reviews 5 – 8 Infant/Junior continued The Queen’s Lift-Off HHHHH


Steve Antony, Hodder Children’s Books, 32pp, 978 1 4449 3421 2, £12.99 hbk


Little does her royal highness anticipate as she helps the little


prince and


princess build a large toy rocket that, thanks to a playful bouncy corgi pup, she’s about to be launched skywards; but that is exactly what happens. Before you can say ‘space helmet’


which fortunately the Queen already has firmly in place at she teeters atop a stepladder adding the finishing touches to their craft, she is blasted off into space, clinging on for dear life. Whoosh! She zooms faster than


the speed of light, first towards and around Mercury and then, comet- like on to Venus before the strategic pressing of a button sends here heading down towards the Moon. Thereon she, together with her ever-


increasing band of suitably clad young subjects land and step or otherwise cavort across the surface before taking a single giant leap to Mars and then, having spun rings around Saturn, the astronauts continue their voyage past the other planets in our solar system until, catastrophe! Her majesty is quite suddenly sucked right into a black hole. Is it her fate to be trapped forever inside, held by its gravitational force? Happily not,


for a passing


spaceship comes to her aid, beaming her up and then right back down from whence she came, depositing her all in one piece, safely in the palace garden where afternoon tea awaits. I love the way Steve has dropped to Star Trek and Neil


references


Armstrong’s first moon landing into his verbal narrative. While this seems relatively simple, there’s a wealth of additional visual stories to discover. Look out all the way through for the little alien and his flying saucer, who after performing some pretty amazing tricks with a tea tray and its accoutrements, has the final word. An un-missable addition to this series. JB


Sonam and the Silence HHHH


Eddie Ayres illus Ronak Taher, Allen and Unwin, 978-1760634872, 32pp, £11.99 hbk


Inspired by the true story of a little girl in Afghanistan who attended the school at which author Eddie Ayres taught,


this beautifully places illustrated


story is one of hope, resilience and the special power of music. It will connect children with others who live in very different


and emphasises


what we all have in common. Sonam is seven years old and


growing up in Kabul. Even at this young age, she has a job selling chewing gum to people in their cars. To distract her from the frightening sounds of the traffic and – even more threatening – distant gunfire, she hums to herself, music she has learned from an old


man who presents her with a rubab, a lute-like instrument much-loved by Afghans. When her brother finds the instrument, he takes it away and life gets even more frightening as war rages


around Sonam and foreign


soldiers arrive. Visiting her friend’s garden again, Sonam finds the rubab hidden for her by her brother, and takes pomegranate seeds to grow her own trees. In the quiet of the garden, the music returns and Sonam realises it is in her heart. We know that as the seeds grow, the music will return too. Ronak


Taher’s illustrations are


striking – mixed media collages that use colour and startling compositions to create mood and a sense of the unfolding story: quiet browns and sand


colours represent Sonam’s


home life, bright greens, turquoises and bold reds depict the old man’s garden and the colours of the rubab’s music. Stark cut outs of shouting soldiers in black and ochre vividly evoke the terrors of war. The final page returns to the pinks, ruby reds and purples of the garden to leave readers with a sense of peace and hope for Sonam and for us all. LS


How to Make Friends with a Ghost


HHH


Rebecca Green Andersen Press, 40pp, 9781783446803, £6.99, pbk


Are you scared of ghosts? Are your parents scared of ghosts? This is the book for you. Here Rebecca Green (with the help of Dr Phantoneous Spookel) will make sure that you will be able to make friends with a ghost. A light-hearted text presented in


a clear and attractive sans-serif font against a clean white ground takes the reader through such mysteries as to how to identify a ghost (a helpful illustration, labelled), what ghosts might like


to eat (mouldy toast,


monster-mashed potato, spiderweb sushi), and generally how to care for a ghost from dawn to dusk, from the beginning to the end. There are no great surprises but plenty to cause a young reader to wriggle with slightly horrified delight. The illustrations are a perfect match for the text. Neat lines accompanied by a minimal palette of brown, greys and red. The effect is gently humorous (it is suggested you might like to institute ‘A take your ghost to work’ day) – right up to the end where you are reminded that a ghost will be a friend for life and beyond; an enjoyable excursion for slightly older readers in Early Years. FH


Inside the Villains HHHHH


Clotilde Perrin, Gecko Press, 978-1776571987, 12pp, £16.99 hbk


Everybody loves a villain, and this huge book brings readers up very close indeed to three of the best (or should that be worst?). First there’s the Wolf: allowed to introduce himself


he describes his ‘highly developed intelligence,


natural cunning and


exceptional athletic gifts’. Open the gatefold and there’s a list of key facts – My Top Food, Things I Hate, My Library (further reading). There’s a spritely telling of the story of The Seven Little Goats (the translation is by Daniel Hahn) and then, best of all, a full page figure of the wolf (these pages are huge don’t forget) which opens up to allow us to see right inside his brain – all those clever ideas – and right inside his stomach – all those little children and pigs. Paper engineering opens his mouth to reveal those famous big teeth and the foolish little goats disappearing down his throat. The giant and the wicked witch get the same treatment: an introduction, story and lift the flap figure. Particular treats are finding the giant’s tiny brain, and the little child hiding behind the witch’s ear. This is a book to produce gasps laughter


and and to send little


shivers down the spine all at the same time, a delicious inside view of fairy tales that captures all of their


Perrin’s


fascinating, unsettling charm. illustrations are similarly


humorous and dark, full of detail and added treats for readers. AR


The Antlered Ship HHHH


Dashka Slater illustrated by The Fan Brothers, Lincoln Children’s Books, 48pp, 9781786031051, £12.99 hbk


Marco the Fox has questions;


questions like ‘Why do some songs make you happy and others make you sad?’. The other foxes are not interested, so when the Antlered Ships sails into harbour, Marco joins the motley crew; his quest to find the answers. It will be a journey fraught with danger – and at the end will Marco find what he is looking for? Or will he find that it is in fact better to be surprised. Dashka Slater takes the reader


out of the real world into that of the imagination as her characters, a fox, deer and a group of pigeons sail across turbulent seas in search of a island with tall grass and sweet trees – and foxes to befriend Marco. The questions that trouble Marco are just the sort that children will ask – ‘Why is water wet?’ But as Marco finds out, it is not the answer but the exploration


and companionship. The fantasy


grounded


that brings satisfaction of


the by the realism


storyline is of


the


illustrations by the Fan Brothers. Marco is a real fox depicted with precision so that one can feel the softness of his coat. However, there is no dislocation


between reality


and fantasy since the animals sport bandanas and (in the case of the pirates) tricorne hats while the ship with its antlers is the perfect vehicle to bridge the divide. Verging on the whimsical, the


concise a


combines with the lush images to create


satisfying experience stimulate the young imagination. FH


narrative to


Tiger Walk HHHHH


Dianne Hofmeyr, ill. Jesse Hodgson, Otter-Barry Books, 32pp, 978 1 91095 941 1, £11.99, hbk


During a visit to an art gallery Tom is mesmerised by a painting of a tiger which seems to be watching him. When he gets home he is inspired to draw his own picture of the tiger. That night he imagines or dreams the tiger stepping out of the picture and into his bedroom. The tiger invites Tom to go for a walk. Tom is reluctant, he is scared of the dark but the tiger reassures him and there follows a night time adventure in which Tom travels through jungles, underwater, to icy caves and above the world meeting a range of creatures on the way. All the while Tom is hesitant about these unfamiliar and scary situations but with the tiger’s encouragement confronts his fears and enjoys the experience. So much so that by the end of the book he feels as brave as – a tiger! Perhaps he actually IS a tiger! Inspired by Henri Rousseau’s well


known painting ‘Surprised’ or ‘Tiger in a Tropical Storm’ this is an appealing story about overcoming fears. The illustrations are


richly coloured


and stunning, conveying a sense of adventure and the strength and beauty of the tiger brilliantly. The language is beautiful with lovely imagery; ‘the forest drips with moonflowers’ and there is a pleasing pattern and repetition in the narrative. A perfect story for bedtime reading. SMc


Lots of Frogs HHHH


Howard Calvert, ill. Claudia Boldt, Hodder, 978 1 444 93964 4, £12.99, hbk


This is a debut for this author who has created a book full of quirky humour to delight any small child. Written in four line stanzas, the tale begins, ‘Tommy Fox/owns a box. /In the box?/ Lots of frogs.’ We have already met literally hundreds of frogs on the front cover and frothing all over the front endpapers, happily leaping, laughing, grinning and gamboling. Show and tell being what it


is in Nursery and


KS1 classrooms, of course, little boy Tommy has to take his box into school. Unfortunately he coughs, which causes the lid to fly off, and out jump the frogs. Not just a few but dozens upon dozens it seems, frogs going berserk, children laughing, shouting, teachers shrieking. Tom does his best to recapture his frogs, bouncing round the school on his space hopper, appalled when the frogs jump in the headteacher’s hair! Once every frog is returned to the box, Tom smiles in relief. But then – he coughs! Boldt is the winner of a Book Trust Best New Illustrators Award, and she has filled every page with frogs having a WHALE of a time, getting up to all sorts of mischief and elaborating upon Calvert’s rhyming text, which reads aloud very well. A book to enthral young children, especially those with an interest in the frog and its fascinating life cycle. GB


Books for Keeps No.234 January 2019 25


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