BfK Knock Knock Pirate


5 – 8 Infant/Junior continued Quentin’s sugar pot


HHHHH


Caryl Hart, ill. Nick East, Hodder, 978 1 444 92850 1, £12-99, hbk


The front endpapers reveal numerous pirates, ranging from Pongy Pirate, Pirate Baby to Pirate Mum, who comes bearing a plateful of cupcakes. KNOCK KNOCK! Gripping pictures reveal a street full of horrified onlookers as ONE pirate, with huge purple hair knocks on our heroine’s door. Our narrator has made herself a paper pirate hat, and donned wellie boots, ready to face the day’s adventures. TWO more pirates tumble through her


door, and the purple haired


Captain commands Dan and Stan to grab all the treasure they can….Turn the page and THREE grannies crash through the roof, riding cannon balls, followed by FOUR pirate Grandads with knobbly knees. Our horrified narrator attempts to divert them by offering a treasure map…. X marks the spot! BOOM! SPLOSH! The whole house sails away along the street! Off sails the house, “past factories, flats and giant whales and out onto the ocean wide, where monsters lurk and mermaids hide.” The rhyming text rolls along, as we pitch to and fro, and a dreadful gale begins to blow. EIGHT smelly pirates demand of Jim (“I’m not Jim!”) information regarding the treasure location..….or she will walk the plank. The illustrations are riveting, every page needing close attention so as not to miss any of the pranks and mishaps along the way. Is the treasure chest found? Does she reach safety? When Dad announces his return home, he is amazed to hear of the pirates who kidnapped her, and the adventures created throughout the day. A triumph in imaginative play, this is a counting book to appeal to all small children and their families. The colourful, detailed pictures will charm and entertain the youngest of readers, whilst the strong bold, rhyming text will encourage them to join in. GB


Great Bunny Cakes HHHHH


Ellie Snowdon, Simon & Schuster, 978 1 4711 6634 1, £6-99, pbk


A delightful book about Quentin,


a wolf with a very unusual hobby. He loves to bake cakes, but has no friends with whom to enjoy eating them. So when he is accidentally sent an invitation to take part in a Great Bunny Baking competition he is determined to enter. He becomes a master in disguise, donning long rabbitty ears and a twitchy, white nose, and he sails through round one, bread baking. Next, his trifle scores the biggest wobble on the wobble- o-meter anyone has ever seen. But something ODD happens in the fourth round, and we read the pictures to see that one small bunny has swapped


for salt… ugh.


Reading the many notices on the wall, we learn that NAUGHTINESS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED….. so when the culprit is found, she is ruthlessly ousted from the competition. The final round is to make a CHOCOLATE CAKE SHOWSTOPPER. How fortunate that this is the cake Quentin most enjoys making. It looks perfection, as he proudly carries it to the judging table. WHOOSH! He trips, and as the cake tumbles to the floor, along with his bunny ears and nose, the rabbits


realise… he’s a wolf! But


then an unexpected kindness wins the day, for one small bunny comes to help reassemble the dropped cake, gradually followed by all the other bunny competitors. Quentin is announced the winner of the grand prize, as we watch familiar scenes; proud and anxious bunnies line up in the tent, and we almost expect to see Mary Berry smiling over proceedings, emerging from the pavilion! The author-illustrator has great affinity with all her characters, and the soft colour palette suits the subject matter perfectly. The similar TV competition has a following of many small fans, fans too of MB and PH, and youngsters and aspiring cooks will surely love this book. GB


The Coral Kingdom HHHHH


Laura Knowles, ill. Jennie Webber, words and pictures, 978 1 91027 737 9, £12-99, hbk


With a strong ecological message about to


coral protect this most precious


environments, this book begins with endpapers alive with numerous sea creatures,


ranging from a minke


whale to a blue-ringed octopus, a manta ray to a parrot fish. The rhyming text is lyrical and engaging, as we learn of the life cycle, diversity and colour of the coral reef ecosystem. Whilst it is bursting with information, the book still retains a great sense of wonder. “Though growing at a snail’s pace, it’s visible from outer space.” We then learn that the reef is now endangered, warmer seas not suiting its continued growth, and the human element is introduced. How can we help?? The plea is to use greener energy. The book ends with a double fold-out giving further information, eg what gives coral its colour, and why is the coral reef important? Finally, a page of changes that we humans can undertake to help protect coral reefs;


water, gardening


saving energy, using less responsibly, not


being litter bugs, and by spreading this environmental message. Young readers will be charmed by the endpapers, meeting the


incredible


dugong, seahorses, the moray eel and the spiny lobster. This amazingly illustrated book should be in every library and home, whether or not they are situated near a coastline. GB


24 Books for Keeps No.231 July 2018


reefs and the need of


8 – 10 Junior/Middle New Talent Boy Underwater HHHH


Adam Baron, HarperCollins, 978-0008267018, 256pp, £6.99 pbk


Cymbeline Igloo (his father was


an actor, hence the name) can’t swim. His mother appears to have an aversion to the sea, swimming pools, any kind of expanse of water and has never allowed him to have swimming lessons.


stops Cym from boasting


Not that that to the


class super-horror Billy Lee that he’s ready to take him on in a race when the class starts its weekly sessions at Lewisham Pool.


Every reader of


course will see that disaster is bound to follow and it does: Cym has to be pulled from the bottom of the pool – losing his trunks in the process – by the girl of his dreams, Veronique Chang. The humiliation is made worse when Mum arrives to collect him and ‘goes nuclear’ in front of the whole class; later, on another fateful school trip this time to the Tate Modern, Cym’s best friend Lance describes Munch’s The Scream as ‘Cym’s mum’. By then though, Mum is in a psychiatric hospital and Cym is stuck with his cousins until she’s well enough to come home. When she disappears from the hospital, Cym realises that only by untangling the family secrets will he be able to save her.


It’s a book built on those


unacknowledged gaps between child and adult, and on our habit of keeping things from children to avoid hurting them when in fact lies and secrecy only make things worse.


The 5 Misfits HHHH


Beatrice Alemagna, Lincoln Children’s Books, 40pp, 978 1 7860 3157 0, £7.99 pbk


If ever there was a cast of diverse characters it’s the five who reside together in a large, dilapidated house in this somewhat surreal tale. So let’s meet them. The first has four huge holes in his


tummy. The second is a folded up female resembling a letter awaiting sending; the third resembles a flaccid, lumpy sausage and given to sleeping at


every opportunity. The


Cym’s mother is not the only one to have secrets in this story, and in fact all the adult characters do. The truth uncovered by Cym, with the help of his friends including Veronique, is a story of family tragedy and terrible loss, but acknowledging what has happened brings a kind of healing, and the possibility of a happier future.


Cymbeline is a convincing central character with a narrative


voice


as distinctive as his name, even if at times he seems considerably more mature than the year 4 boy he’s supposed to be. In his debut novel for children, Adam Baron has successfully maintained a delicate balance


between comedy and


tragedy and there are scenes that will have children laughing aloud, as well as others that will leave many readers in tears. MMa


He seems bent on a mission to


give them a purpose in life, but when he fails totally to convince them of their good for nothingness he’s at a complete loss. Unable to see that they’re quite happy with the way they are, the intruder is floored – literally. And that’s where we readers leave him, as do the five. Quirky? Yes most definitely, but


the ‘be true to yourself’ message comes


through Quite apart fourth


seems permanently in the inverted position so clearly, she sees the world differently from the rest, while the fifth is, quite clearly, catastrophic. All though live an uneventful existence, give or take the arguments about who is the most ill constructed. Into their lives one day breezes an


extraordinary fellow, Mr Perfect you might say.


loud from the is much enjoyment and clear. story, there to be had from


the intriguing details in Beatrice Alemagna’s illustrations: the wonky dwelling of the Misfits seemingly constructed around a kettle, trying to decipher the print on second Misfit’s outfit and who is in the framed photograph and what is the occasion? The choice of the cream paper


on which to lay out her idiosyncratic images gives the book a distinguished quality that adds to the pleasure of


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