REVIEWERS IN THIS ISSUE BfK
Brian Alderson is founder of the Children’s Books History Society and a former Children’s Books Editor for The Times. Gwynneth Bailey is a freelance education and children’s book consultant. Clive Barnes, formerly Principal Children’s Librarian, Southampton City is a freelance researcher and writer. Diane Barnes, was a librarian for 20 years, mostly as a children’s specialist, working in Kent, Herts, Portsmouth and Hampshire, and Lusaka (Zambia) with the British Council. Jill Bennett is the author of Learning to Read with Picture Books and heads up a nursery unit. Jon Biddle is English Coordinator/Reading Champion at Moorlands Primary Academy in Norfolk, and co-founder of the Patron of Reading scheme. Rebecca Butler writes and lectures on children’s literature. Jane Churchill is a children’s book consultant. Stuart Dyer is an Assistant Head Teacher in a Bristol primary school. Anne Faundez is a freelance education and children’s book consultant. Janet Fisher is a children’s literature consultant. Geoff Fox is former Co-Editor (UK) of Children’s Literature in Education, but continues to work on the board and as an occasional teller of traditional tales. Sarah Gallagher is a headteacher and director of
Storyshack.org www.storyshack.org Ferelith Hordon is a former children’s librarian and editor of Books for Keeps Carey Fluker Hunt is a writer and children’s book consultant. Matthew Martin is a primary school teacher. Sue McGonigle is a Lecturer in Primary Education and Co-Creator of
www.lovemybooks.co.uk Margaret Pemberton is a school library consultant and blogs at
margaretpemberton.edublogs.org. Val Randall is Head of English and Literacy Co-ordinator at a Pupil Referral Unit. Andrea Reece is Managing Editor of Books for Keeps. Sue Roe is a children’s librarian. Elizabeth Schlenther is the compiler of
www.healthybooks.org.uk Lucy Staines is a primary school teacher Nicholas Tucker is honorary senior lecturer in Cultural and Community Studies at Sussex University.
Under 5s Pre – School/Nursery/Infant B is for Baby HHHHH
Atinuke, illus Angela Brooksbank, Walker Books, 40pp, 9781406371086, £11.99 hbk
It is time to visit Baba in the next village. Big Brother will cycle over with a big basket of bananas and,though he doesn’t know it, baby. They will pass the baobab tree, cycle down the bumpy path, meet butterflies, birds and a baboon - and finally be welcomed by Baba. Bold illustrations that fully occupy
each spread whether as single pages or double, crossing the gutter, bring this enchanting, accessible
picture
book to life. The artist’s vibrant palette ensures each composition is not just immediate but full of details to extend and add to the spare text which revolves around the letter B creating a lovely rhythm with each repetition. The author, Atinuke, lives in Wales but here, as with her Anna Hibiscus and No 1 Car Spotter series, she takes us to West Africa and Angela Brooksbank responds bringing a landscape different to some but recognisable and familiar to others, to a vivid reality. We are with Big Brother as he cycles down that bumpy track; we giggle with Baby hiding among the bananas. This is a truly joyous picture book
that will be a delight to share with Baby, opening eyes and minds. It is one to join Handa and Mr Gumpy on the shelf or in the Kinderbox and will hopefully enchant babies and their parents (and grandparents) for many years. FH
Astro Girl HHHH
Ken Wilson-Max (author & illustrator) Otter-Barry, 32pp, 978-1-91095-921-3, £11.99 hbk
This delightful picture book starts with Astrid kneeling on her bed, looking at the stars through her telescope, with lots of space-related stuff in her bedroom. She tells her friend Jake that she wants to be an astronaut, and also announces this fact to her Dad at breakfast. Are you sure? asks Dad, and in subsequent pages he reels off all the things an astronaut must do – go round and round the earth (he swings her around), eat food out of packet or tube (she munches on a cereal bar) , get used to zero- gravity ( he throws her up in the air), do science experiments ( she makes cookies), sleep on her own ( ‘That will be very hard’, says Astrid, ‘but I’ll do it’). To everything else, she has said “I can do that”. At last it’s the day they are going to fetch Mum, and Dad straps her into her car seat. They go to the airbase, and they are in the front of the crowd when the doors open and out walked three people. Of course, one of them is Mum, the astronaut, and Astrid gives her Mum a big hug,
20 Books for Keeps No.237 July 2019
telling her she wants to be like her. The book ends with information about astronauts, space food and training, and 5 female astronauts, including the first African American woman and the first woman of Indian origin. It’s a very encouraging story, and Ken
Wilson-Max’s illustrations, with their textured look, are as delightful as ever. DB
The Light in the Night HHHH
Marie Voight, Simon and Schuster, 32pp, 978 1 4711 7326 4, £6.99 pbk
Betty loves the night because the stories are so much more magical then.
Whilst reading one of her
favourite books, about a bear called Cosmo who is afraid of the dark, the bear suddenly pops into view at the end of her bed. She is delighted and is ready to show him how lovely the dark can be. ‘We need the dark to see the light,’ she explains, and hand in hand they go out with only her lantern to show the way. A dancing light leads them further and further into the woods where they come upon a cave. Cosmo is not happy about going into it, but Betty leads the way. When they come to a lake, there is a boat waiting which takes them further in. Should they turn out the lantern as requested on a big sign? Cosmo wants to turn around, but Betty, whilst a bit nervous, does as asked, and they are treated with the most magical sight of all. The cave is full of glow worms that light up the whole interior.
It is only when they
come out that Betty confesses she has lost her way and doesn’t know how to get home. It is Cosmo who takes her in hand, and together they return singing. Both have learned how friendship can help the most faint-hearted. The story and the pictures that go with it are thoroughly enchanting, mysterious whilst also being encouraging. The fearful will identify with Cosmo – and, later, Betty – but will also find their adventures entertaining. ES
Alphonse, There’s Mud on the Ceiling!
HHHHH
Daisy Hirst, Walker Books, 32pp, 978 1 4063 7475 9, £11.99 hbk
Living in a flat on the seventh floor, the extremely lively Natalie and brother Alphonse make use of every item in, and all the space within their home in their play, until their long-suffering Dad calls a halt to their mayhem creating (which includes the mud in the
title). His ‘NATALIEALPHONSE,
that is not a good game for indoors!’ is countered by Natalie’s complaint that there’s nowhere else they can play and moreover her pal Elfrida is going to sleep in a tent in the garden of her house. Natalie’s going to live in the park she tells her Dad and flounces out – alone. In a bush in the park she finds a
hole and some other things including a squirrel she names Squilliam; but before the
long Alphonse appears on scene, accompanied by Dad.
An amnesty is soon called and back home once again, the two terrors prove that being wild in the jungle can take place anywhere, even a tiny balcony seven floors up, just so long as you have plenty of sticks and some other paraphernalia to hand. Daisy Hurst has already demonstrated
her observational
brilliance in her two previous Natalie and Alphonse books; she does so again with this one: it’s priceless and doubtless will make adult readers aloud chuckle as they share it with little humans. JB
Umbrella HHHH
Written and illustrated by Elena Arevalo Melville, Scallywag Press, 32pp, 978-1-912650-01-9, £11.99 hbk
There’s an umbrella lying in the park, so Clara puts it on a bench. To her amazement the umbrella thanks her - but talking isn’t the only wonder unleashed by Clara’s act of thoughtfulness. There are all sorts of marvels tucked away beneath the umbrella’s
shabby-looking can’t canopy.
Clara finds a ‘lovely someone’ to play with – a cat to keep her company - but the umbrella doesn’t stop there. Old Mr Roberts
reach the
apples anymore so an elephant is thoughtfully
provided to help him.
And when the Moodie boys interrupt their family picnic with a tantrum, a band of butterflies emerges, bringing ‘magic and music’ to the delight and distraction of everyone. All except the sly old fox, of course,
who’s been quietly visible on almost every spread and whose promotion centre-stage will please those children who’ve already spotted him. Mr Fox wants riches and has been waiting for his chance to commit a sneaky act of theft. But the umbrella “doesn’t take kindly to commands” and drenches him with an unexpected downpour. In a change-of-heart denouement that feels a little rushed, Mr Fox realizes his error and apologises, and everyone gathers beneath the umbrella to be showered with rainbows instead. This quirky book takes a familiar
folktale trope – the object of power, capable of granting wishes to the righteous – and plays with it, forging its own eccentric and appealing path through a landscape that feels fresh and new. Arevalo Melville’s illustrations are confident to be themselves and don’t talk down – there’s no hint of the cute and cuddly in this book, despite its subject-matter, and children will be pleasantly challenged as well as entertained. Although charming, the text doesn’t
quite sing, but its overall message is clear and compelling. If we behave
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