Picture Books for young children
This is
My Rock
Written and illustrated by
David Lucas
Flying Eye £11.99
ISBN: 978-1909263505
Little
Goat feels proud. He is on top of the rock and he certainly doesn’t plan to
share being there with the smaller goats, or the other animals that come
climbing his way, or the birds that fly to it. But as the sun goes down he
begins to have second thoughts. Bold and stylish illustrations, with very
little text, make this book perfect to share with a young audience. A story
about sharing, friendship and loneliness, with plenty to talk about.
Marianne Adey
I Wish I’d Been Born
a Unicorn
Written by Rachel Lyon
Illustrated by Andrea Ringli
Maverick Arts £6.99
ISBN: 978-1848861176
A delightful story about the true
nature of friendship. Mucky is a muddy, grubby horse, and he feels very sad and
left out when the other horses don’t want to play with him because he is so
smelly. But, clever owl steps in and hatches a plan. With the assistance of
some cows and a frog, and using milk to paint Mucky white and a shell for a
horn, he is transformed overnight into a beautiful unicorn. But, it starts to
rain! Only then does Mucky discover that his true friends really don’t mind what
he looks like, but care more about how he feels, which the wise owl had already
tried to tell him. Using fresh colours and boldly drawn figures, with
wonderfully expressive eyes, the story is illustrated sympathetically A lovely
book to share with toddlers and preschoolers alike.
Lucy Russell
The Scarecrows’
Wedding
Written by Julia Donaldson
Illustrated by Axel Scheffler
Alison Green £12.99
ISBN: 9781-407144412
An endearing tale of perseverance,
collaboration and loyalty,
The
Scarecrows’ Wedding is the latest offering from the dream team that brought
us such contemporary classics as
The
Gruffalo,
Stick Man and
Room on the Broom. Bursting with all the warmth and chara
cter we have come to expect from Axel Scheffler’s
illustrations, the story follows two scarecrows, deeply in love as they prepare
for their wedding, with the help of various animals around the farm, including,
rather eccentrically, a crab. Tension builds as the bridegroom to be, Harry
O’Hay, sets off to find some flowers for the bouquet, leaving his bride, Betty
O’Barley, waiting back at the farm. Harry’s journey takes longer than expected
and a new, somewhat swaggering scarecrow, Reginald Rake, tries to take his
place. Will Betty be wooed by Reginald’s charms? Will Harry make it back to claim
his beloved bride? My three year old took great delight in the clever and witty
rhymes that keep the compelling story bouncing along, and both of us enjoyed
the satisfaction of a happy and romantic ending.
Rowan Stanfield
First Steps in reading for young children
Rita’s Rhino
Written and illustrated by Tony Ross
Andersen £11.99
ISBN: 978-1783440252
Rita wants a pet, but her Mum
refuses to get her one. So, Rita decides to go and get one for herself, from
the Zoo. She decides on a rhinoceros. But keeping a pet rhino secret isn’t an
easy thing to do and taking care of him proves to be a lot harder than she
anticipated. Tony Ross excels at blending the absurd with the normality of the
everyday and, as usual, it works really well. The idea of Rita sneaking a rhino
unnoticed out of the zoo, covered up with a small hat and coat to hide him from
observant eyes, is deliciously funny. The joys and difficulties of owning a pet
are explored in a fresh and original way. Full of wit, the illustrations work well
with the text, adding additional humour to the tale and providing a story which
children will love to read and adults will love to share with them.
Annie Everall
Titles for the young
child just beginning to Read Alone
The Witch Dog
Written by Margaret Mahy
Illustrated by Sam Usher
Orion (eB) £4.99
ISBN: 978-1444011340
Question: How does a witch cope
if she is allergic to cats? Answer: Get a dog! Mrs. Rose has trained to
be a witch, having just finished her course at night school. Now that she
is fully qualified she can attend the Witches’ Dance and take her newly found
dog, Nightshade, with her. Unfortunately, when she arrives at the dance, the
cats and owls owned by the other witches were not at all pleased to see a dog
arrive. However Nightshade has an unexpected talent. This is a very unusual
book. The idea that anybody’s Mum can go to night school and become a
witch is quite a strange starting point for a story. It is a lovely book, with
a strong storyline and is fun to read. The text is clear and the illustrations
are very amusing and perfectly match the text.
Patricia Thompson
Asterix and the Picts
Written by Jean-Yves Ferri
Illustrated by Didier Conrad
Orion (eB) £7.99
ISBN: 978-1444011692
As a
child reader I devoured the Asterix graphic novels/comic books and they helped
me gain reading confidence and stamina. Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad take
on the mantle from Goscinny and Uderzo in this the thirty-fifth adventure for
Asterix and Obelix. This time, our favourite Gauls are off to Caledonia, the
land of the Picts; what we now recognise as Scotland. After being washed up
frozen on the shores of Gaul, MacAroon needs
help to return home and rescue his beloved. With magic potion, plenty of eating
and drinking, and a little help from the Loch Ness monster, Asterix and Obelix
help defeat the Roman threat in Scotland and put a stop to the evil
machinations of the MacCabees tribe.
Aside from the expressive and often funny illustrations, the accompanying text
is filled with the trademark combination of puns, humour and satire. This is
another excellent adventure that will stand repeated readings and, I hope, make
more lifelong readers.
Benjamin Scott
The Misadventures of
Sweetie Pie
Written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg
Andersen £11.99
ISBN: 978-1783441884
A feisty hamster determines to
behave well when picked up in a pet shop so that he can go off to wherever all
the other hamsters in his cage have disappeared to over the weeks. Hoping for
adventure and excitement, he is in many ways disappointed as he is passed from
one small child to another and variously mistreated or ignored. Humans do not
come off well in this story, as no-one manages to care effectively for the
hamster who is always, of course, in a cage of one sort of another. The
illustrations are dynamic and often from an interesting point of view. Children
having this book read to them will be able to get a real sense of the
indignities and dangers that Sweetie Pie is put through by his various owners
and will be relieved with the very satisfying ending.
Annalise Taylor
Titles for the Confident Reader in Primary School
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul
Written and illustrated by Jeff Kinney
Puffin (eB) £12.99
ISBN: 978-0141354217
Ninth in the Wimpy
Kid series, this latest ‘diary’ offers the winning blend of conversational,
reader-engaging narrative and amusingly eloquent graphics that has ensured Jeff
Kinney’s place at the top of the popularity list for children’s writers. In
this story of guaranteed mayhem, Mom Heffley, inspired by her magazine Family Frolic, decides the family needs
a ‘bonding’ adventure. Greg, the Wimpy Kid, whose sole wish is to relax at home
after a hard summer term, once again finds himself with zero control of his
life as the regular cast, Mum, Dad, Roderick, Greg and Manny prepare for the
ultimate road trip that will give them ‘authentic’ family experiences. The
writer’s ability to tell many incidental stories within the much longer
overarching story is a skill that keeps readers wanting more. The book is
packed with episodes of silly comedy, pandemonium and nightmarish situations,
like lost credit cards, lost keys and a rammed car. Playing a key role in the
drama is a temporarily adopted pig and an unscrupulous family of fellow
travellers. Plot driven, fast-paced and hugely entertaining for children, this
will be another winner for its author.
Catriona Nicholson
The Snow Leopard
Written and illustrated by Jackie Morris
Frances Lincoln
£4.99
ISBN: 978-1847805478
Rarely does such a beautifully illustrated
picture book offer such a lyrical text, making the reader feel part of a
creation myth of immense style and authenticity. Since time’s beginning the
snow leopard has sung life into the stars, sun and moon. Weaving songs to
protect them, safe in her hidden Himalayan valley, she knows that time’s
passing requires her to find her successor as Mergichan singer. Below in the
valley, a girl child dreams her song even as soldiers enter it, seeking gold
and slaves: “High in the sacred mountains the sacred cat walked alone, cloaked
in her shadow- dappled fur. Crisp snow sparkled in icy stars beneath her huge
paws, and all the while she sang. Down in the valley the Child slept, and in
her dream she heard the ghost cat’s secret music, and saw the shadows of her
dappled coat.” The child learns from the snow leopard the protective songs of
the earth, its creatures, its weather, its space, until the day when the
leopard leaps off into the stars and the child, become now a full grown snow
leopard, begins her own, new song. This mini-edition is a tiny wonder, fifteen
centimetres by eleven, which should become beloved by all who own it.
Tina Massey
Julius Zebra: Rumble
with the Romans
Written and illustrated by Gary Northfield
Walker
(eB) £8.99
ISBN: 978-1406354928
A slice of Roman history, as told
by a zebra. Friendship, loyalty and courage among trainee gladiators, including
a lion, a giraffe and a warthog. Sounds bonkers? It is, completely and utterly,
bonkers, but in a very entertaining way. It’s easy enough to spot the
difference between actual historical facts and the author’s manic imagination. The
handy Latin glossary at the back, with an explanation of how Roman numerals
work, will help young readers to impress, or perhaps mystify, their friends.
Yvonne Coppard
Titles for readers Moving On from Primary to High School
Blue Moon Day
Written by Anne Fine
Corgi (eB) £6.99
ISBN: 978-0552571883
Short stories set in a particular
framework. Once in a blue moon, Sam needs a day off school but today, when she
fakes a stomach ache, Mum has to go to work. Sam finds herself waiting in Mum’s
car while she makes her welfare visits with just a book of short stories called
Away from Home - and here they are.
Sam thinks she might enjoy boarding school but the characters in the stories
have mixed experiences. What about being in an institution for young offenders?
Or what about going to a main stream school if you are blind? And there is a
very ‘Anne Fine story’ about a girl who goes to a Convent School
who explains to the staff, politely, that God doesn’t exist. Between each story
Sam talks to her mother so we get two stories: Sam’s and the book of school
stories. We also discover why Sam needs that ‘once in a blue moon’ day and how
she realises something about her mother which reassures her. Both threads give
us a good read with some meat on it.
Pat Thomson
The Children who Stayed Behind
Written by Bruce Carter
Illustrated by C. Walter Hodges
Vintage Classics (R) (eB)
£5.99
ISBN: 978-1784870225
This adventure story was
originally published in 1958 and the writing, the illustrations and the plot
all reflect that fact. Bruce Carter, who incidentally is the father of writers
Deborah Moggach and Sarah Garland, imagines what might have happened if, during
the Second World War, Brighton had been evacuated due to an actual German land
invasion and two families of children had somehow been left behind in the
deserted town. The two families in question are the Hartfords and the Foulshams
and they are sworn enemies, so some major battles have to be fought before they
all unite to help two injured airmen. In fiction anything is possible, so these
children are able to have amazing adventures without a parent in sight. They
get to do all the things other children can only dream of doing, like driving
an armoured car, having free rein on Brighton pier, getting an old steam train
moving again and eating baked beans for every meal - and through all of this
there is a white rabbit called Kensington to be rescued. It’s all great fun.
Jan Lennon
The Marsh Road
Mysteries: Diamonds and Daggers
Written by Elen Caldecott
Bloomsbury (eB) £5.99
ISBN: 9781-4088-47527
First in a new series of
detective mysteries, it introduces us to five friends, each from a different
cultural background, who join forces to solve crime. When Piotr’s Dad is
accused of the theft of a diamond necklace at the theatre where he works as a
security guard, Dad’s first reaction is to return to Poland taking his family with him.
Piotr doesn’t want to leave his new home and friends, and so. determined to
prove his Dad’s innocence and stay in Marsh
Road, he leads the search for the thief. This is a
fast-moving whodunit with engaging characters, an urban Famous Five with whom
my young reviewers identified as they eliminated one suspect after another till
they finally tracked down the villain in a satisfying climax.
Julia Jarman
Titles for Young Teenage Readers
Young Bond: Shoot to
Kill
Written by Steve Cole
Doubleday (eB)
£12.99
ISBN: 978-0857533739
Following Charlie Higson’s
successful series of five Young Bond
novels, Steve Cole takes up the challenge of further developing the amazing youth
that will become James Bond. So strongly established is the Ian Fleming
character that there is little need to stray from that which is known and loved
in the original novels. What was required of Steve Cole were believable
characters, particularly the villains, and a plot to match. He has succeeded in
spades. Despite looking for a quiet time in a new school away from ‘nasties’ at
Eton, James finds himself right up to his neck in torture, corruption, murder
and megalomania. Flying the Atlantic on an airship he arrives in L.A. and Hollywood and is
instantly targeted by Chicago
gangster and a crazed film producer. The level of violence is perhaps more like
later Bond Films than anything Ian Fleming might have written. However, the
reader today is of this time and things have changed considerably over the past
decades. The formula of high living, memorable villains, action and suspense is
all here. This is a read to be enjoyed by everyone that loves a Bond adventure,
which means millions of fans worldwide will love to pick up Shoot To Kill.
Trevor Thompson
Department 19: Zero Hour
Written by Will Hill
HarperCollins (eB) £8.99
ISBN: 978-0007505845
This absolutely amazing read, the
fourth in the series, will have your heart thudding, your skin creeping and
your brain on high alert. Vampirism is growing all over the world and vampires are
expected to outnumber ordinary humans within ten years. The vile and
overwhelmingly powerful Dracula is converting more and more humans to powerful
super vampires by his bite, creating awful creatures which are immensely
strong, fly at impossible speeds and are utterly pitiless. Members of
Department 19 are desperately struggling to combat the rising tide of menace, which,
inflated by social media sites, is also causing witch-hunts for suspected
vampires and worldwide terror. Matt Browning goes to America, seeking a cure for
vampirism, whilst Jamie Carpenter and his girl, Larissa, enter the deep forests
of eastern Europe in search of an ancient, dangerous but potentially powerful,
ally. In a plot as complex as Le Carre’s, with locations as wide-ranging as
Bond’s Skyfall, the young people and
their allies take to the skies, tunnels and darkest forests to engage in battles
which are bloody, horror-filled, intense and incredibly fast-paced, leaving the
reader serially exhausted. Well written, convincing, with unpredictable
characters and a climax like the 1812 Overture on speed, with flights and
completely unexpected twists, this is a tremendous achievement.
Tina Massey
Boys Don’t Knit
ISBN: 978-1471401473
An English Boy in New York
ISBN: 978-1471401497
Written by T. S. Easton
Hot Key (eB)
£6.99
Somehow Ben Fletcher attracts
trouble like a magnet, even if he never means to. His heart is in the right
place but things always manage to go wrong for him, usually as a result of his
friends. After an unfortunate incident with a lollipop lady, a stolen bottle of
Martini from a Waitrose supermarket and a harsh judge, he very nearly gets sent
to a Young Offenders Unit. To avoid this he has to agree to give something back
to the community and develop his sense of social alignment, take up a hobby and
stay on the straight and narrow. Because the hot teacher from his school runs
the Knitting Group, one of the hobby options open to him, he opts for this, but,
as usual, things don’t quite go to plan. He discovers that he has a real talent
for knitting and that he loves it. Balancing his successful journey towards the
Knit Fair competition finals with the need to avoid his dad and his mates
uncovering his secret and bringing eternal humiliation down on his head creates
a hilarious and very readable story. In the sequel, his knitting journey
continues as he is invited to New
York for media interviews and to take part in another
knitting competition, but, yet again, his plans go awry. His idea is to use the
trip for a romantic few days away with his girlfriend, Megan, but when she
mysteriously pulls out, he ends up forced to take his mate, Gex, a ‘wannabe
gangsta’ and all-round liability. He quickly finds that his magnetism for
trouble follows him across the ocean. Written in diary form, both novels are
well written, witty and with laugh-out-loud humour. Characters are well
developed and there is something achingly vulnerable about Ben. Being a
knitter, really added to my enjoyment of the story and my appreciation of the
humour. The knitting references and analogies are spot on. Boys Don’t Knit was on the Carnegie nomination list. Both novels
are excellent and reminded me of Adrian Mole. They will have great appeal to
teenage boys and girls alike.
Annie Everall
Titles for More Mature readers
Black Dove, White Raven
Written by Elizabeth Wein
Electric Monkey (eB)
£7.99
ISBN: 978-1405271363
Elizabeth Wein has an admirable
talent of taking fascinating characters and events which seem improbable and,
through skilful writing, weaves them into an exciting, thrilling adventure. The
fact that it is all based on real places, people and events makes the story all
the more incredible as well as captivating and haunting. Emilia and Teo’s
remarkable mothers are pilots, lovers, single parents and one is black, the
other white. When Teo’s Mother Delia is tragically killed in an accident Rhoda
takes the children to Ethiopia,
the birthplace of Teo’s father. The descriptions of their new life on a coffee
farm are as rich and colourful as the people who become their friends. An
impending Italian invasion becomes a real threat to their small community and,
although they try to keep out of trouble, they are soon embroiled in the
conflict. Emilia uses all her ingenuity and flair, facing incredible odds to
survive and unite her family. The realities of an unfair, unjust and unequal
war are not spared in this engrossing and sometimes harrowing story but
throughout the bonds of love and loyalty triumph across race, culture, colour
and gender.
Louise Stothard
The Door That Led To
Where
Written by Sally Gardner
Hot Key (eB) £10.99
ISBN: 978-1471401084
This is
a perfect fusion of time travel, murder mystery and historical novel. A. J.
Flynn has failed all but one of his GCSE’s yet, despite this, he manages to get
a job in a law firm. His mother is worse than useless and his mates, Leon and
Slim, have similarly tough lives. But his life really starts to get complicated
when he finds a key, with his name and date of birth on it, in the archives at
work. When he manages to find the door that the key belongs to, he is compelled
to go through it and discovers a very different London of 1830. From then on he ends up in a
world of suspected murder and extreme danger, on both sides of the door. Which
side of the door will he choose to stay in? An intriguing mystery with twists
and turns and a clever mix of contemporary and historical.
Nicole Jordan
Rainey Royal
Written by Dylan Landis
Soho
(eB) £17.99
ISBN: 978-1616954529
Rainey Royal is the debut
novel from U.S.
author, Dylan Landis. It follows ten years of Rainey’s life; opening with her
at age fourteen, living with her irresponsible father, Howard, a jazz musician,
along with several of his musical acolytes. Rainey’s life is dysfunctional,
with her frequently taking on the adult role in the father/daughter
relationship. She relies on her friends, Tina and Leah, for support, but the
thing that keeps her going is her desire to be an artist. She spends hours
creating beautiful elaborate quilts from deceased people’s belongings. This
very mature novel is very dark at times, for example, the friendship between
Rainey and Gordy, her father’s best friend, and few of the characters are
likable. Rainey herself has several negative traits, nevertheless you admire
her strength and determination to achieve her ambition and escape from her
father’s negative influence. Dylan Landis’ style of writing is distinctly
staccato, as though the book is one of Rainey’s quilts, with episodes of her
life stitched together to make a whole.
Jane Hall
