Alison Leach (MEd Cantab) is the Founder of BooksForTopics, a The Bookseller Rising Star of 2026 and a leading specialist in children’s literature. Since June 2016, she has curated award-winning booklists for schools and the UK education sector. Recognised as a Top 100 Female Entrepreneur (#iAlso100 2026), Alison is an expert in bridging the gap between the UK National Curriculum and children’s publishing. More information: https://www.booksfortopics.com/about-us/
BooksForTopics Reading for Pleasure Recommendations
The Sky Over Rebeccais a compelling story from a stellar new voice in children’s literature. As an unpublished manuscript, it won the Bath Children’s Novel Award 2019 and early readers have been spellbound by Matthew’s storytelling and the hopeful, powerful message he conveys.
The Sky Over Rebecca is a timeslip novel, which follows a ten-year-old girl, Kara, as she follows some mysterious footprints that have appeared in the snow around her home in Stockholm. Those footprints lead Kara to Rebecca and her younger brother Samuel. They are Jewish refugees – from another time, World War Two – and they are trying to find their way home. It is a perfect read for school groups studying World War 2 and for fans of David Almond, Piers Torday and Amy Wilson. The plot brings to life the realities of children affected by war in a way that is very timely for the world we live in now.
Read on for a review of the book and a guest post by author Matthew Fox about the theme of crossing borders in the story…
This award-winning fiction (Bath Children’s Novel Award in 2019) features Kara Lukas, a promising 11-year-old, who resides in Stockholm. with her mother.
Kara enjoys spending her time ice skating and stargazing with her beloved grandpa, when one day she discovers an old coin with a very distinctive mark, from a very dark time. Intrigued by this relic as well as the mysterious appearance of puzzling snow angels, Kara’s curiosity leads to the discovery of a Jewish girl, called Rebecca, and her little brother. The siblings have been hiding on a nearby island, surrounded by a frozen lake. What is more, they are in desperate need of her help.
This immersive, historical fiction spans time and location as Kara learns more about Rebecca, and the challenges she has faced in her life in Germany in 1942. Whilst Kara’s own strength is tested as she faces a challenge of her own in the form of the relentless and tormenting Lars.
Driving the story is Kara’s perseverance. Her motivation to help those in need, regardless of the cost, is inspiring. Her determination to overcome an unforgiving evil will leave you gripped and unable to put the book down.
Matthew Fox’s writing deals very sensitively with themes of love and loss. Through his development of well-rounded characters, we experience both triumph and tragedy. Set in modern-day Sweden, young readers will be able to relate to the heroine Kara. Through her, they will in turn develop an understanding of some children’s experience of a much darker time, a time filled with hate and destruction.
Though the subject matter is somewhat dark, the narrative is beautiful and the connection between the two main characters, Kara and Rebecca, is magical. The story highlights the importance of human connection. This book would be ideal as a whole class text. There are many key opportunities for discussion as well as self-reflection.
There’s a scene I cut from The Sky Over Rebecca shortly before I sent it off to the Bath Children’s Novel Awards. It’s a scene in which Lars, the bully, is out on the frozen lake with his gang. He uses an ice pick to score a line in ice to mark a part of the lake as ‘their’ area. It’s ‘his’ kingdom – he’s drawn a border around it. Ten-year-old Kara, skating home after lunch with her grandfather, unwittingly crosses this line. She doesn’t know it’s there; she doesn’t even see it. Lars stops her, and orders her back across his imaginary border – and with everyone watching, Kara does so, humiliated.
There were reasons to keep the scene, notably the rising pitch of conflict between Kara and Lars. But it seemed to get too physical too early – and more importantly, I felt it was obvious. The idea of the scene, about borders, and who gets to decide where they are and who can cross them, was already there in the book.
Borders had become very important to me. Not so much because I’d crossed one myself when I moved from Liverpool to Sweden, but because of what was happening in the world. Brexit was underway; walls were being built to keep dreamers out; refugees were drowning in the seas around Europe. My personal life was changing, too: my father died and my daughter was born, and my way of dealing with these life events – of processing them – was to write. I wrote two YA novels (both of them unreadable) and put them away in a bottom drawer.
The following winter, I had an idea for a Middle-Grade novel about footprints magically appearing and disappearing in the snow, and I began sketching out the many different paths the story could take. Without thinking too much about it, I gave myself – in the writing of it – the freedom to cross any border I liked. I had to respect Kara’s POV (her voice holds it all together) but I could play with the border of time, the border of death, and the border of genre. So time-slips take us from modern-day Sweden to World War Two Germany and back, and there’s at least one scene in which Kara finds herself having a conversation with a ghost.
I’ve written elsewhere that I hope readers will forgive these border crossings of mine. What I’m trying to do is to write serious, magical novels for young readers: as serious as possible, and as magical as possible. But the magic can only get you into trouble; it can’t get you out of it. Kara has to face Lars on her own, in the real world.
Reflecting on The Sky Over Rebecca as publication day approaches, I see how much I owe to Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights, John Ajvide Lindqvist’s Let the Right One In (which is for slightly older readers), and Philippa Pearce’s Tom’s Midnight Garden. There are border crossings in these stories – between worlds, and times – and snow and ice are special places where, for a while at least, a door is open to other possibilities. There’s a dark magic at play in these novels that fascinates me, and yet they’re serious books about friendship, and growing up, and what is gained and what is lost at the border of adulthood.
BooksForTopics Reading for Pleasure Recommendations
The Great Fox Illusion is a captivating new story where secrets, illusions and magic tricks abound. Read on for a review of the book and a guest post by author Justyn Edwards about the true kind of magic in the story…
The Great Fox Illusion is the first in an enthralling new series from debut author Justyn Edwards and illustrated by Flavia Sorrentino. Readers are challenged to help to solve the riddles posed by each magic trick, including that of the climactic finale.
Author Justyn Edwards successfully weaves a life-long love of magic through a story of heartbreak and slices of exciting action. The narrative continues to involve the reader throughout, not just emotionally (who wouldn’t want to help Flick and her teammate Charlie as their own struggles are revealed?) but also by drawing out the suspense of the big reveal for each illusion. Combine this with the fantasy backdrop of the Great Fox estate and you finish the book wanting more, while being tempted to start right at the beginning and read it again, just in case you missed any clues!
Great as a class read, this book could also start discussions about inclusion, teamwork, choice of language to portray a character, the subject of right and wrong (is there ever a right time to do a wrong thing?) and even an alternative research topic – the history of magic and illusion.
Look around the children’s section of any bookshop, and you will find a lot of magic. The shelves are filled with protagonists with special powers, and characters who discover they are part of a hidden world filled with the supernatural. The Great Fox Illusion isn’t like that. There are no special powers in this book. No shortcuts to success. Flick is a girl with a prosthetic leg who cannot wave a wand to solve her problems. The Great Fox Illusion is about a different kind of magic.
In this story, Flick and Charlie have to enter a house that used to belong to the world-famous illusionist The Great Fox, and he’s left behind some very challenging puzzles for them to solve. They need to work out the method behind a series of magic tricks. All the answers are right in front of them, but the whole point of a magic trick is to hide the secret of how it works. It wouldn’t be much of a trick if it was obvious how it was done, would it?
So, Flick and Charlie are faced with what appear to be impossible challenges. Where do you start in working out how a trick is put together? There may be many elements to the performance, each hiding a different secret. As the story progresses, we watch them break the puzzles down, isolate the details they understand and then work from what they know to try and figure out what they don’t. They do not rely on casting a spell or using their powers as the ‘chosen ones’. They learn how to solve problems for themselves. More than that, they acquire skills in overcoming difficulties that seem impossible to surmount – as problems so often do. They gain an understanding that will help them cope with all sorts of everyday challenges. That method – break it down, isolate the details you understand and then work from what you know to try and figure out what you don’t – works everywhere.
Ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes when we produce our booklists?
Each year at around this time, we release our updated ‘50 Recommended Reads‘ Year Group lists. We’ve been super busy in recent weeks putting together the new lists for you. The new lists launched on the website on 26th April 2022. You can also order the packs from our partners at Peters Books.
Have you ever thought about how the books make their way onto our booklist? Here’s a sneak peek at five parts of the process that go into producing the lists, from book selection and stocking up on books to unboxing the packs in schools.
Year Group Booklists: Behind the Scenes
1. Bookpost Sorting Our partners from various children’s book publishers submit books to BooksForTopics to review, with the hope of being featured on the website. During some weeks, we get a HUGE amount of bookpost to look through, and from this, we select which books will get a more detailed review. The books are entirely selected by our team of experts for quality and classroom suitability. This means that out of the thousands of books out there, the titles that make it onto the 50 Recommended Reads lists deserve their place purely based on our assessment of the books as genuinely top quality ‘read for pleasure’ options for the relevant year groups.
2. Review Panel
Some of the books received from our publishing partners for consideration on our website are sent on to be assessed by our panel of reviewers.
With a panel of 50 reviewers from across the primary education community, we are able to try out new books in a variety of school settings before we recommend them on the website, making sure that we are only recommending the most suitable books for your classrooms.
Our review panellists are teachers, TAs, school librarians, headteachers and education consultants and they feed back to us information about which books are most popular in their school libraries and classrooms, as well as writing detailed reviews for some of the books that we feature too.
3. Booklist curation
This is a fun and busy stage of the process!
In addition to our Review Panel feedback, we work with the booksellers at Peters Books to make sure that the books on our Year Group lists are readily available to be supplied to schools and classrooms in book packs. Taking into account the feedback from our partners and reviewers, we begin to put together curated lists of 50 books for each year group. For the Year Group booklists, we are choosing books for reading for pleasure at various ages and stages (either independently or for shared reading with adults), rather than choosing books with strong topic links or for English study texts, which can be found on other places on our website.
We need a LOT of space to spread the books out (it feels like swimming in an ocean of books), and much deliberation goes into getting the balance of books just right. When we curate each list, we aim for a balance across different genres and text types. We recognise that reading for pleasure looks different to different children. Some children naturally navigate towards non-fiction, while others find graphic novels or poetry more appealing. Other still are looking for books with a tactile or novelty element or for something to make them laugh.
Each year group booklist contains a balance of age-appropriate fiction, picture books, non-fiction, poetry and graphic novels, with a handful of novelty or tactile books added in too. We’ve also aimed to collate lists that cater for different reading styles, interest levels, publication dates (you’ll find some true golden oldies as well as brand new titles on each list) and also books that reflect a diversity of characters and settings. The 50 spaces on each list are hotly contended, and consequently, some of our most highly reviewed titles may not make it onto these lists. Instead, we assign them to other places on the website, like our topic booklists or other more specific reading for pleasure collections.
The reason that we update the lists each year is to make space for newly published books and to make sure that we offer the best balance of titles available for each year group. To browse the Year Group lists, click here, or you can order the books from Peters Books.
4. Peters Packs
Next, we hand the lists over to the wonderful team at Peters Books, who work tirelessly in stocking and packing up the books ready to be shipped to schools.
The Peters team have stocked up on thousands of copies of the books from our updated booklists ready to send out to schools and they have been beavering away putting the relevant books into the packs of 50 for school orders. The Peters team handle all school book pack orders on our behalf, including managing school accounts, stocking, packing, shipping and creating posters and checklists.
This is our favourite part of all! We LOVE hearing from happy schools who use our recommended reads year group packs to boost reading for pleasure in their schools.
Some schools unbox the packs in staff meetings to give teachers a chance to get to know the books, while others let pupils take on the exciting job of unpacking the books. Others still load the books straight into libraries and classrooms and invite pupils to come and browse the new selections. You can also print and share the posters and checklists to help members of your school community see an overview of the books in each year group list.
We are delighted to welcome author Jennifer Killick to the blog today to answer questions about her new book, Dread Wood.
Dread Wood follows a group of Year 7s who have been given a Saturday detention. When they’re at school, the children suspect that something mysterious is happening and things start to get seriously scary. As the story unravels, the children realise that it’s no coincidence that they are all in detention at the same time and in sharing what got them there they discover the importance of not letting mistakes define you…
Jennifer’s Crater Lake series, which was described as ‘howlingly funny horror’ in The Times, has been hugely popular with teachers and students as a class read for Year 6. Read on for our review of Dread Wood and a Q&A in which we ask Jennifer more about the book and about how she achieves the humour-horror balance for which she is becoming so well known.
We’ve added a chance for you to win a copy of the book at the end of the post, too…
Four children at Dread Wood High have been forced to attend an outdoor Saturday detention. Their teacher confiscates their mobile phones and it’s a wet cold day. They don’t even like each other. How could their day get any worse?
Suddenly, it turns from dismal to downright dangerous. Their teacher is mysteriously dragged underground into a sinkhole but the children still can’t go home because they’ve been locked in. The only adults they could turn to are the caretakers but their behaviour is definitely unfriendly and increasingly creepy.
Soon, for Angelo, Hallie, Gustav and Naira, sticking with each other is their only hope of staving off mysterious threats and surviving the morning. As they overcome their mutual suspicion, they find out more about themselves and each other than they could ever have guessed – and more about what’s been happening in the basement of their school than they could have imagined in their worst nightmares.
Jennifer Killick skillfully mixes the unsettling and the comic, in the context of a pacy plot. Her light-hearted writing style and liberal use of dialogue effectively capture the voices and characters of Angelo, through whose eyes the story is told, and the other three children. It also makes the characters relatable and realistic, despite the gothic horror of the events.
This book is sure to appeal to a wide audience of children, especially the many who like the Goosebumps series and ‘scary’ books. I am looking forward to sharing it with children in Year 5 and 6 where I know it will be a read for pleasure hit.
with Jennifer Killick, author of Dread Wood (available here)
1. Can you describe Dread Wood in 5 words?
Do not touch the ground!
2. What are the similarities between Dread Wood and Crater Lake?
There are lots of similarities – a group of brave, brilliant kids taking on a horrifying enemy; plenty of creepy moments to make you jump and gasp; lots of humour to make you laugh along the way.
3. Crater Lake seemed to mark a stylistic turning point for your books, moving more into the horror genre while still retaining your humorous style. What lead you to this point as a writer?
I think it was a natural progression. I love creepy stories full of jump scares and gasp moments, so I wanted to try writing one myself. I didn’t intend for Crater Lake to be humorous, but the jokes and funny moments snuck in anyway, so I decided to go with it. I was delighted when it turned out well.
4. Your writing has been described as “funny and exciting with just the right amount of scary” – how do you achieve this balance?
Mostly I go with my instinct and let my characters lead the way. Whenever I’m in a frightening situation in real life, my family and I usually find ways to laugh our way through it, so it feels natural for my characters to do that, too. I also try really hard to spend time with and listen to my intended audience, and I let them guide me. By understanding them, and what they enjoy, and what scares them, I can gauge what they’ll hopefully love and what will be too much.
5. Which of your books has been your favourite to write?
Probably Crater Lake and Dread Wood. Crater Lake because I had the excitement of trying something new and writing just for myself because I wanted to. And with Dread Wood I had the confidence boost that came with Farshore’s faith in me to write a good book. I love writing the creepy scenes and the funny dialogue, and I got to do lots of that with Crater Lake and Dread Wood.
6. What’s the best thing about being a children’s author?
The best thing about being a children’s author is knowing that my books have made a difference to at least a few children out there. I love hearing that my stories have made them happy, or more confident, and that my stories have made them excited to read.
7. Are any of the scenes in your books based on real things that happened to you as a child – either funny or scary?
Oh yes, there are lots of bits and pieces from my life that have made it into my books! For example, in the ‘Confessions’ chapter of Crater Lake, Adrianne’s secret is something that happened to me at her age and left me utterly mortified. And in a future book, there’s a creepy scene in a toilet cubicle that was inspired by a real-life incident.
8. Which other children’s books are you loving right now?
There are so many amazing authors writing for children right now! Some recent favourites of mine in the creepy/sci-fi/horror genres have been Kirsty Applebaum, Damien Love and Phil Hickes. I am absolutely loving ‘The Accidental Witch’ series by Perdita and Honor Cargill – I think they have such a gift for comic voice. I also love anything by Eloise Williams, and am ridiculously excited to start on her new story for Barrington Stoke – The Tide Singer. She has the most beautiful way with words – I’m in awe.
9. Can you give us any clues about your next writing project?
I feel very fortunate to be working on further Dread Wood stories! I love the characters, and they’re incredibly fun to write, so I am living my best writing life at the moment.
Today we are launching an exciting giveaway that gives a whole class the opportunity to have an early read of Emma Carroll’s next book and to put their questions to her in a special interview to appear on our blog.
We have teamed up with publisher Macmillan Children’s Books for a special competition to win proofs of Emma Carroll’s new book AND the chance to ask her questions.
Award-winning author Emma Carroll has returned to the world Eva Ibbotson created in her classic middle-grade adventure Journey to the River Sea. We are inviting you to journey down the Amazon and dive into the next chapter of the story with Emma Carroll in her captivating new story Escape to the River Sea. War is over and Rosa Sweetman, a Kindertransport girl, embarks on an adventure full of danger in search of giant sloths, jaguars and a place for herself.
We have a class set of up to 35 proofs of Escape to the River Seato gift to a class of Year 5s or 6s. Better still, once they’ve read the book, the winning class will be able to put their questions about the story to Emma and she’ll answer her favourites here on BooksForTopics as part of her blog tour around publication.
Escape to the River Sea by Emma Carroll is published by Macmillan Children’s Books on 9th June 2022.
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Giveaway Details
Thanks to the publishers at Macmillan, we have a set of 35 proofs of Escape to the River Sea to give away to one class in Upper KS2. The class will then have an opportunity to send Emma their questions, which will be answered on our blog near the time of the book’s publication.
To enter, follow @booksfortopics on Twitter, retweet the giveaway tweet and tell us in the comments the Year Group of the class you are entering.
The giveaway closes at 11.59pm on Sunday 3rd April 2022 and is for UK schools only.
Before you enter, please be sure that the nominated class can commit the time to write questions about the book for Emma Carroll to answer. Emma’s answers will appear on our blog on Friday 10th June.
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Many thanks to the publishers at Macmillan for inviting us to run this competition with Emma Carroll.
BooksforTopics Reading for Pleasure Recommendations
Book Title: The Secret of the Treasure Keepers (available here)
Author: A.M. Howell
Publisher: Usborne
Publication Date: March 2022
Most Suitable for: Years 4-6
A.M. Howell’s growing fanbase will be pleased to hear of the newest in her set of historical fiction for middle-grade readers. True to form, The Secrets of the Treasure Keepers is a wonderfully immersive story that takes the reader back to what life might have been like for one family at a particular moment in history. The story felt extra special for me, as it is a rare example of fiction set in the Fens near where I live. I know that the author’s commitment to highlighting this area of the country will be warmly welcomed by schools both in the local area and also for those readers yet to discover the hauntingly beautiful geography of the Fens.
The story centres around the apparent discovery of some buried Roman treasure in the field of a struggling farming family. Ruth and her mum – a budding archaeology expert – visit the farm to discover more. What drives the story is the unfolding secrets and backstories of the various different main characters – all interesting and well-nuanced – making for an enjoyable mystery full of intrigue and due compassion for the desperation that can drive deceit.
I particularly enjoyed the well-drawn historical setting of post-war Britain. We see a lot of middle-grade stories set during the war, but the period immediately after the war had finished is just as interesting and much less widely considered in children’s books. How does a country get back on its feet after the devastation of the war? No stone is left unturned when it comes to incidental details that flesh out the time and place of the story’s setting. The country is still reeling from the war’s impact and the reader is given space to reflect on the difficulty this caused for different individuals – for example in terms of ongoing rationing, widespread poverty, the ‘make do and mend’ mentally, missing family members, the dawn of the NHS and the deeply-felt consequences of the war’s destruction on property, people and family relationships. A major theme of the story is embracing change and looking at ways to improve the future even during difficult times – a theme that is just as relevant today as it was in 1948. For me, this is the crux of what makes A.M. Howell’s writing so compelling; the stories feel so authentically and evocatively set in their time period while also being timeless in their themes
Heartfelt and hopeful, this is a historical adventure not to be missed.
Every month our panel of reviewers reads a selection of children’s books and tells us what they enjoyed. Our Review Panel includes teachers, librarians, education consultants, headteachers, teaching assistants and education lecturers, and this week they have been telling us about the children’s books that have caught their attention over the last few months.
Nine-year-old Jasper loves birds – in fact he loves them so much he has his own book featuring birds he has seen. It is Spring and he is waiting for the nightingale to arrive. He is also waiting for his big sister Rosie to come home from university. But neither of them has turned up, so Jasper goes to look for them. Despite being very anxious, Jasper somehow manages to walk a very long way and make friends as he goes.
What the reader knows but Jasper has not really taken on board, is that Rosie has in fact died. This is a study in grief, how neither Jasper nor his parents have really managed to deal with the awful tragedy that has befallen them. It makes the book heart-breaking but also uplifting at the same time.
Jasper manages to overcome huge obstacles and somehow has to overcome the terrible truth that he is constantly pushing away. Jasper is so well written as a character that it is entirely believable that he would set off by himself. The whole book is infused with his anxiousness and love for his sister.
Each chapter starts with a fact about birds and the birds themselves are beautifully illustrated, almost with personality, by Sharon King -Chai. Written to emulate the book that Jaspar carries with him, the bird details are both fascinating and pertinent to the story. This is a very beautiful piece of writing and one of the saddest books. Teachers would need to think about their audience if reading aloud and some children might not have the maturity to realise the main plot is about how Jaspar is looking for something he can no longer find. With appropriate support and reserved for the right audience, this is an absolutely wonderful book.
Join ‘The After School Detective Club’ on their first adventure in the sleepy seaside town of Southwold. Consisting of Lucy, Max, Charlie and her canine companion, Sherlock, the group of children become friends one dark, wet evening when Sherlock decides to pick a fight with a mysterious stranger who appears to be signalling from some large rocks to ships at sea.
When Sherlock ends up being kicked into the dangerous, stormy waters around the rocks, the children band together to save him, thus securing both Sherlock’s safety and their friendship. Is the man a wrecker, luring ships to their doom on the rocks? Or maybe a smuggler, bringing in illegal goods? Determined to find out what’s going on in their quiet hometown, the friends embark on an exciting adventure that ends up taking them out onto the water, and even into police custody, in pursuit of a gang of dangerous but clever villains. The pursuit of answers drives the reader through the story. Will the children be arrested? Will they catch the criminals? Will the grown-ups ever believe their wild story? It would make a great class read as the chapters aren’t too long and there are plenty of end-of-chapter cliffhangers.
This is an exciting, fast-paced adventure story with plenty of action. The illustrations, by Ben Mantle, are liberally sprinkled throughout the text and beautifully illustrate it. Reminiscent of both Fleur Hitchcock and Enid Blyton, this series promises to be one to watch. I can’t wait for the next instalment.
A great read for ages 8 to 12 and a must-read for anyone who loves a good adventure story.
This is the second book in the Harley Hitch series and sees Harley trying to win the Pupil of the Term award at school. When the circus comes to town, she is reluctant to attend, but her best friend Cosmo persuades her that she needs a night of fun. When STEM-loving Harley tries to take a look at one of the machines used in the show, she accidentally breaks it and then everything starts to go wrong…
Although this is the second Harley Hitch book, it can be read with no prior knowledge of the series. The reader quickly gets drawn into Harley’s world and gets to know her, her friends, her dog and her grandfathers. The story moves at a good pace with lots of action and adventure and the premise of the moon going missing adds an extra layer of originality and excitement.
There is a strong STEM theme running throughout the book, as Harley invents, creates and fixes various items. It promotes curiosity; Harley asks questions but it is shown as a good thing, as a way to find out more about the world around her. Harley is a strong lead character who is not afraid to follow what she wants but is supported by those around her.
The illustrations by George Ermos help to add to the story and also to break up the text, which makes this an ideal read for newly confident readers.
This is a great book for lower key stage 2 children to read independently and would also work well as a read-aloud for Year 2.
Cari and her mum both miss Dad after he’s killed in a road accident. For Cari’s mum, a new start in a cottage by the river where they can open a tea shop seems a positive way to move on; for Cari, it’s just another painful wrench. When a storm is followed by a devastating flood, it looks like a disaster to them both. Cari’s the one to realise that there’s no path back, only forwards.
Struggling to rebuild their home and their livelihood, she and her mum hear of a plan to reintroduce beavers to the area. Conservationists believe they may hold the key to regulating flood waters and protecting the village but there is intense local opposition. Cari is stung to action. Can she persuade the community to give beavers a chance? And if she does, will the plan work?
Gill Lewis writes so powerfully of the natural world and the need to work with it rather than against it, to balance the needs of communities and the landscapes they inhabit. This moving story from Barrington Stoke uses deliberately accessible language but handles the themes of loss and grief with sensitivity and depth. The themes of rewilding, conservation and environmental change are both topical and challenging.
The book could be used to provoke thoughtful discussions about resilience and courage as well as to build reading stamina and nurture an interest in the natural world. It would fit well alongside science projects on climate change and environmental responsibility and would lead naturally into work on persuasive writing. This is a good book to recommend to children who love animal stories, too.
Gretel, a woolly mammoth from prehistoric times, has been encased in ice for thousands of years until one peaceful Tuesday morning when the ice cracks and she pops out to greet the world again. At first, everything is marvellous – she learns about the modern world, shares amazing stories and is loved by the locals (some very friendly seabirds). But all these new changes are a little fast and overwhelming and, being the last mammoth left on Earth, Gretel starts to feel a bit lonely.
Gretel the Wonder Mammoth shows us that, no matter your size, how many talents you have and even if you are surrounded by friendly faces, everyone can feel anxious, alone and sad. It demonstrates how important it is to speak up and share your feelings when life becomes overwhelming and stressful. This very relatable story is perfect for younger pupils and teaches its readers that sometimes the bravest thing you can do is ask for help.
The illustrations are fun and engaging, with simple language and cheeky sea birds adorning the pages. The colours link to the emotions of the text and one cannot help but instantly take to the gentle, gregarious Gretel.
I would highly recommend this book for younger readers – in PSHE lessons, assemblies or for children requiring support in overcoming their fears.
Racism can sometimes be a difficult subject to broach and to discuss in primary schools. Children have perceptive questions that seem to adults, to require rather complex answers. This book seeks to address these questions and open up a forum to enable children to talk about how they feel as well as address possible misconceptions and myths. It provides the teacher or parent with a starting point from which to support children understand an issue that must not be avoided.
The format is simple: questions under the main headings of the what, why and how of racism and answers provided when you lift the flap. Each page groups together questions under the main headings in order to probe each area more deeply – for example, to consider not just what racism is but what it feels like as well as questions about what we mean by ethnicity and why we use particular terms e.g. heritage and ethnicity rather than ‘race’.
The book seeks to support children in thinking more deeply about their behaviours, like whether it could be racist to copy people’s clothes and traditions. It tackles some of the things that children will hear in wider society – why the Black Lives Matter slogan is not the same as saying that not all lives matter. The book also addresses the causes of racism from slavery to fake news and explores questions about our identities and how each of us can play our part in tackling racism. The book finishes with some fairly unsettling facts – that in the past, humans were exhibited in zoos; that people are still enslaved today; and that in wars, millions have been killed because of racism. The book’s author was supported by the ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ organisation, a child psychologist and a history professor ensuring that the answers are clear, accurate and approached with sensitivity and respect.
This is a powerful and necessary addition to a primary classroom.
Corpse Talk originates from a strip from The Phoenix comic, written and drawn by Adam Murphy. This full-length graphic novel version will please comic fans and history buffs alike. In the context of a graveyard chat show featuring many a corpse, each chapter of this graphic novel introduces a new ‘guest’ and details the voyages and actions of a different real-life explorer.
The featured figures come from a range of historical periods and from across the globe. This allows the book to be read in its entirety or readers can pick and choose what interests them. Each section is packed with information and the injection of humour adds to the enjoyment, making it ideal to enthuse children’s historical learning. While the stories of the explorers are told in an entertaining way, this book doesn’t shy away from the fact that some of the events that took place contain elements that are less than heroic, e.g. the story of Christopher Columbus.
I found the style of the storytelling to be really engaging and I can see how this would appeal to perhaps reluctant yet capable readers. Engaging pictures, the chat show context and plenty of factual content mean that there is something for everyone. This is a great addition to the collection of Corpse Talk books which includes scientists, storytellers and “dead famous” women. It’s definitely something a bit different that deserves a place on classroom shelves.
Above and Below: Ducks Till Dawn is a non-fiction book with flaps that take the reader on a night-time (dusk till dawn) journey around the world, including habitats such as the Arctic tundra and Himalayan mountains. Split pages allow readers to explore each landscape further by seeing which night-time wildlife can be found out in the open and which stays hidden within its shadowy habitat. Though the book focuses mainly on the animals found in different habitats and biomes, there are references to some plants and other organisms too.
From the moment I opened the book, I was instantly hooked by the illustrations by Nic Jones. They are beautiful and some of the most intricate I have seen in a non-fiction book. Furthermore, the choice of colour found on each page really adds to the element of the ‘dusk till dawn’ theme and would help the reader to really envisage any of the animals or plants from each place. Every page offers something slightly different, and the illustrations alone could easily inspire an art project or a piece of writing.
The author, Harriet Evans, has filled each page with lots of interesting, memorable and informative facts that will engage the reader straight away. Each page features a paragraph that explains about each place, with references to the dusk till dawn theme that runs throughout. The choice of language pitches the book to be accessible for a Lower Key Stage Two class, with just the right amount of new, challenging and subject-specific vocabulary to stretch more confident and independent readers.
The use of flaps in the book adds a real element of fun to each page. When lifted, they reveal the surprise of further illustrations and information. Any young reader interested in animals, habitats and nature would be enthralled in this book and it is one that I would certainly recommend for school libraries and classrooms. This non-fiction book could also be used to support curriculum learning in the subjects of geography and science.
The Horror of Dunwick Farm is a fast-paced adventure that will appeal to older KS2 children. It is the third instalment of the stories set in the town of Crooked Oak.
Crooked Oak is under attack again; this time from strange, deadly spiders. Birds, animals and even humans disappear. Where have they gone? How can these creatures be stopped? Pete, Krish and Nancy try to find out how the spiders appeared and how they can be defeated. The mystery is compounded by the appearance of strange people in black suits and Range Rovers. How do these people fit in to the mystery and what are they hiding?
As ever with Barrington Stoke books, this is an accessible book, printed with clear text on a coloured background that is specially formatted to cater for dyslexic readers. The illustrations by Chris King really add to the atmospheric mood of the book and also draw upon the details contained in the descriptive writing.
The children I read this to absolutely loved the story and moaned at the end of each session when it was time to finish. Each chapter finished on a cliffhanger, so it left them eagerly anticipating the next instalment. This was a definite hit with them!
Both of these author-illustrators have separately created some joyous picture books for children and in this collaboration it sees the two create a humorous rhyming picture book with a canine theme.
The premise requires the reader to enjoy the notion that dogs really like dressing up in clothes and do this so they can ‘blend in’ with everyday human life. The idea of dogs in high heels “to make them look big” certainly can’t help but raise a smile! Dogs can sneak into all sorts of places when disguised, whether it’s a fancy café, a gym or a swimming pool. The rhyming is masterful and it would be great to see if dog-loving children can spot which dog must be dressed in the disguise based on the rhyme. It could, after all, only be a Shih-tzu that does jujitsu, and schnauzers that wear trousers!
I love the idea that dogs train their puppies to sit at tables and to walk on two legs to ensure they make the most of a disguise. Dogs are also shown in other types of disguises: dressed as a tree for example. Of course, this comes with its own disadvantage, shown rather amusingly, with a range of undisguised dogs relieving themselves against the disgruntled looking dog who is disguised as the tree! The illustrations deserve to be pored over with so many dogs in unusual outfits doing everyday jobs – I particularly like the dog disguised as a bouncer outside a club.
This is a fun book that will raise a smile on the faces of dog-lovers and non-dog-lovers alike!
At BooksForTopics, we guide thousands of schools to find the best books for pupils with our recommended reads and book lists covering a wide range of themes and curriculum topics. However, we understand that schools’ budgets are stretched and that buying new books regularly may not be affordable.
To help create the inclusive and attractive library your pupils deserve, why not consider fundraising to generate money for new books for your school? Many schools are already embracing fundraising as an effective way to engage parents (and sometimes even the local community) with the importance of reading for pleasure.
As well as being the official school supplier for our tried-and-tested book packs, our partner book supplier Peters runs a free fundraising platform for schools, Support Your School, that makes it easy for schools to raise money from parents and local businesses to buy books and boost literacy. You can use the platform to raise funds to purchase packs of our books from our popular booklists, supplied by Peters.
The curriculum experts at Peters have put together some useful tips on how to kickstart and run a fundraising campaign for books.
How to gain support for your school’s fundraising for books campaign
Start with your story
What do you want to raise funds for and how can you share this as a compelling story? You may wish to ask parents or local businesses to donate to help your school to buy:
A range of diverse and inclusive books to ensure all of your pupils’ backgrounds are reflected (try our Diversity packs or Black British History pack).
A selection of Branching Out packs to widen your pupils’ reading horizons and encourage them to find books by new authors
Recommended reads packs, available for every year group, are also a brilliant and easy way to ensure you’ve got the best selection of books out there for your pupils of all ages.
What are the benefits to your school and your pupils? Be specific about your aims and the positive outcomes you expect to see as a result of your fundraising campaign. These may include:
What’s the impact on your pupils of having new books? Reading is a skill we take for granted, yet it’s essential for being able to get on in life. As a child grows up, being able to read well not only enables them to discover new facts but also opens them up to new ideas, stories and opportunities. Lacking vital literacy skills holds you back at every stage of life. As a child they’ll be less likely to succeed at school, as a young adult they’ll be locked out of the job market, and as a parent, they won’t be able to support their child’s learning. Explain how people can make a difference with a donation towards:
It can feel awkward asking for donations from parents and local businesses, but once a donor believes that what you’re fundraising for matters, giving almost becomes an afterthought. It’s important to have a fundraising target so that donors know what you want to raise and a specific campaign so that they can see where their money is going. Remember, if you don’t ask, you don’t get.
Give feedback and say thank you
It’s important to give regular feedback to donors, whether that’s to tell them you’re halfway to target or have reached your target. Share photos of what you’ve achieved and done with the funds raised or share quotes from pupils and staff who have benefited from your fundraising campaign. And most importantly, don’t forget to say thank you.
If you’re ready to kick-start your fundraising for books campaign, REGISTER with Support Your School today.
Yesterday Crumb and the Storm in a Teacup is the first in a new fantasy series for readers aged 8-12, about a girl with fox ears who has never fitted in. With adventure and magic in every teacup, this story is pure wish-fulfilment and a book-and-cake-lover’s dream…
Read on for a review of the book and a guest post by author Andy Sagar on how the theme of accepting our differences is written into the story…
Review
Book Title: Yesterday Crumb and the Storm in a Teacup (available here)
Author: Andy Sagar
Illustrator: Beatrice Blue
Publisher: Orion
Publication Date: 17 March 2022
Most Suitable for: Years 4-6
Reviewed by: Jacqueline Harris
Yesterday Crumb is a girl with fox ears who lives in a cage in a circus. She is exhibited as a freak and now twelve years old, is desperate to escape. When she finally gets her chance, Yesterday finds a world full of magic and enchantment, a travelling witch’s teashop and friends as well as enemies. As the tag line says, “Adventure and magic await in every teacup….”
This book has been compared to the Strangeworlds Travel Agency and Starfell, and while I can see why, it is entirely original in other ways. Yesterday is a marvellous and feisty heroine and her new friends are equally delightful. The villain, because of course there has to be a villain, is suitably scary and there are many heart-stopping moments of peril. Overarching all of this is the wonderful setting of the teashop and the magic therein. It has now become one of the places in fiction I want to visit; I would love to sip hot chocolate and eat cake surrounded by the usual magical customers.
There is a theme of belonging (or not belonging) and feeling different that runs throughout the story. There is also a strong thread of finding your confidence and standing up to bullies in the story. Beatrice Blue’s cover is a vivid capturing of the essence of the book, – full of life and colour and magic.
Andy Sagar has a truly delicious debut on his hands, one I want to read aloud right away as the voices of all the characters come across so clearly. I am overjoyed there will be more Yesterday Crumb adventures yet to come.
Yesterday Crumb and the Importance of Embracing Difference
When I started writing my debut children’s book Yesterday Crumb and the Storm in a Teacup, I knew I wanted it to be a story about warmth. In the broadest terms, the book tells the tale of a girl named Yesterday who gets a job in a magical, walking teashop called Dwimmerly End. In Dwimmerly End, Miss Dumpling (the tea witch who runs the teashop) always knows exactly what kind of tea, cake, or pastry her customers need, whether it be a pot of Chamomile of Confidence or a cup of Lonely Heart Lemongrass.
With this kind of a set-up, it became apparent that my heroine Yesterday would have to need something when she arrived at Dwimmerly End. That something would be missing in her life, and the teashop was the place she’d find it, in a way. In this post, I would like to write a little bit about what was missing in Yesterday’s life, and why I think her story is (hopefully) one readers will relate to.
Yesterday was born with a pair of mysterious fox ears in place of ordinary, human ones. At the start of the story, we have no idea why this is the case – and I won’t give away any spoilers! What I will say, however, is that she has experienced a great deal of othering while growing up. Indeed, she has spent her early years wishing for nothing less than to get rid of her fox ears for good. Since she has been treated as a little more than a circus attraction, Yesterday’s wishes in this regard are not all too surprising.
When Yesterday breaks free from the circus, she discovers a world of faeries and magic. Unfortunately, one of the first figures she meets in this world – before discovering the magical teashop of Dwimmerly End – senses her insecurities and is all too happy to play on them for his own gain, leaving Yesterday tricked and having to deal with a terrible, terrible curse.
Again, I would prefer not to give away any more spoilers, but the arc that follows is, as one might expect, not about Yesterday losing her fox ears, but learning to love them, instead. It was very important to me that this was not going to be a story of mere ‘tolerance’. I didn’t want Yesterday’s journey to be one of learning, simply, to ‘tolerate’ herself and her differences. Rather, I wanted her to embrace the power that comes from being different, and to realise that the very thing she always thought made her peculiar is in fact the aspect of herself that makes her special.
I was also quite eager for Yesterday to realise that she didn’t have to go on this journey by herself. All those years of being treated like an oddity have, of course, left her jumpy and defensive. But as the story goes on, and she learns to find peace and compassion in the arms of the found family she discovers in Dwimmerly End, she gradually opens up to Miss Dumpling and her new friends.
The journey of leaving one’s repressive childhood behind for a world of understanding and acceptance populated by colourful characters is not unique to this story. Rather, I hoped it would reflect a real-world experience that so many of us have – especially those of us in, say, the LGBTQ+ community, who are often born into spaces that seem so very lonely and alienating, before discovering the expansive world waiting for us out there.
And so, with this in mind, I hope that Yesterday’s story might give at least one child who feels different the sense that they are not alone, and that there are other people out there, like them, who don’t quite fit in. Perhaps even more than that, I hope that any children who read Yesterday’s story take solace in the idea that they do not have to change the parts of themselves that make them stand out. Quite the opposite. Just like Yesterday, there is power in being different – and it is that kind of power that changes the world.
Many thanks to the publishers for sending us a review copy and to Andy for providing the guest post. For more about the book, visit the other stops on the blog tour.
The UK’s longest-running book award for children and young people, the Yoto Carnegie Greenaway Awards, today announced the shortlists for 2022. The Yoto Carnegie Medal is awarded annually to an author whose writing creates an outstanding reading experience for children or young people. The Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal is awarded annually to a book illustrator whose artwork creates an outstanding reading experience for children and young people.
This year’s shortlist has been described by judges as a collection that “will excite, move and empower the young readers who pick them up.”
The Awards celebrate outstanding achievement in children’s writing and illustration respectively and are unique in being judged by children’s and youth librarians, with the Shadowers’ Choice Award voted for by children and young people.
16 books have been selected in total – eight for the Yoto Carnegie Medal and eight for the Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal – from a longlist of 33 titles. They were chosen by an expert team of volunteer judges, featuring 14 librarians from CILIP’s Youth Libraries Group based across the UK. Additionally, each year thousands of reading groups in schools and libraries in the UK and overseas get involved in the Awards, with children and young people ‘shadowing’ the judging process. They read, discuss and review the books on the shortlists, get involved in reading related activity in groups, and vote for their favourite books to win the Shadowers’ Choice Awards. You can find out more about the shadowing process here.
Six of the eight Yoto Carnegie shortlisted books are based on real-world events – from Tacky’s War to WWII; the legacy of the Troubles to the refugee crisis; the 2011 Japanese tsunami to the Central Park Exonerated Five case – with many demonstrating the power of friendship to help young people overcome challenges and celebrate difference. The judges’ selection champions pictures and their ability to communicate with readers and help them understand the world, with two wordless picture books on the Yoto Kate Greenaway list and two illustrated titles up for the Yoto Carnegie Medal, including one featuring manga.
The shortlist for the Yoto Carnegie Medal :
October, October by Katya Balen, illustrated by Angela Harding (Bloomsbury)
The Midnight Fair illustrated by Mariachiara Di Giorgio, written by Gideon Sterer (Walker Books)
Too Much Stuff illustrated and written by Emily Gravett (Two Hoots, Macmillan Children’s Books)
Long Way Down illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff, written by Jason Reynolds (Faber)
Milo Imagines the World illustrated by Christian Robinson, written by Matt de la Pena (Two Hoots, Macmillan Children’s Books)
Shu Lin’s Grandpa illustrated by Yu Rong, written by Matt Goodfellow (Otter-Barry Books)
I Talk Like a River illustrated by Sydney Smith, written by Jordan Scott (Walker Books)
The Wanderer illustrated and written by Peter Van den Ende (Pushkin Children’s Books)
The winners will be announced and celebrated on Thursday 16th June at a lunchtime ceremony at The British Library, hosted by award-winning poet and novelist Dean Atta, who won the Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice for The Black Flamingo in 2020.
The winners will each receive £500 worth of books to donate to their local library, a specially commissioned golden medal and a £5,000 Colin Mears Award cash prize.
