reviews 5 – 8 Infant/Junior continued
Den Building: Creating Imaginative Spaces Using Almost Anything
Jane Hewitt & Cathy Cross, Crown House Publishing Limited, 144pp, 978-184590952-9, £ 9.99
comprehensive book about building all kinds of den. These authors think of a den as ‘a space where you and your friends can play and be creative’. Indoor Dens; Outdoor Dens and accessible resources and then gives practical guidance for the actual building of each den. The ‘top tips’ on each spread are helpful too. I like the way these authors address after instructions to make a simple young readers are asked: ‘Does your shop have a name? How would you decorate it?’ So thinking and imagining are encouraged. The tone of the writing is conversational but also gives good reinforcement
White den, one of the ‘table’ dens, and white fairy lights – it’s ideal for chatting with friends or reading dens’ might be like – towards the end of the book are pictures of the hugely imaginative creations of the authors: dens with wonderful shapes and colours, made of interesting materials and often atmospherically lit so they look mysterious and sometimes almost ethereal. Many of the dens would be a good
focus for play dates. I particularly like the Sleepover den for a friends’ ‘sweetcorn and movie’ evening. The book would also be a good resource for teachers of young children who might particularly like the ideas for Outdoor dens and Miniature dens. Over 5s, with a little adult support, would be able to bring their own ideas to the creation of their den and to related drama and writing.
MM
paragraph starters include ‘set up’, is alive with colourful photographs, many giving inspiration by showing them with friends when completed. There is a Dr Who Tardis den and young Harry is pictured in the Tank
One Day on our Blue Planet in the Antarctic
Ella Bailey, Flying Eye Books, 32pp, 978-1-9092-6367-3, £11-99 hbk
This author/illustrator has already won a fan base for her amazing One Day on our Blue Planet …in the Savannah. Here, the front end
8 – 10 Junior/Middle
Lene Kaaberbol, illus Rohan Eason, translator Charlotte Barslund, Pushkin Children’s Books. 978-1-7826-9083-2, 160pp, £6.99 pbk
Clara’s nickname is Little Mouse – she is small, shy and ordinary. Or that is what she thinks. However, when she discovers that she is a wildwitch her life is turned upside down. She must face How can she succeed? And who – or what – is the cat? Friend or foe? Lena Kaaberbol may already been
Shamer Chronicles. She is an author to welcome back. Here her audience is a little younger - KS2 - and will attract readers who may have
writers like Angie Sage, Sage Blackwood and most recently Abi Elphinstone. Nor will it disappoint. Clara is a believable heroine who will win the support of young readers; her trials are demanding without being gruesome and Chimera is a scary opponent. The framework of the narrative will be familiar but it is well crafted and well handled, ensuring the pages turn swiftly. The translation is smooth, the prose style well crafted pleasure.
young readers Year 3 and up. It is forward to meeting Cat again; a relation of Carbonel, perhaps?
FH This is a novel to recommend to discovered Perijee and Me
Ross Montgomery, Faber, 240pp, 978-0-5713-1795-0, £6.99, pbk
Ross Montgomery is a writer whose novels inhabit a weird world, in which the stories seem to be going one way and then veer off in quite another direction. This latest begins with the story of a lonely child, disregarded by her parents, who befriends an beach and promises to somehow get it back home. So far, so ET; which friend, has some appealing traits, including transforming itself into a miniature Caitlin, with inclusive bobble hat and facial features that they belong. But there are more disturbing aspects, including growing very fast, indiscriminate eating habits, and a monstrous temper when threatened. All these come together when Caitlin’s mother calls in the story shifts into apocalyptic dystopia, about destroying civilisation as we know it. Caitlin, convinced, in time honoured fashion, that the monster is misunderstood rather than malicious, sets off through the wilderness of with it. Along the way, she makes friends with Fi, a feisty street thief in
Beetle Boy
M.G. Leonard, Chicken House, 978- 1-9100-0270-4, 306pp, £6.99 pbk
possession of a cow (don’t ask); and, surviving kidnap by a vicious cult of tattooed old ladies in nightdresses, very moment that the planes close in for the kill. How Montgomery holds all this together is a mystery; but he the head-long plot and defying the reader to question any of it, even the astonishingly neat ending. The book has enough cliff-hangers to work as a class reader and I’d love to see it as CB
Darkus’s father has disappeared; life at school is spiralling down. Then he meets Jupiter; Jupiter is a giant beetle - and he seems to be intelligent. Does Jupiter hold the key to the mystery that faces Darkus? A mystery unfolds that involves even more beetles - and the evil Lucretia Cutter. This lively adventure is a very attractive debut that bodes well for its author. Darkus and his friends, Bertold and Virginia, are a likeable trio who, true to the adventure genre, show initiative and determination when facing the villains of the piece. Lucretia Cutter, once an outstanding scientist who has gone to the dark side. Her foils are the cousins, Pickering and Humphrey who could rival the Twits in nastiness. However, the real stars of the books are the beetles. Young readers will be won over by the author’s enthusiasm for these creatures, learning a little bit about their variety and beauty. They may even hanker for a beetle of their own - as Virginia does this is a book to recommend to boys and girls who want a good read that will both entertain and grab their attention.
FH
papers set the mood with a crowd of We can spy the wandering albatross, the chinstrap penguin and the imperial shag. At the end of the book we see those creatures which live under the ice in the Antarctic; giant warty squid, the humpback whale and the orca. All are beautifully and accurately drawn and softly coloured. her mother before setting off alone across the ice. Whilst she cannot water, she is as swift and as graceful as any bird in the sky. Spending each day searching for food, she travels many, many miles, through the open southern waters where giants swim. She travels deep into the hidden manages to avoid becoming food herself, it may be years before she returns to solid land. The creatures portrayed throughout are easily of the end papers. This is a book to and simple but accurate factual depictions, appealing to a wide range of youngsters. It is a delight to handle, having a tactile linen-effect cover and strong art paper pages.
GB
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