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Topic: Picturebooks Upper KS2

Instructions

Picturebook

Touch the wooden gate in the wall you never saw before, say ‘please’ before you open the latch, go through, walk down the path…

The reader is invited on a lyrical journey peopled by a cast of mythical characters, with a set of instructions that is both intriguing and reassuring. The advice for travelling through a fairytale landscape might just save you from being eaten by wolves or being lost for ever, but it is also a charming metaphor for living courageously and taking risks. The expressive and stylish prose resonates with Gaiman’s distinctive voice and will captivate readers of any age.

Illustrated throughout with gorgeous art by Charles Vess, whose work can also be seen in Neil Gaiman’s Blueberry Girl and Susanna Clarke’s The Ladies of Grace Adieu.

Caged

Duncan Annand

Picturebook

Caged is a wordless picture book in which simple, effective illustrations build up in small steps to the final ‘finished’ pictures. The story begins with a bluebird making a nest in her forest and she appears to be watching the actions of two men interfering there. As her nest is growing, she watches these men destroying this forest, which houses colourful parrots. As the men destroy the parrots’ habitat, they cage each parrot they find and build a palatial structure with the caged parrots.

There are some interesting discussions that can be brought up throughout the text. The value of individual liberty is an obvious link: should these men use their own freedom to cage other animals for their own (and other humans’) entertainment? Should animals have the same rights to freedom as people do? This links to the moral question of caging any animal and the illustrations lead to thinking of this from different perspectives: the onlooker, the imprisoner and the caged.

Overall, this is a fascinating picture book that can be read on different levels depending on the age and stage of the reader.

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick

Chris Van Allsburg

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.

Wolves in the Walls

Dave McKean & Neil Gaiman

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.

The Viewer

Gary Crew & Shaun Tan

Picturebook

An intriguing picture book for older readers, The Viewer has a sparse amount of words and plenty of fantastically detailed, curious and thought-provoking illustrations. This is a good choice for a picture book to study with Year 6.

The story follows a boy called Tristan who stumbles across a mysterious box filled with strange objects when he is browsing around for interesting things in a scrap yard. Inside the box, Tristan finds a viewing device with lenses and discs, filled with dramatic and sometimes disturbing images past and present – from prehistoric beasts to modern-era war and pollution.

Imagery or circles and spirals reflect the repeated cycles of progress and destruction through history, where the imagery of eyes might cause readers to wonder about the ‘lenses’ through which we come to understand human history. The ambiguous ending invites open-ended discussion. The intricate illustrations by Shaun Tan, the darker themes, the broad historical sweep and the curious repeated motifs make this a perfect picture book for older readers who appreciate a more philosophical book to pore over, and there’s certainly something new to wonder at on every reading.

Hansel and Gretel – Anthony Browne

Anthony Browne

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.

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

Mordicai Gerstein

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.

Swimming With Sharks

Heather Lang

Picturebook

Yusra Swims

Julie Abery & Sally Deng

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.

Unspoken by Henry Cole

Henry Cole

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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