SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
Fiction 12–16 Sometimes you have to leave
your life behind to find your place in the world. This is an irresistible coming-of-age story about a girl who buys a one-way plane ticket armed only with her sketchpad and backpack.
PSHE & Citizenship
An empowering guide to help children of 10 and
up to navigate the world and help to create a positive society. The author is a motivational speaker and younger brother of Steven Lawrence, the teenager murdered in London in 1993.
Hodder Children’s Books, 13 May, pb, £6.99, 9781444957679
Fiction 7–9 Scarlett Fife is logical and
mathematical, but when it comes to her big feelings, she’s completely out of control. First in a “heartwarming, sparkling” illustrated comedy series. Also from Evans, for middle-grade readers, comes V.I. Spy (Chicken House, February).
novel to McKay’s Costa award- winning The Skylarks’ War. The next generation of characters move from childhood to the threshold of adulthood amid the chaos of the Second World War.
June
Laura Mucha, Liz Brownlee & Matt Goodfellow, Victoria Jane Wheeler (illus) Being Me Otter-Barry Books, 6 May, pb, £7.99, 9781913074654
Ciannon Smart Witches Steeped in Gold Hot Key Books, 20 April, pb, £8.99, 9781471409585
Fiction 12–16 Two witches enter a deadly
alliance to take down the woman who threatens both their worlds. First in a duology set in a Caribbean-inspired landscape, Hot Key calls this “epic, fierce and magnetically addictive”.
Keilly Swift Life Skills DK Children, 1 April, hb, £10.99, 9780241467565
PSHE & Citizenship
From the author of How to Make a Better World
comes a handy guide full of practical advice and real-life examples that teach problem solving, how to make good decisions, great communication skills, and more.
May
Clare Weze The Lightning Catcher Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 13 May, pb, £6.99, 9781526622174
Fiction 9–12 When Alfie accidentally
sets an electrical creature loose, a perfect storm of trouble and adventure awaits. Skellig meets “Stranger Things” is the intriguing pitch for this “funny, heartfelt” début from an exciting new talent.
Patience Agbabi The Time-Thief Canongate, 6 May, pb, £6.99, 9781786899903
Fiction 9–12 The second adventure in
Loll Kirby, Yas Imamura (illus) Do Something for Someone Else Magic Cat Publishing, 1 April, hb, £12.99, 9781913520137
PSHE & Citizenship
Discover 12 real-life children spreading kindness
with acts of everyday activism, plus a “how to help” section with simple steps to take at home and at school. This is the follow-up to Old Enough to Save the Planet, which will be published in paperback in February.
Laura Ellen Anderson Rainbow Grey and the Weather Magic Egmont, 27 May, pb, £6.99, 9781405298728
Fiction 7–9 Ten-year-old Ray Grey lives in the
magical Isles of Celestia. Her life is changed forever when she develops amazing rainbow powers, but can these powers save the world?
The Leap Cycle sees Elle leap back in time to a very different London in order to save her friend. The series comes highly recommended, a smart and original adventure with a sci-fi twist and a remarkable heroine.
Jennifer Killick Crater Lake, Evolution Firefly Press, 20 May, pb, £6.99, 9781913102647
Fiction 9–12 Firefly leads with the sequel
to “school trip from hell” adventure Crater Lake. Lance is home but something has gone very wrong, and a mysterious creature is missing… A delicious mix of spooky action and relatable humour.
Pamela Butchart, Thomas Flintham (illus) A Monster Ate My Packed Lunch! Nosy Crow, 3 June, pb, £6.99, 9781788009690
Fiction 7–9 The latest in the fabulously funny
school series sees Izzy and her friends on a school trip to a lake, convinced that a monster is lurking there… There’s also more from Wigglesbottom Primary in Dino Chick (illustrated by Becka Moor, March).
Poetry, plays & songs
Three leading poets team up in the first poetry book to directly address children’s
mental health, endorsed by a children’s psychologist. Forty- five new poems confront anxieties and worries, helping with ways to develop empathy and mindfulness.
Sav Akyuz Big Oxford University Press, 3 June, pb, £6.99, 9780192779557
Picture books A young boy longs to be big,
but is big always better? Akyuz, best known for the Bear books with Ben Bailey Smith, makes his author-illustrator début with a beautiful, largely wordless story sure to inspire visual literacy.
Holly Bourne The Yearbook Usborne Publishing, 13 May, pb, £7.99, 9781474966825
Fiction 12–16 The Queen of UK YA
Stuart Lawrence Silence is Not an Option Scholastic Non-Fiction, 1 April, pb, £9.99, 9780702305788
14
Maz Evans, Chris Jevons (illus) The Exploding Life of Scarlett Fife
The Bookseller Buyer’s Guide Children’s
exposes the dramas and traumas of high school in what Usborne calls a searingly funny and relatable new novel: “The Perks of Being a Wallflower meets ‘Mean Girls’”.
Hilary McKay The Swallows’ Flight Macmillan Children’s Books, 27 May, hb, £12.99, 9781529033335
Fiction 9–12 One of my most anticipated reads
of the year is this companion
Maisie Chan, Anh Cao (illus) Danny Chung
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