Eddie’s Tent and How to go Camping
Sarah Garland
Frances Lincoln Children’s Books
We join Eddie and his family as they head through the busy traffic to their seaside destination for a camping holiday. Once there, the whole family is pretty much ready for bed – after the tent’s been erected that is. Next morning Eddie is up first and heads down to a deserted, peaceful beach;

but soon breakfast calls so he collects driftwood for the cooking fire and preparations are quickly under way for their first meal of the holiday.
Once the whole family has made everything “shipshape”, Eddie decides to make his own tent, with the help of some of the useful things he’d stowed away in his rucksack before leaving home. (A resourceful boy is young Eddie.) Soon it’s time for lunch – fish and chips are the order of the day and as he tucks in to his, Eddie strikes up a friendship with Max, who is fishing, and his dog, Bouncer.
Max lends Eddie his rod and line and Eddie is amazed when he hooks a large fish – just the thing for a tasty supper.
When the family returns to the campsite, they take a different route from whence they came (that one the ever resourceful Eddie had mapped on his trusty pad)

and on the way, they re-encounter a distraught Max and his granddad. Bouncer has gone missing, they hear and so a hunt begins. It’s a good thing Eddie has taken along his compass as well as that notebook with the map, for the two boys need both to help them find their way back along the old route. Oh, and Eddie just happened to have his whistle too – just the thing for calling to a lost dog and happily it works.

Before long, there’s Bouncer back safe in Max’s arms.
All’s well that ends well – and it does – with a celebratory fish supper – and more – shared by all.

This longish, engaging, beautifully illustrated story has kept my audiences of 4 to 7s riveted throughout each telling and prompted a telling of a whole lot of camping tales of their own.
I’m sure some of them could well have done with the tips, recipes and other suggestions helpfully supplied at the end of this delightful, family-centred book. What better way to initiate the young into the joys of camping?

Pool
JiHyeon Lee
Chronicle Books
Discover what happens when two shy children – a boy and a girl – encounter one another at a very busy swimming pool. Clearly, water is an element in which they both feel at home. Dive in with them and let your imagination take ’float’ as they swim among shoals of fish,

seahorses and more. With surprising encounters,

scary moments and opportunities just to drift and contemplate, this powerful visual tale takes a look at friendship and celebrates the power of the imagination in a sequence of muted, softly hued scenes
Seemingly simple but forceful in impact, no words are needed to create the many magical and memorable moments conjoured up here in Korean artist JiHyeon,’s debut picture book.

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