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Marvellous Medicine: how to get through the Coronavirus epidemic with children’s books


It’s more than six weeks now since schools closed and teachers and parents were handed the challenge of home-schooling all (or nearly all) under 18s in the UK. It’s enough to drive us all to drink.


Fortunately, help is at hand, supplied by children’s publishers, authors and children’s book charities who have created a cornucopia of activity packs, work sheets, free books and the chance to hear authors reading their books. Here’s a round up of some of what’s going on. If we’ve missed you out, let us know on Twitter (@BooksforKeeps) or Facebook


Free books


Andersen Press has released a free ebook, created by Sally Nicholls and illustrator Viviane Schwarz. Staying Home is available to everyone to download. The book follows a family of energetic racoons through a day in lockdown, and explaining to the youngest members of the family how they’re doing their part to save lives just by staying at home.


SALLY NICHOLLS VIVIANE SCHWARZ


Hats off to Nosy Crow and Axel Scheffler for creating a digital book about the coronavirus for primary school


age children and the measures taken to control it. Written by staff within the company, the book also had input from Professor Graham Medley of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, as well as advice from two head teachers and a child psychologist. Nosy Crow want to make sure that this book is accessible to every child and family and so the book is offered totally free of charge to anyone who wants to read it. However, they have suggested, at the back of the book, that families might make a donation to help our health service if they find the book useful: www.nhscharitiestogether.co.uk.


Hope is needed as never before so three cheers too for Katherine Rundell and the children’s authors and artists who contributed to her anthology The Book of Hopes. This free-to-read collection contains over 100 entries, all intended to turn its young audience into ‘possibilityists’ – a phrase Rundell defines as being open to the world’s infinite opportunities for transformation. Poetry is perfect for delivering short, sharp moments of joy, insight or laughter, and


10 Books for Keeps No.242 May 2020


many contributors have chosen to write poems: Catherine Johnson has a playful tribute to an Axolotl; David Almond a tender,


funny father-son adventure;


David Solomons an ode to a washing machine keen to lift off into space (one small step for domestic appliance…). Geraldine McCaughrean’s contribution Sunflower is typically brilliant,


and


there are stories too by Kevin Crossley- Holland, Sally Nicholls, Hilary McKay and Jessica Townsend, and a positive insertion


of non-fiction from collection could inspire creative endeavours in children too.


The Book of Hopes is now live to read in full for free on the National Literacy Trust site – literacytrust.org.uk/bookofhopes.


Activities, writing challenges and fun things to do The British Library’s Discovering Children’s Books is a free online resource for children, teachers and book-lovers of all ages. There’s a gallery of activities to spark children’s creativity and inspire their own stories, poems, illustrations and more and the site also includes films showing illustrators at work in their studios, including Axel Scheffler’s masterclass on how to draw a Gruffalo. Plus you’ll find interviews with authors and illustrators such as Quentin Blake, Julia Donaldson, Michael Rosen, Lauren Child, Andy Stanton, Zanib Mian, Joseph Coelho, Jacqueline Wilson, Viviane Schwarz and SF Said, who reveal their creative processes, memories of childhood reading and tips for budding writers and artists.


Isabel Thomas, The Hungriest Caterpillar. The


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