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Picturebook

Frida worries all the time. Big worries, small worries, and all-the-time worries. Her worries feel heavy, just like the pebbles she collects every day. Some days, Frida’s worries become that only thing she can think about.

But then, one day, her granny teaches her an ingenious way to keep her worries in check-and Frida finally feels the weight of her fears slip away . . .

This sensitively written picture book explores how a young girl learns to manage her worries. Jenny Bloomfield’s beautifully observed illustrations bring Frida’s feelings and experiences vividly to life.

Picturebook

A story that encourages children to talk about bereavement but also feelings around anger and how to embrace, release and manage them. With Inclusive representation including BAME lead character with hearing aid and step-parents.

Picturebook

Everybody worries and that’s OK.

This reassuring and practical picture book combines helpful tips endorsed by clinical psychologists with fun rhyming couplets and colourful pictures to help children open up about their feelings and get anxiety under control.

The perfect book to soothe worries during stressful times, which can be a great springboard into having important conversations with your child.

Picturebook

The Sour Grape holds grudges for every reason under the sun. Lime never returned a scarf they borrowed? Grudge! Orange never called back? Grudge! But when a friend holds a grudge against the Sour Grape without listening to an explanation, the Sour Grape realizes how unfair grudges can be. Could a bunch of forgiveness and compassion be enough to turn a sour grape sweet?

Jory John and Pete Oswald serve up another heaping plate of laughs and lessons with this empowering, witty, and charming addition to their #1 New York Times bestselling series!

Non-fiction

Young children can explore and discuss the season of spring with this beautiful non-fiction picture book. Very simple text, high frequency and decodeable words and strong art-to-text matching make this a perfect book for early readers. It also features questions to encourage readers to relate the information to their own experiences.

It is part of the series ‘I Love the Seasons’ which helps young children aged 4+ to discover the seasons. The books are great for seasonable topics and projects in the early years.

Picturebook

A fantastically fun springtime picture book from the creators of The Leaf Thief. Hello sunshine! Hello lovely leaves. Nice to see you back.

Squirrel is so excited. It’s spring and the most perfect flower has started to blossom – and Squirrel has decided the flower is HIS.

After what happened to the leaves in autumn (THEY ALL DISAPPEARED), Squirrel’s not taking any chances. . . He MUST keep the flower safe, and he needs his best friend Bird to help him!

But perhaps Squirrel wants to protect the flower a little too much. . . After all, even flowers want a little space sometimes.

Join Squirrel and Bird as they discover and explore the wonderful nature of spring . . . and learn a few things along the way.

A laugh-out-loud book about the changing seasons, with extra information in the back for especially curious minds.

Perfect as a companion reader to children learning about seasons in school.

A brilliant picture book that explores feelings, moods and times where we feel out of control.

Picturebook

In this uplifting picture book about spring, follow two children and their father through their backyard as they discover all the different ways nature wakes up from its long winter sleep.

Spot the busy creatures and plants as the tale unfolds, then learn about how each responds to the increasing daylight and warmth that usher in the season.

Co-authors Sean Taylor (picture book author) and Alex Morss (ecologist, journalist, and educator) offer an inviting introduction to the science behind spring. The yard is bright, birds are singing, the bees are buzzing and there are tadpoles in the pond! What is all the commotion about?

In each colourful scene, the family discovers a different sign of spring – a bird collecting twigs for its nest, a fox snuggling her cubs, a caterpillar feasting on leaves… After the story, annotated illustrations explain the spring behaviours of various plants and animals.

Inspire an appreciation for the natural world in this joyous exploration of spring.

Edited by Emily Pither.

Poetry

With lyrical text and enchanting illustrations, It Starts with a Bee takes you on a journey through the seasons as you follow a busy bee pollinate a wild garden.

Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn, the bee tends to the flowers and plants. As the seasons change and the garden blooms into a wildlife wonderland, the bee is joined by well-loved minibeasts and creatures – worms, beetles, spiders and mice – who make the wild garden their home.

A rhyming poem builds page on page, echoing the life the bee brings to the garden. Beautiful foldout illustrations will transport readers into the world of the bee as it navigates the flowers and plants of the garden.

Teach your children about the crucial role bees play in the beautiful cycle of life in this charming tale of the workings of the natural world.

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 March 2023.

Chapter book

Everything so far, if Peijing had to sum it up, was a string of small awkward experiences that she hoped would end soon.

The night of the Mid-Autumn festival, making mooncakes with Ah-Ma, was the last time Peijing remembers her life being the same. Now facing a new home, a new school and a new language, everything is different. But Peijing hopes her new friend Joanna can show her the way.

Soon though, cracks start to appear in Peijing’s family. The grown-ups are no longer themselves and Biju needs her to be the dependable big sister. Peijing has no idea how she’s supposed to cope with the uncertainties of her own world while shouldering the burden of everyone else.

If her family are the four quarters of the mooncake, where does she even fit in?

A big-hearted, magical story about sisterhood and a family finding their way in a new place.

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