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Topic: Picturebooks Upper KS2

Picturebook

What if words got stuck in the back of your mouth whenever you tried to speak?

After a day of being unable to speak when asked, and of being stared at, a boy and his father go to the river for some quiet time. “It’s just a bad speech day,” says Dad. But the boy can’t stop thinking about all the eyes watching his lips twisting and twirling. When his father points to the river bubbling, churning, whirling and crashing, the boy finds a way to think about how he speaks. Even the river stutters. Like him. “I talk like a river,” he says.

An incredibly moving picture book that offers understanding rather than a solution, and which will resonate with all readers, young and old. Masterfully illustrated by Sydney Smith, winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal.

Picturebook

Berta is a young girl with an artistic soul growing up on a farm in the Swedish countryside at the beginning of the 20th century. Her father doesn’t understand her and her mother is dying. But Berta longs to be an artist and can’t stay on the farm forever.

Based on the life of Swedish artist Berta Hansson, this is the story of a young woman with the bravery to live her own truth and follow her own path, despite the protests of her father and society at the time.

A universal story of longing and imagination, the perfect refrain for a young rebel.

Picturebook

“His disappearance is not the only mystery left behind. What were the stories that went with these drawings? There are some clues…”

Who is Harris Burdick? Where did he disappear to? And how was he going to finish his stories?

Chris Van Allsburg presents a series of loosely related drawings each accompanied by a title and a caption which the reader may use to make up his or her own story.

Picturebook

When Lucy hears noises from behind the wall she tries to warn her parents that there are wolves banging about. But her parents don’t listen. When the wolves finally take over the house and Lucy and her family are evicted to live in the garden, her parents realise perhaps they should have listened. But Lucy is no shrinking violet and pretty soon she has the wolves out and the family back in the house. So what was that noise Lucy heard coming from behind the wall? This is a brilliant, witty and inventive picture book with cutting-edge art, which is sure to be a hit with existing fans of Neil Gaiman as well as young readers.

Picturebook

In intricate picturebook for older children and younger teens. Young Tristan, a curious boy who rescues all sorts of objects from the rubbish dump, finds an old Viewmaster in its elaborate box, complete with a set of disks. He finds that these represent the ages of humankind, seen as a cyclical structure in which patterns of growth and decay are repeated.

Tristan becomes more and more drawn in to the world of the disks, and eventually disappears.

The book is full of metaphors and symbols of seeing and watching, circularity and never-endingness, in a complex, fantastical tale, which was Shaun Tan’s first picture book.

Picturebook

A retelling of this famous, dark fairytale from award-winning author-illustrator Anthony Browne.

Hansel and Gretel is perhaps the darkest and greatest of the fairytales from the Brothers Grimm. This extraordinary book brings the classic childhood tale to a new generation courtesy of one of the world’s greatest picture book artists, Hans Christian Andersen Award-winner Anthony Browne.

Picturebook

In 1974, French aerialist Philippe Petit threw a tightrope between the two towers of the World Trade Center and spent an hour walking, dancing, and performing high-wire tricks a quarter mile in the sky. This picture book captures the poetry and magic of the event with a poetry of its own: lyrical words and lovely paintings that present the detail, daring, and — in two dramatic foldout spreads — the vertiginous drama of Petit’s feat.

Picturebook

Based on a real life story!

Yusra Mardini loves to swim. Growing up in Damascus, she is just a girl with a dream: to swim for her country in the Olympic Games. But when war erupts in her country, she is forced to flee.

In spare, rhyming verse, Yursa Swims tells the true story of one girl’s journey from her beloved home in Syria to Germany.

We follow her to the Turkish coast, where she boards a small, crowded boat across the Aegean Sea to Greece. When the boat begins to sink, Yusra swims, helping to push the boat and all of her fellow refugees safely to shore. Her journey continues from Greece, through Europe, on foot, by car, bus and train, all the way to Germany. Here Yusra swims again, and is able to realise her dreams.

Picturebook

A young girl’s courage is tested in this haunting, wordless story.
When a farm girl discovers a runaway slave hiding in the barn, she is at once startled and frightened. But the stranger’s fearful eyes weigh upon her conscience, and she must make a difficult choice.Will she have the courage to help him?Unspoken gifts of humanity unite the girl and the runaway as they each face a journey: one following the North Star, the other following her heart. Henry Cole’s unusual and original rendering of the Underground Railroad speaks directly to our deepest sense of compassion.

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Stone Girl Bone Girl

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