BfK
5 – 8 Infant/Junior continued The Fox and the Star
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Coralie Bickford Smith, Penguin, 64pp, 978-0-1419-7889-5, £7.99 pbk
Fox’s only friend is the lone Star in the sky. It lights his way as he forages for beetles and chases rabbits. Star keeps him company through
do show often surprising viewpoints or different angles to these sagas. Heroes don’t necessarily start off with good or brave intentions as in The Raven Banner or The Boy in The Bones and Sigurd who although he slays the dragon and claims the gold in The Dragon’s Hoard does not live a charmed life afterwards. Evocative
dark nights and lights up the rain when it falls through the tall trees above his den. One night Fox finds that everything has changed; the sky is dark and Star is gone. Fox sleeps through the darkness then, when he feels strong, he goes in search of his Star. In a new part of the forest where the trees don’t fill sky, Fox looks up to find not one Star, but thousands and he knows one of them is his friend. This beautiful numerous
James complement the stories. Her soft and beautiful colour palette brings out the hues of the Northern landscapes perfectly. And they are not without a touch of humour either – the image of Tusker with his long yellow tooth is particularly arresting especially when you know how the Earl of Orkney gets his comeuppance. JC
Super Search Adventures:
Where is the Bear? Camilla de la Bédoyère, ill. Emma Levey 978 1 78209 984 0
On the Trail of the Whale Camilla de la Bédoyère,
ill.Richard Watson 978 1 78209 983 3
HHHH Miles Kelly, 24pp, £6.99 pbk each
For younger animal lovers a pair of books that combine a story with information, riddles and puzzles and detailed pictures with things to spot. Where is the Bear? charts the journey of Suki the hare on a mission to deliver a birthday present to a mysterious bear called Ping. Her journey takes her across the world, through Arctic wastes and redwood forests, through jungles and rainforest following the clues and hints dropped by the animals she meets en route. Fold-out cover flaps include a roll call of animals to spot with wipe-clean boxes to tick, and at the end a panoramic map opens out to show the journey around the world. On the Trail of the Whale is its watery companion in which Otto the octopus hunts for his friend Hula the humpback whale, his journey mirroring that of the whales’ migration from the warm tropical waters in which they breed to the cold Arctic seas rich in food. The journey encompasses a rich variety of habitats from rocky seashore to kelp forests, from mangrove swamp and coral reef to the dark world of the ocean floor. Colourfully illustrated with bold, stylized artwork, these busy books will repay many return visits to hunt out the wealth of detail and will be as good for sharing with a group as one to one. SU
illustrations by Cate
nominations; it’s a visual feast for the eyes with intricately laid text set within swirling patterns reminiscent of William Morris. The paper is thick and luxurious, even in paperback format this is an object of beauty. Fox’s story is gentle and atmospheric that is both a fable of love and loss and a soothing bedtime story. Perfect for a special present. KC
Nicholas and the Wild Ones HHHHH
Niki Daly, Frances Lincoln, 32pp, 978-1-8478-0617-8, £7.99 pbk
When Nicholas encounters ‘the Wild Ones’ at his new school, he is not impressed. In fact, after explaining to Mum just how awful they are, he announces he won’t go back to school. Charlie jumps on people from the top of the climbing frame; Reggie ‘yanks kids up by their underpants’; Jake snatches other people’s sweets and eats them in front of the victim; and Cindy is big and pushes people. It’s bullying, says Mum, Dad says you have to stand up to them, and Gramps shows Nicholas how to ‘put up his fists’. No, says Gran, that isn’t the way. Nicholas must be ‘creative’. Mum agrees, but says he really must go to school as he wants to be an inventor. So off he goes again, and the Wild Ones are as bad as ever. He is bullied again, but this time, three of the Wild Ones start to tease the fourth, Cindy, about a picture she has drawn, and she cries.
tells her the picture is ‘cool’ and this is the start of friendship. After that, Nicholas becomes famous for his invention
helicopter that all the Wild Ones want to learn how to make, and friendship blossoms all round.
Wild Ones are not completely un- wild, and sometimes they have to let loose, so Nicholas must invent a Wild One Converter!
and creative and wonderfully wacky, Nicholas and his creator Niki Daly have much in common, and the pictures are as inventive as the hero of the story’s inventions.
and humour and fun, they convey the bullying in terms that children will find acceptable and will learn from in the best way. Brilliantly executed and produced! ES
24 Books for Keeps No.221 November 2016 Full of life Imaginative Mind you, the Nicholas of a solar-powered design awards
book has won and
the
They didn’t teach THIS in worm school!
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Simone Lia, Walker, 183pp, 987 1 4063 4650 3, £8.99 hbk
If you are searching for a laugh- out-loud funny story for a 7+ reader with a finely-tuned sense of the ridiculous, then look no further. This hilarious tale of misadventures and unexpected friendship is narrated by Marcus.
meets Laurence, a chicken-like bird. Marcus saves himself from becoming Laurence’s
him with a cheery ‘Good morning’ and enquiring about
he is really a flamingo and longs to travel to Lake Nakuru in Kenya to join his fellow flamingos. He trusts to Marcus’ supposed map-reading skills to navigate them there and a surreal and funny journey begins with the calamity-prone duo mistaking an electricity pylon for the Eiffel Tower and the local zoo for Africa. Simone, Lia, graphic novelist, comic
out
and so begins an unlikely friendship. It turns
that Laurence thinks
breakfast by greeting his hobbies,
Marcus is a worm who
favourite TV survival expert, suddenly sells all of Nelson’s electronics and moves the family out to the middle of nowhere to live the simple life in ‘the bosom of nature!’ When Nelson stops giggling at the
word ‘bosom’, the true horror of his new situation begins to dawn on him. No TV. No Xbox. No laptop. He is forced to munch on old fish and foul porridge and he learns that ‘nature’s bounty’ has nothing to do with chocolate. As it turns out, Dad’s ridiculous
8 – 10 Junior/Middle
determination to shun all modern comforts is perfect material for Nelson’s YouTube project and, before long, Nelson’s plan to gather enough cash to go and find his mum is coming together. That’s when the real problems start. It’s
secrets from a person who is an internet
artist and Observer and Guardian cartoonist, has created a quirky, witty illustrated novel that will appeal to young readers, reluctant readers and indeed anyone who needs cheering up. The humorous text is complemented by the expressive comic illustrations. The whole book is deceptively simple, engaging the reader via jokes, naive narration and layers of visual and verbal humour.
very appealing and the themes of friendship and self-confidence are surprisingly moving conveyed as they are via a buddy road/air- trip story involving a beat boxing worm and a chicken with a flamingo fixation. Highly recommended. SR
My Embarrassing Dad’s Gone Viral!
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Ben Davies, ill. Mike Lowery, Oxford University Press, 274pp, 978-0-1927-4584-2, £6.99 pbk
This humorous
a first person account of what happens when your
and his sister with little explanation, he is desperate to persuade her to return to the family home, but he has to find her first and, for that, he needs money – lots of money. It’s not easy to make money when you’ve got school for most of the day so Nelson does what any right-minded
would do; he starts making YouTube videos.
and he soon realises that setting up a webcam and chatting about your favourite games is not as easy as it looks. To make matters worse, his embarrassing
dad, emulating his Nelson’s vlogs are utter failures When Nelson’s mum abandons him family drama is
dad becomes an internet sensation. Even for a computer-game addict like Nelson, it’s not as brilliant as it sounds.
embarrassing Although The characters are
home has no electricity (or even an indoor toilet) and Nelson’s attempts to conceal his vlogging exploits are a frequent source of humour. Indeed there is much to laugh at in this story, especially when Skarfwick the sweary harbourmaster comes to call, and there is one particularly
moment involving Elvis Presley and a dead goldfish. The book is also
simple, line drawn cartoons that add to the comedy. Ben Davis has written a story that interesting questions
raises
our use of technology and its impact on families and friendships and his book also reminds readers of the importance of honesty, empathy and of sticking together when standing up to bullies. Though Nelson’s journey is an interesting one, with plenty of laughs along the way, it is rather predictable and its heavy reliance upon
themes may mean that it does not live for too long in readers’ memories. SD
The Case of the Girl in Grey HHHH
Jordan Stratford, illus. Kelly Murphy, Corgi Yearling, 216pp, 978-0-4408-7118-7, £6.99 pbk
especially at the beginning, this is a clever tale featuring a young Ada Byron and Mary Godwin, who have set themselves up as the Wollstonecraft Detective Agency.
somewhat complicated, tech-addict
start this book by eading the notes at the back, as they explain the setting (1826) and the concept of the series, which uses fictionalised (younger) versions of celebrated 19th century women; Lady Ada Byron and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. Lady Ada was known for her mathematical genius, and worked with Charles Babbage on the early mechanical computer, and Mary Godwin, married to Percy Shelley, wrote the fantasy
Frankenstein. With a lot of poetic novel It’s a good idea to such modern, fast-moving about used hilarious
designed, arranged to look like a screen, complete with battery status and progress illustrations,
bars, and Lowery’s sparingly, are
originally celebrity, even when their virtually impossible to keep
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