Tag Katie Clapham

The Tour at School (Because You’re the New Kid!)

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The Tour at School (Because You’re the New Kid!)
Katie Clapham and Nadia Shireen
Walker Books

As the young narrator/guide informs us, ‘When you show a New Person around, it’s called giving them The Tour.’ The aim of this really important job is to make the new arrival feel welcome. As you might expect the tour begins with the toilets – a vital place of course but our guide feels things need to be made more fun with some additional facts such as, “The soap smells like strawberries” and there’s an ‘amazing-zing-zing’ echo when you sing (lots of people love to sing in the toilets after all).

The next most important task is to decide on an ‘Emergency Meet-Up Place’

but it’s hugely important too to show off the best places – the playground and the library and to tell inviting stories about them but not to take too long.

Sensitivity is key so our guide considers introducing the newcomer to someone she knows, however this sensitive guide doesn’t notice everything especially that the new person is looking increasingly alarmed, overwhelmed even and may just have gone missing. (of course readers/listeners will have noticed).

Fortunately our guide tries putting herself in the new person’s shoes and also recalls ‘how it feels not to know anyone.’ This experience she shares with the new person whom she finds in the Emergency Meet-Up Place before proceeding to answer the all important question, “What happens when the Tour is over?” For any newcomer, the response cannot be better.

A smashing story that captures so well those collywobbles that many children feel when starting a new school. Equally it’s reassuring to know that an empathetic someone will be there to help. Both author, Katie Clapham and illustrator Nadia Shireen clearly understand how it feels to be starting something new. Nadia’s choice of colour palette is great and her illustrations are hugely expressive and in tune with the words. The use of capitalisation and font size make the book a terrific read aloud to share with a class or group.

The Missing Bookshop

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The Missing Bookshop
Katie Clapham and Kirsti Beautyman
Stripes Publishing
This smashing story from debut author, bookseller Katie Clapham took me back to my days working in a children’s bookshop on Saturdays and during school holidays, a job I loved and which always made me want to own a bookshop just like the one Katie has written about. It never happened though: I’ve stayed in education, albeit with a house full of as many books as some bookshops.

Mrs Minty is the owner of the one here, a place young Milly loved to visit especially for the weekly story time sessions when she’d sit transfixed on one of the cushions on the rainbow carpet listening to Mrs Minty read from a book, often in response to Milly’s ‘one with … in’. Times when Milly has saved sufficient pocket money to buy a book of her own were especially exciting.

On one such day Milly notices that both Mrs Minty and her shop have lost some of their sparkle, particularly whens she compares Mrs M. with the picture hanging on the wall behind the counter.

As she sits with her mum in a café after their bookshop visit, Milly expresses her concern, asking, “What do you do if something is old and creaky?”
Mum’s response about careful treatment and the possibility of replacing it with something new upsets the girl who considers Mrs Minty irreplaceable despite her “You’d make a wonderful bookseller,” words to Milly.

The next week, having watched the bookseller at work, Milly’s fears grow: the woman is a veritable encyclopaedia when it comes to knowledge about books – nobody could do better and after the session as she and her mum sit together they talk further about the bookshop’s future. So worried is Milly that she then runs back to tell Mrs Minty about her bookshop’s irreplaceability.

After the weekend the shop is closed when MIlly and her mum pay a visit. It remains so for the rest of the week until a sign appears in the window ‘CLOSED DUE TO UNFORSEEN CIRCUMSTANCES’ followed the next week ay the even more concerning ‘CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE’. What on earth can have happened?

Another week passes and a van appears outside the bookshop full of items from inside; then a woman gets in and drives away before Milly has a chance to question her. Doom and gloom descend upon Mllly and deepen when a FOR SALE sign appears soon after.

It’s time to launch operation Save Minty’s Bookshop decides Milly and she gets busy right away.

A few days later her mum returns from a supermarket visit with exciting news …

As a lover of local independent bookshops, especially those specialising in children’s books, my heart went out to Milly and Mrs Minty in this smashing story that flies the flag for such establishments. I loved Milly’s resilience and determination as well of course, as the fact that she’s a bibliophile at such a young age.

Kirsti Beautyman’s expressive illustrations portray so well, young Milly’s changing emotions as the story progresses towards its thoroughly satisfying finale.

Another cracking addition to Stripes’ series of full-colour fiction for newly independent readers; it’s bound to be devoured by book and bookshop lovers especially.