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 Together We Can HHHH


Caryl Hart, illus Ali Pye, Scholastic, 32pp, 978-1407177397, £6.99 pbk


This book is a lavishly illustrated work in full colour addressing the issues of friendship across the barriers of age, gender and ethnicity. It also addresses a boundary not


often


broached in books for this age group – though happily less


rarely than


in the past – namely the boundary between disabled and non-disabled people. The text of the book is sparse. It is


delivered in rhyme with a recurrent motif of ‘Together we can…’ It deals with important issues such as how to make friends with people who are in distant places and how to detect if someone is lonely and badly needs a friend. Often when reviewing books of this kind we comment on the extent to which the illustrations support the text. In this book it’s the reverse. The role of the text is to punctuate the dominant illustrations, a virtue in a book for non-readers or early readers. The inclusion of one character in a wheelchair and another with an eye- patch is a welcome development, save for one illustration. When the children are flying kites, the boy in the wheelchair is depicted with his chair tipping perilously back, the front wheels raised high off the ground. No one is paying the slightest attention to what would be a serious accident in the making. In another illustration the children


are seen tending an open fire without adult


and safety officers would make of this scene is left


supervision. What health to the reader to


determine. It is heart-warming to see the child


in the wheelchair depicted like any other child on the front cover of this book. A minor character, but given welcome prominence. RB


My Friends HHHHH


Max Low, Otter-Barry Books, 32pp, 978 1 91095 982 4, £11.99 hbk


Influenced by Dick Bruna and Lucy Cousins, this new author/illustrator is one to watch. His simple pictures and original ideas flow together beautifully, and


the friendship is topical. theme of Told in the


first person, the ‘writer’ introduces himself with a simple ‘hello’ and then proceeds to tell us about each of his friends. There is Messy, who is quiet and doesn’t talk much; Ezza loves to look at clouds; Olga likes to listen to music; and Lina ‘invents things’. There are many, many more friends to meet, and all of them are special because (we are told) our author likes to do the same things they enjoy when he is with them. He also has an


20 Books for Keeps No.238 September 2019


imaginary friend, Klaus: ‘it’s good to have an imaginary friend because they can be with you whenever you need them.’ His friends are all blobby characters, full of colour and fun, and in the very end of the story we find that our author also likes sometimes to be by himself. On the final page, we see a portrait of the author, a lovely dog, who asks us to tell him about our friends. Lots to look at, lots to talk about,


and lots to enjoy. ES Who’s Going to Bed?


HHHH


Written by Abie Longstaff and illustrated by Eve Coy, Puffin, 32pp, 978-0-141-37456-7, £6.99 pbk


The stars are out, the moon is bright… who’s going to bed? Not this little baby…. he’s far too busy!


The pirates have packed away their treasure and are settling in their hammocks. The animals have eaten their greens and are resting quietly. In the castle, the king and queen have taken off their crowns. Everyone is tired and they’re heading for their beds - except one cheeky baby who wants to bang his drum and clash his cymbals and wake everybody up! Trailing pirates, royals and bears behind him, the baby makes his way down to the shore where he finds a very sleepy dragon. She’s so tired! The baby and the pirates and the bears give her the perfect bedtime, with blankies and


stories and


lullabies all round. Now the baby’s yawning, too – and before he knows what’s happening, he’s being sailed and swung and marched and carried right back to his own little bed. With its structured,


rhythmic text


and stunning artwork that evokes mid-century printing techniques, this book delivers an imaginative and comforting bedtime experience that will entertain and reassure at other times,


too. Eve Coy’s deliciously


muted illustrations conjure twilight on every page, with a soothing blue and brown palette enlivened by the rusty- red of the baby’s sleepsuit. There are plenty of details to spot, and Coy’s characters are trailed and reappear throughout, giving a sense of quiet order to this gently diverse story. Eve


Coy’s debut Red Red Red HHHHH


Polly Dunbar, Walker, 32pp, 978 1 4063 7696 8, £12.99 hbk


Whilst in our local library this morning, I saw a small moppet rolling round on the floor screaming and thought to myself that his poor mum rather needed this book! The child in the story sees ‘red red red’ after trying


picturebook,


Looking After Daddy, was published last year and has been shortlisted for the Klaus Flugge Prize. CFH


to reach the biscuits and falling on his or her head. A full-blown temper tantrum


applying lots


follows, and mum, while of


suitably perturbed.


sympathy, looks She has the


answer, though. She begins to count to ten slowly with her little one, and we then get lots of vignettes of the child. These are immensely charming, and show the small tot going from screaming to smiling – and then having biscuits! Dunbar’s always fun rhyming couplets and integrated text, along with the wonderful pictures of both child and mum, are a joy to see, and the red scribbles throughout – as well as on the end pages – give us a true sense of the feel of being angry. A great book for both child and parent on handling the inevitable


temper


tantrums that occur as babies grow older. ES


Harry in a Hurry HHHH


Timothy Knapman, ill. Gemma Merino, Macmillan, 32pp, 978-1-5098-8216-8 £11.99 hbk, (978-1-5098-8217-5 £6.99 pbk)


This twist on the Aesop’s fable of The Hare and the Tortoise has Harry the hare not in an actual race this time, but always in a hurry, and Gemma Merino’s illustrations show the world as a blur as he whizzed about on his scooter, knocking over the postman and generally causing mayhem. He talks fast, and eats fast, and was in too much of a hurry to notice the teeny tiny rock that snagged his front wheel and sent him and his scooter flying into a pond. Tom the tortoise, quietly fishing there, rescued him, and asked where he is going. “I won’t know until I get there. And now I’m going to be late!”. Tom didn’t understand, but said he will fix the scooter, and that it will take time. Tom slowly got lunch together, and Harry, feeling grumpy, started to notice how cosy the house was, how comfy his chair felt, and how nice the soup smelled. He had hurt his arm, so he had to eat slowly, enjoyed the taste, and didn’t get hiccups. They went for a walk, and Harry noticed his surroundings. He sat and had a really good look at it all while Tom mended the scooter. Brushing


aside Tom’s


apology for taking so long, Harry asked how he could thank him, and the answer was a ride on Harry’s back on the scooter! The last page shows them in several small pictures as friends, doing some adventurous things and some slow things, but enjoying each other’s company. Timothy Knapman has been writing


plays, musicals and children’s books for over ten years, with many appearing on CBeebies, and his Dinosaurs in the Supermarket was a best seller. Gemma Merino is a prize-winning illustrator known for The Cow that Climbed a Tree. Their collaboration works well, and Gemma Merino has


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