From the moment you touch the wonderfully textured cover of ‘Under Your Feet’, you realise that you are on a sensory journey of discovery.
The book, created in conjunction with The Royal Horticultural Society, gives children the chance to really ‘dig deep’ into life under the soil. Dr Jackie Stroud’s comprehensive knowledge of the subject matter (she has a twitter handle worth following – @wormscience) gives the book the level of detail and understanding without overwhelming younger readers. It is clear that she has a passion for soil which shines through every lovingly researched page.
When you open the book, each double-page spread details a different aspect of soil and our relationship with it; from information on why we need soil to looking at soil around the world (there’s even a couple of pages about soil in outer space!). The information is written in a very accessible style, with small captions dotted around each page and a useful glossary at the back.
The illustrations make this book particularly engaging. As you can imagine, a book about soil will have a colour palette of browns, greens and oranges. The illustrator, Wenjia Tang, has used pencil drawings, combined with photographs to create gorgeous images that give the reader a sense of what the world under our feet truly feels like.
For those children who enjoy getting their hands dirty, there are ideas for practical activities, such as making a ‘microbe meal’ in a sock! It is a great resource and would be perfect for accompanying geographical or environmental topics, as well as forest school in KS1 or lower KS2.
Pack your bags and get ready to hop into a world of adventures – or more like an adventure of worlds. I was drawn to the simple and exciting concept of this middle-grade fantasy from the start; a travel agency where you jump into a suitcase to be transported to hundreds of other worlds.
12-year-old Flick accidentally stumbles into the Strangeworlds Travel Agency shortly after moving to a new town. Quick to discover there’s something unusual here, curiosity gets the better of Flick and before long she ends up on a flash-bang-crash of an adventure through weird and wonderful new worlds. Along the way, Flick explores unchartered aspects of her own identity in a clever parallel to her physical world-hopping.
This sparky new fantasy for middle-grade readers introduces a vivid and varied host of magical settings and nuanced characters. The whole narrative is shrewdly written – with nothing being quite as one might expect. Wonder and peril mix in all the right measures to make an edge-of-your-seat expedition into the deepest imagination, with themes that will resonate well with modern readers aged 9-12.
Inspired by the true story of Jack and his beloved Bear, this is a gentle and tender picture book exploring the relatable experience of treasuring a toy and touching on themes of loss, growing up and helping others.
Jack and his well-loved teddy bear are inseparable. Bear helps Jack to calm down when the world around him seems a bit too much, and provides both comfort and companionship through each day’s up and downs. When Jack loses Bear after a trip to the park, he is inconsolable. Such is the impact of the loss, that Jack’s family go to great lengths to find the missing toy, putting up posters and making appeals to friends and strangers online.
Jack feels a bear-shaped hole inside of him and there are reminders about Bear everywhere – the clouds, the puddles, the bus stop sign, the front door. Strangers respond to the appeal in kindness by sending Jack all sorts of replacement bears – old bears, new bears, big bears and small bears arrive in the post, but none of them are Bear. Over time, Jack begins to come to terms with his loss and decides to re-gift the bears to others in need.
This is a beautiful picture book made all the more poignant by being based on a true story of an autistic boy’s search for his missing bear. Many children hearing the story will have come across enough missing toy stories to quickly predict that Jack will lose the bear – but the resolution takes a less expected path when Jack never gets his own Bear back. The delicate and detailed illustrations portray Jack’s emotions closely and the details in the background are delightful (we spot more brilliantly concealed ‘bear-shaped’ items each time we read it).
Despite Jack’s disappointment at losing Bear, the story is an uplifting one and Jack’s decision to share the new bears with other children is both touching and inspiring.
review
Year group(s) the book is most suitable for:
Year group(s) the book is most suitable for:
Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?
Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?
Would you recommend the book for use in primary schools?
yes
Curriculum links (if relevant)
Curriculum links (if relevant)
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Any other comments