reviews


the poems range from the laugh-out- loud funny to the slightly scary or completely absurd. Children will meet crocodiles, dinosaurs, robot teachers, pirates, aliens, and a toilet seat with teeth. The poems are ideal for reading aloud with suggestions for group performance and ideas for listener participation given throughout. Liz Million’s humorous and lively cartoon- style


illustrations match the tone


of the poems perfectly. This light- hearted, funny collection is packed with repetition, choruses, kennings, sound effects and actions ensuring an entertaining treat for young readers and listeners. SR


The Tale of a Toothbrush HHHH


M.G. Leonard, illus Daniel Rieley, Walker Books, 978-1406391817, 32pp, £6.99 pbk


On one level, this is a spritely


reworking of the favourite tale of a toy – or in this case, a toothbrush – thrown away and its subsequent exploits as it makes its way back home. In this instance though, the toothbrush’s adventure also shows readers lots about the impact on the planet of the simple act of throwing something away, especially


if it’s


made of plastic. Sammy is Sofia’s first toothbrush and she proudly draws an S on his tummy but even so, when his bristles are worn down, Mum throws him in the bin. In a cargo of rubbish, Sammy travels across the seas, before finding his way into a river, and from there back into the ocean to start the long journey back to Sofia. Along the way, he meets plastic bottles,


plastic


straws and plastic bags, all floating in the ocean, before a kindly albatross gives him a lift for the last leg. Via Sammy’s adventure,


M.G.


Leonard cleverly delivers a message about the harm discarded plastic is doing to our oceans, and shows how it is the responsibility of all of us, even the young, to change things – for a start, the book suggests we all use bamboo toothbrushes in future. Though the message is an important one, the delivery is fun and best of all, hopeful. Daniel Rieley injects Sammy and his plastic friends with a cheerfulness and positivity that we all need, and this is a very good, very entertaining and accessible piece of environmental education. AR


There’s a Crocodile in the House


HHHH


Paul Cookson, ill. Liz Million, Otter-Barry Books, 96pp, 978 1 91307 400 5, £6.99 pbk


This latest collection from well-known performance poet Paul Cookson is as full of lively humour as regular readers would expect. Aimed at younger children and ideal for classroom use,


Tiny T Rex and the Very Dark Dark


HHH


Jonathan Stutzman, ill. Jay Fleck, Scholastic, 24pp, 9781452170343 £11.99 hbk


Tiny and Pointy are little dinosaurs who would like to camp out in their garden, but they are afraid of the dark. Of course, they are dinosaurs so shouldn’t be scared of anything, even though they are little, so this is a sweet tale of gathering courage to overcome your fears. The limited colour


palette and


simple shapes bring a charm to this hardback book. The characters themselves spend a long time preparing for


have to include material for


scales… There’s some really amusing illustrations which I’m sure children will love, especially dinosaur loving ones.


There are plenty of books about children being afraid of


the dark


but this one is good because the two friends try to work together on combatting their fear before they go outside. They combine their brain power to come make up with a plan which is drawn out in the book, including making helmets!


They


even make a ‘super-bright nighty- light’ which looks wonderful against the dark colours on the pages. But then the dark turns out to be a bit bigger and all-consuming than they’d expected. There’s some nice pausing in the


page layouts for this with a good use of space. Thankfully Pointy and Tiny have a spectacular surprise awaiting them when they pluck up the courage to come out of their tent. This is sweet book to


help


with endearing children


overcome


characters their


fears, not just of the dark, because working together, as a team, can help overcome lots of difficulties as these two friends prove. SG


the pictures add to this build up too. For example,


their camp out and stegosaurus pyjamas


the


5 – 8 Infant/Junior The Lost Book


HHHH


Margarita Surnaite, Andersen Press, 32pp, 9781783448814, £6.99 pbk


Henry is not keen on books – unlike everyone else in Rabbit Town; books are


everywhere there – boring.


Henry would rather have a real life adventure. That is until he finds the Lost Book. It needs to be found and Henry sets off


to look for the


owner – and finds himself having ‘an adventure so exciting it could have been in a book’. This is artist Margarita Surnaite’s picture


debut book. Stylishly


presented, her clear uncluttered style uses subtle outlines and a cool pastel palette, that perfectly matches the minimal text. Does this mean that the storyline is vague or elliptical? Far from it; with commendable economy, Surnaite presents a narrative that would


make sense without the


illustration. However, together they create a richly enjoyable experience where the words are mirrored and extended by the images. For here is not just a story in which the animal world and the human meet; rather it is about imagination itself and how story can inhabit reality – and vice versa. With clear font and spacious design this is a pleasure to read and Margarita Surnaite an author- illustrator to watch. FH


Bear Shaped HHHHH


Dawn Coulter-Cruttenden, Oxford, 32pp, 978 0 19 277211 4, £6.99, pbk


Jack loved Bear and took him


everywhere with him. Jack often finds trying new things or communicating with other people difficult due to his autism but having Bear makes him feel brave, Bear is his bridge to the world. But then one day at the park Bear disappears, leaving a bear shaped hole in Jack. Local searches yield no results but when the news spreads more widely messages come from all over the world and bears start arriving in the post. The kindness of others creates a change in Jack, he realizes how lucky he has been to have Bear and that many children might appreciate a bear of their own to be friends with, so he begins giving them away. Inspired by a true story, this is sensitively


a told and beautifully


illustrated picture book about loving and losing something precious. It conveys one child’s experiences of coping with grief and gradually growing in strength with the recognition you are not alone in feeling sad, in a gentle and moving way. This book has resonance for everyone who has lost a toy, loved pet or member of the family and also provides insight into the world of an autistic child. SMc


On Wings of Words HHHHH


Jennifer Berne, ill. Becca Stadtlander, Chronicle Books, 52pp, 978 1 4521 4297 5, £13.99 hbk


In this superb narrative picture book biography author


Jennifer excerpts from her


Complementing Stadtlander’s


this are beautiful, Berne


weaves together for young readers, the life of poet Emily Dickinson and


poetry. Becca


detailed


gouache and watercolour paintings, first of the child Emily to whom ‘every bird, every flower, every bee or breeze or slant of light seemed to speak’; who explored the world around her with her eyes, ears and thoughts, then found ‘new words for everything she was discovering’. We’re


given glimpses of Emily’s


childhood with her beloved older brother Austin; with her school friends and as she becomes a mature young woman


with ‘The strongest friends and that of


the soul’ books that she read in the sanctuary of her own room. Such are the power of the words illustrations


it’s almost


impossible not to share her intensity of feelings towards all these things, as well as to share in her search for answers to the sorrows of life. Eventually all these feelings poured


forth as poems that arose deep within herself, soothing her sadness, giving her strength and the freedom of her imagination. While her inner world grew though, Emily’s outer world shrank more and more as she wrote hundreds and hundreds of wonderful poems, that her sister only discovered after Emily’s death. The


frequent appearance of


butterflies in the illustrations serve as an inspired symbol of how Emily’s words, like her sprit, transcend all else in this reverential rendering of a poet whose words continue to touch the hearts and minds of countless


poetry lovers the world over. JB Animal Explorers


HHHH


Sharon Rentta, ill. Sharon Rentta, Scholastic, 24pp, 9781407193656 £6.99 pbk


This is rather charming non-fiction book. Sharon Rentta has both written and illustrated the series and has included the biographies of famous real


life plant hunters at the end


which was really interesting. A polar bear in the Amazon jungle


is obviously a slightly unusual but this picture book is full of colour and joy with lively illustrations and plenty of other animals to entertain us. The story starts


off in Lola, the Polar


Bear’s usual habitat. Her grandad inspires her to follow her dreams and go on an adventure when they spy a flower growing in the snow when


Books for Keeps No.242 May 2020 23


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