Still going with the ”え：えほん” theme, I thought I’d share some of my favorite Japanese children’s books. 
”あさえとちいさいいもうと” is a book that I read over and over as a little girl. I think it really struck a chord with me since I am an older sister. It is about a young girl who tries to take care of her little sister while their mother runs an errand. It is available in English as “Anna in Charge“. In fact, I love everything by this author(Yoriko Tsutsui) and illustrator(Akiko Hayashi).
I asked my parents to purchase these books for me last year when they traveled to Japan: すてきなひらがな (Sutekina Hiragana) by Gomi Taro, and あいうえおのえほん by Yokota Kiyoshi/illustrated by Imoto Yoko. I requested these because I want my children to begin familiarizing themselves with what hiragana looks like. They are also great for building up their vocabulary. Both Gomi Taro and Imoto Yoko have dozens of other wonderful books. Gomi Taro has many books published in English as well (In the U.S.A. he is published by Chronicle Books)!
Hiragana Mama 
My daughter loves these books.
This last book is great book to teach kids Japanese alphabet.While most of Japanese alphabet books use animals names and stuff, this book is differnet. This book uses a lot of dessert, snacks, and food to teach Japanese alphabet and since kids are motivated by dessert, snacks, and food, I found that my daughter shows more interests in this book.
Wow, thanks for sharing! I’ve never seen these before.
I’ve just found a website with free downloadable 絵本, I thought this post of yours was fitting, so I’m posting the address, for whomever would be interested, hope you enjoy, especially in countries where it’s difficult to find japanese material (like France)
http://p.booklog.jp/books?sc=1