Author jillrbennett

Counting Creatures

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Counting Creatures
Julia Donaldson and Sharon King-Chai
Two Hoots

Gorgeous illustrations of adult animals and their young by Sharon King-Chai accompanied by an expertly constructed rhyming narrative by Julia Donaldson make for a terrific book to share with young humans who will want to spend ages pouring over the wonderful details on every spread. There are cut-away pages, die-cuts, fold-outs and flaps that are part and parcel of such scenes as the flying bat with a wing covering just 1 baby, a sheep with 2 baby lambs (one eating, the other bleating), a leopard with 3 tottering, swaying, punching, playing cubs.

Particularly striking is the seemingly lone wild dog behind which are hidden 4 pups, two nosing and nestling the other two writhing and wrestling.

Having reached 10 (piglets) the numbers go up in 5s, so next comes a turkey with 15 poults either peeping or cheeping and the question (repeated each time), ‘Who has more babies than that?’. In this instance the answer is ‘This butterfly’ whose wings cover 20 munching caterpillars, followed by a frog on a lily pad where beneath another there are 25 wriggling squiggling wiggling tadpoles.

The final two spreads serve to send readers hunting back through all the pages to locate ‘LOTS of spiderlings that Julia informs are ‘all over this book.’ (Surely not literally! I hear you cry!) Plus another quite challenging question to answer.

Hours of pure pleasure for adult sharers and their young ones, who will certainly need no persuading to peruse the pages that show the various animals, their habits and their habitats, as well as doing the intended counting on their wildlife journey.

The Bear in the Stars

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The Bear in the Stars
Alexis Snell
Puffin Books

Accompanied by a series of stunning lino-cut prints, Alexis Snell tells the story of a polar bear, forced to leave the ‘cold, glistening place’ that is her home, on account of climate change.

In this fable we learn how over the years as the ice gradually disappeared, one by one, other animals have had no choice but to move on and seek new places to live. Now it’s the turn of the Great Bear to leave her natural abode and search for another safe location.

Swept across a raging sea, she finds a likely-seeming place

but it’s only temporary and then she’s swept on again down a rushing river upon the banks of which she encounters another bear – black and kindly – that tells her of a cool lake with fish aplenty.

Off she goes again and having sated her appetite, is briefly happy, but then the sun comes and off she goes to look for somewhere cooler. Now over-hot in her thick white fur, all she can find are lemon trees – no food for Bear these sour fruits. Her only solace is the stars in this changed world and with the morning a troop of monkeys come to her aid guiding her towards a ‘place that may help you’. Many hours later they reach a ‘human town’ and there, having settled her in a cool building, the monkeys leave her to sleep – long and deep.

On waking however, it’s not long before she learns that in this increasingly hot human world, it’s only the temperature that is growing ever warmer: human hearts remain cold and unwelcoming … until one single, small act of kindness changes everything … most certainly for our ursine traveller;

but what about those humans? One can but remember, wish and hope … and …

Using a changing colour palette from blues to reds, and then as the world recovers, to greens, Alexis’s is a tale of hope for a future that is better. That’s the vital message that one wants youngsters to take from this beautiful book. That and the determination to be part of the change that MUST be made by every single one of us.

A book for all, everywhere.

Why? / It Isn’t Rude to be Nude

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Why?
Billy Dunne and Rhys Jeffreys
Maverick Publishing

Young children are innately curious about the world around them, always asking questions and wanting to discover new things. So it is here with the girl who is out walking with her dad when he points out a rainbow in the sky saying, “You get them when the rain has passed and the sunshine comes instead.”
“Why?” comes the girl’s softly spoken response. This precipitates a sequence of further questions “Why?” followed by explanations from Dad who speaks first of colours in a light beam being split when they pass through rainy weather;

then the fact that blue light bends a little more than red.
The next “Why” invokes an explanation of this fact. The girl’s whys intensify and Dad moves on to more sophisticated talk. After which the poor fellow is feeling somewhat frazzled and in need of a rest. But still comes another “Why?”

What the guy says in response gets right to the crux of the complex matter but story spoiler I won’t be, so I’ll leave you to wonder or ponder upon this – unless of course you’ve sufficient knowledge of physics to answer for yourself. Whatever the case, his daughter is delighted, and all ends satisfactorily – just about!
Just right for youngsters eager to find out about their world (rainbows in particular) and their weary adult responders.

Billy Dunne’s rhyming narrative making accessible some tricky science, is easy to read aloud (great final throwaway comment from the daughter) and is well complemented by Rhys Jefferys’ illustrations. I love the way he shows the changing expressions of the father as he does his utmost to keep up with and ahead of, his daughter’s “Why”s and his wordless spread showing ‘The complex composition of the photon field’ is a complete contrast to the relatively spare previous ones.

It Isn’t Rude to be Nude
Rosie Haine
Tate Publishing

Open this debut book of Rosie Haines and almost immediately you’re faced with this spread with bums

after which we see nipples (normal things), ‘willies’ (not silly) and vulvas. Thereafter come changes to some parts – boobs might grow, and hair (don’t be scared).
On view too are bodies of all kinds and a variety of body colours and markings

as well as hair (or lack of it). We’re shown people whose bodies stand, sit, or leap and dance, and sometimes strut across the spreads

all with one object in mind – to promote body positivity and to show how bodies change over time as we grow and get older.

Children for the most part do have a positive and healthy attitude to nudity; it’s often the attitudes of adults that trigger those feelings of shame about the naked form and being naked. So, it’s three rousing cheers for Rosie’s book illustrated with a wonderfully warm colour palette and a pleasing fluidity of line.

One Girl

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One Girl
Andrea Beaty and Dow Phumiruk
Abrams Books for Young Readers

A little girl sits outside her home one night looking somewhat dejected when all of a sudden from the sky there falls a book, aglow like a falling star. It lands close to her feet. ‘One Girl. One spark.’ On opening it a flaming flower springs forth from the pages, igniting a spark that the girl follows to a wonderful land of possibility. As she continues her allegorical journey her lonely world is transformed into a bright place full of wonder and opportunity.

So impassioned is the girl that she takes her book into school to share with her classmates. Then, further inspired, she takes a pencil and her imagination takes flight as her own, original words flow through her writing, creating a story she also shares with her class.

This kindles a spark in them too and they appear not only to find their own voices but to discover joy and wonder in reading.

Now they too have a burning desire to share their wonderful new discovery with others and thus they send forth

‘Words like comets through the night. / Blazing streaks of blinding light. / Seeking out the darkest dark …’ and thus, the story comes full circle and another girl’s life begins a transformation.

This beautifully written and illustrated book spoke so powerfully to me. I could have been that girl whose life was totally transformed by the magical power of books as was the child in Andrea Beaty’s spare rhyming text, a text wherein every word is chosen for maximum impact. In my case though it was thanks not to what happened in my school, but to my wonderful father who took me every Saturday to our local library and also enrolled me in a book club at a young age, so I received new magic every month. It’s also a spark that in my role as a teacher, I’ve always strived to ignite in every single child I’ve ever worked with, and will continue to do so ad infinitum …

Although there’s complete harmony between the words and pictures, Dow Phumiruk’s radiant illustrations convey much of the story illuminating with their details the transformational power of books, of writing and of education.

Leaving much to the reader’s interpretation, this is a book to share widely, to ponder upon, to discuss, and one hopes, one that will ignite that spark in all who are open to the might of their own potential.

Poems to Save the World With

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Poems to Save the World With
chosen and illustrated by Chris Riddell
Macmillan Children’s Books

I fell head over heels with Chris Riddell’s Poems to Fall in Love With and now comes this third of his anthologies, published at a particularly challenging time for everyone, whoever and wherever they are. I received my copy on the day the announcement came of restrictions changing AGAIN, which has meant having to revise plans to visit relations with 3 young children. I felt I needed to dive straight into the book to look for some poetic solace, and headed first to the Lockdown section where unsurprisingly I found much that spoke to me immediately. First, Brian Bilson’s Serenity Prayer that begins ‘Send me a slow news day, / A quiet, subdued day, in which nothing much happens of note, / save for the passing of time ’.

Actually, every one is a gem, not least Chris’ own Lockdown that made me well up. In contrast, Roger McGough’s The Perfect Place that opens thus: ’The world is a perfect place to be born into. / Unless of course, you don’t like people / or trees, or stars, or baguettes.’ … and concludes ‘About the baguettes, / that was just me being silly.’ that end really made me chuckle.

New to me but already oft read are Nikita Gill’s Kindness that has four incredible illustrations by Chris and Neil Gaiman’s What You Need to be Warm written originally to support the 2019 UN Refugee Agency winter appeal with these final lines, ‘Sometimes it only takes a stranger, in a dark place, / to hold out a badly knitted scarf, to offer a kind word, to say / we have the right to be here, to make us warm in the coldest / season. // You have the right to be here.’

and also from the Everything is Going to be OK section, Rachel Rooney’s Battle Call that will surely spur readers into action.

Among the classical poems Wordsworth’s Travelling ‘This is the spot: how mildy does the sun / Shine in between the fading leaves! The air / In the habitual silence of this wood. / Is more than silent:’ illuminated my woodland walk with my partner the previous day. More than silent it surely was, as our peace was shattered by a very young boy (a modern day Max) out with, I think his dad and , both of whom were howling like wolves for several minutes – stress release I suspect – but very amusing to us in our previously silent wood.

In the same wood on that same walk there’s what I call a troll bridge (made of logs) so I loved finding A.F. Harrold’s wonderful Troll Song made even more so by Chris’ drawings of the troll narrator whose concluding thoughts include, ‘I read a lot of books. They contain other worlds. / For a time I can imagine I’m not living under a bridge.’ Books have certainly been key in keeping this reviewer sane during the challenges of the pandemic.

From the section The Elephant in the Room, is John Donne’s No Man Is an Island that seems even more ironic with this weekend’s announcement of the likelihood of a catastrophic BREXIT no-deal.

In one or more ways, every poem herein helps illuminate the huge challenges we all face, individually and collectively, if we are to make our world a better place for everyone; and what better way to conclude than with Nikita Gill’s uplifting, ‘This is me checking in / sending you the moon as a poem, praying and wishing for us all / a speedy recovery. // And if nothing else, / There will always be poetry/ We will always have poetry.’ from Love in the Time of Coronavirus.

Superbly presented, exquisitely, often intricately, illustrated and enormously uplifting, this is a must for sharing, for giving and for keeping.

Ollie’s Lost Kitten / The Grinny Granny Donkey

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Ollie’s Lost Kitten
Nicola Killen
Simon & Schuster Children’s Books

Ollie returns for an autumnal tale that is every bit as enchanting as her previous stories.
One crisp, blustery autumn morning Ollie, sporting her cat suit and pursued by her beloved moggy Pumpkin, head outdoors. Suddenly Ollie, about to jump into a leaf pile sees that it’s moving and then a sudden gust of wind reveals, hiding among the leaves, a tiny shivery kitten.

Having warmed it up, Olllie and two felines frolic in the leaves, catching them and playing forest explorers until they’re tired out. Before long the little kitten is ready for more play so Olllie joins in, totally forgetting about Pumpkin still slumbering beneath a tree.
The two dash off deeper into the woods where they spot lots of ‘lost kitten’ posters.

The girl knows she must try to find the kitten’s home so off they go, following a path revealed by the leaves, all the way to a little cottage where the kitten lives.

It’s a somewhat tearful Ollie who heads back, suddenly realising that her very own Pumpkin has been left alone. Feeling sadder still, she sits in the dark, lost and a bit fearful, till all of a sudden, she hears a rustle,

and then an extremely welcome ‘miaow’ that she recognises …

Gently suspenseful and beautifully illustrated, Nicola’s gorgeous graphite scenes with pops of orange and occasional cut-outs, give the story an autumnal feel making it ideal for sharing with little ones, just now especially.


The Grinny Granny Donkey
Craig Smith and Katz Cowley
Scholastic

Here’s a tooth-troubled addition, in the form of Grinny Granny, who joins Wonky Donkey and Dinky Donkey in the daft donkey family delights related by Craig Smith and beguilingly illustrated by Katz Cowley.


No grey lady is this one with her swanky styled titfa and adornments of the jewelled kind.

There’s nothing this granny donkey likes better than to sit playing her banjo, sipping a cup of her favourite brew and dunking in her biscuits,

but there’s a snag of the dental kind; her false teeth just won’t stay in her mouth.

Occasionally however she does get a bit down in the mouth, not on account of her teeth (those can be put back pretty niftily) but when her family fail to visit for a seemingly long time. That makes her grumpy and cranky, until up trot her son Wonky and her granddaughter Dinky. Then back comes that toothy smile and it remains, lighting up her donkey countenance for weeks and weeks – hee haw how splendid is that!

Herein with its wonderful sounding dunks, plunky-plinks,

clunks, clinks, clanks and zonks, Craig’s ‘Hee Haw’ -ing cumulative narrative plonks along nicely in time with Granny’s banjo strumming; adorably depicted in Katz’s scenes of this gentle grinning granny jenny.

Little ones will love it especially when read by their own grannies. It’s great for developing awareness of rhyme and sound/symbol associations to boot (or maybe hoof).

Timelines From Black History

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Timelines from Black History
Dorling Kindersley
illustrated by Lauren Quinn

In her foreword to this powerful and important book, Mireille Harper states, ‘Black history has been overlooked and minimised in every area of society, and even worse often erased. Yet, the contributions of Black people to society influence every part of how we live, from the art and culture we consume,

to the rights we have.’ How true and how shameful that our society has allowed the continuing hostility, racism and discrimination to continue; thank goodness then for the Black Lives Matter movement and for all the awesome people featured and celebrated in this book. Now more than ever it’s time for change and we can all be a part of that change.

What an absolute wealth of information is packed between the covers of this inspiring book that features both the people and the vital events that have shaped and embody, Black History.

We start right back at the origins of the human race with information explaining how the whole human story began in Africa and the journey takes us from this prehistory through to modern times.

Did you know for example that, thanks to the exceptionally brave empress, Taytu Betul, Ethopia was one of only two African countries not colonised? Or that inventor, engineer and writer, Lewis Howard Latimer invented and patented a carbon filament that allows a light bulb to last much longer than did the paper one used in Edison’s design? (That was something I learned from this book).

There are more than thirty visual biographical timelines that present writers, scientists, activists, royalty, singers and musicians, sportsmen and sportswomen some famous, others less so, as well as those explaining the experiences of black people in the United States and in Africa through to post-colonial times. You can find out about some of the achievements of ancient African kingdoms as well as those of the Civil Rights movement in the United States including the father of that movement, Frederick Douglass. Some of my all-time heroes such as Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama

and Wangari Maathai are included.

This is a book that should be used in all KS2 classrooms and secondary school history departments.

Everything is Mine

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Everything is Mine
Andrea D’Aquino
Tate Publishing

Meet Marcello Von Cauliflower Bonaparte Jackson, usually called Marcello by friends. He is, so he says, kind, clever and very loyal. There’s one snag however, out narrator pooch considers that everything belongs to him – yes everything.

A pink fluffy slipper? Definitely his – one’s surely enough for his ‘mum’. The pork chop on that plate? His assuredly (there’s no label saying it’s Leo’s after all.)

Ditto Squirrel’s acorn and even that tree. That’s sticks for the rest of Marcello’s life sorted. Indeed, the whole park is his so it’s his rules that must be followed.

So what about the entire universe? You guessed: that’s Marcello’s too. It’s on his ‘my stuff’ list.

It looks as though Marcello and his acquisitive nature are totally out of control.

Is there any chance that Leo might, just might show him what truly matters?

Perhaps owning ever more things isn’t really THE most important thing in life after all. This is definitely something that so many of us have worked out for ourselves during the on-going pandemic. Whether this fun story with its vital message was conceived pre-covid I’m not sure, but it’s certainly a timely one. The funky collage illustrations are superb, brilliantly expressive and I love the various footnotes – oops sorry paw notes – asides and comments by the bit part players. Great endpapers too.

Sofia Valdez and the Vanishing Vote

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Sofia Valdez and the Vanishing Vote
Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts
Amulet Books

The Questioneers – Sofia and her friends – return in a new chapter book adventure and just in time for the USA election. It’s also time for Sophia and her classmates to have an election to select what animal should be their class pet – another one of their teacher, Miss Greer’s ‘Learning Experiences’.

Clearly there won’t be a perfect candidate that everyone wants so the ‘best one’ will have to do, so says Abuelo as they walk home together; moreover, the pet must be small enough to fit (inside its home) on the bookcase. Eventually the list of possibles is whittled down to five contenders and then just two.

When Sofia is put in charge of managing the election (as election commissioner) things are tricky, as the candidates backed by two of her best pals are against each other.

Pretty soon Sofia learns that being i-c a fair election is more than a little challenging. It’s fortunate however, that she has both Abuela’s wise advice and assistance from the local library to act as guidance.

Highly entertaining and superbly explained, Andrea Beaty’s story contains a number of messages about classroom relationships and community, as well as imparting vital points about freedom of information, good journalism, a boycott, fake news, and that about there never being a perfect candidate in an election. And if things haven’t got spicy enough, there’s even a baking tip or two included and of course, all those smashing illustrations and diagrams from David Roberts.

The Bear and the Moon

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The Bear and the Moon
Matthew Burgess and Cátia Chien
Chronicle Children’s Books

A little bear wakes after a long sleep and spies something floating in the sky. At first it’s just a red dot, but as it comes closer he notices more; ‘red as a berry / and round like the moon / with a silver string drifting brightly in the breeze.’ Being of an investigative nature the bear goes to discover what he can. The two are soon engaged in a pas de deux

lasting till evening when the bear stops to eat and then settles down with his companion in the glowing moonlight.

Next morning though the two are soon up and about once more with bear rolling, sitting and cavorting with his new friend until … disaster. An over-enthusiastic bear hug ends the balloon’s life rendering it a scattering of red pieces, one attached to the silver string.

As evening comes Bear is left devastated. And full of guilt: ‘Bad bear, / he thought. / Bad, bad bear.’ With the night though as he swims miserably across the creek,

comes another gift from the sky to bring comfort and cheer as it ‘reached down to him and gently stroked his fur.’ And all is well once more: loving memories endure …

Written in spare, gentle words, Matthew Burgess’ poetic allegorical text is both potent and poignant, highlighting the power of friendship, and of loss. In artist Cátia Chien he has the perfect collaborator. Her mixed media illustrations with those changing viewpoints and colours, are sublime, and finely tuned to the changing moods of bear, from the delight of discovery right through to mourning and finally, acceptance (of self and of loss), and healing. Simply, beautiful.

Celebrating Nosy Crow Board Books

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Peekaboo Bear
Peekaboo Apple
Camilla Reid and Ingela P Arrhenius

Toddlers and babies absolutely love to play peekaboo, especially when there’s a mirror involved, so these two books will be winners on both counts. Add to that Camilla Reid’s playful rhyming couplets that introduce equally playful, adorably illustrated animals, some of which are revealed by manipulating the sliders in Ingela P Arrhenius’s brightly coloured, patterned spreads, (as well as the occasional human in the Apple book)

and you have two sure fire winners for several more reasons. Exuberant language, alluring art, manipulative skill development and most importantly, sheer fun: what more can one ask of books for babies?

Listen to the Carnival of the Animals
Marion Billet

With its six sound buttons embedded in the spreads, tinies can listen to the Royal March of the Lion, The Elephant (and maybe stomp along too), bounce in time to Kangaroos, imagine floating neath the Aquarium water, enjoy the flutes emulating bird song in an Aviary and finally, glide gracefully across the lake like The Swan. Each animal (often along with minibeast bit-part players) is allocated a double spread brightly and engagingly illustrated and introduced with a sentence to maximise engagement such as “Does the bouncy piano sound like a kangaroo?’

or ‘Isn’t it magical under the water?’and there’s a final page asking “Which animal was YOUR favourite?’
A lovely introduction to Saint-Saēns’ classic The Carnival of the Animals for the very youngest listeners (with music played by two famous orchestras)

Who’s Hiding in the Snow?
Katharine McEwen

In five beautifully illustrated double spreads we visit a variety of chilly locations wherein to discover the answer to the titular question. First, we’re in the Asian tundra in the early morning to hunt for the climbing and flying animals that have hidden themselves under the snow (lift the flaps to find the amur leopard, the ermine, a Siberian squirrel, a Siberian tiger and a snowy owl.) Next stop is the icy Antarctic to search for swimming creatures, a bird that hops on one foot and a chinstrap penguin creche. Afternoon in the Eurasian mountains shows some animals while others –including an alpine marmot and sleeping wild boars are hiding.

A snowy Arctic evening depicts animals on the move and others such as the walrus, resting . It’s night-time when the final destination is reached and the northern lights shine to reveal the ears of grey wolves (the rest being hidden) as well as a moose lurking behind snow-capped rocks and some very sleepy dall sheep. Brr!

A considerable amount of information about the various animals is given on the inner side of the flaps under which the animals are hidden offering interactive learning of a fun kind for young children.

The Museum of Me / Like A Giant

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Here are two picture books kindly sent for review by Tate Publishing:


The Museum of Me
Emma Lewis

‘Everyone says I’m going to love the museums,’ so says the little girl narrator in this delightfully quirky book as we accompany her on a journey wherein she travels by bus, to a variety of museums, showing us what they are, and what each has to offer.


Therein she finds all manner of objects that fascinate her such as ancient toys very similar to her own, pottery,


strange birds and giant bugs, contemporary artworks and lots more besides.

Then there are museums outdoors too, sometimes in gardens,


and our narrator even contemplates the possibilities of a museum in space.
Finally, she takes us to see The Museum of Me – her very own collection of favourite things.
Now that’s a fantastic starting point, once you’ve shared with youngsters this smashing look at the delights that museums have to offer. I love the distinctive, collage style illustrations that imbue the entire book with a sense of the importance of individual responses to museums, indeed to the whole of life.

Why not suggest children create and curate their own personal museums featuring items from their lives and experiences? Such an activity offers both a personal response and a demonstration of the way in which museums the world over have often been created out of the lives and experiences of ordinary as well as extraordinary people. For now I’m going to start thinking of items for my museum of me, restricting it to (desert island discs style) ten.


Like A Giant
Marc Daniau and Yvan Duque

Take a giant – just awoken, a city child – ready and waiting, and a journey; those are the key elements of this picture book that is a wonderful celebration of the power of childhood imagination. Said journey takes the adventurers across the ocean, then moving at high speed beside a railway track, on up towards a wonderful mountainous region abundantly green where it’s time to slow down, stop and relish the serenity of the scene spreading out before them.

Then comes a soaring ride through the skies – snow softly falling – to see deserts, islands, hills and valleys, lakes and more. There’s a place to sate the travellers’ hunger, wonderous verdant gardens and woodlands to enchant and delight.

They’ll travel through all kinds of weather

and through a whole day and night, but though that entire trip has lasted just a short time, it has been an unforgettable, life-enhancing experience for the hero large and the hero small.

With incredibly powerful scenes by Yvan Duque and a travelogue commentary in the imagination of a small child by Marc Daniau, this is an awe-inspiring book to share slowly and meditatively, perhaps at bedtime.

Climate Emergency Atlas

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Climate Emergency Atlas
Dan Hooke et al.
DK (Penguin Random House)

There is no getting away from it: Planet Earth is facing a horrifying climate emergency and we humans have only a few years in which to act before the destruction we are wreaking is irreparable.

Divided into four sections, it’s first explained to readers How Earth’s climate works, this is followed by a look at the causes of climate change; then comes the impacts of climate change. This part really is a wake-up call with pages such as those on the Burning of fossil fuels (though it’s good to read that Germany’s emissions of greenhouse gases have decreased over the last 30 years).

We also see the effects of extreme weather in both humans and the natural world where sea levels are rising, and with the oceans getting warmer there’s devastating coral bleaching and danger to enormous numbers of marine fauna and flora.

There’s a spread on the Australian bushfires, another looking at and locating endangered ecosystems the world over, while Livelihoods in peril explores the impact of climate change on countless numbers of people who are forced to leave their homes on account of storms, drought, rising sea levels and fires.

The final section, Action on climate change, demonstrates that there is much we can do to halt this catastrophic climate change, stressing that we have to act quickly to cut greenhouse emissions, not only at a government level but also as individual humans. We can all play our part by becoming activists, changing to diets that help reduce agriculture’s carbon footprint, (there’s a Planet-friendly eating spread) by recycling and reusing rather than buying new unnecessarily, by planting more trees (the right kinds) and much more.

I was awed by reading about what the city of Copenhagen has done and is doing as part of it mission to be the first carbon-neutral capital by 2025. The book ends with a look at how by saving energy, growing green, and other acts we can all play our part. All is not lost; it’s both our individual and our collective responsibility; with a foreword by environmental scientist, Liz Bonnin, this book is surely another rallying cry to ACT and keep on acting today, tomorrow and every day …

Both primary and secondary schools need at least one copy.

The Secret Explorers

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The Secret Explorers and the Comet Collision
The Secret Explorers and the Lost Whale
The Secret Explorers and the Tomb Robbers
The Secret Explorers and the Jurassic Rescue
S J King, illustrated by Ellie O’Shea
DK (Penguin Random House)

These four books, ideal for newly independent readers, feature seven children from different parts of the world, each with a special interest and expertise in a particular STEAM subject. Whenever their help is required, they receive a signal alerting them that they’re needed for a mission.
In The Comet Collision it’s space expert Roshni with Ollie (his expertise is the rainforest) who are called to the Exploration Station to undertake a mission and it’s truly out of this world. Tasked with fixing the space probe that’s orbiting Jupiter before it’s hit by a comet in less than two hours, the chosen two whizz off in a spaceship leaving the other team members to monitor the mission and communicate via control monitors. As the clock ticks Roshni prepares to undertake her first spacewalk – but that is only part of the story …

With a South Pacific Ocean setting, The Lost Whale sees Connor (marine expert) teamed with Roshni, a seeming unlikely partner but as in all the stories, the role of the less expected one is revealed during the course of the mission. Connor and Roshni set out in a submarine in an attempt to save a pod of humpback whales that have lost their way by steering them back onto the right track. However, those whales need air every 45 minutes and there are lots of boats in the waters likely to make things difficult. And difficult it soon is particularly when one of the whale calves gets separated from the pod. Will the Secret Explorers’ mission end in success?

Once again there’s plenty of action (love the rap) and a wealth of information is given in the course of the story – here it relates to marine life, threats to ocean ecology and climate change; and like the other books, after the story are further facts and diagrams relating to the themes, plus a quiz and a glossary.

It’s Gustavo with his expertise in history and engineering expert Kiki who pool their skills in The Tomb Robbers adventure. They find themselves travelling back in time to ancient Egypt on a mission to save the Cairo museum in their own time from having to close on account of lack of treasures to attract sufficient visitors. That entails preventing tomb robbers from plundering the Great Pyramid for artefacts. As ever teamwork is key though it’s not easy for Kiki and Gustavo to work out who is and who isn’t to be trusted. This time, readers will learn a fair bit about life in ancient Egypt during and after the story.

Paleontology expert Tamiko, together with geology expert Cheng already have a fair bit in common and it’s they who undertake The Jurassic Rescue, going back in time 150 million years. There’s a precious Archaeopteryx egg to be rescued but in order to do so the two must hold off a group of predatory allosauruses. What with an earthquake, a landslide and the unexpected hatching of that egg, things are anything but easy, especially as so another of the team informs them, if they look too long at the hatchling, it might think Cheng and Tamiko are its parents. Will they ever manage to reunite it with its mother?

Dinosaur addicts in particular will love this one and enjoy the relevant back matter after the exciting adventure.

If you know or teach readers who are starting out on chapter books and like a good, well-illustrated story but want some facts too, then this series is a great starting point.

The Runaway Pea Washed Away

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The Runaway Pea Washed Away
Kjartan Poskitt and Alex Willmore
Simon & Schuster Children’s Books

The small green spherical runaway vegetable has already achieved VIPea status so far as this reviewer is concerned thanks to his cracking first outing in The Runaway Pea. Now he returns in a second delicious escapade starring himself but equally for me, his co-adventurer, the little spider that he encounters and proceeds to rescue having met same after being washed down the plug-hole and into the drain along with all the slime and mess. This, surprisingly, doesn’t spoil his fun; indeed, pea positively relishes his surroundings. It’s when he’s so doing that he comes upon the spider all of a panic that’s doing anything but enjoy the lack of a spot on which to stand its eight legs.


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However, the rescue effort quickly turns into an exciting experience – for one of the two anyhow – when they emerge into a stream. As they drift along, optimistic pea wants to take the opportunity to make some new friends; spider on the other hand, proffers several pieces of sage advice that do nothing to dampen pea’s spirits.

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Will the two ever see dry land and safety again?

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Actually it’s a case of yes and no, for the tale, rather like that water down the plug-hole, twists around perfectly to a wonderful conclusion that leaves things wide open for yet more adventures.


Bring it on say I and so will countless young listeners who will doubtless be delighted by pea’s unsquashable joie de vivre. Author Kjartan Poskitt and illustrator Alex Willmore have dished up another cracking rhyming tale with wonderful characters so cleverly given real personalities despite comprising mere spheres and (in the arachnid’s case) the odd few single lines. HapPEA reading.

Count On Me

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Count On Me
Miguel Tanco
Tate Publishing

The little girl in this story wherein every one of her family members has a passion, struggles to find hers – at first that is. Her dad loves to paint, her mum loves entomology, her brother is a budding musician but none of these find favour with our young narrator.
Nor do those activities she tries – dancing, cooking, singing or sports, for instance:

not a single one arouses passion in her, worthy though they might be.

All else has failed but what about maths? Now there’s something that really fuels her enthusiasm – a passion at last! Yes maths is amazing

and it’s everywhere once you start looking: there’s an abundance of geometric shapes in the playground, at the lake,

in the block buildings she constructs. There are perfect curves to be discovered; number conundrums to solve over a family meal; then there’s symmetry in making a paper plane, as well as the excitement of launching and tracking its trajectory once complete.

As the girl reminds us, being passionate about maths can be strange to some people – hard to comprehend in fact – but as she says in conclusion, ‘ there are infinite ways to see the world … And maths is one of them.’
Seeing the world through the lens of a mathematical mind can most certainly seem well-nigh incomprehensible. It certainly was to this reviewer whose amazing dad (a Cambridge mathematician), maths puzzle solver extraordinaire, and for whom maths was inherent in his job, failed to understand how it was my least favourite subject at secondary school, and one I couldn’t wait to drop after O-level.

It’s great for those with a maths aversion as well as to demonstrate the power and importance of passions, whatever they are. I love the way in which Tanco shows readers the world through that mathematic lens, illustrating so many different concepts in his watercolour spreads of everyday activities, while also introducing mathematical vocabulary in the girl’s narrative. I love too the final ‘My Maths’ notebook that explains and illustrates the mathematical terms and concepts that are part and parcel of the story. Perhaps if I’d had this gem of a picture book as a child who knows …

The Secret Life of Trees

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The Secret Life of Trees
Moira Butterfield and Vivian Mineker
Words & Pictures

Oakheart the Brave, oldest tree in the forest wherein it stands, acts as narrator of this revealing look at what happens beneath the bark and ‘neath the branches, below the roots even, of trees –arguably THE most important life form on our planet. Some of what we read contains truth in the form of fiction, some is fact.

To begin this fascinating book, Oakheart tells of how a marauding mouse seizes the acorn containing the very seed from which emerges the little shoot that is to become our enormous narrator.

He goes on to regale readers with arboreal tales including a version of an Indian one, The Banyan Tree, as well as The Sky-High Tree from Hungary

and some season-related stories: from Scotland comes The Fairy Tree, from Norway, The Summer Storm and with its autumnal setting we have The Tree of Life from Persia, while the final tree tale Magic in the Forest comes from Britain and is a legend about the wizard , Merlin.

There’s plenty of science too, relating to photosynthesis;

facts and figures about the oak’s growth; information about its animal inhabitants – small and very small; how trees communicate; seasonal change is discussed and much more, concluding with the all-important How to be Tree-Happy that explains briefly how to care for our precious trees and how you might grow one yourself.

Moira’s mix of information and story works wonderfully so the book should have a wide appeal; every spread offers an exciting visual experience too. I love the different viewpoints and clever ways of presenting information such as that of Secrets Inside Us.

Thank you Oakheart for your special gift.

The New Girl

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The New Girl
Nicola Davies and Cathy Fisher
Graffeg

Softly spoken, sensitively rendered and enormously moving is Nicola and Cathy’s latest picture book narrated by a member of the class into which the new girl arrives ‘wrapped up like a parcel’ and not understanding a word that was said by her classmates.

Almost unbelievably, the newcomer is set apart to eat her lunch on account of its ‘funny’ smell and as school ends she walks away quite alone. This cruel behaviour continues day after day as winter arrives bringing with it dark and dreariness.

Then one day into that dark something wonderful appears on the teacher’s desk.

Each day after that another one appears somewhere in the classroom bringing with it feelings of warmth and cheer until the beautiful objects stop coming.

At their teacher’s suggestion, the children start trying to make their own paper flowers, the narrator unsuccessfully … until the new girl shows her how.

Flower making isn’t all that’s learned in that classroom on that particular day though; so too is a new language and the importance of accepting difference, of understanding and of friendship …

Cathy Fisher’s illustrations are startlingly realistic, full of feeling and atmosphere – the ideal complement to Nicola’s text.

Primary classrooms should definitely add this to their collections.

Fearless: The story of Daphne Caruana Galizia

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Fearless: The story of Daphne Caruana Galizia
Gattaldo
Otter-Barry Books

In this book paying tribute to his friend Daphne Caruana Galizia the fearless journalist assassinated in Malta in 2017, illustrator/artist Gattaldo has created his first children’s book.

Herein he shows her as a lover of stories and reading from an early age. A person whose reading taught her to think for herself, no matter what.

A person unafraid to expose wrong doing in her journalism.

A person whose belief that peaceful protest could change people’s lives and resulted in her being arrested during a protest gathering and put in a dark cell for two nights. A person who, despite being called a witch and having other awful things done to her by those fearing exposure, continued through her journalistic writing, to fight for what she believed in, and to make the world a better place.

Cognisant of the fact that children love to read about fictional detectives and investigators as he did as a child, Gattaldo’s powerful illustrations and succinct writing style capture the spirit of his friend effectively making this, not only a tribute to one person, but also a contribution to the importance of freedom to choose for ourselves and to freedom itself.

Part of the book’s aim is to promote good journalism to children through the story of this inspiring investigative journalist, the investigation into whose untimely death is still ongoing. Children are always asking questions: it’s how they find out about the world in which they live: here’s something that will, hopefully, inspire them to continue so to do.

(Additional biographical details and some family photographs are included in the back matter.)

Both Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders endorse this book; it’s an important one that should be in every primary school collection.

Julian at the Wedding

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Julian at the Wedding
Jessica Love
Walker Book
Love, love love this stunner of a book wherein we see the return of mermaid- loving Julian – at a wedding. Not his of course but he does pretty much steal the show.

As the story starts, we see dapper looking Julian arriving at the celebration accompanied by Abuela, being greeted by a friend of hers who is accompanied by a little flower girl, Marisol. Both children are to be in the wedding – a ‘party of love’. And so it is – in more ways than one.

During the meal, Julian, Marisol and the brides’ dog, Gloria decide to make a break for it

and off they head to a “fairy house” as Julian calls the weeping willow. All three have terrific and rather mucky fun with the result that Marisol’s dress is dappled with paw prints and mud splodges.

Julian comes to the rescue with a creative idea and thanks to the magic of that fairy house … a transformation takes place. Now both parties are dressed divinely and just how they like to be.

Then they’re discovered by their grandmothers– time for Marisol to fess up and face the music but does anybody mind? Of course not: the brides welcome their return to the party and the loving festivities continue … under the stars.

There’s an abundance of love and tenderness, just the right amount of rebellion and wildness, and of course, individuality, acceptance and understanding.

Jessica Love’s illustrations (gouache and watercolour) are simply divine – vibrant and brimming over with glorious details making every spread one to pore over.

Sheer joy from cover to cover.

Coming to England

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Coming to England
Floella Benjamin and Diane Ewen
Macmillan Children’s Books

In a colourful autobiographical picture book story of her own life and that of her family, Floella Benjamin celebrates the Windrush Generation, many of whom have been so badly treated as a consequence of our government’s ‘hostile environment’ policy.

It’s a beautifully written and illustrated account of the move from her childhood home in Trinidad

to England, undertaken first by her Dardie and then a year later by her Marmie and two siblings; then finally Floella and her remaining two brothers.

This new version will surely open the eyes of young children to long voyages undertaken during the middle of the twentieth century, by many, many families from Caribbean Islands who came to England. Certainly it was a shock in so many ways, not least being the cold and greyness in stark contrast to the vibrancy and warmth of Trinidad.

It still hurts to read of the treatment she and her brothers and sisters initially received from other children when they started at school in London;

but the book ends on a happy upbeat note with Floella receiving recognition for all the incredible work she has done for children.

Apart from one or two scenes of England, Diane Ewen’s mixed media illustrations are aglow with rich colours that really make the images come to life on the page.

The way to overcome adversity is through courage and determination: Baroness Floella’s life is an inspiring example of this, and it’s fantastic to see a version of her life story for a younger audience than her earlier 2016 memoir.

All KS1 classrooms need this special book.

The Beast and the Bethany

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The Beast and the Bethany
Jack Meggitt-Phillips, illustrated by Isabelle Follath
Egmont

What a feast of a book is this deliciously droll take on The Picture of Dorian Gray for a younger audience.
The key characters are a diverse lot: there’s soon to be 512-year-old, and still dapper-looking, Ebenezer Tweezer; underneath that patina of youth and respectability lies a fearful, ruthless human. He resides (and has done for more than five centuries), in a huge house full of luxuries, courtesy of an attic-dwelling beast with a voracious and horrifying appetite. These two have a special deal going: the old man feeds the beast whatever it asks for and said beast spews out whatever Ebenezer wants.

Now, as the ancient man prepares to celebrate his birthday, he notices he’s starting to look his age and requests his annual anti-aging potion from the beast – to be withheld until Ebenezer procures the beast’s next meal – a human child. “You can’t go around eating children, there’s something so very impolite about it,” comes the response. But which is more important to the man – his own life or that of a child? You can guess what Ebenezer decides.

This story has several comic episodes, the first being operation child acquisition. Things don’t come easily when it comes to getting hold of a child however, and after several dead (almost) ends, there’s mention of the local orphanage run by Miss Fizzlewick wherein resides Bethany. Far from likeable, this young miss is the ideal candidate, sullen, uncivil, and extremely naughty, but scrawny with it. And therein lies the rub; for once procured by Ebenezer, the child (who has already decided to torment her adoptive parent) needs to add more flesh before the beast will dine upon her. That means trouble for Mr E.T. – three days of it.

Nonetheless he grows unintentionally fond of the child:

could it be that the two might find themselves on the same side endeavouring to get the better of a thoroughly inhuman would-be child consuming creature?

With lashings of deliciously dark humour and a handful of unforgettable characters, this book with its suitably tasty illustrations by Isabelle Follath,

will hold you in its bone-crunching jaws right through to the last page.

Bring on the second uncaging of the Beast and The Bethany.

Crocodile Tears

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Crocodile Tears
Roger McGough and Greg McLeod
Otter-Barry Books

‘The crocodile said to the chimpanzee, “Chimpanzee, I want to be free. The jungle jangle’s not for me.” Said crocodile goes on to utter a similar sentiment to other jungle residents – mosquito,

parakeet, alligator, hippo, a piranha fish, as well as mum, faithfully promising to write to her.

Then with rucksack on back, the crocodile glides off downstream heading seawards. Once there a clever disguise is donned and breathing deeply, the creature dives beneath the waves, jetting towards a banana boat. This little croc seems to have everything worked out.

Safely aboard, our traveller spends much of the voyage sleeping and the rest consuming healthy fare. Then, having docked, it’s more stowing away, now on wheeled transport, destination the big city.

First job in this strange new environment is to honour that promise to mum. The start of a series of Dear Mother letters is penned, telling of London’s dreary strangeness.

These epistles continue over time as croc. sees the sights of the city by day …

and by night. Then comes the snow and enough is enough for our roving reptile: the jungle calls once more and so …

This is an absolutely brilliant read aloud tale (make sure you read it carefully to yourself first though). Roger McGough’s narrative verse is bursting with wit as are those affecting letters crocodile writes home. The inherent humour is wonderfully reflected in animator Greg McLeod’s delectably quirky scenes of the intrepid traveller undertaking the journey of a lifetime. The crocodile’s eye views of our capital city are absolutely priceless.

Assuredly it’s a case of ‘east, west, home’s best’. I can’t wait to share this with young humans.

Pirates vs. Monsters / The Knight Who Might

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Thanks to Maverick Publishing for sending these two picture books for review

Pirates vs. Monsters
David Crosby and Lee Cosgrove

Three pirates, Hector (tall, strong and bold), Sue (curly haired and fearsome) and George (rather rotund) meet in their local hostelry one foggy night.

They boast about their monstrous conquests; Hector’s of the poison-spitting Hockler;

Sue’s of the double-headed Crunk …

and George’s of the limb- gobbling Muncher that had feasted on one of his lower limbs,

regaling one another with their modes of over-coming the gruesome beasties.

Truth or fantasy? That is the question.

Meanwhile through the fog a ship approaches … Fiction or phantom? Err … now that WOULD be telling.

This rip, roaring rhyming yarn from debut picture book author David Crosby exudes daftness and delicious mock-scariness, brought into being so the characters almost leap off the pages in Lee Cosgrove’s zany scenes of groggy picaroons and maniacal monstrosities.

I envisage this one becoming a much requested storytime tale in foundation stage classes and families with young landlubbers.

As will this one, coming soon:

The Knight Who Might
Lou Treleaven and Kyle Beckett

With her repeat refrain ‘ “You might not” said the … / (It was a magic …. ) / “But I might,” said the knight.’ (insert ‘sword’, or ‘helmet’ where it fits), Lou Treleaven entertains with her tale of yore wherein the inept titular knight aspires to attain knightdom but discovers that it’s a long road so to do.

Yes, he has the accoutrements,  (or rather he did have); but with their scathing comments– “He’ll be exhausted,” (that’s the horse.) “He’ll be cut to pieces,” (spoken by the sword) and “He’ll lose his head,” (helmet’s put down)

our hopeful champ of derring-do sets out on foot to meet his first combatant ‘The Lord with the Scary Looking Sword’ in a tournament.

After a change of heart, those bit part players (now out of hiding) are somewhat more upbeat than their owner, as the two contestants gallop towards each other.

If you want to know the outcome of their combat, then you’ll need your own copy of Lou’s olde story of trying, replete with its puns and onomatopoeia. It’s illustrated with appropriate verve and humour in Kyle Beckett’s slapstick style scenes of clanking-clonking, stomping, donking and plonking.

Mischief and Mayhem: Good Dog / Vampire Peter

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Good Dog!
Sean Taylor and David Barrow
Frances Lincoln Children’s Books
Our canine narrator lives with his human owner, Melvin, and they rub along pretty well together, with Melvin giving out a fair few affectionate, “Good Dog!” smiling affirmations that make the receiver go all over waggy and excited.
Then yesterday what should be left standing irresistibly, deliciously aromatic on the table but …

Needless to say, upon discovering the culprit consumer of a sizeable slice, here’s what was said …

Time to put an amazing smile-inducing plan into action, the only trouble being our narrator doesn’t choose the most suitable time to enact said plan; the consequence being a less than enthusiastic reception, and the ensuing of a ‘boo-hoo’ kind of a night.
So, what about plan B – that ‘genius idea’ as uttered straight from the pooch’s mouth? Could that perhaps result in the much-desired words from Melvin?

Or might yet another reparative plan be required? …
Even a cynophobic reviewer such as this one couldn’t help falling for the well-intentioned (mostly) narrator of Sean’s hilarious tale of the ups and downs of a canine’s life. David Barrow truly brings to life the waggish creature making it leap into life, almost right off the pages. Those expressions are utterly beguiling and likely to have readers eating right out if its paws, pizza or not. And make sure you follow the cat’s continued consternation throughout too.

Vampire Peter
Ben Manley and Hannah Peck
Andersen Press
With his black cape and frilly collar, wild hair and fangs, new to the class, Peter soon earns a reputation as ‘baddest boy’ in the school. Indeed, his behaviour is somewhat strange and his deeds land him in considerable trouble with the teachers,

as well as resulting in a distinct lack of friends among his classmates.
Inevitably when the class gerbil goes missing, the obvious assumption is that Peter is answerable.

However, there’s a mysterious somebody narrating who knows otherwise, not only about that particular incident but also about the reality of Peter’s ‘bad’ behaviour.
Can both parties exonerate themselves?

With a classroom setting, this is a really fun demonstration that being different doesn’t equate with being bad: we shouldn’t categorise anyone on account of looks or mere assumptions. Make your own judgements rather than following popular opinion.
I love the comical telling and memorable characters, especially Peter. A terrific read at Halloween or any time.

Who Makes a Forest?

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Who Makes a Forest?
Sally Nicholls and Carolina Rabei
Andersen Press

I received this lovely book the day after I’d spent a gorgeous (slightly damp) morning walking in a forest not far from my Gloucestershire home. I commented to my partner what an uplifting experience it was, (and always is) in stark contrast to all the pandemic doom and gloom in the media. Had I been out with youngsters I might well have asked them if they’d ever wondered how such a forest came into being: now I have an ideal starting point.

On the first page is posed the title question, followed by a number of possibilities, as two children, a male adult and a dog walk in a forest landscape.

How can something so vast and full of closely-growing trees and often, dense undergrowth have come into being? Could it have been created magically – by a giant perhaps? Or, as a large company enterprise? Or perhaps by other groups of humans?

It’s almost impossible to believe that something so huge was once very small but it’s true, as Sally’s effective story tells and Carolina Rabei’s beautiful illustrations show, demonstrating to children the entire process starting from bare, stony ground that becomes soil through the action and interaction of lichens, algae, moss,

and tiny insects causing a gradual fertilisation of the ground and eventual formation of soil.

Then come the first flowers, ferns and grasses,

the seeds and spores of which spread, becoming more flowers that attract bees and insects that feed on them.

Growth and change continue through the years, the centuries until there’s a huge ecosystem that we call a forest.

As the story concludes we come full circle to the ‘who made’ question and then read, “No. / It was the seeds / and the bees and the / roots of the trees. / It was a thousand / thousand tiny things. // And together they changed the face of the earth.’ A fitting finale to an inspiring story.

Not quite the end of the book though for the final five pages provide interesting facts about forests in various parts of the world and a last word about making a difference that relates to deforestation.

Whether for home bookshelves or school classroom collections, I strongly recommend this book.

Ballet Bunnies

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Ballet Bunnies: The New Class
Ballet Bunnies: Let’s Dance
Ballet Bunnies: Millie’s Birthday
Swapna Reddy, illustrated by Binny Talib
Oxford University Press

This series for newly independent readers will definitely appeal to a certain sector of readers; these are the first three of what will eventually be six books starring young Millie and the four tiny magical bunnies residing at Miss Luisa’s School of Dance that she attends. Each one has a wealth of cute full-colour illustrations by Binny Talib.

In the first story we meet six-year old Millie who excitedly attends her first lesson, only to receive an almost instant put-down from the star of the class, Amber. As the class continues Millie’s despondency grows as she finds herself unable to accomplish the perfect-looking, graceful steps of her fellow classmates and at the end of the class she’s left alone to wait for her mum to collect her.

Suddenly she notices a moving shadow behind the stage curtain and discovers to her surprise, Dolly, Trixie, Fifi and Pod the miniature dancing bunnies. Perhaps these friendly little creatures can make all the difference to her time at the ballet school.

Swapna offers an encouraging voice to youngsters feeling somewhat disheartened by a new challenge especially when some classmates are less than kind. Support and warmth are powerful forces in the face of anxiety.

In Let’s Dance, Millie and her entire ballet school are to dance at a gala performance. Moreover, they’re to perform with props and the theme is ‘The Garden’: Millie’s class will be flower fairies. Teamwork is essential but not every class member is a hundred per cent co-operative. What will happen on performance night?

The third book begins on the last day before the holidays at ballet school with Millie’s birthday fast approaching. As she helps clear up, she shares with the bunnies her anxieties about the large number of people invited to her party to celebrate her, as her furry friends point out.

The bunnies agree to accompany Millie home to help her cope with the ballet-themed party; but can she keep them hidden from her mum and will it be a Happy Birthday when Millie turns seven?

5 Minute Really True Stories for Bedtime

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5 Minute Really True Stories for Bedtime
Sally Symes, Jackie McCann, Jen Arena, Rachel Valentine & various illustrators
Britannica Books

This is an unusual take on bedtime reading: an assortment of thirty narrative non-fiction stories each one with a bedtime connection.
From a hospital visit to see what happens in an accident and emergency department, the maternity ward and other parts where people are busy at work, to hibernation (the winter sleep of ladybirds, a queen bee and North American painted turtles are described).

We’re introduced to Sleeping Champions – including a group of Brownies who got into the Guinness World Records book, a little brown bat that sleeps for almost 20 hours a day and elephants that only grab two hours of shut-eye;

and Gherman Titov, the first person to sleep (and puke) in space – fascinating!

Or you might choose to do a spot of Stargazing like the Italian scientist Galileo who made his own telescope to look at the night sky and who by discovering that Earth revolves around the Sun, also changed our understanding of Earth’s place in the universe.

Then there are star stories and Moon Mysteries to enjoy

and lots more.

The writing style of the various authors is chatty and engaging, and reads aloud well, while the illustrations are alluring – well maybe not that of the goliath bird-eating tarantula, which is downright alarming and in stark contrast to that of the jerboa – with its huge ears that looks like a creature I’d be happy to meet.

It’s said that just before sleep is a good time to internalise new learning so why not try sharing a non-fiction story from this intriguing book.

Mother and Daughter Dress-Up Dolls: Fashion from Long Ago / How to Speak Astromech with BB-8

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These two books present opportunities to learn something new and have great fun in so doing.

Mother and Daughter Dress-Up Dolls: Fashion from Long Ago
Gracie Swan and Felicity French
Nosy Crow (in collaboration with the National Trust)

With this hardback book, children can press out eight dolls – four large and four small – mothers and daughters – dress them and learn lots about fashion from Medieval, Tudor, Georgian and Victorian times, as well as the Twenties, the Thirties and every other decade through to the 1970s.

Isabella and her mother Beatrice don their finest attire to attend a medieval banquet anticipating tasty food, loud music and acrobats to entertain them.

Margery and daughter Alice will head to the market once they’ve put on their warm woollen dresses, shawls and bonnets hoping to sell all their homemade bread.

Turn each of the press-out garments around and there’s an alternative story with two different characters, each time – a clever idea that provides a whole set of new opportunities.

Children will love discovering what their older relations wore and those before them, when they reach the twentieth century characters and their geometric mini-dresses, those jump suits, bell bottoms-trousers, maxi dresses and more. It’s amazing how everything comes around again!

In addition to the main items of clothing there’s a page of accessories and shoes to complete every one of the forty outfits. What more can aspiring fashionistas ask? Perhaps for a timeline – but there’s even one of those on the back inside cover.

Hours of fun learning to be had from this fascinating activity book.

How to Speak Astromech with BB-8
I.M. Rollin, illustrated by JAKe
Chronicle Children’s Books

Star Wars enthusiasts will love this sound book- a communication manual – that celebrates the enormously popular, adorably quirky droid character BB-8 that appeared in several of the films.

Included are ten built-in droidspeak audio clips, with translations and conversation tips, and funny illustrated scenarios that will help readers understand and get the best out of their own droid companion in a galaxy far, far away.

Astromech qualities such as playfulness, resourcefulness, determination, trustworthiness and bravery, demonstrated by means of BB-8’s adventures, are recognised herein. Fans will lap up the insider jokes too.

A fun and handy guide indeed, that fans young, and not so young, will delight in.

The Journey / Sounds of the Wild

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Here are two books from Little Tiger featuring amazing wildlife from different parts of the world

The Journey
Jonny Marx and Hanako Clulow

Nature’s greatest journey begins on the parched Serengeti plains and follows the herd of zebras as they make the arduous, annual migration across the dusty, sandy terrain. It’s a long trek, battered sometimes by wind, before they reach the waterhole where they stop to quench their thirst.

The zebras are not the only animals to undertake the journey; there are elephants, boars, birds and giraffes too, all bound for the watering place eager to drink their fill.

Ahead though, lie green pastures and that is where these animals are heading. but first there’s a swim ahead across crocodile infested waters.

Once safely on dry land again the verdant grasslands stretch as far as the eye can see and then down comes the rain – in huge torrents. Ahhhh!

There (so the author’s note on the title spread tells us) they remain for two months feasting on the abundant grass before it’s time to make that long, long journey back once again.

After his rhyming narrative that really conjures up the landscape of the journey, Jonny provides more information about plains zebras. I was amazed to learn that each zebra’s striped pattern is unique and that a zebra’s kick is so strong it can kill a lion. Hanaka Clulow’s illustrations too capture the sandy plains and the animal inhabitants, and have an almost photographic quality.

Sounds of the Wild
Moira Butterfield and Stephanie Fizer Coleman

Immerse yourself in the pages of this book and you can visit nine island locations where you can see and listen to a variety of their animal inhabitants.

Each double spread introduces a different habitat and its wildlife be that a jungle in Madagascar with ring-tailed lemurs, its predator if it catches one, the fossa, tomato frogs and stunningly coloured birds. By pushing the ‘Press Here’ button readers can hear the lemur’s call.

You can also hear an elephant seal (South Georgia Island),

a bellbird (Isla Escudoo de Veraguas), sooty terns (Ascension Island), a Komodo dragon (Flores), polar bears on Svalbard, a humpback whale (around the Azores), marine iguanas,(Galapagos)

and a tiger (Sumatra).

After the eco-system island tour, there’s a world map showing each habitat’s location., an index and finally, an ‘animals under threat’ page mentioning the endandered status and threats to six of the animals whose sounds were heard. Warning cries indeed.

Each spread is beautifully and brightly illustrated by Stephanie Fizer Coleman and Moira Butterflied provides short factual paragraphs on each of the animals shown. Those who love wild animals will enjoy this and doubtless wear out the battery, leaving the animals voiceless until it’s replaced.

Kitty and the Great Lantern Race / Kevin and the Biscuit Bandit

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The welcome return of favourite characters in two series from Oxford University Press

Kitty and the Great Lantern Race
Paula Harrison and Jenny Lovlie

At the annual lantern festival young Kitty, superhero in training, returns in a fifth adventure, ready to enchant young solo readers with her nocturnal catlike superpower.

Kitty is pleased with the lantern she’s created for Hallam City’s Festival of Light but as the parade is just beginning, a mysterious burglar is at work among the crowds. Having spied a shadowy figure, Kitty knows that she’s going to have to call on her feline superpower as she turns investigator.

Now her mission is to prevent the festival being spoiled and without the assistance of her firework fearing cat crew, she must summon all her superhero skills and bravery to chase the fast-moving thief.

As always Paula’s words and cast of cracking characters, combined with the plethora of Jenny’s arresting two-coloured illustrations are a delight. This tale of friendship, family, building self-confidence and being brave is an ideal read for Kitty’s countless established followers, as well as others just starting out on chapter books.

Kevin and the Biscuit Bandit
Philip Reeve illustrated by Sarah McIntyre

There’s a crisis in Bumbleford. For a whole week, somebody has been slowly but surely stealing the town’s entire stock of biscuits. Make that two crises for now Roly-Poly Flying pony Kevin, stands accused of the crime of stealing said biscuits – all the evidence seems to point in his direction – despite his not remembering eating the biscuits, which he surely would have, fig rolls and all.

The only ones left anywhere (and that’s in the next town), are some speciality Sprout Squashies, good for you but tasting disgusting and fart-inducing, especially when sampled by a certain RPF pony.

To avoid arrest, and hence removal from Max and family, poor Kevin is forced to go on the run – or rather the wing – from the local police constabulary. With Kevin already being dubbed as the Biscuit Bandit, it’s the Horse Prison for him unless Max and Kevin’s friends can help find clues to clear his name.

The search is on: can they unearth the real culprit (not forgetting the biscuit stash) before the police track them down?

Once again team Philip and Sarah have created a hilarious and enthralling adventure – a whodunnit – with its wealth of wordplays and asides, ensuring that readers giggle their way right through to the final reveal.

Never let it be said that Sprout Squashies don’t have their uses.

Once Upon A Dragon’s Fire

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Once Upon A Dragon’s Fire
Beatrice Blue
Frances Lincoln Children’s Books (First Editions)

In essence this fabulous follow-up to Beatrice’s Once Upon A Unicorn Horn is a neo-pourquoi tale telling how those mythical dragons came to breathe fire, or rather, one very particular dragon.

Now we all know that dragons with their snaggly teeth and huge wings, are truly terrifying creatures. Well maybe not actually; but that’s what comes of listening to hearsay and making up one’s mind before even setting eyes on such things.


And so it was in the village where reside young book-loving Freya and Sylas. All the other villagers lived in fear of their lives on account of the kitten-eating, storm-blowing creature responsible for the constant chill around; but these two are far from scared. In fact, they simply love to read dragon tales to one another; it’s their most favourite thing to do.


Now while the other villagers cower in their homes in the icy cold, the brave pair set out to find said ‘bad dragon’ and terminate its reign of terror once and for all.

What they discover having clambered up the wind-swept mountain though, is something entirely unexpected. No deafening roar, nor sharp teeth, just a sad, lonely-looking creature.

These two children however, know exactly the right remedy for the dragon’s blues …

This wonderfully heart-warming tale celebrates the power of love and kindness as well as the power of story; it’s about misconceptions, facing your fears, searching for truth and much more; I suspect new meanings will reveal themselves on subsequent readings. Beatrice’s illustrations wield their own breath-takingly powerful magic; little by little, they reveal the truth about the dragon, as she dramatically changes the hues of her colour palette with that special gatefold reveal and what follows.


Children and adults alike will relish this book.

Action and Reaction: Fish / Yawn

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Fish
Brendan Kearney
Dorling Kindersley Penguin Random House

Softly spoken yes, but, inspired by personal experience, Brendan Kearney’s picture book about the perils of polluting the ocean with plastic, and how we can all help to improve the situation for the endangered fish and other marine flora and fauna is clear and to the point.

Finn and his dog Skip set out one morning in their little boat, hoping to catch a tasty fish or two for their supper.

After a while when not a single fish has given so much as a tug at Finn’s line, Skip spies something in the waves. Down to the depths he swims and the sight that meets his eyes is horrifying.

Rubbish, rubbish and more rubbish. Back to show Finn with some evidence he goes.

Equally concerned, the man goes on fishing for a while but before long all he has on board is a collection of weird objects.

Fortunately, once back on dry land the two encounter a group of young beach cleaners who are equally alarmed at the load of rubbish brought out of the sea.

Finn explains how he came by it and about the complete lack of fish. What follows are a number of pertinent comments from the young eco-warriors and the following day Finn heeds their words – re-use and recycle – and goes on to join the beach cleaners.

With his engaging narrative, visual and verbal – Brendan Kearney focuses on the crucial environmental issues in the hope – his, mine and countless others – that young children will become part of the movement to clean up our polluted oceans and beaches and of course, it’s never to soon to teach them about the importance of recycling.

Yawn
Patricia Hegarty and Teresa Bellón
Little Tiger

A yawn can be highly infectious as this fun story shows.
Starting with a single feeling from deep inside the little boy narrator, a single yawn quickly becomes unstoppable, passing from the boy to all – every neighbourhood inhabitant, human and animal, until the entire street have gaping mouths.

From here it moves to the countryside and eventually all over the world, not content until every single person and every single creature has the yawns. It even heads off out into space

– it’s ‘gone viral ‘we read. Does that remind you of anything?

Fortunately though, on this occasion the outcome is that when bedtime comes, so does a great big YAAAAAAWN! to send us off into the land of slumbers.
Happy dreams.

It’s is definitely a book to share at bedtime unless that is you want to induce sleepiness at some other time in your home or classroom. Patricia’s rhyming narrative has that soporific feel to it, and if you happen to pause just a little too long on any of Teresa Bellon’s spreads (love those cutaway pages) to enjoy all the funky details, you might just find yourself the next recipient of that repeat refrain ‘YAAAAAAWN! Pass it on!’ Snore …

The Book of Not Entirely Useful Advice

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The Book of Not Entirely Useful Advice
A.F. Harrold, illustrated by Mini Grey
Bloomsbury Children’s Books

I was already chortling before I’d even finished reading the poet’s note to readers, let alone any of his advice in poetic form.

This book of awesome delight is the combined effort of two terrific talents, illustrator Mini Grey and A.F. Harrold, the writer and it’s patently obvious that they both relished working on its creation. Indeed, I’ve never seen the poet in better form than here.

The result is a collection of unmissable artistry – verbal and visual – advising on all manner of topics both ordinary and extraordinary from breakfast – both its perils and its lack of boredom inducing properties, to Blackbirds and Bananas, Bins even! As well as ‘… Wobble, wobble, wobble, / gobble, gobble, gulp. … ‘ For, Jelly Is Never Wrong’ (not even the cabbage flavoured variety or the marmite kind) I should hasten to say there’s an entire section of ‘Advice mainly relating to food …”.

When next I see her I’m going to share Useful with 7 year old Emmanuelle after her rather pathetic sausage-eating efforts when last she stayed with us. Having persuaded her dad she “really, really wanted” the sausage dish on offer at the restaurant, she refused to eat any of its main constituent. (they were organic and maybe that was the issue). Had I done so prior to the event I’m sure she would have tried this suggestion: ‘You can balance them on your lip / and pretend to have a moustache / in order to amuse your companions. ‘ I don’t’ think she’s ever been lost at sea, thus needing to ‘attract aeroplanes’ or sharks. But you never know …

Even this zany poet doesn’t advise eating that Bin he writes of; that’s to be found among the 4th and final section containing miscellaneous bits and bobs such as Crosses and Knot Knots – see how cleverly Mini has placed her knotty collection around those. Just one example of her wonderful integrating manipulation (often complete with her own witty asides).

I’ve just read Inside the Anthill to my partner as he’s given to lying flat out in fields to investigate these bumps and lumps, though even his ‘scientific zeal’ hasn’t led him to quite such lengths as trying a cake crumb imitation – at six foot I doubt he’d fool even a single ant.

Not all the poems are totally absurd though: there is a fair sprinkling of the quiet poignant and thoughtful too.

Take the unforgettable, Earthsong: that ends with ‘Some of it is poisoned/ and some of it is dying. / Some of it is silent / and some of it is crying. // Some of it is going / and some of it is gone. / Some of it… ‘

No matter where you open this corker of a book, there’ll be something to love and I can’t resist concluding with the revelatory and entirely apt final verse from Inside: ‘Where am I? / I’m inside, / I’m between the covers. / I’m in so deep. / I’m through the paper door. / I’m breathing the air of other worlds. / I’m exploring. / I’m reading // and I can’t hear you any more.’
Now that is what it’s all about …
Get this – it’s a must for home collections, classrooms, libraries – and I’m sure you’ll never look at anything in quite the same way again.

The Wizard in My Shed

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The Wizard in My Shed
Simon Farnaby, illustrated by Claire Powell
Hodder Children’s Books

Having narrowly avoided spluttering my coffee over the opening pages of Horrid Histories star Simon Farnaby’s new adventure tale, I envisaged that I’d continue spluttering throughout (not coffee – I hastily consumed that before resuming reading), and so it was. (Though I did have to stop after every chapter to take a few ‘mellow moments’ – like Evanhart, wizard Merdyn’s bestie until he decided to follow the ‘path of darkness’ and become a warlock aka a bad wizard x1000.)

The story follows both madcap Merdyn (from the Dark Ages) and would-be star singer,/dancer

twelve year old Rose, from now, residing in the normal town of Bashingford with her mum and brother. Each has a desire: Merdyn wants to avenge his banishment to the Rivers of Purgatory (actually it was The Rivers of Time) and at the same time get out of the 21st century in which he’s mysteriously arrived and return to the Dark Ages; Rose is anxious to sort out her broken family,

after her father’s death, which happened before this story begins.

There’s also Rose’s guinea pig, Bubbles, a frequent poo-er, that seemingly doesn’t do much else and certainly doesn’t enjoy sharing Rose’s fairy story books.

When Rose happens upon a ‘cloth creature’ wearing peculiar shoes, gesturing weirdly and thinking he’s in the land of Purgatory – you can work out his name – she decides he might actually be of some help to her.

A deal is struck. A family-sorting-out spell (and perhaps one to make her the world’s best singer) in exchange for Rose’s assistance in coping with so many strange 21st century ways and means.

That necessitates keeping the visitor in the garden shed away from Mum – to protect her smartphone – though that might be the least of her worries about the curious stranger. They will need to locate Merdyn’s treasured magic staff and find a way to return him whence he came. Surely nothing could possibly go a-miss – could it … ?

There’s masses of madness, magic, crazy characters,

not to mention high drama, and that enormously endearingly bonkers Merdyn, to enthrall readers throughout what proves to be a heart-warming tale.

And, with the addition of Claire Powell’s terrific illustrations, the enchantment just got even stronger, while ‘the world watched in silence.’

Read alone or, read aloud it’s an absolute winner.

The Day I Fell into a Fairytale

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The Day I Fell into a Fairytale
Ben Miller, illustrated by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini
Simon & Schuster Children’s Books

Lana is a lover of stories and books, often using them as a starting point for fantastical games played with her brother, Harrison.
Now though, Harrison has started secondary school and considers himself both too grown-up and too busy with studies to play with his sister. Consequently, Lana feels lonely.

Then something strange and magical happens when with her mum, she visits the mega offers supermarket that’s recently appeared in town and there she discovers something totally unexpected – a portal leading to a fairytale world.

There is SO much to discover in this other world and her own.
Just who is the strange little old man she encounters in the supermarket?

Lana manages to get her brother to take her back to the supermarket
but “tubs of sweets that lead to fairytales … it’s just too far-fetched” is his reaction. But is it so?

Even when both siblings have cascaded through a portal, large white deer fail to convince him of its otherworldly nature; so what about flying arrows?

Lana though, is used to happy-ever-after fairytales and what she experiences are anything but; they’re dark and perilous. Even that odd little man when next they meet him, insists that the Sleeping Beauty fairytale the siblings have just left, is of the scary kind.

Enter Hansel and Gretel, a wicked witch (now where did she come from?) and what in fairytale land do oxbow lakes, Archimedes and the lever principle have to do with anything?

So, can Lana – dubbed Lana of Azupermarket – with the aid of her brother, defeat that evil witch? Perhaps, but only if she can convince him to resurrect his belief in fairytales.

With a big push for the power of the imagination and the importance of having fun, Ben Miller has created stories within a story and it’s so cleverly done. No reverse psychology required to get this reviewer and lover of fractured fairytales to read it right through, relishing every word. I love the border embellishments and occasional illustrations by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini too.

As a teacher I’ve never been one to stick to timetables but having read this cracking story, I might just have to think again on that one – in certain circumstances that is.

Pirate Stew

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Pirate Stew
Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell
Bloomsbury Children’s Books

Dream team Gaiman and Riddell have again joined forces, this time creating a stonkingly brilliant piratical rhyming tale.

Stupendously silly and enormously entertaining, this story is narrated by the boy who with his sister, is left in the care of Long John McRon, ship’s cook, possibly THE most unlikely babysitter you can imagine.

He’s not the only one who comes a-knocking though; for hardly have the parents left than the entire wildly crazy crew comes charging in.

Having investigated the contents of the family fridge, the pirates decide supper is to be the “Pirate Stew! Pirate Stew! / Pirate Stew for me and you! … Eat it and you won’t be blue. / You can be a pirate too!” Furthermore, it’s to be served “ underneath a pirate’s moon!”

Unnoticed by the pirates too busy feasting on their own concoction, the children decide to eschew said stew with its weird and wonderful ingredients. Nevertheless, it’s not long before they find themselves sailing off into the night

and sating their appetites on doughnuts instead.

That’s not quite the end of this yummy yarn however …

Totally delicious, spectacular storytelling and incredibly detailed illustrations that make the entire cast leap right off the pages, this is perfect fare for those who relish the unexpected, the magical or the piratical – it provides all three in bowlfuls.

Pirate stew anyone?

Nature in Focus – Home / Seasons

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Here are two books from Little Tiger that focus on nature and the changing seasons

Home
Patricia Hegarty and Britta Teckentrup

‘All of us need a place to rest – / A cave, a warren, a pond, a nest … // Wherever we may choose to roam, / We need a place to call our home.” So says Patricia Hegarty’s introduction to this look at the forest that is home to all kinds of creatures large and small.
In the company of little bear, we visit a variety of animal homes starting with the cub and her family’s cave, dark and deep.

With the advent of spring, the cub ventures out watched by an owl in her tree. He visits the place where squirrels are gathering leaves for their drey; beavers are also building a shelter; a bird is busy nest building.

Further afield salmon spawn in the glistening river, multitudes of minibeasts are hard at work, and underground rabbits are safe in their warren.

As night begins to fall, a pack of wolves begin to prowl, hunting for food; while a flock of arctic terns make ready to begin their long journey before another winter sets in.

Finally as the cold arrives, it’s time for little bear and his family to hibernate ‘til spring comes round once more.

In her lyrical text Patricia takes us through the changing seasons and to the various animal homes. Britta Teckentrup’s signature style collage scenes, with their die-cut pages, follow the action and the bear cub, highlighting the importance of each home mentioned in the narrative as well as showing the seasonal changes in the forest.

Seasons
Hannah Pang and Clover Robin

Author Hannah and illustrator Clover take us to half a dozen different locations in the world to experience the natural world in all its glory through the seasons.

We observe the changes that each season brings, starting with a focus on a mighty European oak tree that stands majestically in a meadow, its spreading branches and roots providing shelter and food for countless creatures – birds, insects and other minibeasts, small mammals and some larger ones too.

Spring, summer and autumn with their flowers, fruits and fungi are times of abundance for the various animals. Come winter, the branches are bare and it’s a hard time for animals, many of which hide themselves away in order to survive. Indeed, change through every season is vital for survival of the tree and the associated wildlife.

The other natural habitats are the chilly Arctic where the change in length of day and night is dramatic,

the wilds of Alaska where rivers freeze in the coldest months; a boggy mangrove in northern Australia – one season teeming with land animals, another with fish; then comes the Yellow Dragon Valley, home to some of China’s rarest animals including the giant panda.

The last stop is on the grasslands of the Kenyan Maasai Mara with its wonderful richness of awesome animals and plant life.

As in the oak tree’s location so it is with all the others: change is vital for survival and the Great Migration of the animals of the final location is, so we read, ‘one of the most dramatic events on Earth. For the animals, … a journey of life and death.’

Since the pandemic struck, I think huge numbers of us have become much more aware of the importance of nature in our lives: this book, with Clover Robin’s richly detailed illustrations and Hannah Pang’s factual text, sings that song loud and clear.

Afraid of the Dark / Noah and the Starbird

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Here are two picture books  about dealing with difficult situations – thanks Little Tiger for sending these warm-hearted stories

Afraid of the Dark
Sarah Shaffi, Isabel Otter and Lucy Farfort

Moving to a new home is often scary and so it is for the little girl, Amy, who does so with her Dad and dog, Pickle in this story.
Dad is very positive about the move, but not so Amy and Pickle; it just doesn’t feel like home. Her bedroom seems full of strange sounds and shadowy creatures waiting to leap. A night’s sleep might have sent the monsters packing but still that queasy feeling remains.

A visit to the library helps a little,

especially when the kind librarian finds just the right book to transport Amy to a faraway land of adventure when her  dad reads it to her that night. But once he’s gone from her bedroom, back come those monsters.

Next morning seems a little brighter. Children outside wave and invite Amy to play with them in their den. It looks a bit dark inside, but Pickle is willing to go inside so she follows and lo and behold inside a wonderful warm welcome awaits thanks to Sofia and Bilal.

Could this be the beginning of the banishment of those scary monsters. Can Amy send the lurking shadows packing once and for all? …

Sensitively told, this story, demonstrates beautifully how it always takes time to adjust to new situations; and how love and friendship can make all the difference when it comes to coping with first experience fear. Lucy Farfort captures Amy’s fearful feelings perfectly in her illustrations, as well as her dad’s concern and warmth, and the wonderful kindness of the children who welcome her.

Noah and the Starbird
Barry Timms and Faye Hsu

Noah’s dad is ill and has gone to hospital, so Noah is staying with his kind, reassuring, Granny. As they unpack Noah’s things together, the boy notices a lamp inside which is a bird.
Granny tells him it belonged to her grandma and at bedtime Granny suggests to Noah that the bird might have magical powers.

As the boy lies wide awake in bed worrying about his dad, he’s startled by a sound. It’s the bird from the lamp. She introduces herself as Starbird, promising that his father is safe. She sings a lullaby, pulls out one of her tail feathers and gives it to Noah who eventually falls asleep.

The following morning, on hearing what happened Granny tells Noah he has a special magical friend but even she cannot hasten the process of his Daddy getting well. Instead Starbird provides a listening ear again that night before Noak goes to sleep.
Next day the news from the hospital isn’t what Noah hopes, but with some special strength from the magic feather, he and Granny create a collage bird to keep up their spirits.

Can Starbird use her magical powers to help Noah’s Daddy get well again?

Kindness, courage and friendship shine forth from this gentle story: I think right now, the entire world could do with a feather like the one therein.

Fearless Fairy Tales

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Fearless Fairy Tales
Konnie Huq & James Kay, illustrated by Rikin Parekh
Piccadilly Press

If like me you’re fond of fractured fairy tales, then this subversive collection of seventeen is a must have. Even the titles made this reviewer splutter with giggles and as for the important note before the contents page, I’ll say no more.

On closer reading it’s probably true to say the stories have been not so much fractured as entirely pulverised, pounded and then reconstituted adding new magic to the mangled mores of old, replacing them with modern reinventions for a more demanding, “I can change the world” generation.

I couldn’t resist turning first to Trumplestiltskin and sure enough there is the easily identifiable ‘Trumple’ hailing from the United States of Kraziness. Said little man is obsessed with gold and power mad. No need for me to regale the whole sorry story – it had me in stitches throughout – but having thrown the king and his daughter, Princess Marla into a dark dungeon, an aide lets slip that Marla can spin straw into gold.

Needless to say, Trumple cannot resist making the girl an offer and the princess being a pretty savvy person, eventually manages to out-trumple the Trumple. (Love the postscript.)
Rumplestiltskin has been my favourite fairy tale since as a youngster, I heard the late Sara Corrin tell it at a book event. She’s in my head narrating this new one even now.

There’s also Sleeping Brainy (‘a flipping genius!’) who aspires to become Chancellor of the Exchequer and does so – against all the odds.

Absolutely cracking is Mouldysocks and the Three Bears in which he of the stinky foot attire is computer crazy. This almost causes his complete undoing when Mummy Bear, Other Mummy Bear and the little baby bear return from their forest foray –

that and the disgusting pong emanating from a certain pair of socks bad enough to put Baby Bear off his porridge. All ends happily however with everyone, including Mouldysocks (newly named) living spotlessly ever after.

It’s impossible to talk about every story in this review but I must  mention that The Princess and the Snog is written entirely in verse. Herein we meet pink-haired Pandora and the frog that catches her punchball when it lands in his boggy residence. Does she want to grant him a kiss – err … not quite and the outcome is, ‘A very wise rule for a mister or miss: / You choose who you / hug and you choose / who you kiss.” No coercive control for this wily young miss.

Finally, another princess – Zareen by name – is only a princess because that’s what her stepmother Tania (a goodie rather than the usual kind) calls her. Actually she’s a normal girl residing in the ‘magical suburb of Crystal Palace and dead keen to follow the latest school playground craze and get a Zoom Peashooter (basically just an overpriced paper straw). Hence the title The Princess and the Peashooter.

She ends up having got her mitts on one, with a rather funky eyepatch due to an errant flying shot – not hers – and being the leader of the anti-peashooter side for the next school debate. Bring on the Zoom Bands, say I. Much less dangerous, or maybe not …

Make sure you read this corker of a book right past THE END, including the small print. I’m wondering who would score higher on the enjoyment scale, team Konnie and James and illustrator Rikin, or readers who guffaw their way through its pages, relishing every satirical story,

If You Come to Earth

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If You Come to Earth
Sophie Blackall
Chronicle Books

Award-winning author-illustrator Sophie Blackall’s inspiration for this book was her encounters with thousands of children she met while travelling the world in support of Save the Children and UNICEF – ‘a book that would bring us together’, she says in an author’s note at the end.

Her illustrations are truly breathtaking, as, by means of a child who is addressing a visitor from Outer Space, readers are taken on a journey through the solar system, down towards the surface of Earth viewing the various kinds of homes people live in, their families,

their bodies – each one different, their expressions as they think and feel, their clothing, weather both good and less so, transport, places of education and the work people do, how they spend their free time; we see some of the foods people eat. (Some of us have more food than others.’)

There’s an explanation of the importance of water, its sources and a stream of marine creatures swims majestically past. Then come Earth’s fauna: Those with feet and those with wings, leading us back to humans, their love of music making, their different ways of communicating (Some of us who are deaf talk with our hands and faces. Some of us who are blind read with our fingers’ caption a spread showing people signing and sign language, and braille with people reading it.)

With its incredible detail, each and every spread is truly a beautiful story in itself (or many) – there are natural things and those made by people, even invisible things. Sophie puts occasional humour into her narrative with such comments as ‘Some germs can make you sick. So … breathing in smoke or getting spat on by a slow loris’ (it’s venom really can cause great harm to humans).

Then come two spreads – one with fighting, the other facilitating, and the comment,’It’s better when we help each other.’( If only everybody stuck to that one)

The only sentence I took slight exception to is ‘Babies are not very good at anything.’ Babies are VERY good at learning – they do it pretty much all the time they’re awake as I observed when spending time with Faith, a six-month old relation the other day.

It’s good to see attention being given to storytelling, be it older people storying about the past, or children imagining.

The author concludes that there’s much we don’t know but ‘right this minute, we are here together on this beautiful planet.’ A fitting end to a gloriously illustrated, wonderful message. The visual detail is awesome and the importance of seeing each person as a unique, valued human being worthy of our respect and care, and of the vital necessity too caring for the Earth, shine through the entire book.

A must have for school and home.

Tales from the Forest

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Tales from the Forest
Emily Hibbs, illustrated by Erin Brown
Stripes Publishing

This collection of twenty stories – five for each season – takes readers close up to creatures great and small from various habitats in the forest.

There’s a wishful caterpillar discovering its own metamorphosis, an adder that sheds its beautiful patterned scaly skin and the woodpeckers searching for a new tree in which to nest and rear chicks in spring.

Bees busy performing their various roles in and around their hive;

fireflies lighting up the forest at twilight “The stars of the forest, burning bright”; competitive boars that end up wallowing side by side in the mud; bats, and tadpoles turning into frogs,

we meet them all in summertime.

Autumn presents beavers building a dam; the subterranean mole; a little mouse that has a narrow escape from a marauding hawk to tiny ladybird ready to join its fellows huddling close inside a log and a fawn whose spots vanish and his antlers grow.

In chilly winter Spider’s new web holds her pouch of tiny eggs while she finds a warmer place to spend her days till spring;

Black Wolf finds a white female companion to share his days; Squirrel remembers where she’s stashed her nuts; a little fox and his siblings lose their way and finally, an owlet listens to the sounds of the other forest animals before she and her father add their own voice to the nocturnal song.

Amazing animals all, as the author acknowledges in her final factual paragraphs – one each for the twenty featured. Her stories are packed with detailed, description and information in a highly accessible form so that readers/listeners will come away from each one having learned a lot without realising it. And, each story ends with a 4-line verse.

Erin Brown’s finely detailed, painterly illustrations at every turn of the page are an absolute delight adding further atmosphere and detail to each telling.

The Spots and the Dots

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The Spots and the Dots
Helen Baugh and Marion Deuchars
Andersen Press

Here’s a tale that happened long ago – or was it so long?

Told with an appropriately bouncy rhyming text by Helen Baugh (it does feature spherical objects after all) we discover what happens when the little Spots, paying insufficient heed to their parents oft repeated warning, “If you go over the hill you will be taken away by the dots”,

start getting more daring with their favourite game until Baby Spot, scared and still, finds itself one evening at the apex of the hill.

However, close by is a second small someone, equally on its own.

A conversation ensues, and a revelation, followed by something very exciting …

Flip the book and read the story from the perspective of the Dots. This small tribe are also pod dwellers and their little ones love bouncing too, receiving a similar warning about the ill-intentioned Spots.

Naturally the infant Dots play a similar game to the little Spots and you can work out the rest …

Such a clever tale of colliding communities that celebrates difference and lays bare the idea that fear and prejudice are often fuelled by ignorance, showing that we’re all much more alike than we might at first think.

Helen tells it with a deliciously wry liveliness that is mirrored in Marion Deuchars’ superbly expressive scenes of small spheres and their adult carers.

Do make sure you study closely the grand meet up of the two infant groups wherein Marion has managed to give each of the playful infants a different look.

I can’t recommend this one enough: it’s brilliant.

Great Lives: Martin Luther King JR, Anne Frank, Stephen Hawking & Cleopatra

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Martin Luther King JR
Anne Frank
Stephen Hawking
Cleopatra
Button Books

These are four titles in the publisher’s new infographic biography series Great Lives in Graphics aimed primarily at older KS2 school readers.

Whether their interest is in human and civil rights, the holocaust in the German -occupied Netherlands as a member of the Frank family desperately trying to avoid being detected by the Gestapo; an awesome scientist and cosmologist who refused to let his ALS diagnosis hold him back; or, the woman in ancient Egypt who first married her brother, became a wise political figure and writer of books on medicine and science, going on to make a famous match with Antony,

then one of these will definitely be worth seeking out and putting their way.

Martin Luther King’s story is one that, despite his awesome achievements, and his “I have a dream” speech “… that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character”, which inspired America to end segregation, the world changing, peaceful protests he used in overcoming enormous obstacles, is conveniently and sadly forgotten by a certain element of the population of the US today.

I had to laugh when I read that Anne Frank was dubbed a ‘chatterbox’ by some of her teachers in her Amsterdam school, something that I was also often called at school.

Each book has an introductory page of narrative, a timeline, details of family life and spreads detailing the subject’s key achievements; and each brings to life through its stylish, easily understood infographics, the person and the accomplishments of a memorable human being.

Well worth adding to primary school topic boxes and libraries.

Love, Hide-and-Seek and Night-time Board Book Style

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Little Love Bug
Illustrated by Emily Dove
Chronicle Books

Author/illustrator and nature enthusiast, Emily Dove, uses a popular minbeast as the featured creature in her latest in the finger puppet series to share with babies. We see a parent and little bug spending a busy day together snuggling, meeting friends, taking a slow wander, enjoying a dance and having a goodnight hug. No matter the time of day you can find an opportunity to show your love.

Bright, cute and sturdily built for lots of reading together times.

Where’s Mrs T-Rex?
illustrated by Ingela P Arrhenius
Nosy Crow

There’s a decidedly dinosaurish theme to the latest in Nosy Crow’s ever-popular felt flaps series with that final mirror that tinies love.. In this one you can introduce babies and toddlers to the four dinosaurs that are playing hide-and-seek from various minibeasts, a pterodactyl and a turtle.

It’s never too early to expose them to such names as Stegosaurus (Mr) Diplodocus (Mrs), Triceratops (Mr) and T-Tex, herein set against vibrant, patterned backgrounds. What fun!

Shhh … Good Night
Nicky Benson and Thomas Elliott
Caterpillar Books

With Nicky Benson’s gentle, rhyming text and Thomas Elliott’s gorgeously hued illustrations, this lovely book with its die-cut pages, showing a mother bird and her baby, a baby squirrel with its parent, a big and small firefly and deer, little and large, settling down for a night’s sleep, this book is a lovely way to bid little humans goodnight; they’ll surely sleep well after this dreamy meditative experience.

And if you missed the paperback version of Britta Teckentrup’s beautifully illustrated Moon, reviewed already on this blog, Little Tiger have now published a die-cut paged board book edition showing animals around the world at night-time.

Skeleton Keys: The Legend of Gap-Tooth Jack / The Thing at Black Hole Lake

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Skeleton Keys: The Legend of Gap-Tooth Jack
Guy Bass, illustrated by Pete Williamson
Little Tiger

If you’re looking for a darkly comic adventure story that’s full of mystery, monster chases, and outlandish ghoulish decapitations, (that’s also about friendship, fitting in and finding self-confidence), then accept the invitation of Keys – Skeleton Keys – and allow this character to tell his tale (actually it’s that of Gap-Tooth Jack) that he claims is a “truly unbelievable, unbelievably true’ one.

However, in order for this tale to be unfolded back in the past, it’s necessary to begin in the here and now with a second story and in particular with wildly imaginative, seven-year-old, Kasper. This lad conjures himself up an imaginary friend whom he names Wordy Gerdy. By all accounts (or rather our storyteller’s), this ghost of a girl possessed an amazing ability: once she has in her fragile fingers a pen, she can rewrite any story she cares to, or even as here, she doesn’t.

Oh! We must mention Daisy; she’s Skeleton Keys’ unimaginary partner-in-problem-solving without whom, our bony being storyteller might have been a has been.

Find out what takes place when a highly dangerous, ghasty, goulish unimaginary escapes into yesteryear. Can Jack thwart her malevolent game plan by joining forces with Mr Keys? Plunge into Guy’s spooky saga, full of terrific characters,

extremely quirky humour with Pete Williamson’s fangtastically spooky illustrations and find out. It will definitely make some superbly silly story sessions as a lower KS2 class read aloud.

For a slightly older audience is:

The Thing at Black Hole Lake
Dashe Roberts
Nosy Crow

We’re back at Sticky Pines, the small US town of weird events and secrets lurking in woods, for this spooky sequel to the Bigwood Conspiracy; and once again there are weird things afoot.

We get two perspectives on events, those of Milo and Lucy (currently not on speaking terms). Milo Fisher, loyal son of business tycoon NuCo president – a double-crossing guy; and Lucy Sladen, who’s determined to discover the truth about the mysterious, alien life, Pretenders of Sticky Pines, and protect them from the greedy NuCo company, set on exploiting every one of the town’s resources.

In the previous adventure it was Lucy who made the astonishing discovery but now it’s Milo’s turn, for there’s something very strange in Black Hole Lake; something that will put both he and Lucy in terrible danger. Danger that begins as Milo leaves a party early in order to avoid Lucy, takes a short cut and soon finds himself sinking into the lake and there are eyes watching him from below the surface.

Mesmerisingly brilliant fun., fast-paced with lots of twists and an abundance of ever-deepening mysteries, creepiness and with the philosophical good guy/bad guy dilemma underpinning the tale, this is a stonkingly good, enormously satisfying read.

Feathered Serpent and the Five Suns

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Feathered Serpent and the Five Suns
Duncan Tonatiuh
Abrams Books for Young Readers

Legend has it that the Mesoamerican gods had considerable bother creating humanity.

During the first tonatiuh their effort resulted in mountains, the second, fish and having modified the process, the third attempt was close, but the humans were disrespectful of their creators and so were turned into tree-dwelling monkeys.

Attempt number four produced kind-hearted, respectful beings but due to their laziness, the gods turned them into birds.

Enough! The gods were weary and ready to give up entirely, all except Quetzacóatl – the Feathered Serpent and god of knowledge. Gathering his staff, shield, cloak and good luck shell he set off to Mietlán – the underworld – to recover the bones his fellow gods had given to the lord of the underworld for safe keeping.

To reach his destination, Feathered Serpent travels through nine daunting regions,

but aided and abetted by Xolotl the dog spirit guide, he finally reaches his destination and is able to speak to the god of the underworld.

After he’s explained his mission, Mictlantecuhtli gives him one final test and Feathered Serpent finds himself on the end of a trick. However, he manages to out-trick the keeper of the bones and is given the sacred objects. Mictlantecuhtli hasn’t finished with him yet though; but Feathered Serpent finally escapes, wounded and bleeding, recollects the bones and returns.

Once there, he smashes them to a powder, mixes in his own blood and that which the other gods provide, to make a paste

and from that finally creates humanity.

Despite being a complex story, Tonatiuh’s telling is captivating and readers aloud can certainly give it a highly dramatic presentation. His superb, flat, hand drawn, digitally collaged scenes successfully conjure up pre-Columbian art, and after his enthralling rendition, to help with the historical context  there’s an author’s note on the symbolism behind the myth, a glossary with Nahuatl pronunciation guide and a select bibliography.

We’re Going on a Pumpkin Hunt / Winnie and Wilbur Around the World

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We’re Going on a Pumpkin Hunt
Goldie Hawk and Angie Rozelaar
Nosy Crow

Based on the nursery favourite ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’, I’m surprised nobody thought of a pumpkin-themed variation before. It’s definitely a goodie.

Herein we join three fearless pumpkin hunters – a little skeleton, a witch and a slightly unravelling little mummy – as they sally forth one beautiful night. Needless to say their path is obstructed by various things that they can’t go over, under or around.

First it’s watchful green-eyed moggies meow-meow(ing); then cobwebs – the sticky spiders’ variety – just right to ‘tickle-swish’ through.

Yikes! What about those ‘Flap-flap’ flapping bats – fortunately they look quite friendly, and then the trio come to a house, old, dark and spooky of course. Could a pumpkin be hidden therein?

There’s only one way to find out and that’s in …

and over those creaky-squeaky floorboards and of course, our adventurers aren’t scared, are they? …

Happy trick or treating …

At every page turn, day-glo colours leap out from Angie Rozelaar’s anything but scary spreads showing the mock-spooky sortie, and Goldie Hawk’s clever adaptation of a popular join-in narrative, this will assuredly enchant, rather than scare, young listeners and solo readers around Halloween time. (or any time come to that.)

Winnie and Wilbur Around the World
Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul
Oxford Children’s Books

Inspired by a visit to the library and animal books in particular, Winne and Wilbur embark on a world trip with the aim of visiting all the animals featured in the book they’d seen (and decided to borrow).

All it takes is a hastily packed suitcase, duly attached to the broomstick, a glance at the book and a wave of Winnie’s wand;  up and away they go to land in a tree house surrounded by giraffes – very hungry ones.

Prompted by picture two (and sans lunch) they whizz on to an oasis where dates, camels’ milk and an exceedingly hot, bumpy ride await.

A spot of kangaroo bouncing (Wilbur) comes next, followed by some panda spotting (Winnie finds the creatures dull); then a too close for comfort encounter with an enormous whale …

and a polar bear.

An elephant, an aardvark and meerkats (not cat eaters happily) rendezvous leads them on to the final page and a jungle full of monkeys. Their mischief-making might well have caused the demise of both our plucky travellers but fortunately, all ends happily. With thoughts of their favourite animal in mind, and with the book duly returned to its place in the library, its time for the intrepid adventurers to relax.

What more can the countless fans of the duo want than this high-octane world trip by their favourite witch and her trusty moggy. Probably another reading of same, followed by further adventures. Perfect for Halloween and other story times.

Victoria Stitch Bad and Glittering

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Victoria Stitch Bad and Glittering
Harriet Muncaster
Oxford University Press

As the story starts, living alone in a small tree trunk, twin fairy-like beings ‘wisklings’, Celestine and Victoria should be princesses.

But the single royal diamond from which they were born is impure so their birthright is denied them.

The mild Celestine is accepting, but with her frenzied energy, Victoria Stitch as she likes to be called, is obsessed with becoming the next queen and very angry about the decision Lord Astrophel has made.

Between the twins there exists a fondness, but it’s maintained by a fragile thread that’s all too easily snapped. ”She took all the kindness and I got all the rage,” is how Victoria Stitch puts it.

Then Victoria encounters secret-loving Ursuline who needs a friend and offers to help in her unthwartable mission to become queen after Cassiopeia.

But will this new alliance prove to be a force for good or not? And what will happen after the twin’s graduation …

Any reader who fell for Isadora Moon and is ready for something a bit longer and rather darker, will surely love Harriet’s new gothic fantasy. The illustrations are simply divine especially as Victoria Stitch with her funky, pointy toed, heeled boots is a fashionista who loves to strut her stuff in melodramatic wiskling style as befits the superbly woven, absorbing narrative.

To enter Wiskling Wood is utter enchantment every step of the way; it’s hard to leave for whatever reason …

Saving the Planet – The International Yeti Collective: Shadowspring / Astronuts Mission Two: The Water Planet

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The International Yeti Collective: Shadowspring
Paul Mason, illustrated by Katy Riddell
Little Tiger

The Yeti Collective is a worldwide organisation with each of its strands having responsibility for an element of conservation while simultaneously aiming to avoid human detection.

Shadowspring (underground water upon which all wildlife and the humans depend) is under the protection of the Greybeards (the British group) but now somebody or something is interfering with the water levels and things are looking bad for the inhabitants of Tadpole’s community.

Tadpole (she of unripe character), daughter of the sett’s leader, Shipshape (she in perfect order), is next in line to become the Greybeards’ leader, a role for which she feels anything but fit.

Despite the precedent for avoiding humans contact, like her grandfather before her, Tadpole meets a human; his name is Henry, a boy just adapting to boarding school life.

Now, on account of the danger the Greybeards are facing, Tadpole and Henry (aka Hen-ree) must work together: an extremely dangerous undertaking ensues.

It’s a delight to enter and share in this world with its highly pertinent environmental messages, that’s populated by wonderful characters such as the two main ones in this story.

I missed the first book in the series, but I intend getting hold of it forthwith; I’m sure it too will be a superb read.

Astronuts Mission Two: The Water Planet
Jon Scieszka and Steven Weinberg
Chronicle Books

AstroWolf, LaserShark, SmartHawk, and StinkBug, the four NNASA agents, return having previously failed to find the perfect Goldilocks Planet, with a new mission, to find a planet fit for human habitation.

Having splash-landed on Water Planet, they discover it is awash with clams, a power-hungry, sub-aquatic force led by their president, P.T.Clam . Said creature is absolutely gushing with praise about his home planet and more than a little keen to swap his planet of residence for Earth. the polluted waters of which he claims to filter. Now why might he be so eager for that exchange?

It appears that he’s willing to do a special deal on the quiet with AlphaWolf (the mission’s leader) but another clam, Susan B. Clamthony tells a rather different story

and it’s one that the Astronuts really need to hear. It sounds as though not all the residents of Water Planet are as dastardly as their leader.

Packing the adventure with punny humour, hilarious interchanges and with a bounteous brio, Jon Scieszka, via his Earth narrator, cleverly knits together environmental information and facts about climate change. Combined with Steven Weinberg’s equally zany collage illustrations, every one of which is as immersive as the watery environment of the story’s setting, (love the spread on how they were created) this is a terrific second instalment.

More please! I hear youngsters, (especially fans of graphic novels) cry. (And this reviewer.)