Mum and Dad told me they’ve got a wild plan . . . We’re exploring Australia in a snug little van. Ride along with Hunter as she discovers beaches and billabongs, paddocks and plains, forests and dugouts, and even underwater worlds. With a home on wheels and the open road ahead, a big adventure awaits. From Jessica and Stephen Parry-Valentine, the creators of travel channel Flying the Nest, comes a delightfully illustrated recount of a family road trip that celebrates Australia’s natural beauty.
Ride into danger with Hal and Uncle Nat on the fifth breathtaking Adventures on Trains Mystery, Sabotage on the Solar Express, from bestselling award-winners M. G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman. Perfect for readers of 8 to 12 and brilliantly illustrated in black and white throughout by Elisa Paganelli.
Billionaire train enthusiast August Reza has invited Harrison Beck and Uncle Nat on the maiden voyage of the Solar Express – the winning design of his Reza’s Rocket competition. But during the journey, they discover the train has been sabotaged, hurtling passengers into a heart-stopping, action-packed, thrill ride across the Australian Outback. Can Hal find the saboteur and stop the runaway train before disaster strikes?
Sabotage on the Solar Express can be read as a stand-alone novel, or enjoyed as part of the Adventures on Trains series. Join Hal and Uncle Nat on more stops in this thrilling series with: The Highland Falcon Thief, Kidnap on the California Comet, and Murder on the Safari Star.
It’s easy to feel lost in the flood of so many new children’s books available. Each month, our review panel reads scores of new books and we highlight five of our recently published favourites.
Check out our Review Panel’s top books for you to read in November 2023.
Last week, the Diverse Book Award 2023 winners were officially revealed.
Now in their fourth year, these awards were created by award-winning author Abiola Bello and award-winning publicist Helen Lewis, to highlight the best of the diverse voices published in the UK and Ireland. The Diverse Book Award children’s category shortlists aimed to showcase the best of the UK and Ireland’s diverse children’s books.
BooksForTopics director Alison Leach was honoured to be involved in judging these awards for a second year running. The organisers of the awards hope that the longlist, shortlist and winners will become essential reading on a national level, highlighting the outstanding diverse and inclusive books published by authors based in the UK and Ireland.
The award party was held at Waterstones Piccadilly in London last week, which saw publishers, authors, illustrators and literary agents from across the UK come together to celebrate the winning diverse books. Among the winners were J.T. Williams, Rashmi Sirdeshpande and Manjeet Mann, and a number of the winning books will be familiar to the BooksForTopics community from their appearances on our primary school booklists and our recommended reading lists featuring Diverse Children’s Books.
The Diverse Book Awards 2023 – picture book category
WINNER:
Dadaji’s Paintbrush by Rashmi Sirdeshpande, illustrated by Ruchi Mhansane (Andersen Press)
In second place:
Nour’s Secret Library by Wafa Tarnowska, illustrated by Vali Mintzi (Barefoot Books)
In third place:
Our Tower by Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Richard Johnson (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books)
The Diverse Book Awards 2023 – children’s books category
WINNER:
The Lizzie and Belle Mysteries: Drama and Danger by J.T. Williams and illustrated by Simone Douglas (Farshore)
In second place:
The Twig Man by Sana Rasoul (Hashtag Press)
In third place:
A Flash of Fireflies by Aisha Bushby (Farshore)
The Diverse Book Awards Readers’ Choice Award 2023
New for 2023 was the Readers’ Choice Award. There were almost 1,000 votes for this prize across the categories. Each of the 2023 longlisted books was open to votes from the announcement of the longlist through to the announcement of the shortlist.
The Diverse Book Awards 2023 Readers’ Choice Award – picture book category
WINNER
With 23.2% of the vote…
Small’s Big Dream by Manjeet Mann, illustrated by Amanda Quartey, published by HarperCollins Children’s Books.
In second place, with 15.9% of the vote…
Me and My Dysphoria Monster by Laura Kate Dale, illustrated by Ang Hui Qin, published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
In third place, with 9.6% of the vote…
John Agard’s Windrush Child by John Agard, illustrated by Sophie Bass, published by Walker Books.
The Diverse Book Awards 2023 Readers’ Choice Award – children’s books category
WINNER:
With 21.2% of the vote…
The Twig Man by Sana Rasoul, published by Hashtag Press.
In second place with 10.1% of the vote…
Keep Dancing Lizzie Chu by Maisie Chan, published by Piccadilly Press.
In third place with 9.1% of the vote…
Sadé and the Shadow Beasts by Rachel Faturoti, illustrated by Rumbidzai Savanhu, published by Hodder Children’s Books.
Congratulations to the winners!
The awards also included YA and adult categories, and you can find out more details on the Diverse Book Award website.
An online ‘winners panel’ event will be held on 9th November at 7pm.
You can see the full Diverse Book Award children’s category shortlists here.
The 2024 Diverse Book Awards will reopen for nominations from mid-January 2024 to mid-March 2024.
Where next?
> Visit our Reading for Pleasure Hub.
> Browse our Topic Booklists.
> See our Books of the Month.
> View our Year Group booklists
Author of Oscar’s Lion
My dad died a few years ago – at ninety-seven. A great sadness for me of course, but the hardest thing was having to tell my children that they’d lost their beloved granddad. Having lost my own at twelve, I knew what this would do to them.
I also realised that there aren’t many books about the bond between children and their grandparents – or what happens when a grandparent dies.
I thought about writing a straightforward book about this but then had a powerful dream. A boy wakes up to find that his parents have disappeared, and in their place is an enormous lion. This intrusion is scary, as grief is, especially as it forces the boy – my Oscar – into confronting his own recent loss: of his grandma, who died a few months ago.
It also offers Oscar an amazing opportunity for adventure. The lion has to look after Oscar for a long weekend (like a grandparent might) during which he has a fantastical time. The lion helps Oscar confront a bully, and causes mayhem at school when it transforms into a seagull. It takes Oscar back in time to the Battle of Trafalgar, and then into a bomber, on a raid in World War Two.
Oscar comes through these trials and adventures. The eventual return of his parents (who he assumed the lion had eaten) proves that he is able to live on, and to do so very happily. Oscar’s Lion is, therefore, not about grief. Rather, it enacts grief, in all its ragged messiness. It shows – with humour to lighten the load – that grieving and moving on, is natural and doable. Many children will have gone through this – and all children will. I hope that Oscar’s Lion will help them.
Oscar’s Lion would be a perfect text to start conversations about how the more problematic elements of life can be navigated. This clearly refers to the loss of grandparents but also pertains to moving up year groups or between schools (primary to secondary for instance). We can’t choose not to grow up. We all have to do it – with help.
Oscar’s Lion was also inspired by elements of my own history that could be great conversation-starters. My Uncle Ernest was killed during the same sort of night raid in World War Two that Oscar finds himself part of. Do any of the children have grandparents, or great-grandparents, who served in the war? Oscar’s grandma escaped from the Nazi’s as a child, and made her life in Britain. Do any of the children in your charge have similar stories to tell about their own relatives?
The final conversational kick-starter that Oscar’s Lion offers is probably the most fun of all. Do we believe stories? Is this story actually true? Did a lion really come to visit Oscar? Did it actually come to class and take him back in time? Or is there a more sensible explanation for what happened that weekend?
Many thanks to Adam for stopping by our blog this week!
Read our review of Oscar’s Lion here, or see it featured in our October Books We Love selection. Our review panel called it a ‘little gem’!
We also have more children’s books about grief on our Bereavement and Loss Booklist.
Where next?
> Visit our Reading for Pleasure Hub
> Browse our Topic Booklists
> View our printable year group booklists.
> See our Books of the Month.
Forced to take shelter when their Syrian city is plagued with bombings, young Nour and her cousin begin to bravely build a secret underground library. Based on the author’s own life experience and inspired by a true story, Nour’s Secret Library is about the power of books to heal, transport and create safe spaces during difficult times. Illustrations by Romanian artist Vali Mintzi superimpose the colorful world the children construct over black-and-white charcoal depictions of the battered city.
A high-stakes adventure story full of heart from debut author Varsha Shah, featuring charming illustrations from Sònia Albert and shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2023.
Abandoned on the Mumbai railways, Ajay has grown up with nothing but a burning wish to be a journalist.
Finding an abandoned printing press, he and his friends Saif, Vinod, Yasmin and Jai create their own newspaper: The Mumbai Sun.
As they hunt down stories for their paper, the children uncover corruption, fight for justice and battle to save their slum from bulldozers.
But against some of the most powerful forces in the city, can Ajay and his friends really succeed in bringing the truth to light? Not to mention win the most important cricket match ever…
A high-stakes adventure story full of heart, written against the backdrop of modern India: Emil and the Detectives meets Slumdog Millionaire.
Winner of the Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition 2020.
Wonderfully illustrated by Sònia Albert and starring a lovable ensemble cast of characters.
Tackles tough topics such as social justice and truth in journalism with a lightness of touch.
Travel through America’s incredible history and amazing wild places, visiting the National Monuments that celebrate the most iconic and majestic landscapes and locations in the USA.
Packed with maps and fascinating facts about the history, architecture, flora, and fauna in some of the most visited National Monuments in the United States, this gorgeously illustrated book showcases the nation’s most historically important and amazing places.
Marvel at some of the world’s most famous landmarks, such as the Statue of Liberty.
Discover lesser-known but just as breathtaking sites such as the Aniakchak volcano caldera. Read about geological wonders like the John Day Fossil Beds. Learn about places of solemn historical significance, such as the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument.
Divided into eight chapters covering the breadth of the US, pictographic maps locate each of the monuments explored, while double-page, poster-worthy scenes convey the beauty of the areas featured.
Time for another Little Badman adventure. This time, Humza, Umer and Wendy must face . . . THE UNDEAD.
Welcome to Big School.
Humza Khan – aka Little Badman, Eggington’s greatest rapper – might have finally met his match.
Evil teacher geniuses and giant killer hamsters (see previous Little Badman adventures for details) are nothing compared to starting a new school.
He’s already been out rap-battled by the school bully, laughed at by his classmates. Oh, and we haven’t even mentioned the ancient magical orb causing havoc and very possibly leading to world destruction.
At least Humza has found someone to help with his homework. It’s just a shame this friend isn’t exactly . . . alive.
I’m Rani Ramgoolam – roving reporter. And I think I’ve found the perfect story for the junior journalism competition run by the local paper. An eccentric millionaire has created a treasure hunt with a reward for the first person who figures out the clues.
Luckily, my mischievous Nani is visiting from Mauritius. She’s promised to help me work out what a priceless painting, a minotaur and a glass eye have in common.
“Murder, murder! Call the cops!” Oh, and that’s Cookie, my parrot. I’m not sure he’ll be much use.
But the race is on and I’ll need all the help I can get. Especially when some people are resorting to sneaky tricks to get their hands on the prize…
© BooksForTopics 2015-2024
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