BfK


8 – 10 Junior/Middle continued The first thing you notice when


you pick up this wonderful book is its colourful, subtly embossed front cover and high-quality feel. Closer inspection


reveals an enthralling


combination of stories, comic strips, maps, illustrations, recipes, survival tips and trivia (did you know that most Nepalese Sherpas are named after the day of the week on which they were born?). There’s a balance of male and female adventurers, with many different countries and cultures being represented.


This is the kind of book that


used to bring to them and his sister has been kidnapped by a sinister scientist. Adventures, misunderstandings and unlikely friendships ensue as Tessa and Gawion both


learn about


importance of trust, friendship, families and knowing when to keep a secret. This is a contemporary adventure


story with the atmosphere of a north European folk tale. The snowy mountain setting and the cold are well conveyed as would be expected from a Danish author who lives in Switzerland and who loves to ski. The publisher’s aim is to share tales from different languages and cultures and, although the plot becomes a little complicated at times, this title should certainly transport its readers to an unfamiliar and icy world. SR


Alastair Humphreys’ Great Adventurers


HHHHH


Alastair Humphreys, illustrator Kevin Ward, Big Picture Press, 9781783708413, £16.99, hbk


Alastair Humphreys is probably best known as the explorer who spent four years cycling 46000 miles through more than 60 countries. He has also run multiple marathons across the Sahara, rowed the Atlantic and walked the entire length of India. In this book, he takes the opportunity


his passion for exploration by writing about


twenty of the adventurers


who inspired him. Some of them are already well known, such as Amelia Earhart, who flew solo across the Atlantic, and Ranulph Fiennes, who is probably most notorious for sawing off the tips of his own fingers after getting severe frostbite. However, I found the stories of the less famous characters


equally as fascinating.


Readers could not fail to be inspired by the likes of Rick Hansen, paralysed in an accident at the age of 15, who pushed himself round the world in his wheelchair, and Robyn Davidson, who trekked across the Australian outback accompanied only by her four camels.


the


children will enjoy dipping into as it is one that can be returned to on numerous occasions. The short mini-biographies only take a few minutes to share with a class, and several of them could be used as an exciting starting point for a topic. Reading about the exploits of Apsley Cherry-Garrard who, having lost his tent, survived a blizzard at temperatures of -60°C, before beginning to learn about Antarctica would capture the interest of even the most disinterested pupil. Great Adventurers is suitable across the entire Key Stage 2 range and I highly recommend it. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and cannot wait to share its thrilling tales with my students. JBid


Blazing a Trail HHHH


Sarah Webb illus Lauren O’Neill, O’Brien Press, 978-1788490047, 64pp, £14.99 hbk


The success of Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls has prompted a host of books describing the lives and impact of women who, in the words of Ireland’s first female president Mary Robinson, ‘instead of rocking the cradle, rocked the system’ and this is an excellent addition to the canon.


It features over


two dozen women, from chieftain Granuaile, commanding the seas in the 16th century, to Robinson herself, still fighting today to give everyone in the world an equal say.


The list is wonderfully varied to share


– here are suffragists, scientists, artists, aviators, entrepreneurs and sportswomen, and their lives and achievements are energetically though thoughtfully summed


up


in Sarah Webb’s text, one page per subject. A successful author of fiction, Webb gets the tone spot on, lively and engaging with a real sense of excitement and awe at the way her subjects negotiated the obstacles in their way to pioneer a trail for women. Lauren O’Neill’s accompanying full page illustrations have


equal amounts of vigour


bringing these women to colourful life.


Though the women are all Irish, their adventures take us across the world, from Europe to America and South Africa and there’s a global


28 Books for Keeps No.233 November 2018


feel to the book. At the same time, readers will get a strong sense of Ireland, and how its unique history has provided a seedbed for those ready to question and challenge the way things are. I’m particularly intrigued by vet Aleen Cust; by Nellie Cashman, gold prospector and businessman; and by Margaret Bulkley, who lived her life as James Barry in order to study and practice medicine – but everyone will have their own favourites here. A book to inspire all readers. LS


Corey’s Rock HHHHH


Sita Brahmachari, ill. Jane Ray, Otter-Barry Books, 96pp, 9781910959978, £10.99 hbk


Isla and her parents have newly moved to the Orkney Islands from Edinburgh hoping a fresh start will help them cope with the recent loss of Isla’s younger brother Corey. They scatter petals in the sea, one for each year of his life and name the rock they stand on after him. Isla finds it hard to cope with her own grief and that of her mother who has become so distant towards her. She is reluctant to be the new girl at school even with the novelty of a daily walk along the shore, she will have no friends there and everyone will know about her loss. Isla seeks refuge in Selkie stories,


told by her father and discovered at the library, these folk tales and reports


of shipwrecked


past and present merge in her mind with her memories of Corey to create dream like sequences where she meets her brother. With time things change,


Corey makes a friend, her mother rediscovers the joy of her previous job as a midwife and the cycle of life continues with a new birth, a child named after the brother Isla has lost. This is a moving and beautifully


written story about grief and coping with change. It references


and hints of reincarnation. illustrations the


includes mystical


to magical creatures The


perfectly complement text, evoking both the island


setting and the dream like sequences beautifully. SMC


refugees


Ten Nasty Little Toads HHH


Steve Cole, ill. Tim Archibold, Zephyr, 192pp, 9781786699312, £12.99 hbk


The gross, the gruesome and the grubby are celebrated in this children’s comedy. Ten Nasty Little Toads are ten short stories, each chronicling the vomitous behaviour of an especially horrible child. It is an antidote to fairy tales and a fun collection of alternative bedtime stories. Cherry Oddfellow is a dirty little toad, who, literally, never takes a bath, and becomes a hideous monstrosity of germs and grime. But even Cherry seems clean and innocent compared to Jacques LaConk, who really is a disgusting little toad. Children will empathise with Jacques’ rather common habit of picking his nose, but his passion for collecting scabs and trapping bodily gases in jars will turn even the strongest of stomachs. Tim Archibold’s colourful cartoons make such revolting elements of the story even more real. Other revolting characters include a spoiled little


brat who requires


intergalactic intervention to mend his ways, and a pair of junk food-guzzling twins who undertake a war on fruit and vegetables. Each tale begins with a description


of the nasty little toads’ horrid habits, before new characters are introduced to teach the deliver


punishment


terrors a lesson upon


descriptions of or them.


The individual stories are enjoyably simple and silly, though storytelling is secondary at all times to lengthy, indulgent


the


children’s dirty habits. This will offer instant glee to its juvenile audience, but means that few of the stories are likely to live long in the memory..SD


A Dangerous Game HHHH


Malorie Blackman, Barrington Stoke, 80pp, 9 781781 128237, £6.99 pbk


Sam is desperate to go on a school trip to Scotland but his parents are very reluctant to let him because he has sickle cell disease and his health is a constant worry. This extra caution has led to Sam being the target for


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