TEN NOT TO MISS Ten titles not to miss Highlights of the Season
Ingela P Arrhenius (illus) Peekaboo Sun Nosy Crow, 4 June, board, £7.99, 9781788005746
Novelty books The Felt Flaps series
has, according to Nosy Crow, sold over 1.9 million copies worldwide, with favourites such as Where’s Mr Duck? challenging the board market dominance of Usborne’s That’s Not My… books. Now Swedish creator Arrhenius launches a new novelty range of vibrant, interactive boards hooked around the concept of peekaboo.
Jim Field Monsieur Roscoe: On Holiday Hodder Children’s Books, 9 July, pb, £12.99, 9781444932676
Picture books Field makes his author-
illustrator début following canine hero Monsieur Roscoe, as he and pet goldfish Fry take the holiday of a lifetime to France, learning lots of French words along the way. Each new word appears alongside its English translation in a clever combination of story and learning by stealth.
Serena Patel, Emma McCann (illus) Anisha, Accidental Detective Usborne Publishing, 5 March, pb, £5.99, 9781474959520
Fiction 7–9 Can irrepressible accidental
detective Anisha save the (wedding) day when her aunt’s groom goes missing? First in a really charming, fresh, funny series starring a STEM-loving, British-Indian Sikh girl and her huge, hilarious extended family.
L D Lapinski The Strangeworlds Travel Agency Orion, 30 April, pb, £6.99, 9781510105942
Fiction 9–12 Pack your suitcase for a
magical adventure and journey to time-and-space defying worlds… When 12-year-old Flick accidentally walks into the Strangeworlds Travel Agency, she uncovers a fantastic secret: there are hundreds of other worlds just steps away. Fans of Nevermoor and The Train to Impossible Places will adore this quirky fantasy, first in a trilogy from débutant Lapinksi.
M G Leonard & Sam Sedgman, Elisa Paganelli (illus) The Highland Falcon Thief Macmillan Children’s Books, 30 Jan, pb, £6.99, 9781529013061
Fiction 9–12 The award- winning author
of the Beetle Boy trilogy teams up with novelist and playwright Sedgman for Adventures with Trains, a major new mystery series and Macmillan’s biggest Middle Grade launch of the season. Harrison Beck reluctantly joins his travel-writer uncle aboard the last journey of a royal train, and is soon embroiled in the case of a jewel thief.
Michelle Paver Viper’s Daughter Zephyr, 2 April, hb, £12.99, 9781789540550
Fiction 9–12 A boy. A wolf. The legend lives
on… Paver returns to the world of Wolf Brother 11 years after the conclusion of the original series. Book seven sees Torak, Renn and Wolf journey to the Far North, facing an enemy more evil than any they have ever encountered. It’s an exhilarating, immersive adventure and though Viper’s Daughter can be read as a standalone, I very much hope it will entice readers to discover the thrills of the earlier books.
Suzanne Collins The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Scholastic Fiction, 19 May, hb, £18.99, 9780702300172
Fiction 12–16 A decade after Mockingjay
concluded the original Hunger Games trilogy, Collins returns to her blockbuster story in a prequel novel. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes revisits the world of Panem 64 years before The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the Tenth Hunger Games. Few details yet, but this is certain to be the biggest YA event of the year. The series has, according to Nielsen, sold over 3.9 million copies in the UK.
Danielle Jawando And the Stars Were Burning Brightly Simon & Schuster Children’s Books, 5 March, pb, £7.99, 9781471178771
Fiction 12–16 When 15-year- old Nathan
discovers that his older brother Al has taken his own life, his whole world is torn apart. Al was talented, ambitious and going places. So why did he do it? I was completely gripped by Nathan’s journey. This is an outstanding UK YA début novel following the effect of one boy’s suicide, and exposing the devastating impact of bullying in a world where social media is everywhere. Thought-provoking and timely, yet filled with hope.
Kate Pankhurst Fantastically Great Women Scientists and their Stories Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 9 July, pb, £6.99, 9781526615336
Reference Fantastically Great Women is one of
the biggest non-fiction success stories of recent years. In July, the series expands with a new strand for older children, telling women’s stories in greater detail. Fantastically Great Women Artists and their Stories is also out in July, while in February a new non-fiction picture book, Fantastically Great Women Who Saved the Planet, explores the untold stories of women campaigning to protect our world.
Rachel Williams, Freya Hartas (illus) Slow Down Magic Cat, 7 April, hb, £16.99, 9781916180512
Science Magic Cat is the new independent list
from Rachel Williams and Jenny Broom, creators of Wide-Eyed Editions. The stand-out title of their launch list is this fresh perspective on children’s natural history. Fifty nature stories are revealed in “slowed down” double-page spreads, detailing simple moments—a duck teaching her ducklings to swim, the polllination of a flower—in step-by-step illustrations and a gentle factual text. A wonderful book for inspiring a love of the natural world.
February 2020–July 2020 09
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