endures and matters. This wasn’t a one-off. The creative couple returned to game-like structures repeatedly. Peepo! plays with hidden domestic scenes. Their famous The Jolly Postman turns letters and envelopes into physical interaction. Across their work, books aren’t just stories to absorb, but systems to explore, designed for hands, eyes, memory and voice. At Tickety, we live for books like this.

We live in a golden age of children’s books. There are many great children’s titles out there, but there’s lots of fluff too. Stick with this series where we’ll explore what makes a good picture book good, so you can feel informed about the books you read and give. Tiktok @ticketybooks and IG @tickety.books