Special Delivery
Polly Faber and Klas Fahlen
Nosy Crow

Children who love reading and books will be fascinated by the story of a book – a book just like this one – that goes on a journey.

It starts with Jay counting down the sleeps to his birthday and on the opposite page we see people on their way into a factory in a distant land, the factory being where copies of the book are being printed, cut, pressed and packed

ready to go in a container lorry to the docks and onto a massive freight ship to continue its journey.
Having sailed across the sea, the book travels by train to a warehouse before being loaded into a delivery van and taken to a book shop., Pip’s Bookshop.

Along cycles Jay’s Gran who goes in, buys a copy of Special Delivery and goes to the post office. Then follows further travelling for the book – to the sorting office where it’s placed in a sack, collected by a postie named Molly (many of the workers involved in this whole journey are named) and finally delivered to Jay.

He loves his present. Being a thoughtful boy, he makes a thank you card for his Gran – his ‘special delivery’ is by hand.

As well as a subtle look at international trade and those who make it happen, this book with illustrations of all kinds of machines and workers involved in the processes, will be a good introduction to interconnectedness of both objects and people. For those who want to know more, there are three pages of ‘Special Delivery Numbers’.

Polly Faber provides just sufficient information in her text and Klas Fahlen’s bright digital illustrations provide further details in visual form. An interesting, thought-provoking book that can be shared in KS1/ lower KS2 classrooms that covers several areas of the curriculum.

Good Night Little Bookshop
Amy Cherrix and E.B. Goodale
Walker Books

The special author event is over and it’s almost time for Little Bookshop on Little Street to close for the evening. First though there’s a goodnight ritual to perform. We see a little girl reaching for a picture book from those displayed on the shelves; a woman leaves to the accompaniment of of the door bell’s ‘Ding, ding, ding’, followed by a goodnight to the till with its ‘Ring, ring, ka-ching!’ And so it continues with goodnights to friends who’ve come from afar,

to familiar pooches and their owners, to forgotten glasses and hat, to the bookshop cat and the boxes of new books waiting to be shelved for the following day. Each of these and more are bid goodnight as well as discovering something of the work of bookshop owners and booksellers.

We see it all in E.B. Gooddale’s detailed illustrations that accompany Amy Cherrix’s gentle poetic words, which, in addition to being an ode to this particular independent bookshop, mentions little bookshops everywhere and concludes with a wish to “dream  big, dear readers, wherever you are.”

A lovely bedtime rhyme with a difference that had a special appeal for this adult reviewer who is a fan of indie bookshops and has worked in a couple too.