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 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 Bear Moves HHHH


Ben Bailey Smith aka Doc Brown and Sav Akyüs, Walker Entertainment, 40pp, 9781406359268, £11.99 hdbk


That purple Bear is back. But now he is wearing a whole


variety of


costumes as he shows off his dancing moves whether hip-hop, street, the Twist – even a Belly Dance. Bunny a Squirrel try to keep up, managing the music, reluctant partners in Bear’s enthusiasm. But Bear wants to Tango; he needs a partner to match him in size and vigour – and there she is. Perfect. But can Bear match up to her? The action bursts off the page. Here


text and image combine to create an infectious invitation designed to get a young audience moving and grooving. Bailey-Smith is a rapper poet himself and his words have the rhythm and rhyme that demands to be spoken aloud. Sav Akyüs challenge,


rises to the creating vibrant images


using bold outlines, vivid, saturated yet simple colours that bring the text to life. Bear is indeed a larger than life character and this partnership ensures that he is unforgettable. This is the book as a real entertainment, to be enjoyed by lively young and uninhibited adults. FH


Maisie’s Scrapbook HHHH


Samuel Narh, ill. Jo Loring-Fisher, Lantana Publishing, 9781911373575, £11.99 hbk


Maisie’s Scrapbook presents a year in five-year-old Maisie’s life at the centre of a loving, multiracial family. From the endpapers, with their child- like family drawings and lettering through double page spreads which show the changing seasons, this book gives the reader a child’s-eye view of her own world. Dada tells her African tales of Anansi the spider and lets her spirit and imagination soar and calm Mama is her source of steady comfort when she is frightened or upset. Maisie’s parents may have different coloured skin, different words for the same things, they may cook different food, wear different clothes and play different


musical mixed instruments media but


they praise her just the same, nag her just the same and love her in the same way. The


illustrations


portray the move through the seasons beautifully and use colour, texture and shade to skilfully contrast the bright family scenes with the dark, swirling backgrounds of Dada’s folklore tales. This is not strictly a story, but the idea of a scrapbook working through the seasons is very effective as a way of portraying a happy year in the life of a much-loved mixed-race Cultural


child. differences are celebrated and many children and families will 20 Books for Keeps No.235 March 2019


see themselves reflected in this gentle,


The Truth About Old People HHHH


Elina Ellis, Two Hoots, 32pp, 978 1 5098 8226 7 £11.99 hbk


This joyful picturebook from Elina Ellis, winner of the Macmillan Prize for Illustration 2017, shows older people in a rather different light from their usual portrayal in picture books. Far from being cosy decrepit people in armchairs or on Zimmer frames, these grandparents may have little hair and a lot of wrinkles, but they are active, adventurous and willing to have a go at everything, including roller skating and jumping on a trampoline! While your reviewer has one very old person in the family who is always ordering online from his tablet, and another who wins half marathons in the veteran section, there are rather more of the sedentary type – not everyone will be this lively, just as not every old person has grey hair, but at least this book may help children to realise that, even though when you’re young grandparents seem to be really old, they might still be AMAZING ( final spread).


The inky illustrations, in a style


similar to Quentin Blake and Tim Archbold with heavy black outlines, portray the grandparents, a lanky and balding grandad and a rather plump grandma, and their dog, getting fully involved in anything and everything, along with the child. The endpapers show the said child (probably boy, but not necessarily)


a entering


a storeroom full of exciting objects that hint at adventurous and sporty lives, e.g. a surf board labelled 1978, and leaving the room at the back of the book – it may be fun to work out where some objects have come from and what that might mean. The grandparents


are active, but


also computer savvy, and they can be romantic, (shown kissing) but the back cover shows them completely exhausted on a park bench, with the dog sleeping at their feet. This is good fun to read and to look at, and could spark some interesting conversations on the fun or embarrassing things that grandparents do. DB


Aalfred and Aalbert HHHH


Morag Hood, Two Hoots, 9781509842940, 32pp, £11.99 hbk


Described as ‘A tale of love, aardvarks, broccoli and a small blue bird’, this quirky, delightful


picture book by


Scottish illustrator Morag Hood tells the story of aardvarks Aalfred and Aalbert. Aalfred loves stars, broccoli and picnics and sleeps all day while


joyful and comforting book


with its depiction of unconditional love. SR


Aalbert loves flowers, sunshine and cheese and sleeps all night. So, the two seem fated never to meet despite the increasingly desperate schemes of a small blue bird.


Until, that is,


Aalfred’s rushed attempt to console the distraught blue bird sends him tumbling headlong into Aalfred’s burrow leading to the aardvark equivalent of a ‘happy ever aafter’. This picture book is full of charm


and gentle fun in its depiction of two


endearing determined and bird.


aardvarks and a resourceful


With its use of visual and verbal humour, bold fonts, bright colour, well- observed details and expressions this appealing story should leave its young readers, and their families, with smiles on their faces. SR


The Green Giant HHHH


Katie Cottle, Pavilion Children’s Books, 32pp, 978 1 84365 400 1, £6.99 pbk


Bea and her sausage dog, Iris, have left the city behind to spend the summer with Bea’s grandfather in the country. Grandfather is a keen gardener and at first Bea is oblivious to the garden’s charms preferring to play on her i-pad instead. But one day Iris chases a cat into the next- door garden and Bea climbs over the fence to find her dog and discovers a wild garden paradise in a greenhouse complete with a resident green giant made of growing plants and leaves. The giant tells Bea how the city became too grey and claustrophobic for him and how he had to escape to find the green spaces he craved. Over the summer, Bea gradually discovers the joys of the outdoors and the power of nature with her new giant friend and when she returns to the grey confines of the city she realises that she can make a difference by scattering the seeds the giant has given her. Drawing on traditional


legends


of the Green Man as protector of the environment and as a symbol of regeneration this is a timely tale of finding joy in wild places and the outdoors as an antidote to the overwhelming proliferation


of the


gadgets that can so easily take over our lives. It shows the importance of taking the time to enjoy the environment around us and finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. Winner of the Batsford Prize for illustration and shortlisted for the Macmillan Prize for illustration Katie Cottle is a new talent to watch. This is a striking debut


picture book


with a jaunty illustrative style and a gorgeous colour palette of vibrant greens, oranges and ochres. A great story to promote discussion in class or at home and perhaps to encourage a spot of guerrilla gardening. JC


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32