Tag Amulet Books

Fox & Rabbit Celebrate

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Fox & Rabbit Celebrate
Beth Ferry and Gergely Dudás
Amulet Books

This graphic novel style series is terrific fun and it’s reached the third book. The focus for the five interconnected stories is celebration and there’s so much to love about them, not least being the alliterative story titles.

First Fix, Fuss & Flies takes place just before Sparrow’s birthday and begins with Fox announcing confusingly for his pal Rabbit that he’s decided to change the middle letter of his name to i and henceforward he’s to be called Fix not Fox or even better Fix-it Fox. Well maybe for that day only; but before it ends there are a number of jobs that need fixing and other animals wanting to be part of i day. So, Fred becomes Frid, and Rabbit gets dubbed Ribbit.

All ends happily with the work done but I do wonder what Tortoise might have been called had he not rocked up right at the day’s end in time for dinner, asking his usual ‘What’d I miss?’

In Party, Pizza & Plans Rabbit and Fox resolve to make Sparrow’s birthday (the next day) ‘super-trooper special’, the best ever and that entails making him the biggest, yummiest pizza in the world. As they have no idea how to make such a thing, they’ll need help, but from whom? Where will all the ingredients come from and how will they go about cooking so huge a thing?

Make way for a new and fiery character in the third story, the addressing of whom requires speaking another language – or perhaps not.

Said new character also appears in Birthdays, Best Days & Best Friends, where he’s introduced, performs a key task, becomes part of the team and a great time is had by all; but guess who almost misses the entire thing.

Wonder, Wish & Wow involves memories of the celebration, a lot of guessing and a considerable amount of hard work; but is it all worth the effort? Does Sparrow’s birthday wish come true?
Love the ending, love the new character and of course, I totally love Tortoise.

Dudás’ brightly coloured, splendidly expressive illustrations together with Beth Ferry’s terrific text, almost entirely in speech bubbles, make this perfect for those just moving to chapter books.

Fox & Rabbit / Isadora Moon Meets the Tooth Fairy

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Fox & Rabbit
Beth Ferry and Gergely Dudas
Amulet Books

Unlikely friends, Fox and Rabbit star in five short interconnected stories, presented graphic novel style, that are perfect for readers just embarking on chapter books. The contrasting personalities of the protagonists is brought out wonderfully in the events – Rabbit being rather anxious and Fox the complete opposite (albeit with a predilection for words beginning with the letter F). However they both have a fondness for adventure and surprises but no matter what they’re doing they thrive on discovering the kind of everyday magic that readers will love.

In the first story, lying back observing the clouds leads them to the fair where Rabbit wins a prize; that prize sends them off on their next adventure – on the beach. There, eventually Rabbit overcomes his fear of the ocean and everything therein. What they find in a bottle leads Rabbit to risk a ‘zinger’ to reach Surprise Island; but is it a misnomer? It certainly provides a wonderful opportunity: some horticultural pursuits occur in the 4th story and Rabbit demonstrates a distinct lack of self control. But what happens when they grow a lemon tree? That you will have to find out for yourself but like their previous adventures a certain Turtle turns up at the end asking ‘What’d I miss?’

But new solo readers will certainly miss enormous fun from both Beth Ferry’s well chosen words and Gergely Dudas’ adorable pictures if they don’t give this engaging demonstration of true friendship, a whirl.

Isadora Moon Meets the Tooth Fairy
Harriet Muncaster
Oxford Children’s Books

Is this really the thirteenth book featuring the fang-tastically adorable Isadora Moon? Despite growing a bit older she shows no signs of losing her magical allure.

As the story starts Isadora is about to lose one of her teeth. But being half fairy, half vampire, should she leave said tooth under her pillow for the tooth fairy as her mum wants, or have it framed per dad’s wishes? He also wants her to accompany him to the vampire dentist to learn how to keep her fangs ‘polished to perfection’.

On the night the fang comes out Isadora is paid a visit by Mignonette, a tiny mouse on her first tooth fairy mission. Now she faces an even bigger dilemma …

Could a visit to dad’s dentist help her make up her own mind?

Maybe with the help of Mignonette, Isadora can instigate a tooth tradition of her very own.

No matter what she does, Isadora Moon’s countless fans will certainly delight in her latest adventure.

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.

Ada Twist and the Perilous Pantaloons

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Ada Twist and the Perilous Pantaloons
Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts
Amulet Books

Ada Twist returns with a high-flier of STEM adventure in the second of her chapter books series. As always her head is full of questions: why does her mother’s coffee smell stronger than her father’s? Why do her brother’s tennis shoes stink so badly?

Each of her questions leads to further questions, hypotheses and experiments, one of which links her involvement in the Great Backyard Bird Count activity with working out how to rescue Rosie’s Uncle Ned who, thanks to his helium-filled pantaloons, is floating around in the sky unable to get down.

Ada combines her ‘what if’ curiosity, brainpower, and knowledge of molecules, air pressure, temperature and forces, with that of friends Rosie Revere and Iggy Peck to work out a plan to bring Uncle Ned back to earth.

Andrea Beaty’s amusing twisting, turning narrative is irresistible and sweeps readers along like the hot air that powers those pantaloons of Uncle Ned, while David Roberts’ detailed illustrations, be they full page or smaller, are full of humour and provide a great complement to the text.

With credible inspiring characters, believable relationships, information aplenty, including, after the story concludes, reasons for studying birds and the ‘think about this’ pages on the threat posed to rainforests by palm-oil plantations, a poem even, this book is a thoroughly engaging read, a super model of scientific questioning and thinking, and a demonstration that creative problem solvers and scientists don’t always get things right first time. Terrific!

Rosie Revere and the Raucous Riveters

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Rosie Revere and the Raucous Riveters
Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts
Amulet Books

This is the first of a new chapter book series from the Beaty/Roberts partnership that gave us engineer Rosie Revere, scientist Ada Twist and Iggy Peck, architect.

Now these three have become a team calling themselves The Questioneers and they have plenty of calls on their time and brains. That’s thanks to Rose’s much-loved Aunt Rose and her spirited friends, the Raucous Riveters who built B-29 aeroplanes during World War 2. These women are unstoppable but one of their number, June, has broken both her wrists in a motor scooter accident. Unless somebody – ie Rosie – can find a way to help her, she won’t be able to participate in the forthcoming art competition.

Into action leaps our young engineer aided and abetted by Ada and Iggy, using all kinds of paraphernalia, and after a few false starts, the Paintapalooza is finally ready – just in time for the Art-a-Go-Go.

This affectionate, lively tale is full of things to make newly independent readers smile – not least being the raucous bunch of indomitable Riveters, as well as important lessons about the role of the imagination in problem solving and the importance of resilience in learning.

Clever design gives the book a STEAM feel and Roberts’ zany illustrations are terrific fun.