The Gruffalo (1999)

With translations in more than 100 languages and dialects, this is one of the easiest picture books to find in whatever language you are learning. A mouse bluffs its way through a dark wood by describing an imaginary monster, and the description returns with each new predator, so body parts and adjectives come around again and again. The verse is built for reading aloud, which trains your ear as well as your eye, and the mouse's final trick is a genuine joke rather than a bedtime lull.