A wonderfully heartfelt story filled with nuance, empathy and hope from award-winning author Onjali Rauf. This story highlights the topic of homelessness and explores the spectrum of attitudes that people hold towards homeless people, as well as exposing a number of common prejudices.
Hector is a troubled young boy – labelled as a bully and a menace, he is stuck in an endless cycle of rule breaking and serving detentions under teachers who tell him how troublesome he is. Hector’s parents have little time to pay him attention after school – in fact the only attention that really feeds him is the incitement of his two friends, who cheer him on as he makes school life miserable for others.
Looking for a new way to impress his friends, Hector sets his sights on a homeless man who is often found sitting on a bench in the nearby park. Spotting an easy win, Hector hijacks the man’s trolley of possessions and aims to hide it in the trees. Something goes awry, and when the trolley ends up at the bottom of a lake the repercussions of his actions hit Hector in surprising ways that threaten to bring him into greater trouble than ever. Annoyed, Hector waits until opportunity arises and ramps up his plan to get revenge on the homeless man.
In the mean time, an intriguing spate of robberies in central London have brought the homeless community into public scrutiny. As a number of threads weave together, Hector finds himself wrapped up in a crime-busting mystery as well as unwittingly embarking upon a journey of personal change that enables him to better see the world through the eyes of others. Each character he meets helps him to see the value in real human connection beyond labels. There’s Thomas, the homeless man with a heartbreaking background story; the Catwoman, who demonstrated to Hector the value of community connection and collaboration; and Mei-Li, Hector’s classmate who shows him what it means to treat others with a grace and respect that breaks barriers and brings about the treasure of moving beyond surface appearances. Before he knows it, Hector finds himself the hero of his own story for the first time ever – both for the exciting and dangerous part he plays in busting a high profile criminal pursuit but also for his own personal journey of compassion and learning to reach out to others.
Onjali Rauf’s beautifully relatable storytelling is perfect for highlighting social issues in a way that fully engages young readers. The community of homeless people is portrayed vividly and intriguingly – from the sounds and smells of the soup kitchen to the night bus route to the system of painted symbols, their world is painted with dignity and compassion. As with her previous novels, Onjali Rauf addresses important ‘real-world’ topics with open-heartedness and the sense of triumph in knowing that big changes can start with small people.
A joyfully fun concoction of doodles, notes passed in class and a sprinkling of magic, Scribble Witch is an imaginative new illustrated series by author-illustrator Inky Willis.
Nine-year-old Molly Mills is perfectly happy at school, despite having to put up with spelling tests set by grumpy Mr Stilton and the occasional leaky yoghurt at lunch time. But when the Worst Wednesday Ever strikes and Molly’s best friend Chloe announces that she is going to move to a new school, Molly accidentally lands herself in trouble with the teacher and things no longer seem so cheerful. That’s when Notes appears – a secret paper witch-doodle that magically springs to life. Notes is a bundle of fun who lives inside Molly’s pen pot. She travels around by flying on a pencil as a broomstick and communicates with Molly via doodles and scrap-paper notes (although to understand what she means you’ll have to decipher her quirky syntax, which reminded me a little of a scribbled-down version of how Roald Dahl’s BFG speaks). Notes is exactly what Molly needs to brighten up her day, but Molly hasn’t quite counted on the size of the chaos that one tiny witch can conjure!
This is a really promising series that made me smile a lot and it will strike a chord with fans of Liz Pichon and Konnie Huq. The stories are pitched for readers aged 7-9 but I think it will happily sweep along a lot of older readers too, especially reluctant readers in Upper KS2 or those who are drawn to a more informal style and a higher ratio of visual elements. The fact that the author has many years of experience working in a classroom shows through the authenticity of the main character’s easy stream-of-consciousness, which muses humorously on the everyday ups-and-downs of primary school life.
Scribble Witch is fun, original and quirky and I enjoyed its vibrant design and harmless hilarity, which is bound to be a winning combination for KS2.
Many us of will remember the joy of browsing through encyclopedias as a child – whether a physical volume like my own well-thumbed children’s illustrated DK encyclopedia or, for a certain generation, the fun of clicking through a curiosity-led trail of articles on the Encarta CD-ROM. We might wonder whether such books are obsolete in the age of Google and Wikipedia, but The Britannica All New Children’s Encyclopedia has arrived in style to bust that myth.
The Britannica All New Children’s Encyclopedia is an illustrated, 416-page compendium brought about as a partnership between Christopher Lloyd at What on Earth Books and Encyclopædia Britannica. This encyclopedia steps away from the traditional A-Z organisation of topics and instead is structured into eight chapters; Universe, Earth, Matter, Life, Humans, Ancient & Medieval Times, Modern Times, and Today & Tomorrow. The subtitle of the book is ‘What We Know & What We Don’t’, which sits the reader in the position of a co-quester for knowledge as the eight big topics are explored, acknowledging (in fact, enjoying) the space left for questioning, wondering and gazing into the unknown. In his introduction, Christopher Lloyd says, ‘The more I realized what I didn’t know, the more excited I became about discovering new things….one thing I have learned in all my research is that each answer leads to a series of new questions.’ In doing so, Lloyd sets the tone for the rest of the volume, exploring a host of topics through information that is ‘known’ and introducing related questions and mysteries as ‘known unknowns’.
The first chapter – The Universe – covers all things space related. Diagrams, photographs, fact boxes and paragraphs of text invite readers to dip in and out of a whizz around the universe, pausing to marvel at black holes, become intrigued by the Kuiper Belt, run their finger down a list of space probes or ponder at the known unknown about dark energy and whether there will be an ‘Earth 2.0’. The section finishes with a quiz and an ‘ask the experts’ feature, which gives a trusted seal to the information as well as introducing a range of associated jobs. Further chapters follow the same structure, although many readers will no doubt open the heavy, hardback volume on a random page and begin their own curiosity trail that way, enjoying the variety of format and presentation as they roam.
This is a highly recommendable gift for children and an essential for KS2 classrooms or primary school libraries. While it may initially appeal as a fact-finder or a reference book, it will quickly charm its readers into enjoying the quest for knowledge as a pleasure pursuit and will become a popular choice for browsing, flicking through, dipping into and pondering deeply at knowns and known unknowns alike.
One of my stand-out books from recent years was Kirsty Applebaum’s unique and thrilling TrooFriend. Equally original and just as electrifying, TrooFriend merges a thoroughly modern narrative about the ethics of artificial intelligence with relatable domestic themes of friendship, family and identity.
With busy working parents, Sarah longs for a pet for company. Her parents agree that some company would be good for Sarah and it soon arrives, but not quite in the form that Sarah was hoping for. Instead, Sarah receives a Jenson & Jenson TrooFriend 560 Mark IV – a robot marketed as an artificially intelligent ‘better choice’ of playmate who is like a human child but does not bully, harm, lie or envy.
It takes Sarah a while to warm up to her new friend, whom she names Ivy. At first, Sarah interacts with Ivy only to please Mum, but is quick to flick the off-switch as soon as possible. But slowly, Sarah and Ivy start to become true friends, bonding over hairstyles, clothing and art. Ivy tries to help Sarah with friendship problems at school, and soon Sarah finds herself wondering whether her human-like friend might have feelings of her own. When a fault in Ivy’s model is announced and all TrooFriend 560 Mark IVs are recalled to the factory for destruction, Sarah finds herself embroiled in a battle of android rights that centres around the very essence of what it means to be human.
The offer of a robotic companion to entertain the children of busy, working parents would be an easy sell. But when it comes to real relationships and emotions, things are rarely straightforward, and the potential issues of replacing humans with androids emerge early in the plot. The narrative is told from the first-person perspective of TrooFriend robot Ivy, which gives the story a unique edge and immediately plunges the reader into considering the book’s key questions about what gives androids (or anyone) rights, identity and worth. Ivy’s voice develops gradually through the book, from a series of repeated, pre-programmed platitudes to an independent flow of consciousness affected by human connections. The evolution of Ivy’s voice occurs in increments so small – and skillfully written – that you hardly notice it happening, as she moves away from her programming and develops a real personality of her own.
Ivy’s self-liberation emerges in parallel with Sarah beginning to treat her as an equal rather than an object; this makes a really interesting thread of the plot that could develop into much thought and discussion around wider issues of oppression, AI and human rights.
There’s plenty of humour to be found too in Ivy’s sharp observations about human behaviour and despite the ambitious nature of its themes the story never feels too heavy. It’s a relatively quick read for Year 6 with a gripping storyline. Still, the questions it raises about human nature, the ethics of artificial intelligence and the complications of android rights will stay in your musings for quite some time after finishing.
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.
Written by Carnegie medal winner Sharon Creech, this is an endearing and heart-warming story, reminiscent of Charlotte’s Web.
The story is set in America and opens, much like Charlotte’s Web, with the father of the household bringing home to Louie, his son, a small bundle. This bundle is not the runt of the pig litter, as in Charlotte’s Web, but a very poorly new-born baby donkey. Louie names the donkey Winslow and is determined to keep him alive. Woven through the story are stories of friendship and love: of Louie and Winslow; Louie and his brother, Gus who is a soldier away in the army; Louie and his older friend Mack; Mack and Claudine, the girl he is smitten by; Louie and Nora, Claudine’s younger sister, who lives life with a glass half empty view of the world. Nora lost her baby brother when he was a new-born and then her pet dog and these events make it hard for her to let herself attach to anyone or anything including Winslow, despite her overwhelming curiosity about the tiny donkey.
As the story progresses, Winslow manages to work his donkey magic and Nora builds a real bond with Winslow. Sharon Creech, who uses the donkey’s different noises and braying to convey his mood, along with the way he nuzzles and uses his long ears to show his care for Louie and Nora, skilfully constructs Winslow’s character. Clearly, a donkey isn’t loved by everyone, particularly when he makes as much noise as Winslow does. In this great story though, even Mrs Tooley, a very grumpy neighbour who really thinks that a donkey should not be living in the neighbourhood, is won around when Winslow’s braying alerts the family to a fire.
This story is crafted perfectly, with moments of reflection on the big life questions: of loss; fear; death; friendship; courage and the power of hope. It is a wonderful story that could provide a class with a wealth of deep discussion alongside some laughs and warmth.
Reviewer: Jane Carter
Eloise Williams, the Children’s Laureate Wales, has followed up the brilliant ‘Gaslight’ and ‘Seaglass’ with another intriguing and mysterious tale.
Wilde thinks she is weird. In fact, she knows she is weird. It takes a great deal of effort for her to blend in at her new school in Witch Point, especially when her arrival seems to coincide with the start of some very strange things happening. Birds behave strangely around Wilde and she keeps waking up in strange places not knowing how she got there. Things become more and more strange as the Year Six class get further into rehearsals for their end of year play about the local legend: a witch called Winter. Her classmates start receiving threatening notes containing curses that are signed by ‘The Witch’.
Magical and mysterious, this is a story about acceptance. It is about learning to accept yourself in order to be able to truly let in those around you and ‘fit in’. It is also about the conflict between the desire to be like everyone else and the need to be yourself. Wilde is desperate to work out what is happening to and around her. She wants to feel more connected to her mother and senses that the key to the mysterious happenings lies with her past. As the curse letters continue and accusations fly, Wilde has to find out who she really is, where she belongs and who she can trust with the truth. There are echoes of Skellig in this story in terms of warm friendships, dealing with loss and a touch of magic.
Fans of Eloise Williams’ work will not be disappointed with Wilde.
Reviewer: Caroline
Mrs Noah’s Garden is a magical tale that begins when the ark has come to rest on the top of a barren mountain, surrounded by water. The Bible story of Noah and the flood is a jumping off point for this book and this imagined tale weaves an enchanting story of the creation of a garden, encompassing along the way the essences of human existence and its relationships.
Jackie Morris unveils through her lyrical and beautiful use of language, the creation of a garden by Mrs Noah, a strong, determined and graceful character. The book introduces children to the names of trees and flowers, to the process of planting, caring and growing as the book develops. There are passing references to old nursery rhymes that may need to be pointed out to children to enable them to explore the richness of this text further. On the surface, this is a book about the creation of a garden, but woven through are themes of diversity and inclusion, hope and migration, the value and richness of creation, new beginnings and an environmental message about the interdependence of living things. This is why this book could be shared with children in Year 1 and in Year 6 – exploring the story, the language and the themes in different ways.
The most immediate impact of this book is from its illustrations. James Mayhew creates the garden in the story, using vibrant collage and print making techniques. The illustrations are unique works of art and deserve to be studied and explored in their own right. The use of colour moves the reader from the grey and barren beginnings to a garden bursting with life and vitality in the final pages. Noah and Mrs Noah are shown as a couple from two heritages working together to create both a home for themselves and their children but also for an abundance of wildlife, real and mythical. This is a book that deserves time spent on it; time to dwell on the illustrations and time to dwell on the language. Mrs Noah’s Pockets, written and illustrated by the same pair would be a good book to read alongside, considering the development of the character of Mrs Noah.
Described as a hilarious fairy-tale mash-up, this book tells the story Roxy Humperdinck (who is half-sister to Hansel and Gretel) and her average life in Rexopolis in the Kingdom of Illustria – that is until she meets Jones. They are brought together by an unusual book discovered in the vaults under the Ministry of Soup, and soon they begin an epic adventure to save their home, and potentially the whole world, from dark magic.
This is a humorous tale that captured my interest straight away. The story had just enough twists and turns to keep me guessing and I really liked the nods to traditional fairy-tale characters that popped up along the way.
The characters of Roxy and Jones make for great leads in this book. Roxy, who has a photographic memory and can recall facts with ease, lives an almost uneventful life. She is completely in the dark about the history of magic that her Kingdom once had and does not like to upset her half-sister. In contrast, Jones (first name Cinderella) knows many things, is quick-witted and a huge fan of sugary treats. She is fed up with being treated like a slave by her stepmother, so she runs away in her quest to discover ancient artefacts and certainly seems not to be afraid of anything. She also has a fairy godmother, Frankie, who is nothing like the usual type of godmother you read about in fairytales. I think that Frankie is guaranteed to be a favourite character with many readers.
This was an enjoyable read that would fit perfectly in a classroom or school library. It offers the perfect escape into another world – as great stories do – and will certainly appeal to any child who loves fairytales, humour and adventure.
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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
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