Tag Wide Eyed Editions

Lunar New Year / The Lucky Red Envelope

jillrbennett Leave a comment
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is dscn9965-1.jpg

Lunar New Year
Natasha Yim and Jingting Wang
Words & Pictures


A special fifteen day holiday, the Lunar New Year, is fast approaching and young Ling, our narrator explains clearly the traditions she and her family follow. They clean the house thoroughly, “We sweep away bad luck and evil spirits, “ and polish the statue of the Kitchen God before painting honey onto his lips so he reports only sweet things to the heavenly Jade Emperor. The family fills their home with fragrant blooms; Ling makes special red signs to welcome visitors and it’s customary to wear new clothes, so they go shopping for those as well as red lanterns and favourite foods. The foods will be cooked and shared at the big New Year’s Eve family reunion dinner.


This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is dscn9966-1.jpg

The symbolism behind each tradition is presented: “We eat dumplings for wealth, noodles for long life and turnip cakes for good luck …” Ling says. She also recounts the legend of the New Year beast and offers descriptions of the New Year’s parade, kite flying, and the Lantern Festival that ends the celebrations. Best of all though, Ling enjoys being surrounded by her family.


Jingting Wang’s illustrations are bursting with bold, brightly coloured images and back matter gives additional information on the history of the holiday, New Year greetings in Cantonese and Mandarin, information on the Chinese zodiac, riddles, a recipe for dumplings, how to make a lucky money envelope, examples of how Lunar New Year is observed in other cultures, and a quiz.


An accessible and broad introduction to an important holiday for many Asian cultures.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is dscn9967-1.jpg

The Lucky Red Envelope
Vikki Zhang
Wide Eyed Editions


There are over 140 flaps to explore in this interactive, large format book with stiff card pages. It features Yue, her Mama and Baba and baby brother, Ru, for whom it’s his first ever New Year. By following what Yue and her family do each day in Vikki Zhang’s busy scenes as well as the written narrative, readers will learn the meaning behind the various objects and symbols. There are rich colours, gorgeous patterns and an abundance of detail to feast the eyes on at every turn of the page: the candles lit for the kitchen god, the offerings the family will make to their ancestors, the red wall and door hangings, as well as the food spread out ready for the family reunion dinner, Yue’s beautiful new red cheongsam,

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is dscn9968-1.jpg

the lucky red envelopes containing money and finally, the lighted lanterns.


The main text is in paragraphs written in a lively style (it’s good to see an acknowledgement that “ People celebrate Lunar New Year differently in different countries”,) and smaller captions ask the reader to look for specific objects – the yin-yang symbol for example, or draw attention to particular symbols such as Yue’s traditional dress.

There are a dozen flaps on every double spread helping to ensure that this is a comprehensive look at the holiday and a book that children will want to immerse themselves in over and over.

Add both books to class libraries from foundation stage upwards.

Poetry Prompts

jillrbennett Leave a comment
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is dscn9672-4.jpg



Poetry Prompts
Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Georgie Birkett, Grasya Oliyko, Amanda Quartey Voila Wang
Wide Eyed Editions

Children’s laureate, Joseph Coelho provides 41 ways for readers to ‘discover the poet within.’
His first prompt is to have a dedicated notebook of your own that you can always have to hand when an idea arises; he even demonstrates how to make such a book from a single sheet of paper.
He then proceeds to one word poems; the trick so we read, is to have a long title. If this idea works for you, you can he suggests, in his first ‘poetry power-up,’ write several on the same theme for example: ‘The Sound of Water / Splash. // The Feel of Water / Cold. // The Taste of Water / Nothing.’


There are suggestions for penning poems that use rhyme and repetition, alliteration, onomatopoeia, similes, and metaphors as well as certain poetic forms such as haiku, and more challenging, triolets.
Most of the ideas are relatively light-hearted but there are also prompts for a ‘Home Is …’ poem in relation to World Refugee Day, and another for plastic pollution.


The four illustrators portray a diverse cast of children, as well as playful images of fauna, flora and an abundance of food ,

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is dscn9673-4.jpg

which offer further inspiration. The message that poetry is “about having fun with words” comes through loud and clear. I envisage lots of primary age children having great fun with the ideas in this book. (If used in a classroom though, it would be advisable, I think, to include prompts for some non-Christian festivals as well as those for Christmas and Easter.)



Welcome to the Mysteryverse / Secret Stories of Nature

jillrbennett Leave a comment

These are both Wide Eyed Editions: thanks to Quarto Kids for sending them for review

Welcome to the Mysteryverse
Clive Gifford, illustrated by Good Wives and Warriors

Contained within the covers of this large format book are some of the as yet, unsolved mysteries about the workings of Earth, its human inhabitants and the universe. It’s divided into five parts each given an alliterative title: People Puzzlers, Earth Enigmas, Natural Niggles, Cosmic Conundrums and Miscellaneous Mysteries, concluding with a couple of spreads telling of some mysteries that science has helped to solve.

Clive Gifford explores in a straightforward manner everything from yawning and the appendix to optical illusions, from what makes tornados and causes earthquakes to where has all Earth’s water come from, why millipedes and centipedes have so many legs to why cats purr, and what is the overall shape of the universe, and, how will it end.

For each mystery readers are encouraged to think both scientifically and creatively as they peruse the spreads and ponder the questions posed.

An absolutely fascinating compendium of scientific puzzles, made all the more exciting by the detailed, sometimes psychedelic illustrations by Good Wives and Warriors, whose work I’ve not encountered before.
A book for KS2 classrooms and families where there are curious-minded children.

Secret Stories of Nature
Saskia Gwinn and Vasilisa Romanenko

Presenting the biological information in this book as secret stories that nature wants to share with readers is an engaging means of sharing the facts relating to the flora and fauna featured. The sea, the ice, forests, jungles and mountains all have secrets, as do the sky, the night and the ground beneath our feet.

Did you know for instance that there are more than 12,000 known species of ants on Earth today? Or that ants hear with their feet, or rather, they sense the vibrations in the ground around them.

I was fascinated to read that horned tree frogs have bony spikes hidden inside their skulls for defence purposes and that dragonfly ancestors had a wingspan of around seventy centimetres rather than the maximum of twenty in some of those of today.

You may well be surprised to read that rodents including rats and mice share their DNA with humans – now there’s a thought. It might also come as a surprise the fur of polar bears is not white. Rather it’s translucent and appears white because it reflects visible light.

Towards the end of the book is a ‘searching for secrets’ section encouraging readers to stop and look closely at the nature around them to find the hidden treasures that are all around.

With superb illustrations by Vasilisa Romanenko, this is a treasure trove of ‘secrets’ relating to the natural world.

Lore of the Stars: Folklore & Wisdom From the Skies Above

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Lore of the Stars: Folklore & Wisdom From the Skies Above
Claire Cock-Starkey and Hannah Bess Ross
Wide Eyed Editions

Alluringly presented, and full of fascinating tales and ancient wisdom, this latest in the Lore of series is divided into six sections: The Sky, The Sun, The Moon, The Stars, Planets, Comets and Shooting Stars and finally, The Cosmos.

Each section begins with a traditional story, the first being a Nigerian tale that attempts to account for ‘Why the Sky is So Far Away’ and the other spreads offer a mix of factual snippets and mythological paragraphs pertaining to the section’s theme such as gods and goddesses. I am familiar with the Hindi word for rainbow, Indradhanush so was interested to see Indra included on the Rainbows spread, indeed that is the only spread where I was familiar with all the mythology presented.

It’s pleasing to learn, through brief anecdotes scattered between the vibrant visual images, how different cultures viewed the same plants, animals and other natural phenomena such as sunrise and sunset,

the constellations, as well as augury and aeromancy. However my favourite part of each section is definitely its two page opening story and in this book the Greek myth, the Indian Santal folktale,

the indigenous American tale, the Masai tale and the Visayan Philippine tale were all new to me and a pleasure to read to children.

For school and home collections.

Legends of Norse Mythology / Norse Folktales, Myths and Legends

jillrbennett Leave a comment
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is dscn9983-1.jpg



Legends of Norse Mythology
Tom Birkett and Isabella Mazzanti
Wide Eyed Editions


This book transports readers way, way back through time to a realm of ice and fire, magic and mischief. There they will encounter characters from Norse mythology including gods and goddesses, monsters, giants, elves, dwarfs, the Valkyries and other mythical beings – over thirty in all.


Starting with Odin, each individual profile introduces us to the character, giving such details as their chief attributes, there’s a story and additional details. Yes, all the well-known deities are there but you will also meet the likes of the bright and shining god, Baldur, renowned for his goodness,

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is dscn9984-1.jpg

Sif, goddess of wheat and golden hair, married to Thor, the Norns – Urd, Verdandi and Skull, controllers of the destiny of each and every living being in the world. If your preference is giants then you can search the contents page for where to learn of giant sisters Gjalp and Greip,

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is dscn9985-1.jpg

and Fenja and Menja, strong giantesses who grind out the salt on the ocean bottom.
Interspersed with the profiles are summaries of famous Norse tales and events such as that of Thor’s hammer and the story of Ragnarök.


The book is concisely written by Norse mythology expert Dr Thomas Birkett and illustrated beautifully, occasionally aptly spookily, by Isabella Mazzanti who manages to capture the essence of each character in her portrayals.


Altogether a very useful introduction to an endlessly fascinating topic; for KS2 readers and beyond.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is dscn9996-1.jpg



Norse Folktales, Myths & Legends
Anika Hussain, illustrated by Kate Forrester
Scholastic 


Divided into four parts, the book comprises Legends from Norse Mythology, and a selection of folk tales from Denmark, Norway and Sweden, each section having five stories.


As you would expect, Loki the cunning, shape-changing trickster and powerful Thor, his ‘brother’ feature in the first, the Norse mythology section.


Along with lesser-known stories, the Danish section includes a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Thumbelina, the tiny golden-haired girl with the beautiful voice who enchants creatures with her singing including a mole that she narrowly misses having to marry.


New to me in the Norwegian part, using the same folktale structure as Snow White, is The Twelve Wild Ducks wherein a queen who yearns for a daughter makes a deal with a witch: give up her twelve sons in return for a princess daughter.


I read of Jolly Calle for the first time in the Swedish section. It tells of a boy who remains upbeat and positive no matter what, and finds beauty in simple everyday things.


A delightful collection of tales retold in an appropriately direct style; it deserves to be added to KS2 primary class libraries and home bookshelves.

A Whole World of Art

jillrbennett Leave a comment

A Whole World of Art
Sarah Phillips and Dion MBD
Wide Eyed Editions

In this book readers are accompanied by two young friends, Alzena and Miles, who take them on a time-travel journey through the world of art wherein sculptors, architects and artists. are introduced. Encompassing nearly thirty works in all including a stained glass window, the journey begins in 1350 BCE in Giza where stands the bust of Nefertiti and finishes in Prague with the work of Ai Weiwei and his huge 2018 sculpture Law of the Journey.

At each stopping point there is a considerable amount of engagingly written information about the artist featured, their art, and some historical facts such as what inspired the work and where that artwork is currently on display. These take the form of short paragraphs strategically placed on the spread. One such explains that at 469 talents, the cost of building the Parthenon in Athens was more than that of an entire fleet of ships.

On some spreads there are also prompts for readers to look closer or go beyond the page; and there are occasional suggestions for art work, inspired by a particular work of art. One such relates to the Benin City spread and asks, “Can you design a shield that celebrates the ideas you think are important today’ perhaps, like the artists of Benin, including symbols and pattern to add to its effect. On the Tokyo spread where the key artist is Yahoo Kusama, we read: ‘If you like playful works like this, have a look at Akashi Murakami’s art. … See if you can spot the links to Anime (comics) and Magna (animated films) in his work.’

With such a variety of works being shown and discussed, this is a very useful book for older school primary children who will appreciate Dion Mehaga Bangun Djayasaputra’s lively images of the art and artists presented, integrated into which are small photos of the art being discussed.

(Backmatter includes a glossary and suggestions for further reading.)

Round and Round Goes Mother Nature

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Round and Round Goes Mother Nature
Gabby Dawnay and Margaux Samson Abadie
Wide Eyed Editions

The circles of life keep on turning and change is part and parcel of all life, happening constantly around us in the world; it’s in the turning of the season, sometimes it’s as rapid as a hatching egg, sometimes it’s as slow as an imperceptibly growing or diminishing mountain. This gorgeously illustrated book, divided into four sections – Animals, 

Plants & Fungi, then moving beyond biology, Earth and finally, Space – presents forty eight life cycles, starting with the fleeting appearance of a mayfly and ending with a black hole: a massive scope indeed.

Readers will be fascinated at some of the details, for instance the male seahorse carries the eggs deposited by the female in a special sack in his abdomen, which then acts rather like the womb of a female mammal. Imagine being a female rattlesnake; such creatures are ready to have babies around the age of four and will continue mating and giving birth every two years for the rest of its life up to twenty five years; that’s an awful lot of snakelets.

I was astonished to read that it’s possible for the peanut-sized seed from a lotus flower to remain dormant for decades and one has survived for two thousand years.

There is a fair bit of written information for each life cycle and the illustrations show such close attention to fine detail that you will want to spend time looking carefully at each spread.

Recommended for both home and classroom use; this will keep a child engrossed for hours.

The Who, What, Why of Zoology

jillrbennett Leave a comment

The Who, What, Why of Zoology
Jules Howard and Lucy Letherland
Wide Eyed Editions

For youngsters with a budding interest in the study of animals ie zoology – this is for you, whether or not you have aspirations to become a zoologist.

The author starts by defining zoology and explaining what zoologists do and then takes a quick look back over the past hundred or so years at how the work of zoologists has changed with the help of ever-developing technology.

Readers then join the scientists working in the field and visit different biomes around the world and this is where the book differs from the many others about environmental regions in that it provides an insight into the role played by zoologists in the world today.

We start with temperate forests, then take a we look at tropical rainforests, deserts,

grasslands including savannahs, the tundra, and then dive down to underwater reefs and beyond, to the ocean floor.

For each region, the book explores the kind of terrain, introduces some of the animals who live there, provides some interesting facts related to those animals, and looks at the work zoologists do in that region, and how they go about it.

After all the exploring we return to the laboratories to see zoologists working not in the field but using high-tech equipment to further their research.

We also find out about the role museums, zoos and aquariums play in the area of zoology. Throughout Lucy Netherland’s illustrations illuminate the text and also offer gentle humorous touches in each spread.

The book ends with a reminder that zoology is for everyone and, with quotes from some of today’s great zoologists, offers pointers in how young readers can start out on their own zoological adventures.

Fascinating, informative and pitched just right for older primary readers and above.

Courage Out Loud

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Courage Out Loud
Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Daniel Gray-Barnett
Wide Eyed Editions

Following on from Poems Aloud and Smile Out Loud is this cracking new collaboration between children’s laureate Joseph Coelho and illustrator Daniel Gray-Barnett – 25 poems of power.

Joseph uses a variety of poetic forms and structures including sestinas, rondels, pantoums and limericks, to explore being brave and facing one’s fears whatever they are. Addressing the reader directly he introduces each poem with a few lines about the kind of poem it is and how it relates to an idea, emotion or feeling.

Some of them relate to Joseph’s own experiences. The opener, Diving is one such, telling how the poet felt when jumping from a high diving board for the very first time: inner courage was certainly needed then. I love the fairytale references he uses ‘The diving board is up there , / a beanstalk above me, / a Rapunzel tower height, / a giant’s hairline high.’ and the poem goes on to mention ‘witches in my fingers’, ‘the crunch of poisoned apples’ and ends thus: ‘we’ve got the magic beans, / we’ve stolen the golden egg, / we’ve just arrived at Grandma’s house.’

Have a Little Cry is an important reminder to readers how even a little cry can make us feel better for as the introduction and final line say, ‘there is courage in every tear’.

Courage is required too when speaking out in front of an audience, in this instance, it’s being asked to read your story to the entire class ‘The classroom is a swamp / mud oozing around my legs. / The only way is forward.’ Does that sound like something you’ve experienced? Will You Read? certainly resonates with me.

So does Rollercoasters wherein young Mabel is a very reluctant rider on the rollercoaster; unlike her though I’ve never managed to overcome my fear of pretty much any fairground ride. In such instances I always used my right and my power of Saying No, responding ‘ “no” I don’t feel like doing that thing / and that’s the end of that.’

As well as reading the poems, with a reminder of poetry’s power to communicate their feelings, Joseph encourages children to create some of their own using similar structures or styles, and then to perform them aloud. (tips are given for this.)
Assuredly youngsters will find lots to connect with in these poems, the mood of each being perfectly captured in Daniel Gray-Barnett’s accompanying inclusive illustrations. Our current children’s laureate has a mission to help children enjoy poetry and use it as a tool for their own creativity: Courage Out Loud will assuredly encourage that whether shared in the classroom or read at home.

Africana: an encyclopedia of an amazing continent

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Africana: an encyclopedia of an amazing continent
Kim Chakanetsa, illustrated by Mayowa Alabi
Wide Eyed Editions

For this large format book, author and broadcast journalist, Kim Chakanetsa, divides the African continent (the second largest in the world) into five regions – north, east, central, west, and southern – the following topics being covered in each region: a timeline of important dates, people and culture, 

wildlife and landscapes, famous people (change makers and superstars), and snapshots of interesting facts. There’s also a final section called ‘Global Africa’. Even before starting to read about the five regions, readers are confronted with some uncomfortable facts about the slave trade and its continuing impact upon descendants of African slaves in such places as the US where they are still living with the consequences of slavery even today.

However, there is a great deal to celebrate, not least the wonderful landscapes, 

animals and cultures and those important change-makers. Let me just mention a few of those: first my all time hero, Nelson Mandela who spend 27 years in prison and is now thought of as the father of South Africa’s democracy. From Western Africa there’s award-winning author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, most famous for Half a Yellow Sun, Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz, singer-songwriter Miriam Makeba, another campaigner against the apartheid system in South Africa.

Strikingly illustrated, highly informative -also included are words of wisdom from various countries, flags and with an excellent glossary – this is a great introduction to a vast continent presented in an accessible way. A book for classrooms, families and libraries.

Illumibugs

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Illumibugs
Carnovsky and Barbara Taylor
Wide Eyed Editions

With an engaging text written by Barbara Taylor, who was at one time Science Editor at the Natural History Museum in London, and art from the same design duo as Illuminature and Illumisaurus comes another fascinating look at the natural world. Readers will be able to discover 180 minibeasts from various parts of the world using the magic three colour lens. The red lens shows insects, through the green you see plants and the blue shows (rather less clearly) other creepy crawlies.

There are seven regional sections, first North America, followed by Europe, Asia, Australasia, Central and South America, Africa and the Arctic. These are followed by a look at underwater bugs and finally, prehistoric bugs. I was surprised to read that there are 18, 000 butterfly species but even more astonished to learn that there are 12.000 species of millipedes in the world.

Each of the main sections is presented in a similar fashion – first a spread that includes the important environmental and survival information and a fact box relating to the region, an observation deck showing the minibeasts among vegetation waiting to be revealed,

View through red lens

– and lastly, a black and white double spread giving diagrams of insect species and other creepy crawlies (with a brief paragraph about each). This includes a search and find element that sends you back to the ‘observation deck’ to spot the minibeasts through the appropriate coloured lens. Purists will note that the insects depicted on the ‘observation deck’ are not drawn to scale.
Just in case you forget to replace the viewing lens in the front cover pocket, there’s a QR code at the back of the book that enables you to access the same feature on your phone.

This large format book offers hours of immersive enjoyment for readers of all ages from KS1 up, especially those with an interest in nature.

Grimms’ Fairy Tales / Lore of the Land

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Grimms’ Fairy Tales
retold by Elli Woollard, illustrated by Marta Altés
Macmillan Children’s Books

Having read Elli Woollard’s splendid rhyming renditions of some of Aesop’s Fables I was eagerly anticipating these new rhyming fairy tales. Elli has chosen five well known ones on which to weave her rhyme magic and the result is again brilliant.
First to get the touch of her wand is Little Red Cap who is off to visit her grandma with a freshly baked cake and some elderflower wine. I love the way that wolf meets his demise. Next is The Elves and the Shoemaker, followed by Hansel and Gretel, The Musicians of Bremen and finally Cinderella, each story being deftly retold in a way that makes them a sheer pleasure to read aloud.

Marta Altés gorgeous illustrations too, help bring each telling to life and contain some really fun detail. The spread showing the stepsisters’ preparations for the Fancy Fantabulous Right Royal Ball is hilarious.

Enormous fun for young readers and listeners as well as adult readers aloud, and a cracking book from cover to cover.

Lore of the Land
Claire Cock-Starkey and Samantha Dolan
Wide Eyed Editions

Folktales about landscapes the world over, along with secrets from the natural world are unearthed in this stylishly illustrated book.

There are six parts, each presenting the folklore of a different landscape: forests, seas and oceans, mountains, hills and valleys, rivers and lakes and finally, wetlands. Each part begins with a folk story, the first being a Czech tale Betushka and the Wood Maiden telling how a girl and her mother’s fortunes are forever transformed by the daughter’s acceptance of an invitation to dance with a stranger instead of working at her spinning when she takes her goats into the forest to graze.
The next spread has synopses of creation myths associated with the forest. (Each of the other landscapes also has a creation stories spread.)

There’s an abundance of ancient wisdom associated with such things as sprites, spirits and other mythical creatures, plants, and more. You can discover why the massive volcanic mountain, Mount Tararnaki stands alone on the edge of New Zealand’s North Island as well as why Ancient Greeks thought there was a forge beneath Mount Etna and what was made there. This and much more is arrestingly illustrated in folk style artworks that grace every spread. There’s plenty to engage young lovers of nature, especially those with an interest in fictive possibilities.

Finger Sports / Spin to Survive: Frozen Mountain

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Finger Sports
Anna Bruder
Graffeg

Fun and creativity at your fingertips is on offer in Anna Bruder’s second set of interactive and inventive activities inspired by a range of sports. I suspect with the success of The Lionesses in the European Championships that many youngsters will turn first to finger football; or enthused by the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, perhaps finger athletics might be the first go to sport of the eight included. Make sure whichever one your participants engage in they remember to do some finger warm ups first as instructed by Anna.

Whoever thought that fingers could become so competitive – although that need not be the case; a challenge could be to make an activity co-operative if played with a friend or sibling. I wonder how that might work with the dog assault course. No matter what, a player’s dexterity is likely to be enhanced after participating in these playful sports be that at home or even in a school break. Anyone feel like an aerobics session?
A super little book to explore and share with and between youngsters.

Spin to Survive: Frozen Mountain
Emily Hawkins and R. Fresson
Wide Eyed Editions

This is a large format interactive game book wherein the reader embarks on a survival adventure story that unfolds after an emergency landing high in a remote Alpine mountain region and thence must make a series of life and death decisions to make it home.
The location is fraught with dangers of all kinds: you have to deal with blizzards, altitude sickness, an avalanche, frostbite, a bear attack, raging torrents, cross a glacier and that’s not all. There’s the necessity to find food and water, and navigating so you don’t become even more lost.

The text is full of survival information such as making a snow hole shelter where you can be safe and keep warm during a blizzard, how to judge distances and what to do when hiking in bear country. 

Then there’s the inbuilt lesson on the risk/luck relationship and the vital importance of making good decisions when in a mountain region with life threatening situations to face. Having made your choice when faced with each threat, your decision is further tested by using the pop-out spinner provided, which acts as a pointer to the idea that there is always an element of chance in dangerous situations.

As well as Fresson’s Hergé-like illustrations showing the drama of the journey, each spread contains diagrams and there are insets of newspaper clippings featuring real-life survivors too. 

Very engaging, lots of fun and with a large amount of factual information, this book provides a great way to spend time away from screens.

Powered By Plants

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Powered by Plants
Clive Gifford and Gosia Herba
Wide Eyed Editions

How many people I wonder are aware of the wealth of cutting edge science and technology of yesterday, today and the future, that involves members of the diverse plant world found in the many ecosystems on our planet? Some of this rich diversity is being increasingly studied and copied, inspiring innovations in design, science, engineering and technology. This third book about biomimicry introduces some awesome plant inventors. Prepare to be awed for as Tumbleweed says in the book’s introduction, plants are the experts and you’ll likely never look at flowers, trees or seaweed in the same way again.

There are six main sections: Structures, Robotics, Energy, Health, Sustainability and Materials and a final look to the future. Each plant is allowed to speak for itself and informs readers about such things as how it grows and why its particular structure is or was, so useful to humans. All this fascinating information is broken up into bite-sized chunks placed in fact boxes and embedded in a funky, colourful illustration by Gosia Herba.

If you’ve ever wondered what the fastest growing plant on the planet is, no it isn’t dandelions or that pesky Himalayan balsam that seems to be choking up so many of the UK’s waterways, it’s actually bamboo and there are more than 1,000 different bamboo species. With its high tensile strength bamboo has been used to build houses in Asia and is still used to make scaffolding. Perhaps more exciting though is that some scientists in China now know how to process the hollow fibres from its stems to make a soft, breathable, very fast drying fabric that is much more environmentally friendly than acrylic, polyester and even cotton.

Five other plants present their super powers in the Structures section including the ‘earthquake proof’ coconut palm, the fruit of which has a multitude of uses including in the production coir, a mosquito repellent, coconut milk and of course, coconut water.

No matter which section you choose to dip into you’re sure to be excited: from the fast-growing cottonwood trees with wind power potential, to the slick, slippery carnivores like the pitcher plant and the super-thirsty willow tree, the bark of which has healing properties thanks to salicin – a powerful pain-relieving substance, it will be a case of WOW! that is truly amazing.

An absolute treasure of a book for both home and school use.

Today Will Be A Great Day!

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Today Will Be A Great Day!
Slimy Oddity
Wide Eyed Editions

Subtitled Slimy Oddity’s Guide to Happiness, the red blobby creature of the title takes readers on a colourful, fun journey towards mindful happiness. ‘Happiness comes from within, and it is in each and every moment of your life.’ we read on the first page. That is what Slimy (from Instagram collective Slimy Oddity) intends will become so for everyone. “Happiness is being in complete harmony with what is.” is the first of his 30 plus life lessons presented in this small format book of uplifting, useful, timeless advice to help those who travel along with him find happiness and fulfillment in their lives.

Assuredly among these seemingly simple, yet often profound messages, there is something for everyone, and each affirmation or nugget of wisdom is evoked by a bright, uplifting illustration. I especially liked seeing some of the Dalai Lama’s wisdom presented.

This is not a journey to be hurried; rather the reader needs to let the unlikely guru, Slimy, gently and slowly act as guide walking beside us on the path to well-being. It might even be that you take just one of the spreads every day and let Slimy’s words and actions become your focus (or even that of members of your class at school).

Smile Out Loud / Marshmallow Clouds

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Smile Out Loud
Joseph Coelho and Daniel Gray-Barnett
Wide Eyed Editions

I’m sure that like me, many others have in the past couple of years of mandatory mask wearing in so many places, wondered how to show somebody that we are giving them a smile. Perhaps if I’d had a copy of Smile Out Loud then I could have performed one of Joseph’s 25 ‘happy poems’ poems in a shop or elsewhere. I wonder what the reaction would have been to The Dinosaur way of walking funny, which is to Pull your trousers up / as far as they will go, / stick your bottom out / and walk like a chicken / … But instead of clucking – / … let yourself roar! / Like a dinosaur, / … a roar dinosaur! Then there’s The Ballerina way that involves a turn, a spin, a leap followed by Plié! Plié! Petit / Jeté / flutter and glide / the day away.

I’m always plugging the power of the imagination so I really like Imagination Running Free where the instructions are to tell the audience for a read aloud of this poem to close their eyes and imagine the scenarios presented by Imagine your legs / are two conker trees! Imagination running free. // Imagine your knees / are stripy like bees! / Imagination running free. // Imagine you’re running with / toes wet / legs wooden / knees stripy! I love too how Daniel Gray-Barnett has clearly let his imagination run free for this accompanying illustration. 

There are poems to read and act out in a group, one or two to inspire readers to create poems of their own, a funny one that uses spoonerisms and lots more besides. Certainly you should find something to help cheer up not only yourself but those who hear the tongue-twisters, riddles and giggle inducers. So, get a copy for home or school and spread a little sunshine thanks to Joseph’s words and Daniel’s lively, inclusive illustrations.

Marshmallow Clouds
Ted Kooser and Connie Wanek, illustrated by Richard Jones
Walker Books

Subtitled ‘Poems Inspired by Nature’, this is a dreamlike, often pensive collection of thirty poems, each a beautiful word picture placed under one of four elemental section headings: Fire, Water, Air, Earth and all intended, as Kooser says in his afterword, to “encourage you to run with your own imagination, to enjoy what you come up with.”

Being a tree person I was immediately drawn to Trees, the final four lines of which are:
They don’t ask for much, a good rain now and then,
and what they like most are the sweet smells
of the others, and the warm touch of the light,
and to join the soft singing that goes on and on.
Beautiful words and equally beautiful art by Richard Jones, whose illustration here reminded me so much of one of the places where I pause to sit on my walk and look up at the surrounding understory.

Tadpole too is a poem I found great delight in reading, having recently watched a pool full /of swimming tadpoles, / the liveliest of all punctuation.

No matter where you open the book though, you will find something that’s a joy to read aloud again, and again; something thoughtful and thought-provoking, something likely to make you look at things around you differently. What more can one ask?

Make This Book Wild

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Make This Book Wild
Jo Schofield & Fiona Danks, illustrated by Anna Ivanir
Wide Eyed Editions

If you know a child who is fond of sketching, drawing – observational or otherwise, writing and who enjoys being in the great outdoors, then this is for them. With some sixty nature-themed activities it’s a great way to gently encourage children to observe the natural world, to have fun and be creative, the idea being to make the book look as wild as possible. That of course means that when they go out, the book needs to go too (along with some drawing materials and probably some of the other items listed on the ‘how to use this book’ page).

Before sallying forth however, the user must be made aware of the safety precautions in the front, as well as remembering the five points of the ‘protect nature’ code. Thereafter there’s freedom to make the book dirty, stick in items, draw or paint on the pages, possibly using natural tools like feathers or pine needles collected -and perhaps with some of the mud, the berry or leaf juice you’ve extracted. I like the idea of making ‘berry beasties’ by collecting a few ripe edible berries, placing them between the relevant pages, closing the book, jumping on it and following the rest of the instructions (I’d go for using separate paper and sticking in the results.)

If writing’s more your child’s thing then there are opportunities for list making (from observations), poem and story writing and more; you can even write about your ‘dragon hunt’. Science and imagination comes together in this fun-filled book and it’s all about encouraging youngsters to observe nature closely and enjoy so doing. I know a lot of children who would love to get their hands (and feet) on a copy of this.

Let’s Tell a Story!: Pirate Adventure / Jungle Adventure and I’m the Bus Driver / I’m the Tractor Driver

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Let’s Tell a Story!: Pirate Adventure
Lily Murray illustrated by Stef Murphy
Let’s Tell a Story!: Jungle Adventure
Lily Murray illustrated by Essi Kimpimaki
Wide Eyed Editions

These books offer a way into those choose-your-own-adventure fiction series for solo readers as well as story making. They would have been especially useful during the periods of lockdown and school closures in the past couple of years when youngsters were stuck indoors much of the time and adults often struggled with home schooling. However they can act as fun prompts for story telling or writing at any time.
Each has an introductory spread telling how the book works and then follow fourteen pictorial spreads each one offering lots of options such as: Which hero will you be?; Which clothes will you dress in? What will be your destination? Why are you going? Who will accompany you? How will you get there? What will you take? There are potential disasters in the form of enemies who appear with ‘dastardly’ plans,

and finally, ways to end your chosen story. And, there’s a penguin that keeps appearing in both books adding a search and find element.
It’s possible to have fun creating hundreds of different stories though I suspect in the pirate adventure, some children (as well as this adult reviewer) would find the female characters somewhat stereotypical. On the other hand a hijabi doctor is a welcome possibility: indeed the crew members choice spread is definitely inclusive.

There’s a wealth of learning potential in these imagination sparkers be that at home or in the classroom.

I’m The Bus Driver
I’m The Tractor Driver
David Semple and Kate Woolley
Oxford Children’s Books

If you watch youngsters playing you might well catch sight of a child pretending to be a bus driver among them. Now with the first of these books they’ve got the opportunity to sit behind the wheel of bus number 4 on its 8am morning journey that takes among others children going to school and other passengers off to work or the shops.

In the second title, little ones can try their hand at driving a tractor down on the farm. It’s definitely an eventful day in the driver’s cab with Scally the sheepdog for company: the cows need their breakfast, there are empty barrels to collect from the barn, as well as a hay baler that has got stuck in the mud and needs assistance.
The bright stylised illustrations provide opportunities for colour and shape recognition, and simple counting in these interactive books for the very young.

Kaleidoscope of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life / Dinosaurs Rock!

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Kaleidoscope of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life
Greer Stothers
Wide Eyed Editions

If you thought that dinosaurs were just brown and green, then this book will make you think again.
By means of fossil evidence and modern scientific information that uses examples of living species, author/illustrator Greer Stothers, presents a fascinating, vibrant array of prehistoric creatures like we’ve never seen before’ showing them as they might have been with colours and patterns.
Some of the ideas are speculative and based on what is already known about modern equivalents:

the author visits different locations – polar regions, the sea, forests, deserts – for instance, as well as using art from such places as the Ice Age Americas, ancient Africa, the cave paintings in France from which to hypothesise. We’re also given a look at primeval plants some of which died out alongside non-avian dinosaurs while others survive today.

The ‘Mighty Melanin’ spread is especially rich in detail explaining how this pigment is contained within tiny melanosomes that can be preserved in fossil feathers, scales and skin, thus offering information on the original colours. However every single spread offers plenty of food for thought: What would mutant dinosaurs have looked like? Would a dinosaur living in a snowy region have been super-white?

What role did camouflage play in the time of dinosaurs?

With the countless young dinosaur enthusiasts out there, always hungry for more, the approach taken by Greer Stothers (who studied evolutionary biology at university) offers something stimulating and exciting.

Dinosaurs Rock!
Dougie Poynter
Macmillan Children’s Books

Dino fanatic (eco-warrior and bassist from McFly) Dougie Poynter turns his attention back to dinosaurs, but in a non-fiction book for older primary readers this time. He adopts a light-hearted style but this doesn’t mean that the writing is light on information, far from it. Dougie introduces readers to a wealth of dino-related topics. Before that though, we’re taken right back to the dawn of life on earth for a brief history of how these creatures evolved.

We get up close to a variety of dinosaurs with several profiles including the author’s favourites and then meet five experts on the topic some of whom work in the field of palaeontology. There’s a section on fossil evidence and we read something about Mary Anning and her discoveries in the field, as well as two Americans who started out as friends but then become arch rivals both making lots of mistakes in their efforts to become top palaeontologist.

Also included are a scattering of dino jokes, some historical errors, a sprinkling of true or false statements including this one – Dinosaurs were cold-blooded – that scientists still have different opinions on, with the majority currently thinking that most were warm-blooded.

Lots of the content is presented infographics style, which makes it more easily digested.

Not Your Average Maths Book

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Not Your Average Maths Book
Anna Weltman and Paul Boston
Wide Eyed Editions

Wherever we go, wherever we live, maths is a part of our lives: just look around, we’re surrounded by it. It’s in our homes and gardens.

Yet at school it tends to be a love it or hate it subject and I have to admit that although I didn’t actually hate it, maths was one of my least favourite subjects. Now perhaps had I owned this book back then I might have felt rather differently.

Have you ever wondered why bubbles are always round – or rather spherical; why planets are never cube-shaped, , if and how animals use maths, or thought about where the plus, minus and equals signs came from. You’ll find the answers herein, along with a wealth of other fascinating mathematical facts and insights into numbers and their origins, shapes, patterns and much more. There’s a spread on mathematicians who made important breakthroughs in their fields, with thirteen men and women making up the Mathematician Hall of Fame.

We’re shown some of the many, many ways in which maths is useful in everyday life – in sports,

in the computer algorithms used to calculate plane ticket prices, the algorithms used by meteorologists in predicting the weather, the wealth of mathematical measurements needed in the erection of a building. There’s a brief history of maths going way, way back to the very first written numbers 43,000 years ago in Africa and taking us all the way to today’s unsolved problems still waiting for somebody to find solutions.

You might find you start looking at the world through different lenses if you read Anna’s book, it’s illustrated by Paul Boston whose visuals make the subject all the more inviting and accessible.

Lore of the Wild

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Lore of the Wild
Claire Cock-Starkey and Aitch
Wide Eyed Editions

A thing of beauty is this nature based collection of traditional tales, stories of creation and legends and more. Grouped under six themes: Animals, Birds, Insects, Flowers, plants and trees, Weather lore and Omens, each category begins with a story. That of Animals is a Welsh legend The Faithful Hound Gelert, telling how a prince’s favourite hound saves his baby son and heir from the clutches of a wolf, losing his own life in so doing.
Then follow five further spreads with short paragraphs of information on related topics, in this instance dogs and cats, farm animals, horses and donkeys, countryside animals (Brer Rabbit finds his way into this one)

and, reptiles. Each includes a wide variety of ideas from cultures, principles and belief systems from around the world both ancient and relatively recent.

Birds begins with the Celtic folktale The King of the Birds and then presents spreads on various bird groups including those found in the farmyard and at sea.

An amusing Twana tale Ant and Bear relating how light and dark came about opens the Insects section that also includes spiders. I was surprised to learn that in British folklore damselflies are known as the Devil’s knitting needle on account of their body shape and it was thought that should you fall asleep beside a stream these insects would stitch your eyelids shut.

I tend to be more of a plant than an animal person but hadn’t before come upon the Estonian folktale, Why The Trees Whisper that opens the oddly named Flowers, Plants and Trees section.

Should they so wish, readers can find legends/anecdotes relating to a single item on one spread: thus we read that in Japan the chrysanthemum is associated with royalty and is the symbol of the Japanese emperor, whereas in ancient China these flowers were linked to life and vitality because of their autumnal flowering when other blooms are fading.

No matter where you open this engaging, informative book, you’ll discover an elegantly designed layout with Aitch’s gorgeous folk-art style illustrations, making the entire thing a visual feast, as well as one to dip in and out of time and again. I was fascinated to see so many examples of the ways in which we humans search for meaning in the natural world.

Inside Animals

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Inside Animals
Barbara Taylor and Margaux Carpentier
Wide Eyed Editions

Back in the day when I was studying zoology at A-level and beyond I always felt extremely uncomfortable having to do animal dissections to get a close look at an animal’s innards. Now here’s a book containing twenty one cross-sections of a variety of animals large and small, all illustrated in vibrant colours by Margaux Carpentier. 

In the introductory section, detailed pictures show how skeleton, muscles, organs and nerves fit together inside the featured creature – a snake, a camel and a shark.

Then come several focus topics – Muscles and Moving, Skeletons, Lungs and Breathing, Brain and Senses, Heart and Blood, and Amazing Organs.

Written by one time Science Editor at London’s Natural History Museum, Barbara Taylor and set out around each internal view, are factual paragraphs and an introduction, for all the mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, spiders and other invertebrates spotlighted herein.

I was fascinated to see the honey stomach of the honeybee – a storage organ for nectar – shown and mentioned in one of the paragraphs and part of what helps this creature survive and thrive.

No animal would be able to survive without oxygen to breathe but not all have lungs, or gills like fish and oysters. Within a parrot we see both lungs and additional air sacs that keep oxygen-supplying air flowing throughout its body so the energy for flight is available. 

Other creatures including we read, land-living earthworms, breathe through their skin.

What about brains? It’s not every animal that has one of those although all rely on sensory information sent via electrical signals along nerves. Such information might be gathered through an animal’s sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. Without a brain, jellyfish for instance use a simple nerve network to detect touch, light, smells and to respond to their surroundings; amazingly these graceful creatures can still sting after they’re dead.

Turning to animals having more in common with humans, a giraffe for instance possesses lungs (around eight times the size of ours), and a heart – also enormous and roughly the weight of your average two year old. I was surprised to learn that despite its very long neck, a giraffe has only seven neck bones, linked we read by ball-and-socket joints enabling that neck to be super-bendy.

I suspect that any youngster, especially those with a scientific bent, will discover some surprises in this engrossing book. It’s one I’d recommend adding to family bookshelves and KS2 classroom collections.

Ancient World Magnified

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Ancient World Magnified
David Long and Andy Rowland
Wide Eyed Editions

New in the interactive ‘Magnified’ series, this is one of those books where you think, ‘I’ll just spend a few minutes reading this’ and hours later you’re still totally immersed, using the magnifying glass provided inside the front cover.

Starting with Mesopotamia in what is today parts of Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey, author, David Long and illustrator Andy Rowland take readers time travelling to visit sixteen ancient civilisations, providing a taster of what life was probably like in each one. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that here where civilisation is thought to have begun, men and woman were mostly treated as equals.

From there we move to (c. 4000-1500 BC), a large area now in India and Pakistan, the Indus Valley Civilisation, in which I have a particular interest having once visited not Harappa or Mohenjo-daro featured here, but another more southern site, Lothal.

I have to admit though I’d never heard of Olmec, central America’s first civilisation in what is Mexico today, nor the Kingdom of Aksum (120BC – 850 AD), one of Africa’s greatest empires much of which is in modern Ethiopia and we learn, among the first of the great civilisations to convert to Christianity. 

Also new to me is the Xiongnu Empire in what took up large parts of today’s northern China, Siberia and Mongolia, formed when several tribes of nomadic peoples came together under a ruler named Modu, controlling an area almost as big as Europe. 

Each of these fascinating civilisations is allocated a double spread most of which is taken up with a riveting, highly detailed illustration by Andy Rowland. There are also two or three paragraphs giving information about location, daily life, buildings, what made it prosper etc. and there are ’10 things to spot’ on every spread. Not easy in several cases but should you wish to look, the answers are supplied at the back of the book, along with a famous figures gallery, almost 60 more things to find in the busy scenes, a timeline and glossary.

Recommended especially for young history enthusiasts, as well as those who love search-and-find books.

Invented By Animals

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Invented by Animals
Christiane Dorion and Gosia Herba
Wide Eyed Editions

Animals have pretty much taken over in this book – there’s even an introductory ‘Dear Reader’ letter typed by a frog pointing out that many techniques, designs and ‘superpowers’ used by animals have been the inspiration for human inventions or lie at the heart of future technological advances that are works in progress. Thereafter, it’s left to the various creatures to do the talking.

For instance there’s the shark whose skin was mimicked in super-fast swimwear that was ultimately banned after too many records were broken in the 2000 Olympics; the slug with sticky slime that is behind a super-strong glue that may well be used to mend wounds both inside and outside the human body.

Another creature helping humans in their exploration of post surgical wound closing is the prickly porcupine with its antiseptic-coated quills.

Readers also meet the super fast flying, amazingly clever hovering dragonfly whose abilities in the air are behind the invention of a little four-winged drone, as well as the woodpecker with its thick skull and shock-absorbing bones, the design of which is being copied by technologists endeavouring to make safer helmets for cyclists and others who need protective headwear.

The engaging manner through which Christiane Dorion conveys a wealth of STEM information will likely appeal to primary readers, as will Gosia Herba’s bright playful illustrations. There are lots of potential cross-curricular links: I particularly like the way many of the animals encourage child readers to think both creatively and critically in this fun exploration of biomimicry.

Kaleidoscope of Creatures

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Kaleidoscope of Creatures
Cath Ard and Greer Stothers
Wide Eyed Editions

This is a fascinating look at the reasons underlying the amazing hues, patterns and textures (feather, fur and scales) of members of the animal kingdom.

After a general introduction, the opening spreads are devoted in turn, to an animal family tree that gives information about the characteristics each group has in common, followed by a close-up look at different examples of body coverings – fur, scales – reptilian and fish – and feathers.

Thereafter come a series of spreads where animals – both well known and unusual species – are grouped by the colour of their outer covering (brief explanations are given) be that red,

orange or pink, yellow, green, blue, indigo or violet, black, white, black and white.
Red for instance may act as a warning as in the red velvet mite whose silky hairs indicate to predators ‘I taste horrible’, as does the body of a scarlet lily beetle. Whereas being green often helps a creature remain unseen be it a forest dweller or one that lives in the sea.

Also helping some animals to stay unseen are designs such as spots and stripes and these are the titles of two further spreads.
Most of us know male peacocks have those amazing tail feathers that open into a stunning fan shape in order to attract a mate, but did you know that to attract a mate, male green iguanas turn carrot-coloured?

Every spread is visually arresting thanks to Greer Stothers’ pleasingly arranged arrays of fabulous fauna each one of which is labelled, with most having accompanying salient facts.

For budding zoologists and school topic boxes, I suggest.

I Am Not A Label

jillrbennett Leave a comment

I Am Not A Label
Cerrie Burnell & Lauren Baldo
Wide Eyed Editions

‘Everyone deserves to see someone like them in a story or achieving something great.’ So says the author of this book, actor, author and erstwhile CBeebies presenter Cerrie Burnell.

In short biographical accounts, she highlights the diverse achievements of 34 people from different parts of the world and from present and past times (covering a time span of some 250 years) who have all defied the odds and achieved great things despite having a disability or mental health issue of some kind.

Her choice in terms of accomplishment is wide ranging and includes artists, authors, activists, performers, scientists and mathematicians, people in fashion, and more. Some such as Beethoven, Matisse, Helen Keller, Frida Kahlo, Stephen Hawkins, Stevie Wonder and Lady Gaga will probably be familiar names to many readers.

Others may be unfamiliar, such as mathematician John Nash who had a challenging mental health condition,

Wanda Dîaz-Merced the astronomer who became blind due to diabetic retinopathy and went on to develop sonification – a way of turning visual information into sound pictures

and Arunima Sinha, an international volleyball player who after being attacked, thrown from a moving train and losing a leg as a result, took up mountaineering and became the first female amputee to reach the top of Mt. Everest.

Every one of the stories is enormously inspiring demonstrating that if you have a passion, self-belief, are absolutely determined and prepared to work hard then you can achieve amazing things.

Almost all of those included are allocated a double spread with a full-page portrait by Lauren Baldo, who manages to capture both the determination and jubilation in every one of her subjects. There are also three spreads headed Mental Health, Paralympic Stars

and Hidden Disabilities showcasing several people.

A powerful, uplifting and important book that deserves to be widely read and should be in every primary classroom collection.

Stars Before Bedtime / What’s in Your Mind Today?

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Stars Before Bedtime
Claire Grace & Dr Jessamy Hibberd, illustrated by Hannah Tolson
Wide Eyed Editions

As the authors of this book, Claire Grace a writer/editor and clinical psychologist and writer Dr Jessamy Hibberd remind us in their introduction, it’s not always easy to fall asleep in our world of constant stimulation and establishing a bedtime routine can help enormously.

To that end they have created a combination of bedtime story, and mind and body-calming exercises to help youngsters wind down as they bid ‘goodbye to the wriggles and the fidgets’ before dropping off into peaceful slumbers.

Brief stories about the constellations of the night sky,

inspired by mythology, together with instructions for mindfulness exercises related to the particular story form the basic elements; those and Hannah Tolson’s surrounding visuals created with a restful colour palette, which contain a mix of the starry night sky with symbolic representation of the constellations

and homely images of the related physical exercises in a detailed bedroom setting. (An appropriately coloured lavender crescent moon symbol is used to indicate the relevant text for each exercise.)

Among the activities included are yoga style poses, stretches, guided visualisations and conscious breathing.

Pages for grown-ups at the front and back offer ‘how to’ suggestions as well as ways you might use the book. (Each double spread can stand alone if you don’t want to read the entire book, so for instance you could choose to share the story of Draco the dragon and the accompanying stretching snakelike exercise and breathing.)

Wearing my teacher and yoga teacher specialising in yoga with children hats, I recommend giving this book a go. It should pay dividends if you persevere. Try out the different strategies suggested so that you establish that much desired, peaceful routine mentioned at the outset.

More mindfulness for little ones in:

What’s in Your Mind Today?
Louise Bladen and Angela Perrini
Little Steps Publishing

There’s always a way to let go all our thoughts no matter what we have in our minds, as this gentle book shows and tells using a variety of children and their thoughts.

By focussing on the simple breathing exercises in Louise Bladen’s calming verses, and Angela Perrini’s attractive, quirky illustrations of the mentioned girls and boys,

both children and adults can quell their busy minds and find a place of tranquillity.

Everybody Counts

jillrbennett Leave a comment

 

Everybody Counts
Kristin Roskifte (translated by Siän Mackie)
Wide Eyed Editions

This immersive book subtitled ‘A counting story from 0 to 7.5 billion’ is the 2019 winner of the Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize. It’s easy to see why. It’s like no other counting book, that’s for sure and what is counted is people, people from 0 (no one) to 7.5 billion – the entire world.

The people are members of groups and many belong to two or more groups and so stories evolve around the characters, starting with a boy and his family making a total of 5.

You can follow these characters through the book, seeing how their various life stories intersect and diverge.

The narrator makes brief comments about people in their settings, for example in the classroom scene, of the 20 children ‘One of them is thinking about all the people who’ve lived before us. One of them has lost the class teddy bear. One of them is dreading football training. One of them will become prime minister.’

However, much is left unsaid so there are sufficient gaps for readers to fill and likely fill differently, on each reading.

Dive in, get lost in the pages, stop; study each one thoughtfully, and move on; eventually you’ll have met 2768 people. Then perhaps move back; the ‘spotting section’ at the end will certainly encourage you to do that.

Most importantly though, whatever other interpretations readers make, the indisputable messages that emerge are, that we are all part of one enormous, interconnected world group – the human race – and that each one of us has our own unique story, for as the title says, Everybody Counts.

Just imagine how many philosophy for children sessions might evolve if you start exploring this ingenious, visual festival of a book in the classroom.

Poems Aloud

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Poems Aloud
Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Daniel Gray-Barnett
Wide Eyed Editions

Joseph Coelho is a performance poet so it’s no surprise that the nineteen poems in this book are first and foremost, intended to be read aloud or performed. Through so doing children can have lots of fun and discover the pure pleasure of spoken words.

There are poems for a range of moods and for each one, Joseph provides a helpful introductory line or so about reading it out loud.

There are some short playful alliterative Tongue Twisters to start with, including the sibilant The Slime Takeover that children will definitely delight in:
‘Slipping, shimmering, stinking slime, / sloppy cerise or shades of scarlet sublime. / It sticks and sucks and spits and spools, snaking slime slumping several school walls./ The slime swells and stretches, and starts to sprout, … ‘

They’ll also relish The Chilly Chilli with its homophones. Here’s the second verse telling how it feels since being ‘shipped to store’:
‘A little chilly chilli / feeling cold and in a knot. / Not a happy, chilly chilli. / In fact, this chilli feels quite ill / like it’s caught the flu. / It flew all this way / packed in a plane / to add heat to otherwise plain food.’
It sounds as though the poet had as much fun composing this as youngsters will when they read it, emphasising the bold words as he suggests.

As I write today the following are my favourites  (although they might well be different on another day): This Bear with its figurative language such as is used in the opening verse:
‘This lumbering bear is old / This lumbering bumbling bear / has shuffled over rugged imagined mountains. / Urged his bulk, slow and strong. / Slow as geography. / Strong as tree growth / through the forests of his mind.’
What a wonderful picture that paints in the reader’s mind even without the splendid illustration.

I love too the short Animals offerings that include Lion: ‘I am meat-licker, / bone-cruncher, / big–meower. / I cat walk with pride. / My mane is a hairdo of envy. / My roar is a rumble of mountains. / My claws, a savannah of pain.‘ Superb!

Next is the fantastically fanciful Something Wondrous, the first line of which urges:
‘Peer from your window in the deep of night.’ You might spy these, for its second verse goes thus:
‘A unicorn nibbles the gold leaf tree, / hobgoblins fist-fight in every flower. Mermaids flop from a luminescing sea. / Earth giants show-off their hidden powers.’ Joseph’s  power with poem creating is certainly not hidden and I really like the use of silhouettes in Daniel Grey-Barnett’s illustration.

The final one of today’s favourites conjures up a place whose sights, sounds and smells I’m familiar with. Even if you’ve never been On the Streets of New Delhi this poem will make readers feel that they’re experiencing the place. Here’s how it begins:
‘On the streets of New Delhi / a small brown dog yawns. / The morning light is golden / on the new streets of barking New Delhi.’
It concludes, thanks to the cumulative nature of the last line of each verse: ‘on the new streets of barking, selling, thrumming, chuckling New Delhi.’
Get hold of this cracking book to discover what causes the thrumming and chuckling referred to. Or you could cheat and look carefully at the action-capturing illustration  below;

but buy the book anyway – it’s a smasher!

Search-and-Find A Number of Numbers

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Search-and-Find A Number of Numbers
AJ Wood, Mike Jolley and Allan Sanders
Wide Eyed Editions

What at first glance appears a relatively simple search-and-find counting book rapidly becomes a totally immersive experience in the hands of Amanda Wood, Mike Jolley and Allan Sanders.
Once you dive into the pages comprising their sequence of zany spreads with scenes as diverse as a monocyclist, marine life, a castle scene, and canines galore – both adult and pups, you’ll find it hard to stop before the end.

This playful offering will surely have a wide age appeal – pre-schoolers for instance will relish the number 3 pages whereon nursery favourites the ‘3 blind mice,’ rhyme, the 3 bears, the 3 billy-goats gruff and the 3 little pigs all put in an appearance along with a host of other items in 3s, to locate.

Few of any age will be able to resist the delicious picnic spread out along the banks of a meandering river (number 10,) or the 19 robot with all manner of inappropriate items left inside by its absent-minded boffin constructor.

Another of my favourite spreads is 5 with its splendidly embroidered woolly glove – perfect to wear in chilly weather.

By the time anyone reaches the 100 challenge – a building site – their counting fingers will likely be all a-tingle and their eyes agog; and their visual skills will most definitely have been honed considerably, thanks to every one of Allan Sanders splendidly eccentric scenes. But there’s still one final challenge …

Brilliantly playful and playfully brilliant – don’t miss it!

A Clutch of Activity and Craft Books

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Scratch and Learn: Space
illustrated by Victoria Fernández
Scratch and Learn: Animals
illustrated by Natasha Durley
Wide Eyed Editions

These are new additions to the series, both of which have seven interactive spreads and an attached stylus for young readers to do the scratching.

Each spread explores a different theme and in the Space title, these start with the Big Bang and the scratching reveals 10 galaxies. Then come a look at the solar system, the Moon, ‘Spacecraft’, which has the Space Shuttle as a featured image, a peep at life on board the International Space Station, an account of the life cycle of a star, and finally, a constellation map.

Spencer investigating the map

There are 10 ‘scratch and discover’ shapes to investigate with the stylus on every spread as well as a lead-in, easy to understand, factual paragraph (or two), clearly labelled objects and an additional ‘fact’ most in speech bubble form, for example ‘The light from the closest star still takes 4 years to reach us.’

The Animals featured in the second book come from different habitats around the world and as in the previous title, Lucy Brownridge supplies the succinct text.

Ten animals have ‘hidden’ themselves in each of Natasha Durley’s alluringly illustrated locations: the Amazon rainforest, the Great Barrier Reef, the Sundarbans Mangrove forest, (between India and Bangladesh), the grasslands of the African Savannah, a coniferous forest of northern Canada, the arid Gobi Desert and Antarctica.

Both titles are appealing early interactive books that can be brought out anywhere especially on a journey or a rainy day.

The Mermaid Craft Book
Laura Minter and Tia Williams
GMC Publications

Prolific craft book creators, Laura and Tia have added a new title to their series, this time with a mermaid theme.
It’s filled with ideas for making things to use, things to wear and tasty things to eat.

Having provided a list of what is needed, the authors give step-by-step instructions for such diverse projects as creating a seashore garden, making aquarium puppets and a theatre to use with them,

and you can even bake a mermaid cake or throw an ‘under-the-sea’ party serving only sea themed food and serve up that cake then. Young merpeople will love it.

Youngsters will also be enthusiastic about the book as a whole though they’ll require adult support with several of the activities.

Ancient Egypt Adventure Activity Book
illustrated by Jen Alliston
Button Books

Historical fun aplenty Ancient Egyptian style is found in this activity book.

Little ones can immerse themselves in the world of mummies, pyramids, pharaohs, hieroglyphics and ancient gods as they engage in mask making, maze manoeuvring, maths, message decoding, crafty creations, unscramble muddled up words and more. There are more than 100 activities in all as well as 4 pages of stickers to use to complete some of the scenes.

While engaging in these activities youngsters will likely learn some Ancient Egypt related language and facts too, as well as developing their fine motor and observational skills.

Jen Alliston has provided the illustrations and where relevant, answers are provided at the back of the book.

When We Walked on the Moon

jillrbennett Leave a comment

When We Walked on the Moon
David Long and Sam Kalda
Wide Eyed Editions

Another of the recent, 50th anniversary of mankind’s first moon-landing outpouring of space-related books, both fiction and non-fiction, is this compelling one from David Long.

Herein, using a narrative style, he focuses in the main on the astronauts who took part in the Apollo Missions.
Dividing the text into short chapters he provides both technical details and accounts of the important incidents for the Apollo astronauts, including  pre Apollo space travels such as Yuri Gagarin’s 1961 orbiting of the Earth, before focussing on the Space Race between the Soviet and American teams to be the first to land a human on the Moon’s surface.

The focus of the second chapter is the Apollo11 flight crewed by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. We read of such domestic details as how the crew ate cooked portions of beef hash, toast, biscuits and bacon that were freeze-dried in bags; how their drinking water was made and their sleeping arrangements.

The third chapter describes the actual moon landing, how the two who were to walk outside first had to rest for four hours before venturing outside in their space suits. I was fascinated to learn that eleven layers of ‘different fabrics’ were used in their space suits to protect the men from everything from space dust to pieces of flying rock and from spacecraft fire; and that said suits weighed 80kg each.

Then comes Armstrong’s famous first Moon walk,

followed shortly after by Aldrin.

The Apollo 12 mission is described next; the crew, we’re told, had twice as much time as their predecessors on the Moon’s surface and were able to carry out tests and collect samples.

We then read of the almost disastrous Apollo 13 mission and what took place aboard the spaceship following the explosion of an oxygen tank that badly damaged the service module, causing a brief but complete loss of radio communication with Earth. Happily ground staff at NASA working non-stop, together with the awesome ingenuity and courage of the astronauts aboard Aquarius, succeeded in bringing the men back home.

The amazing and absorbing story concludes with the safe return of the final Moon mission team aboard Apollo 17

and a brief look at future space travel with such enormous challenges as reaching Mars; however, as we read, ‘if Apollo showed us anything it is that with a combination of courage, determination and ingenuity we can and will go far.’

The final pages include group portraits of the crews of each Apollo mission together with brief biographies of each astronaut, a glossary and timeline.

Sam Kalda incorporates his love of pattern and texture into double page, single page and smaller illustrations of men, machines, lunarscapes and the Earth from space.

With its plethora of small humanising details, this book is strongly recommended for KS2 classroom collections and for home reading.

Planet Fashion

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Planet Fashion
Natasha Slee and Cynthia Kittler
Wide Eyed Editions

Hats firmly held on and boots duly laced, we’re off on a catwalk extravaganza that embraces cultures, time and much more as it showcases in twenty five scenes, fashion history from all over the world.

We’re in the company of two young fashionistas, one male, one female, as we embark on this globetrotting experience. (It’s fun to locate them looking the part in every scene.)

The journey begins in a high society ballroom over a century ago as elegantly attired dancers and onlookers twirl or stand in their floor-sweeping Edwardian ball-gowns and suits.

Next stop is a performance of the Ballet Russes where dancers drift across the stage clad in voluminous harem pants and feathered turbans, watched by women in empire-line dresses, often wearing huge hats.

Cycling shows women sporting cycle bloomers and sometimes dresses as they pedal their bicycles in early 1900s USA.

‘Shimmying Down’ set at a Harlem Renaissance dancehall, showcases women in brightly coloured flapper fashions and men sporting long jackets or studded waistcoats.

No matter whether you wish to emulate the ’Lost generation’ of 1920s Paris; imagine yourself as a Bollywood screen star gracing the Mumbai (Bombay as it was then) roads during the 1960s, or striding carefree along the London streets of the 1950s and 60s proudly wearing a miniskirt or dress;

glue your hair into spikes like the London Punks of the 1970s; or try ‘Posing with the Girl Gang’ in the uber-cool Harajuku district of Japan from the late 1990s onwards;

or imagine yourself street dancing in South Africa’s townships in the earlier 2000s there’s a vibrant scene to show you how it’s done.

Every single lavishly illustrated spread is inclusive, with diverse characters wearing the distinguishing fashions of the era; and each has a fact box giving information about key designers, hemline and sleeves, and silhouette as well as the when and where, and descriptive paragraphs providing cultural history and influences.

If all that isn’t sufficient for even the most dedicated follower of fashion, then there are also timelines – the first of which gives a summary of key events of the 20th century, and the other four showing silhouettes, shoe styles, and trends in hats and bags. Plus there’s a final ‘Can you find’ challenge that will surely inspire readers to go back and peruse the scenes even more carefully to locate such as ‘a woman watering her flower garden on the streets of Saigon’; ‘a bird enjoying the breeze on a washing line in Canada’ or ‘a waiter dropping his tray of coffee on the streets of Paris’.

For anybody with an interest in fashion, this is a must-have book: I absolutely loved it.

D-Day

jillrbennett Leave a comment

D-Day
Michael Noble and Alexander Mostov
Wide Eyed Editions

This book commemorates the 75th anniversary since D-Day, exploring through 20 real-life stories, eye-witness accounts of the D-Day landings and through whose eyes young readers can re-live the events- stories of ‘bravery, sacrifice and innovation’ as the introduction says.

Through historian Michael Noble’s text, we follow the invasion from the planning of the landings, right through to its consequences, meeting both men and women who served in various ways.

There’s Lieutenant General Frederick Morgan who fought as a junior officer in WW1 and went on to be, in WW2, part of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, one of the planners of the invasion of Europe under the joint responsibility of the British and the Americans, and in particular the Normandy landings.

Moreen James served in the WRNS as a plotter, keeping track from her Portsmouth subterranean base, of the movement of ships in the channel; a crucial task in enabling commanders to know the whereabouts of their boats and planes.

We meet the extraordinarily brave Sergeant Major Stanley Hollins, the only recipient of the Victoria Cross, considered the highest honour members of the British armed services can be awarded, for actions on D-Day.

Phyllis Allan served with the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service and was based in France where she tended the wounded soldiers, some of whom had suffered horrendous injuries. “It’s just a job, really’ she said.

American Richard Winters, aged 26 calls himself ‘ancient compared to some of my men’. A paratrooper, he took command of his unit when the original commander was killed in action. WW2 was the first major conflict to make use of paratroopers, a highly dangerous role with many losing their lives before hitting the ground.

Much less would have been known about the war without the journalists who reported on what was happening. One such was American, Ernie Pyle who not only wrote numerous articles, but also came to know many of the soldiers engaged in the fighting.

Through the use of collated photographs, personal accounts such as those mentioned, and testimonies from all sides, set into Alexander Mostov’s full-page illustrations that dramatise the roles of all individuals included herein, this is an enormously inspiring book.

Include it in KS2 class collections and on family bookshelves.

Scratch and Learn: Human Body / The Great Big Book of Life

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Scratch and Learn: Human Body
Katy Flint and Ana Seixas
Wide Eyed Editions

I’ve loved some of the EtchArt books from Quarto but this is the first science title I’ve seen, essentially an introduction to how the human body works.

It comprises two main elements: ‘Scratch to Discover’ where the reader uses the stylus to find ten things on each of the seven spreads: the skeleton, muscles,

organs, eating and digestion, the senses, the brain

and, lungs and heart.

Then there are activities – one per spread – to demonstrate how different parts of the body function. For example the muscle-related one says, ‘With your palm facing up, touch your thumb and little finger together. This shows one of your flexor tendons working in your wrist.’

There’s also an invitation to play a search-and-find memory game.

Each topic has an introductory paragraph and some also include additional bite-size snippets of information.

Spencer investigating the skeleton

Graphic designer/illustrator Ana Seixas brings a gentle humour to the pages of this fun, interactive book to use at home that is relevant to the KS1 science curriculum.

The Great Big Book of Life
Mary Hoffman and Ros Asquith
Frances Lincoln Children’s Books

The 6th in The Great Big Book of … series looks at life from conception and birth to death and memories.

The early years are allocated several spreads – infant physical development,

sleep, feeding, staying healthy, learning to use the loo and how language develops.

Subsequent topics are school (including home schooling), the teenage years, work, partners,

the middle years, old age, death and finally a spread advocating living life to the full no matter who we are, which includes thinking of other people as well as ourselves.

As in previous team Hoffman and Asquith titles, diversity is a key element. Mary’s light-hearted narrative style combined with Ros’s wonderfully witty illustrations make for an informal and explicit read.

A book to add to your home or school collection.

Listen! – The Flute / World of Forests

jillrbennett 1 Comment

The Flute
Ken Wilson-Max and Catell Ronca
Tiny Owl

The second in the Children Music Life series showcases a reedless woodwind instrument, the flute. Here flautists from different parts of the world come together to celebrate its magic. It’s a colourful magic that conjures up mellow sounds …

and bright ones; that sometimes speaks very softly …

or blows icily.
It might be a scream of pink, a sigh of lilac that is …

The voice through which the flutes speak is pure poetry; now why not try to discover its sounds for yourself … Where will it take you? What will you hear and see: how will you feel?

With rainbow bright illustrations from Catell Ronca and Ken Wilson-Max’s poetic words, prepare to be transported and perhaps to dance with your little one like some of the characters herein. Through music is a wonderful way to introduce very young children to stories: this little treasure of a book will help you do just that.

World of Forests
Robert Hunter
Wide Eyed Editions

Robert Hunter follows his World of Birds with a new Sounds of Nature title in which he explores ten different forest habitats from various parts of the world – Europe (including the UK), the USA, South America, Africa, India, Socotra Island (Yemen) and China.
Each habitat is given a double spread wherein are showcased the animal inhabitants (with a factual paragraph on each one) as well as a general introduction to the particular forest be it of the coniferous or deciduous kind.
Six or seven creatures are included in each location be that the German evergreen forest; the Redwood forest of California; England’s New Forest; the Amazon rainforest; a cloud forest in the Virunga Mountains of East Africa;

a desert forest of Socotra Island; a beech forest of Brussels;

the Sundarbans mangrove forest in the Bay of Bengal (I don’t think this is at ‘the southern tip of India’ as stated in the book though); the coniferous taiga (snow) forest of Alaska; or the bamboo forest in the mountains dividing North and South China.

Pressing the sound button on each spread produces a ten second burst of the natural sounds of 60 or more animals. You’ll need to listen very carefully to identify such creatures as the squawking macaws of the rainforest or the call of the Northern wren in the beech forest.

The whole thing is splendidly atmospheric: with its beautiful panoramic illustrations and fascinating soundscapes it’s a book that is likely to appeal across a wide age range.

What’s Going On Inside My Head? / Step Into Your Power

jillrbennett Leave a comment

What’s Going On Inside My Head?
Molly Potter and Sarah Jennings
Bloomsbury Featherstone

Developing and supporting emotional literacy is, or should be, a crucial part of young children’s education in school and most teachers consider it so.

However, parents/carers can at times feel inadequate when it comes to talking to and supporting their children’s mental health, and at an increasingly younger age children come under enormous pressure be that through the education system (I could rant at length about that) or out of school in clubs and activities in which they participate, as well as through social media and advertising. What parents need to do is to love and support children not for what they can achieve but for who and what they are.

To this end Molly Potter, a teacher who specialises in PSHE has written a very helpful book to share with young children.

By means of twelve questions she explores a range of topics: how to think about oneself; the relationship between a healthy body and a healthy mind (how the former feeds into the latter);

the notion of happiness; dealing with emotions; coping with feelings of anger, sadness and fear; coping with negative thoughts that seem overwhelming (suggestions to prevent ‘ruminating’ and instead focusing on being in the moment); dealing with upsets triggered by another person (forgiving is important here).

There’s also a spread on meditation and its potential benefits;

another on who to ask for help when it’s needed; the role of family and friends as a supportive network; being a better friend and finally, improving one’s own thinking habits – being proactive when something is upsetting you.

Many of the topics includes a ‘top tip’ or ‘It’s good (or important) to know that …’ paragraph and I particularly like the coping plan

and the invitation to hold up a mirror to oneself and think about which behaviours ‘you like’, ‘don’t mind’ and ‘really do not like’.
The book concludes with three pages of guidance for parents and carers.

Throughout Sarah Jennings’ inclusive illustrations both support and extend Molly’s straightforward, sensible, practical words.

For an older age group is:

Step Into Your Power
Jamia Wilson and Andrea Pippins
Wide Eyed Editions

Here’s a book I wish I’d had when I was growing up. Both author Jamia Wilson (executive director of the Feminist Press) and illustrator/designer Andrea Pippins act as mentors in this, their guide to helping girls to grow into confident young women, cognisant of their strengths (and the areas they need to work at), and sufficiently empowered to step out and follow their dreams.

Subtitled ‘23 lessons on how to live your best life’, the book offers exactly that and made me want to go immediately and seek out some young females to share it with.

After an inspiring introduction, said lessons are organised into five sections entitled: Power, Community, Choices, Act! and Self-Care and all sections comprise several key elements each of which is allocated a double spread (or two) illustrated in vibrant colour by Andrea.

Thinking outside the box, abandoning old habits that are no longer appropriate in today’s richly diverse society, and not always following the rules, are explored and the author mentions as examples some visionary rule-challenging individuals.

Each topic has an encouraging and uplifting ‘Step into your power’ section.

Thoroughly recommended for upper primary readers and beyond.

Brilliant Ideas from Wonderful Women / Little Miss Inventor / Amazing Women Sticker Scenes

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Brilliant Ideas from Wonderful Women
Aitziber Lopez and Luciano Lozano
Wide Eyed Editions

Let’s give three rousing cheers for the brilliantly inventive women behind the first car heater, the game Monopoly, disposable nappies, the dishwasher, the domestic surveillance system, Kevlar, maritime flares, non reflective glass, WIFI, one-hand operated syringes,

the submarine telescope, diagnostic tests in medicine, the life raft, windscreen wipers and the E-book.

All these ground- breaking inventions came about thanks to the work of the pioneering, creative spirit of the women featured in this book. Each one has made a significant contribution to science or technology in either the 19th or 20th century and they are each given a spread in this celebratory book.

For several of those included, the invention featured is not their only one. For instance Chicago-born Margaret A. Wilcox is credited with inventing the first washing machine in addition to the car heater discussed here; Hedy Lamarr, in addition to WIFI – surprisingly inspired by piano keys we’re told – invented Bluetooth and GPS. And, Marion O’Brien Donovan went on to invent a number of other things – dental floss, a soap dish that drained and a hanger that could hold up to 30 garments – being some of them.
It will come as no surprise to learn that these women inventors all had to overcome enormous odds to get their work patented and marketed, not least African-American Marie Van Brittan Brown the brains behind the 1966 domestic surveillance system; indeed she (and her husband) weren’t successful in marketing their system although many others made fortunes inspired by the original patent.

Maria Beasley inventor of the life raft did not have her invention taken seriously until the disastrous Titanic sinking. Maria’s life rafts were on the liner but not in sufficient numbers to save everyone.

All this fascinating information and more is included in scientist Aitziber Lopez’s inspiring book.

I love the way, illustrator Luciano Lozano has cleverly incorporated both the inspiration for, and use of each invention, into his amusing spreads.

This is a book I’d certainly want to have in my KS1/early KS2 classroom as well as recommending it for families who want to celebrate with the children, the achievements of women, and that should be every family.

Little Miss Inventor
Adam Hargreaves
Egmont

Adam Hargreaves (son of Roger) has created a new Little Miss and who wouldn’t love a book with a young female inventor?

Little Miss Inventor has a brain brimming over with good ideas; ideas that she transforms into inventions in her garden shed. Her self-imagined, self-built mobile house is chock-full of her awesome inventions and she loves to create useful things for her friends as well as herself.

One day however, her brain power is tested to the limit: she needs to make Mr Rude a birthday present; but what can one give to a person who hurls insults at everyone he meets. Can she think of something appropriate and if so what could it be?

Feminist power with a STEM theme and a laugh out loud finale for your little ones.

Amazing Women Sticker Scenes
illustrated by Isabel Muñoz
Red Shed

This book contains ten illustrated backdrops  by Isabel Muñoz that include basic key information about ten women who have made in their own fields, significant contributions to society through their achievements in aviation, girls’ rights to education, science, literature, sport, women’s rights and architecture.

In addition there are six pages of stickers to add to the relevant scenes. This could be a good way to introduce the numerous sticker-mad youngsters to these wonderful women.

A Year of Nature Poems

jillrbennett Leave a comment

A Year of Nature Poems
Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Kelly Louise Judd
Wide Eyed Editions

Here’s the perfect book to start off 2019 and give us all something to look forward to other than the doom and gloom that issues forth whenever one turns on the TV or radio news and current affairs.

Award-winning performance poet Joseph Coelho has penned twelve poems about the natural world, one for every month of the year. Each is introduced with a brief prose paragraph to set the scene, and beautifully illustrated by Kelly Louise Judd in folk art style.

Joe is one for creating powerful images in his writing and it’s certainly so here.

There are reflective poems, several of which seemingly stem from the author’s own childhood, one such is April. ‘ When there was electricity in the sunset / I’d lay in the sky-hug of our balcony hammock / and swing. The rain was always welcome / each drop a cold thrill/ that relaxed and washed away.’

Reflective too and exquisitely expressed is his account of creating a pond and its visitation by mayflies in May.
‘They’re quick to shed their awkwardness. / The dead pond, I couldn’t bring myself to fill-in, / explodes into an exultation / of fairy dust / and angel light / of dancing tears / and sparkling goodbyes / as wild life fills / the hole we dug.’

In its final verse February laments the decline in amphibian numbers but before that we’re treated to a lyrical description of frogspawn: ‘Soft pond jewels are forming / in sunlit forest pools. // Expectation and hope / balled-up in clear jelly. Frog-baby crèche.’

Many of us as youngsters indulged in a spot of scrumping but my partner has never grown out of this activity and still enjoys liberating apparently unwanted fruit as summer gives way to autumn. So, I was amused to read Joe’s fruitful account of childhood exploits of so doing in his August poem.

You can almost smell smoke so vivid is the description of leaf fall and the autumnal hues enjoyed by a young Joseph with his mother one October: ‘The leaves were piled / bonfire high / whizzing russets, shooting oranges, exploding yellows /that she scooped in armfuls / and cascaded over me / in a dry-leaf firework display / of love.’

A year as seen through Joe Coelho’s poems offers a terrific sensory awakening to put us all in mindful mode, and perhaps inspire children to pen their own responses to the beauty of the natural world.

Find My Rocket / Elephants on Tour / Egypt Magnified

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Find My Rocket
Aleksandra Artymowska
Laurence King Publishing

Aleksandra Artymowska is a terrific illustrator; I first came across her amazing work through another maze book, Amazed. Now it looks as though the same boy from that book has returned needing help in another puzzling adventure. This time having sent his red rocket jetting off into space he needs our help to locate it in eleven differently themed maze scenes. It’s easy enough for readers to spot the whizzing spacecraft but finding the right way through the intricately detailed possible pathways presents a real puzzler.

Every one of Aleksandra’s scenes be it the paper cranes, the building blocks, the toolbox or the teddies,

is packed with wonderful small objects, visual jokes and more – love the alliterative manoeuvres the lad performs during his search– catapulted through the cars, dodged all the dominoes, for instance, before he finally succeeds in retrieving the object he launched.

A great book to immerse oneself in as the evenings draw in; if you’ve yet to discover Aleksandra Artymowska, then this is a great place to start.

Elephants on Tour
Guillaume Cornet
Laurence King Publishing

Having packed their trunks, five elephants are ready to embark on a world tour and we’re invited. First though we need to get to know something about our fellow adventurers: there’s the highly organised guy with his bags full of maps and tickets. He’s accompanied by a food connoisseur; the arty one, the photographer and the energetic one who insists on taking his skateboard along.

Having done London aboard a red double decker, the next port of call is Amsterdam with its canals and cycle lanes to explore. No doubt they sampled the syrupy waffles, a speciality of the city.

I’m sure they would also have tried the blinis in St. Petersburg and kayaked along one of the rivers or taken a ride on the Mongolian railway.

After visiting sixteen locations on five continents the final stop in their frenetic journey before returning to home shores, is Paris.

Along the way we receive a running commentary from the five travellers and for each location a fact file and other useful information. We’ll definitely need all that because at the outset, we are asked to make sure we find each of the elephants and their favourite belongings at every stopping place. No easy task with so much to look at. (Answers are supplied at the end of the tour.) My head is spinning after that.

With Guillaume Cornet’s intricately detailed scenes, this search and find journey is totally engrossing; those cityscapes are mind-boggling.

Egypt Magnified
David Long and Harry Bloom
Wide Eyed Editions

One possible way to get youngsters interested in times past, especially those who can’t get enough search-and-find books is this offering from Long and Bloom. Readers are invited to travel back through the centuries and visit sixteen Egyptian scenes, including the Great Pyramid and Tutankhamun’s tomb that are absolutely teeming with tiny figures.

Once in ancient Egypt, there are  ten items or people to spot in each illustration and on reaching the end, readers are encouraged to go back and hunt for another 57, plus a hidden mummy on every spread. (There’s a magnifying glass to facilitate the search inside the front cover, because, so we’re told, every Egyptologist needs one.)

Forgotten Beasts / Dictionary of Dinosaurs / Dinosaur Bingo

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Forgotten Beasts
Matt Sewell
Pavilion Children’s Books

If you’ve ever wondered about the strange animals that were concurrent with, or followed in the footsteps of, the dinosaurs, then Matt Sewell’s sumptuous new book is the place to go. ‘Welcome to the amazing world of forgotten beasts!’ announces the introductory line of the book’s blurb. Of the over forty astonishing creatures large and small, most are completely new to this reviewer. Matt supplies readers with a note on his illustrations and there’s a double spread with a time line and other introductory matter before the animals are showcased.

First, we’re introduced to some of the very earliest ones that made their homes in the water: there’s the Ordovician marine dwelling Cameroceras with its 9-metre-long conical shell and the Dunkleosteus from the late Devonian period with its razor sharp teeth that it used to crack open shells of the creatures it fed on.

Two of my favourites though come much later, from the late Pliocene – late Pleistocene era.: meet the herbivorous rhino-like Elasmotherium that weighed between 3,500 and 4,500 kg.

Despite being only around a metre tall, the horn of the male sometimes grew to a length of 1.8 metres.
Another, the enormous owl Ornimegalonyx, is also from the late Pleistocene era. Over a metre tall, it weighed nine kilos.

Awesome!

Written in consultation with vertebrate palaeontologist, Dr Stephen Brusatte from Edinburgh University, this fascinating book will broaden he horizons of dinosaur enthusiasts. Every one of Matt’s magnificent paintings is a stunner.

Dictionary of Dinosaurs
illustrated by Dieter Braun, edited by Dr. Matthew G.Baron
Wide Eyed Editions

Wow! Every dinosaur that has ever been discovered is featured in this pictorial dictionary and who better to grace its pages with his awesome illustrations than Dieter Braun.

After a short introduction explaining the what, when, the demise and evidence of dinosaurs, comes a timeline and a page explaining how the book might be used.
Then we meet each one from Aardonyx and Abelisaurus to Zhuchengtyrannus and Zuniceratops, none of which I’d previously heard of.
There’s a brief informative description that includes  how to pronounce the name, length, diet, when it lived and where found – just sufficient to whet the appetite and perhaps send eager readers off searching for additional information about some of particular interest.

For dinosaur addicts and school libraries or topic boxes I suggest.

For those who can’t get enough of things prehistoric, is a game for the dino-mad:

Dinosaur Bingo
illustrated by Caroline Selmes
Magma for Laurence King Publishing

In the sturdy box are a folded caller’s game board, eight double-sided players’ game boards, 48 dinosaur tokens, 150 circular counters and a dinosaur head box to contain the tokens.
Between three and eight people can participate in what is likely to be a popular take on the classic game. Players might even learn some new dinosaur names such as Maiasaura or Therizinosaurus along the way. I certainly did.

Great for families or a group of friends, and it would make a good present for a dinosaur-loving child.

Voyage Through Space

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Voyage Through Space
Katy Flint and Cornelia Li
Wide Eyed Editions

In the company of a little astronaut and her dog, readers are taken on a journey of adventure in space starting at the Sun, the centre of our solar system.

So it’s space suits and helmets on and off we go exploring the planets, our first stop being Mercury, closest to the Sun and the smallest planet in our solar system. We learn that its surface is covered in craters on account of the meteors that have crashed into it over millions of years; we discover that its temperature varies dramatically; it’s ‘blisteringly hot’ by day and very cold at night. Did you know that on Mercury a year is a mere 88 days long?

Venus is next closest where temperatures can go as high as 460 ℃ – OUCH! This is the hottest planet, has no moon and is impossible to explore.

Next stopping place is the moon, whereon American astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin were the first to land, a good place from which to observe Earth.

The red planet, Mars is the next stop; a place prone to fierce dust storms . A sol (Martian day) is approximately 39 minutes longer than an Earth day.

Passing through the asteroid belt takes the explorers to the largest planet in our solar system and fifth from the sun. NASA’s Juno spacecraft is currently studying Jupiter with its liquid surface and clouds of toxic gases.

The ringed planet, Saturn is the next destination. There strong hurricanes rage and the surface is mostly liquids and swirling gases. I was amazed to learn that a year on Saturn is more than 29 Earth years.

Uranus glows blue when seen in the distance from Saturn. That’s the next place viewed. Its surface is the coldest in the universe and the explorers are unable to stand thereon as its surface is gaseous, although beneath the blue-green gas clouds, scientists believe enormous gems are to be found. If only …

The final planet on the journey is Neptune, even windier than Jupiter and the furthest from the Sun. Voyager 2 took a whole two years to reach Neptune from Earth. Thereafter the adventurers reach the ‘frisbee-shaped Kuiper belt … Time to head home.

All this information is provided in easily digestible bite size chunks scattered on the relevant spread, most of which is taken up with Cornelia Li’s powerful and intriguing illustration. You can almost feel the intense heat coming from some of the pages and taste with swirling gases from others.
In addition there’s a glow-in-the-dark, fold-out poster at the back of the book to further excite young readers.

EtchArt: Enchanted Garden / EtchArt: Forgotten Jungle

jillrbennett Leave a comment

EtchArt: Enchanted Garden
EtchArt: Forgotten Jungle
A.J.Wood, Mike Jolley and Dinara Mirtalipova
Wide Eyed Editions
These two additions to the EtchArt series will have their users setting out on a folk-art inspired journey through nature as they use the stylus provided to remove the inky-black covering and etch away at the nine beautiful Enchanted Garden or Forgotten Jungle scenes.

The former takes us to Fantastic Flowers, The Bird Fountain, we meet Crafty Cat, look In the Apple Tree and The Garden Pond, visit A Strawberry Patch, enjoy The Garden’s Bounty, Roses Galore and watch Crazy Caterpillars.

Authors Wood and Jolley provide instructions for each location as well as words of encouragement and a rhyming couplet to accompany Dinara Mirtalipova’s illustrations, which bring a chic elegance to each spread.

And the final verse bids users farewell with: ‘This magic garden is revealed / It’s time for us to part / Its wonders are no more concealed – / it’s your own work of art.

So it is with the latter, only the first line of the verse changes to ‘Forgotten Jungle’.
In this mysterious place users spy Perfect Parrots, call on Tiger Tiger, spot Lively Lizards and Amazing Orchids,

visit Hummingbird Heaven, enjoy some Monkey Business, observe The Sacred Ibis and The Jungle by Night and finally see Lazy Leopards.

In each scene you can take off the entire covering, or create swirling, twirling patterns, stripes, dots or whatever takes your fancy by way of personalisation.

Both are thoroughly enjoyable, absorbing and also restful, so long as you don’t let an under 3 year old loose with the stylus.

Perfect holiday activity away from the sun!

World of Birds / My RSPB Sticker Activity Book: Woodland Animals

jillrbennett Leave a comment

World of Birds
Robert Hunter
Wide Eyed Editions
This is the first of a new Sounds of Nature series, which has ten 10-second natural soundscapes available at the touch of a button.
Herein readers can visit and explore ten diverse habitats—from the Himalayan Mountains

to the wetlands of Kenya’s Lake Nakuru, and the tropical rainforest of New Guinea to an English forest

and listen to birds in the wild with this exciting book, strikingly illustrated by Robert Frank Hunter.
There’s a brief paragraph of facts about each bird species included and their respective numbers relate to the order in which the sounds they make can be heard.
An interactive book for young, and not so young nature lovers that called to mind an alarm, sounded by ecologist and musician, Bernie Krause in his recent book: ‘A great silence is spreading over the natural world even as the sound of man is becoming deafening.’
Let’s hope that it doesn’t spread over the wonderful habitats featured by Hunter.

My RSPB Sticker Activity Book: Woodland Animals
Illustrated by Stephanie Fizer Coleman
Walker Books

There’s a range of activities to engage young children in this woodland setting book. Readers can enjoy dot to dots,

colour in some of the creatures including completing and ensuring the symmetry of the peacock and red admiral butterflies (they’d have to check elsewhere for the colours of the latter), add stickers to scenes (in some cases completing a puzzle), hunt for partially hidden nocturnal animals, complete a maze and spot differences.

The semi-matt finish and reproductive quality of the stickers, along with the illustrator’s attractive collage style art work and the factual information integrated into the various scenes make this a book to keep and return to after the tasks have been completed.

Spot the Mistake: Journeys of Discovery

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Spot the Mistake: Journeys of Discovery
Amanda Wood, Mike Jolley and Frances Castle
Wide Eyed Editions

If my experience with the previous Spot the Mistake title, Lands of Long Ago, is anything to go by, children will eagerly seize upon this follow up that encompasses ten explorative expeditions with famous travellers from Marco Polo to the NASA Apollo moon mission.

Each of the journeys is allocated two double spreads, the first being a large scene featuring the explorer and aspects of the journey undertaken, and contains 20 visual incongruities for spotters to discover.
The subsequent spread identifies the ‘anachronisms’ (some are much more easily spotted than others,) in a smaller annotated scene and provides some explanation; and there’s also a paragraph about the particular journey and the explorer(s) involved.

With explorers as diverse as Zheng He from China who, in the 15th C, led voyages that took him and his fleet to Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia, and Edmund Hillary who, with his trusty guide, Sherpa Tenzing Norgay reached the top of Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain in 1953.

Young eagle-eyed spotters will definitely enjoy finding the Elvis picture among those displayed on the Zheng He spread; the basket of apples and incomplete lunar calendar in Columbus’ ‘New World’ scene;

and the laptop lurking in the early 20C South Pole scene that features Captain Scott.

Frances Castle’s diorama style scenes are both engaging and contain just the right amount of detail to be inviting but not overwhelming.

Between the covers of this book there’s a wealth of learning potential in the form of a game.

Plantopedia / Summer

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Plantopedia
Adrienne Barman
Wide Eyed Editions

Barman follows up her Creaturepedia with a celebration of more than 600 plants that includes trees, fruits, flowers – wild and cultivated, vegetables, herbs, weeds, healing plants and more from all over the world.

Somewhat strangely for this reviewer at least, we start indoors with ‘The air fresheners’ – plants to grow indoors that clean the air. This section is followed by ‘The all-blacks’ and then ’The aquatics’ ‘The big eaters’ and another colour section – ‘The blues and purples’. I’m not sure whether the author had a plan in mind when she arranged the spreads but to me the section sequencing seems quirky and perhaps random which creates something of a surprise element.I particularly liked The Stars pages.

Having said that the whole book is packed with learning possibilities in various curriculum areas such as science, geography, history, art perhaps (although it’s better to use real plants I suggest) and almost every topic could be an inspiration for further investigation.

In contrast to the rest of the book, the appendix devoted to three aspects of leaves – shape, arrangement and edges/veins – is straightforward botany.

The illustrations are bright, engaging and gently humorous – look out for animals popping up on lots of spreads, and the odd human from time to time.

One for budding botanists, the family bookshelf or school library.

For younger readers, with plants also taking centre stage is:

Summer
David A. Carter
Abrams Appleseed

Just in time for summer comes David A. Carter’s fourth and final pop-up in his seasons series. Carter has created six plant pop-ups –one of which he places at the centre of each spread,

and in and around them are to be found various animals including birds, butterflies and other minibeasts, small mammals, a snake, a turtle and a fish.

A brief accompanying text invites children to get involved by asking such questions as ‘Who eats the flowers?’ or ‘Who swims in the creek?’

Fun and captivating, this is an American publication so some of the named items will be unfamiliar but that offers a good talking point for readers in parts of the world other than the USA.

Everybunny Count! / abc

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Everybunny Count!
Ellie Sandall
Hodder Children’s Books

Since making friends in Everybunny Dance, ’Fox and bunnies like to play, / all together, every day.’ And their chosen game for this particular day is hide-and-seek.

The bunnies do their countdown and the hunt for fox commences. The first finding is a single badger soon followed by two bunnies spotting two birds: ‘Everybunny count to TWO!’

The search continues. Three bunnies spy three frisky squirrels; four find four ladybirds.

The pond is a fruitful place for fresh discoveries: five diving bunnies see five ducks while among the sticks, six bunnies find six frogs. ‘Everybunny count to SIX!’
Next stop is the carrot patch – just the place for a crunchy carrot nibble. It’s getting late and eight bunnies are anything but observant in their haste …

By now those bunnies are feeling sleepy as they form a line and count to NINE! (sheep) and then hurrah! There among the trees, close to his den is Fox.

There’s another surprise however for at the count of ten what should appear but ten little fox cubs and a proud mother.

It’s time to dance …

Ellie Sandall’s rhyming text with its infectious repetition ‘Everybunny count to …’ bounces along as beautifully as the bunnies. Add to that her deliciously playful pencil and watercolour illustrations (children will delight in occasional glimpses of Fox along the way) that lead to this …

and we have a counting book story that’s full of fun and sure to result in echoes of the animals’ “Let’s play hide-and-seek again.”

abc
Aino-Maija Metsola
Wide Eyed Editions

Learning the alphabet is just a part of this new addition to the Learning Garden series. Young children can have fun not only naming the objects for each letter of the alphabet but also enjoying the various patterns, shapes and bright colours that are part and parcel of every page.

There are numerous opportunities for language learning, depending on the child’s interest and the skill of the adult sharer. You might for example, chose two or three of the letters and illustrated objects, and use them to make up a story together. The sturdy pages mean that this little board book should stand up well to the enthusiastic use it’s likely to get in a nursery or family.

Wild World, The Coral Kingdom and Who’s Hiding on the River? / Who’s Hiding on the Farm?

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Wild World
Angela McAllister, Hvass & Hannibal
Wide Eyed Editions

The author has chosen thirteen natural habitats – Rainforest, Arctic, Prairie, Woodland, Coral reef, Desert, Rock pool, Mountain, The Outback, Moorland, Deep sea, Mangrove and Savannah – that are under threat due to human activity, and captures the essence of each one in a series of free verses.
Here’s the opening to Mountain:
‘I am the highest mountain, / Born in a collision of continents. / All is beneath me, except the sun, moon and stars. / I am rock, / Crag, cliff and ledge, draped in veils of white. / I am snow-maker, with glaciers in my arms, / Whose meltwater swells great rivers below.’

In stark contrast is the quieter sounding Savannah, which opens like this: ‘Savannah speaks in whispering grasses, / In the chatter of cicadas across an endless plain. / Spacious homeland of swift cheetah / And gazelle, with the horizon in her eye.’

Using matte colours, the illustrators Hvass and Hannibal showcase the flora and fauna of each location in a series of eye-catching paintings that incorporate the text within them.

Human use, climate change and pollution are responsible for the damage to the environment and after her introductory poem, it’s not until the final pages that the author enlarges upon her conservation message citing the specific damage within the thumbnail sketch of each of the places portrayed. Thereafter she implores readers to use less energy, to recycle and to buy with care.

We’d all do well to keep in mind her final words about our precious planet: ‘Explore it, protect it, love it. / Our Earth is a wonderful wild world. ‘

Also with an ecological message is:

The Coral Kingdom
Laura Knowles and Jennie Webber
Words & Pictures

Our coral reefs, with their gorgeous colours: crimson, red, rose, yellow,

turquoise, emerald, jade, purple, even black, that have taken 1000s of years to grow and give home to a myriad of creatures large and small are under threat.

When the coral is bleached white due to acidity caused by climate change, and stays white for too long, then the reef dies.

Laura Knowles has written a rhyming narrative that outlines the life cycle of a reef and includes a caution that unless we humans take action these amazing ecosystems will be lost forever.

Jennie Webber’s detailed watercolour illustrations show the beauty of the undersea habitat and a final fold-out page gives additional information about coral reef conservation.

A useful addition to a primary school conservation topic box, or, for a child interested in ocean life or ecosystems.

Who’s Hiding on the River? / Who’s Hiding on the Farm?
Katharine McEwen
Nosy Crow

It’s never too early to start learning about nature and here are two board books just right for introducing animals, some wild and some domesticated, to the very young.

Both are beautifully illustrated by Katharine McEwen and there are lots of animals to find in both locations.

Toddlers can spend a day by the river, from a busy morning through to night-time as they explore the pages, manipulate the sturdy flaps in response to the ‘Who’s hiding here?’ on every right hand page to discover tadpoles, cygnets, fish, dragonflies, a stoat, a beaver and more as they swim, wriggle, wade, leap, build and paddle.
The farm book also moves through the day in similar fashion and McEwen’s text is carefully worded to introduce new vocabulary including ‘pecking,’ ‘trotting’, ‘snoozing’ ‘prowling’, munching’ and ‘diving’ along the way.

Published in collaboration with the National Trust these are fun and at the same time, gently educational.

Search-and-Find Alphabet of Alphabets

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Search-and-Find Alphabet of Alphabets
Allan Sanders, Mike Jolley and Amanda Wood
Wide Eyed

There are countless alphabet books for children, mainly aimed at youngsters who are learning about letters and their order. This is altogether different: a search-and-find book where each of the 26 letters in the alphabet has a different theme.
Thus A is for Alphabet and introduces the remaining letters and their topic – B is for birds; C for Creepy-Crawlies; D is for Dinosaurs, E is for Earth and so on.
Within each topic is another A to Z, so for instance, readers need to find the bird that represents each letter from Albatross to Zebra finch.

In some spreads the items to find are captioned …

whereas in others such as the Forest spread there’s a key on the edge of each page showing and captioning the things to look for within the main illustration, adding an extra dimension of fun.

The vocabulary is at times fairly challenging: the Toyshop spread for example includes a Zoetrope while Neighbourhood has a Viaduct and an Underpass as well as a Duck pond and a Road.

Two of my favourite spreads are W whereon we’re welcomed to a ‘wacky wardrobe of things to wear’…

and School where it’s the pupils’ names that represent the letters of the alphabet and we have to name their associated objects.

The authors admit to the odd spot of rule bending when it comes to X: some of the words don’t begin with X but have it somewhere within them and as for Q well, there’s a crown wearing queenie who insists on popping up everywhere!

Allan Sanders has a superb eye when it comes to design: every spread looks totally different and enormously inviting.

All in all, 1 crackingly clever, original book; 26 awesome alphabets and 676 terrific things to find.

Search-and-Find Bonanza – The Walkabout Orchestra, Mice in the City London and Cycle City

jillrbennett Leave a comment

The Walkabout Orchestra
Chloé Perarnau
Wide Eyed

What has happened to the members of the orchestra? They’ve all gone missing and there’s an important concert coming up in a few days. Seemingly they’ve dispersed to locations all over the world from where they’ve sent the maestro postcards telling of their various activities. These appear in the top left-hand corner of each locale spread.
In a desperate effort to locate the musicians, the maestro, together with his side- kick, sets off in search of them. Their journey takes them to such diverse places as a fishing village in Iceland, Tokyo, a campsite in France, the pyramids of Egypt, carnival in Brazil and a football field in Abidjan.
In addition to finding the missing musicians, almost every place has a little yellow bird whose speech bubble provides something additional to search for in the lively scenes of the musicians’ sojourns.
Each one is packed with amusing details so that finding the musicians is often no easy matter. However they do all appear within a large arena ready for the concert with their maestro ready to conduct, bird atop his head.
Don’t start reading this if you are short of time, unless you are happy to cheat and look at the answers on the two final spreads.

Mice in the City London
Ami Shin
Thames & Hudson

It’s a mouse takeover: London had been invaded by an army of tiny rodents; some – The Mouses of Parliament for instance, – have jobs to do, others are there to enjoy the sights and some are turning Tate Modern into complete disarray. One daring mouse has even installed herself as Queen Mouse in Buckingham Palace.
A verse introduces each location, opposite which is a detailed whole page pastel coloured illustration of the particular tourist attraction under mouse occupation: every one is full of things to delight and entertain.
The purpose of the book, in addition to enjoying what the mice are up to, is a game of ‘hide-and-squeak’ that entails finding eight things – Inspector Mouse, a stripy tailed cat, Bumble-mouse, a mouse in a bin, a teddy, a Union Jack top hat, a mouse hiding in a top hat and a balloon seller.
Happy Hunting! You’re in for some fun with Ami Shin’s mice.
In the same series is Mice in the City New York. Oh my goodness! Think of the chaos the little creatures might cause in The Strand Bookstore!

Cycle City
Alison Farrell
Chronicle Books

It’s the morning of the Starlight Parade in Cycle City but the parade committee has yet to send out the invitations so they decide to call on the assistance of Mayor Snail.
Can he get all those invites delivered in time for the evening? Perhaps, with the help of Little Ella Elephant who has come to visit one of the city’s residents, her Aunt Ellen. If so, who will play the important role of Grand Marshal at the big event?

A captivating search-and-find for slightly younger readers: this one has a clear storyline and a plethora of speech bubbles and is populated by a vast array of anthropomorphic animals. The spreads are less densely packed than some of its ilk, but have plenty of lovely details, and the endpapers are a visual glossary of all the different bicycles included.

I’ve signed the charter