Henni Alftan is a Finnish painter based in Paris with a sharp eye for the things we see every day without really seeing them. For her Rookie Book, she went looking for the alphabet in the objects around her and found it, hiding in plain sight. Most of it, anyway. Some letters are still waiting to be discovered. A painter's invitation to look at the world around us just a little more carefully.

Albert Oehlen is not the sort of artist who worries much about preserving things. Nothing is sacred, not even his own paintings. For his Rookie Book, he and his daughter Maya grabbed some scissors and applied them to one of his catalogues with the calm determination of someone who has never once considered the consequences. The result is an endearing parade of small and medium-sized ghosts.

Swiss artist and photographer Bernard Voïta makes images that are not quite what they seem. For “Follow Me”, he arranged objects in his flat to form one continuous line when seen from exactly the right angle. The line travels from page to page, around the cover, and back to where it started. The title says it all: follow the line with your finger, or follow his example on the next rainy afternoon.

Monster Chetwynd’s diverse artistic practice is as playful as a child’s imagination – boundless, fearless, and full of surprises. She crafts wild masks, builds magical stage sets, dresses up in handmade costumes, performs with friends, and has plenty of fun! The perfect candidate for Rookie Books, for which she illustrated three of her own dreams in bold, witty collages, inviting readers of all ages into her fantastical wonder world.

Nathalie Du Pasquier, a Milan-based artist and designer, was a founding member of the influential Memphis Group for which she created decorated surfaces, patterns, textiles, furniture and objects. She has dedicated herself to painting since 1987. With her counting book, designed exclusively for Rookie Books, readers young and old will learn the numbers from 1 to 10 in no time.

The German painter Michaela Eichwald knows that playing by the book is only half the fun. Blithely ignoring traditional methods and conventions, she typically experiments with unexpected and often very unusual materials. Her Rookie Book masterfully illustrates means of challenging and transcending the constraints imposed on us from an early age.

In her sculptures, drawings and photographs, the New York-based artist Rachel Harrison has always loved bringing art history and popular culture into a playful dialogue with each other. For her Rookie Book, she draws inspiration from Hans Holbein’s 500-year-old portraits of King Henry VIII and his court. In “Hold Still, Henry!” she vividly brings these historical sitters back to life, inviting readers of both classic and cool to meet with the Tudors anew in a fresh, contemporary light.

Swiss artist Fabian Marti unleashes dinosaurs the likes of which you’ve never seen before: wiggly, surreal and delightfully strange. Abstract forms stomp, thrash and prowl through a prehistoric wonderland, taking imaginative young minds on a thrilling journey of discovery. “Studio Saurus” is the perfect path to the adventurous joy of exploring art – a dino book no child’s room should be without!

The British documentary photographer Martin Parr is renowned for his iconic, hyper-realistic, and quirky images that highlight the peculiarities of human society and modern life. Now, for the first time, Rookie Books presents a publication in which Parr shifts his focus to animals – with the same curiosity and relentless drive to capture the ordinary in extraordinary ways. “Animals” is a treat for photography enthusiasts, animal lovers and anyone who enjoys Martin Parr’s unique, playful take on the world.

Vaclav Pozarek was born in Czechoslovakia in 1940 and has lived in Bern for almost 50 years. His sculptural vocabulary is influenced by constructivism, minimalism, concrete art, but also shows a great affinity for the ordinary everyday objects that surround us. In “Sweet Wood” Pozarek shows us with the simplest of means how small the leap from the artist’s studio to the children’s room really is. A must-have for friends of simplicity, harmony and order.

The steel and concrete sculptures made by Toni Schmale often evoke associations with machines and apparatuses that have a purpose. However, her enigmatic creations really only function through the viewer’s fertile imagination. The “buggies” she crafted for Rookie Books from steel remnants found in her studio vividly demonstrate the creative and inventive potential of seemingly worthless found materials.