Book Title: A Home For Luna (available here)
Author: Stef Gemmill
Illustrator: Mel Armstrong
Publisher: New Frontier Publishing
Publication Date: Sept 2019
Most Suitable For: EYFS & KS1
Reviewed By: Caroline Waldron, Teaching Assistant & Librarian
One moonlit night a small cat is washed up on a strange, dark beach. Her name is Luna. To start with, she shelters under her crate and dreams of home. But then, as dawn breaks, she realises that she’s hungry. When she ventures out to look for food and to explore, she is greeted by a beach full of penguins. Initially too shy and scared to go closer, the penguins slowly encourage her to come closer and show her how to catch fish. Luna and the penguins become friends. Then, one day, a fishing boat arrives at the beach and the fishermen try to take Luna home with them. Luna refuses to leave – she has a new home now.
A Home for Luna is a beautifully illustrated picture book. The pictures are full of tiny details – intricate anemones, cheeky crabs and delicate seaweed. I particularly liked the tiny hermit crab who appears in almost every picture (complete with facial expressions!) and children will love trying to spot him and guess what he’s thinking. The pictures are expressive, lively and altogether delicious.
The story will appeal to children from toddlers up to Year 3 (my 6-year-old loved it), especially children who love animals. There is not too much text on each page so it will be useful for those children who dislike anything too wordy.
This book would also be a good starting point for a class discussion on friendship, especially how we can make all children feel welcome and how it must feel to be left out. I feel this book would be particularly useful for a class to use if they were expecting a new child to join them.
———————
You can order A Home For Luna online or from your local bookshop or library.
Many thanks to the publisher for sending us a review copy of this book and to Review Panel member Caroline for reviewing it.
Where next?
> Visit our Reading for Pleasure Hub
> Browse our Topic Booklists
> View our printable year group booklists.
> See our Books of the Month.
