Tag Will Hughes

The Shape of Rainbows

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The Shape of Rainbows
Neal Zetter, illustrated by Will Hughes
Otter-Barry Books

There’s a zippy zing to the poems herein – nearly fifty in all – and they simply cry out to be read aloud to, and by, primary children. Although on second thoughts that excludes Breakfast unless you are a pronunciation wizard and can say ‘Greg / Gges / Segg / Ggse’ as well as R a ndo m because how it looks on the page is part of the fun.

There’s one poem where every single word (and there are rather a lot) begins with the letter A either in its lower case or capital form. It’s title is Adam’s Apple and it tells of a boy who consumed nothing but apples until something unpleasant happened to him and then, on the advice of adults, he changed his diet.

When I was a classroom teacher, be that in the foundation stage, KS1 or KS2, we had a daily ‘together time’ session for children to share their ideas, things they’d made etc and I always shared a poem. Neal’s latest collection is one I would definitely add to my ‘go to’ books of poems to use in such sessions. What child wouldn’t want to hear The Day I Ate My School wherein the young narrator apologises for having consumed a most unlikely school dinner, or learn of an Interstellar Mum and I would certainly encourage everyone to Grab a Book and as Neal says in the opening lines ‘Open it / Relish it / Ogle it / Cherish it ‘ …

Will Hughes adds to the fun of every spread with one of his zany black and white illustrations.

Uncle Pete and the Polar Bear Rescue

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Uncle Pete and the Polar Bear Rescue
David C. Flanagan, illustrated by Will Hughes
Little Door Books

The third exciting adventure for Uncle Pete and his sidekick TM (Tiny Mouse) sees them preparing to undertake an expedition to the Arctic in the hope that they can reunite Berg, the little polar bear, with his family. Having gathered together all the crucial cold weather gear (and making the odd item such as miniature fleecy, bright red ‘jammies’ and a padded jacket for TM, not to mention a somewhat superfluous orange woollen scarf for Berg), Uncle Pete pours jars of stardust fuel into the plane and affixes a large pair of skis onto the wheels. They line the plane with hot water bottles, load the camping equipment and food and then they’re ready for take off.

When they arrive at the spot where Berg’s family were last ween, the snow and ice have melted and of polar bears, there is no sign. Uncle Pete explains to TM that the snow’s disappearance is because of the Earth’s temperature rising due to human action and they postpone further searching until the following morning. After supper the three travellers are thrilled to see the Northern Lights and they decide to sleep outside their tents to watch he dancing lights.

The following morning the friends have an encounter with a passing whale that seems to be trying to communicate something important to them.

Berg understands that it’s trying to say that his family have been taken by a ship.

Off they go to track it down and having located it, the three find themselves under fire from men with guns on board the sinister looking vessel. There follows a series of exciting and sometimes alarming incidents including the capture of TM by the ship’s evil captain, another encounter with the whale and, joy of joys, the emergence from the ocean of a wooden submarine crewed by their squirrel friends from the forest.

Then comes a temporary return to the forest , a journey through underground tunnels, the drawing up of a new rescue plan, a daring deliverance of the ship’s captives and a parting of the ways for Berg and his rescuers.

David Flanagan weaves the global warming issue through this latest compelling Uncle Pete fantasy which, with its themes of collaboration, kindness, determination and creative thinking, and Will Hughes splendidly quirky illustrations, makes a great read aloud as well as a solo read for those gaining confidence as independent readers.

Uncle Pete and the Forest of Lost Things

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Red Reading Hub is thrilled to be part of the blog tour for this new Uncle Pete and Tiny Mouse book.

Uncle Pete and the Forest of Lost Things
David C. Flanagan, illustrated by Will Hughes
Little Door Books

Barely giving themselves time to recover from their magical blanket delivery – but time enough to consume a fair amount of their favourite foods – Uncle Pete and his indomitable sidekick, TM, are off again. Now they want to track down their plane, abandoned when it ran out of stardust; surely it couldn’t have ended up in the Forest of Lost Things could it? And what’s more the two couldn’t really be thinking of entering this alarming-sounding place where it’s recommended nobody sets foot, to search for it could they? 

Of course they could, even when squirrel leader, Shona, is horrified at the notion. Nonetheless she does make sure the adventurers are equipped to the best of her ability before they sally forth, aided and abetted by the Squirrelcoaster. Their journey takes them over land and into peril deep, deep beneath the sea – bother those cans of beans – but thank the universe for those emergency underpants of Uncle Pete’s, one of the more sensible items he stuffed into that rucksack of his. Finally the two, by different means, reach the forest, but then they need to locate one another.

Uncle Pete has an encounter with an owl that’s far from happy about the present state of the forest, an erstwhile peaceful, magical place and now far too full of rubbish. 

Said owl also talks of giant cats, incredibly grumpy ones; the same felines that TM has already met and happily not been consumed by on account of her extreme smallness. Happily too, Uncle Pete and TM are soon reunited and the search for the plane continues. However, there’s also the pressing problem of tidying and decluttering the forest and recycling as much as possible, that the former raises. Recycling though is getting a bit ahead of things as the lost plane must be located for that to happen. On the lost theme too is a little polar bear, Berg, that they come upon and invite to join their adventure.

An adventure about which I’ll say no more, other than that there are further twists and turns, thousands of fireflies, a multi-stage plan fuelled by the thought of feasting on favourite foods- again! – a terrific squash and a squeeze; plus a finale that leads neatly into Uncle Pete and TM’s next adventure. 

Hurrah! say all the readers of and listeners to, this terrific tale with its important environmental theme, as well as the thrills and spills, kindness and consideration one has come to expect from the fearless friends. Not forgetting the quirky drawings by Will Hughes that help to make this an ideal read for those fairly new to chapter books.

Make sure you check out the other stops on this blog tour too.

Uncle Pete and the Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep

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Little Door Books is venturing into early-reader chapter books: this is the first. Thanks to the publisher for sending it for review.

Uncle Pete and the Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep
David C. Flanagan, illustrated by Will Hughes
Little Door Books

It’s almost impossible to imagine – a boy who has never ever slept a single wink in his entire life and that lack of sleep has no adverse consequences on his ability to embrace every day with energy and enthusiasm. Think what it must be like to be the parents of such a child.

It’s no wonder those of young Harry are at their wits end having tried every possible ploy and consulted countless doctors to get the boy to fall asleep – night after night after night for years and years and … Indeed the entire town is exhausted.

Thank goodness then for Uncle Pete who out of the blue arrives knocking at their front door, back from his exploring to replenish his supplies of baked beans and underpants. 

Having heard the family regale the tale of Harry’s insomnia, Uncle Pete offers to help. From among the contents of his rucksack he extricates a map and before you can say ‘yawn’, this eccentric uncle is off to his own home. There he heads for his shed wherein he keeps his now rusty, rickety old biplane.

What should he find has made a home in the pilot’s seat but a tiny mouse named TM. 

In a very short time, the plane has taken off bound for … Uncle Pete isn’t absolutely sure.

Their journey is, shall we say, highly eventful, both in the air and on the ground; but eventually they reach the mountain top and their destination.

I’ll say no more other than this wacky adventure with its wealth of fun details, is fuelled by large quantities of cheese, a plethora of beans, assorted underpants – rather a lot, and strawberry jam sandwiches, not forgetting stardust aplenty.

But is it a case of mission accomplished for Uncle Pete and TM?

The best way to find out is to get hold of a copy of David C. Flanagan’s comical tale with Will Hughes’ suitably quirky drawings and read it yourself. Alternatively you could try tuning in to their live event here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/uncle-pete-and-the-boy-who-couldnt-sleep-book-launch-event-tickets-149531172763 on Friday May 14th

No matter what there are more adventures of Uncle Pete on the way.

I asked a few children their thoughts about never sleeping and here’s a selection of what they said:
“I would love to be able to play Lego all through the nights, but the worst thing would be getting caught and told off.” Samuel 6
“It would be brilliant to be able to read books and my Kindle all night, but the downside would be my parents banning my favourite things for a whole week.” Emmanuelle 8
“You could get out of bed in the middle of the night and get sweet snacks without anyone knowing. Also you could play games with your friends outside and never feel tired.” Leo 7
“I could go out at night and do lots of different activities., play lots more sport and look at the stars more. But eventually it could get boring if you run out of things you want to do.” Spencer 8

What Not to Give an Ogre for his Birthday / Caveboy Crush / Iguanas Love Bananas

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What Not to Give an Ogre for his Birthday
Will Hughes
Little Door Books

Stanley and Martha love buying birthday presents for people and always manage to find just the right thing; but when it comes to their new neighbour, Len the friendly ogre, the task is shall we say, a challenge. The usual things – a bike, clothes, a theatre trip or a pet don’t really fit the bill and a ride in a hot air balloon would be somewhat problematic.

Can the two come up with an idea that could make Len’s birthday the best he’s ever had?

This story of determination and friendship is the first of the Little Door Debuts imprint and it appears as though the publisher has found a new talent with Will Hughes, whose scribbly style illustrations are great fun, putting me in mind slightly of Quentin Blake’s work.

Caveboy Crush
Beth Ferry and Joseph Kuefler
Abrams Books for Young Readers

Here’s a sweet story of a first crush Neanderthal style.

Meet caveboy, Neander, who falls for the ‘most beautiful girl in the prehistoric world’ short, hairy Neanne, who is perfect in every way. His parents accurately diagnose the problem when he becomes all moony.

Armed with flowers picked from The Field of Bees, Neander rushes off to try and woo the little cave-girl but …

and there she isn’t.

The disappointed caveboy decides a grander plan is needed but this too is a dismal failure of the CRUSH kind and Neanne decides her wooer is just a little a bit crazy.

Could it be a case of third time lucky perhaps …?

A fun tale with splendidly expressive illustrations should make for an enjoyable, somewhat noisy storytime as youngsters enjoy the opportunity to let rip with a CRUSH or two during the telling.

Iguanas Love Bananas
Jennie & Chris Cladingbee and Jeff Crowther
Maverick Publishing

I suspect the authors of this crazy rhyming narrative about animals and their food predilections are fans of Kes Gray & Jim Field’s ‘Oi!’ picture books.

In this story we meet all kinds of creatures, large and small, dining on their favourite foods much to the consternation of the humans from whom they steal or otherwise procure such things as fajitas – that’s cheetahs; sausage rolls – the water voles raid a picnic basket for theirs; vindaloos, though these are seemingly paid for at the take-away, but the people on whom they sneeze on account of the spices are less than impressed.

I’m unsure how the manatees got hold of a crate of blue cheese but the end result is constipation, so we’re told.

I have to say though, that I’m with the guy on the final page who is the only one relishing Brussels sprouts. Yummy!

Jeff Crowther clearly enjoyed himself creating the illustrations for this culinary romp; his scenes of all those animals stuffing themselves are full of gigglesome details.