BfK 5 – 8 Infant/Junior continued


imagination. The ending is particularly enjoyable and satisfying. Carter’s bold colour-saturated illustrations fill each spread using all the dynamics – whole page, split panels, vignettes – to add rhythm and movement to the story as the pages turn. The end pages themselves introduce the imaginative world Carter brings to life – book shelves, tentacles and an underwater murk. Olive is a brave little character who young readers will recognise. The problem that faces the Octopus is also one that will be understood – books need someone who can read them and share the stories.…but it is a problem that has a solution just as access to books, whether for adults or children, also has a solution. A very enjoyable picture book on all levels, to be recommended – and shared. FH


of golden sand, where other children clean up litter and play together. It’s empowering and positive, a fitting end to a book that explores our connection with the natural world, text and images working beautifully together. LS


Can You Keep a Secret? HHHH


Melissa Castrillon, Alison Green Books, 32pp, 9781407194493, £6.99 pbk


Can you keep a secret? What if it is a really big secret with the existence of very special creatures depending on you? This is the question that faces Winnie when she meets the last dragon in the world and his friends. Will she keep their secret? Castrillon’s screen print techniques


create the perfect medium for her narrative which gently explores the boundaries between the imagination and


palette of


reality. A colour-saturated bright


pinks, turquoise


greens and a sensitive use of white spaces together with definite outlines creates images that have an almost dreamlike quality combined with an energy that ensures the eye moves across the spreads to turn the page. Winnie and her parents are solid, real, while the mythological creatures are imbued with a sense of the fabulous. This gentle story would be a joy to share, raising as it does questions around fantasy, imagination and the real world and their place for a young audience to explore. FH


The Tale of the Whale HHHH


Karen Swann, illus Padmacandra, Scallywag Press, 32pp, 978-1912650491, £12.99 hbk


Where land becomes sky and the sky becomes sea,/ I first saw the whale …/ and the whale first saw me./ And high on the breeze came his sweet- sounding song - / ‘I’ve so much to show you, if you’ll come along.’ So begins a small child’s magical journey on the back of a huge and beautiful baleen whale. Together they sail the oceans, dancing with dolphins, diving through the blue seas and exploring the ocean beds ‘with carpets of colours that breathed with the sea.’ Watched by a polar bear and her cub, they splash so high from the icy seas that the child feels they’re flying, not since The Snowman has a journey conjured so much sheer joy, connection and imagination. But the tone changes when the whale becomes hungry – opening his mouth wide along with the soup of the ocean he swallows the debris discarded by humans, and the child realises what the whale wants people to see. They travel home saddened and both crying, but the child promises to tell the whale’s tale and on the final page challenges us to change the world too. The story doesn’t dodge the size of the problem we face, but that final direct message is given from a beach


The Rock from the Sky HHHH


John Klassen, Walker, 100pp, 9781 4063 9557 0, £12.99, hb


At the start of John Klassen’s new epic five act picture book there are four characters: a turtle, an armadillo, a snake and a large rock, which enters from above. The first three are looking at us sideways. The turtle and the armadillo wear a bowler hat, the snake wears a beret, and the rock is just a rock. The turtle is rather snappy, unfriendly, and reluctant to


admit


that he might have done something foolish or to accept help when he has. Consequently, he spends the second act of the book upside down. In the third act the armadillo and the turtle sit on the rock and imagine the future, into which enters another rather scary character on tall spindly legs from a different galaxy of the imagination. In the next act, the snake and the armadillo sit under the rock and admire the


sunset. The turtle approaches


wondering what they are doing, but by the time he makes his slow way to join them, to his disappointment, they are not doing it anymore, and he feels left out. In the last act, the turtle declares he will leave and may never come back. This is the cue for the return of the scary character from the future and the intervention of a second rock. As in Klassen’s other minimalist tales, space on the page,


24 Books for Keeps No.248 May 2021


actors and dialogue are deployed with absurdist skill to create a story that, while


apparently inconsequential,


has humour, suspense and danger. Through the character of the turtle, the


arrangement of the characters


on the page and their movement across it, it touches knowingly on the perils of loneliness and the comfort of friendship; and on existential threats, perhaps like pandemics, that can come from anywhere and nowhere. CB


What is a Virus? HHHHH


Katie Daynes, ill. Kirsti Beautyman, Usborne, 12pp, 978-1-4749-9151-3, £9.99, hbk


This timely and enjoyable non-fiction board book takes an informative look at the subject of viruses. A single headline question is explored per double spread (including Why Should I Wash My Hands?Which is the Worst? and What’s a Vaccine?) and further


answered beneath sturdy lift-up flaps. Despite


related questions the


which children amusing virus


mugshots, this book takes a practical, down-to-earth approach to a subject about


(and their


carers) may be confused. The text was written in consultation with a medical expert, and looks to provide reassurance and effective actions rather


than sensationalizing the


facts. Short sentences get to the point without unnecessary padding, and correct


terminology is used


throughout. As the author observes ‘kids don’t want to be fobbed off with half-truths, but neither do they want to be blasted with jargon.’ It’s a tough line to call, but one that has been addressed effectively in this book. The appealing illustrations


are


mostly in full colour, with a couple of black-and-white spreads giving the impression of sketches and notes. As a board book, it is robust enough to survive repeated consultations. However, the format does feel slightly at odds with the interest level, and it would be a shame if older readers were put off (or the book were to be shelved in the preschool section) as the content has much to recommend it right through Key Stage 2. Having said that, though, there is nothing to stop keen nursery children getting to grips with this book. What is a Virus? is the latest in Usborne’s series of First Questions and Answers. More titles are planned, including Why Do Things Die? and What is Racism?


Nano: The Spectacular Science of the Very (Very) Small


Dr. Jess Wade, ill. Melissa Castrillón, Walker Books, 32pp, 978 1406384925 £12.99, hbk


A notable addition to scientific non- fiction books for young children. Nano succeeds in making a complex area of science inviting, by being immensely accessible and attractive to the general reader. The


distinguished award-wining HHHH


physicist, Dr Jess Wade, has created a text that introduces the cutting- edge field of nanotechnology in clear, uncomplicated language which enthuses and never condescends about its topic. Beginning with the simple


statement that, ‘everything


is made from something’, we are gradually taken through the building blocks of different materials and introduced to several key scientific concepts on the way. There is much to marvel over with the discovery of graphene and the possibilities it offers for our future. The idea that an elephant could walk along a tight rope made out of nanomaterial, without it breaking, is sure to captivate readers of any age. The clear passion the author shows towards her specialism is likely to leave a strong impression on children, with the text most definitely leaving you wanting to know more. Integral to the stimulating content distinctive


are


is the Melissa


illustrations by Castrillón. The beautiful


layers of patterns and crosshatching create an energy to the drawings which complements the


subject


matter. The limited, cheerful colours she uses, and the detail to be found in each of the illustrations, combine to create vitality and a sense of wonder in the world around us. A final section provides additional information about the


types of


scientists who come together to work on nanoscience, and the development in scientific technology that is enabling the investigation of nanomaterials to advance further. There is also a handy index to help track the specialist concepts introduced throughout the text which also gives a ‘grown up feel’ to the book.


This is an impressive and stylish


book that is perfect for a young child who is beginning to be fascinated by the science of the world around us. EC


The Invisible HHHHH


Tom Percival, Simon & Schuster, 40pp, 978 1 4711 9130 5, £6.99 pbk


Isabel and her parents are full of love for each other, but they are very poor, and when the bills become too much, they must leave their home and move ‘across town’, where


everything is


joyless. Isabel begins to feel very sad and lonely. No one seems to notice her, or talk to her, or even see that she exists. Soon she feels invisible, almost ghostly, and then she begins to notice there are other invisible people too – an old lady, who plants bright flowers in old pots, a man who sleeps on a park bench and feeds the birds, and a refugee boy, who is helping fix a bike – all lonely and all invisible to those around them. Isabel decides to help, and soon the neighbourhood is full of light and colour and sound, with lots of invisible people helping each other, and Isabel has done something very special and difficult: she has ‘made a difference’. A lovely parable about all the lonely, invisible people in the world who need to have the rest of us notice them and help make them visible again.


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