Often young children find it difficult to put big emotions into words and even more difficult to know what to do to help themselves. Little Unicorn is Angry is part of a new series that explores emotional literacy through the character of a unicorn with a mane that changes colour with his different feelings. The illustrated stories are appealing, colourful and well-pitched for children in early years classrooms.
Little Unicorn loves playing with his toys but sometimes things make him bubble up with anger, like when it is time to stop playing and get in (or out of) the bath or when Daddy refuses to carry him all the way to school and expects him to walk. Little Unicorn feels like a big, black stormcloud has landed inside him. In response, Little Unicorn learns to try a calming breathing exercise and encourages young readers to join in too.
My own young children found Little Unicorn very easy to identify with (the bathtime scene is all too familiar) and loved listening to his stories. The calming breathing exercises are a great tool to learn but even more powerful is the way different emotions are named and defined using a combination of story context, different colours and weather clouds.
This is a promising new series and an excellent tool for developing emotional literacy. Also currently available in the series is Little Unicorn is Sad.
Atmospheric, intelligent and thought-provoking, this is the kind of story that loves to surprise you every time you feel sure you have a handle on it. At less than 200 pages, it is a quick but intriguing read in a similar format to Edge’s other recent science-themed books like The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day and The Jamie Drake Equation.
The initial premise of the plot is a basic one: three children get lost in the woods and desperately try to help each other to find their way home before the legendary Old Crony, whom they say eats children, makes an appearance.
Tapping into the natural world around them and putting their code-cracking know-how to good use, the children find clues in the rhythm of birdsong and shapes of the sticks on the floor. As the story unfolds, so do a series of surprises and layers of philosophical depth as metaphysics are questioned and explored in a child-friendly manner. Suspense builds with every page, and the usual rules of time seem to become increasingly distorted as the story progresses.
The Longest Night of Charlie Noon is highly recommendable to readers who like their stories served with plenty of intrigue, puzzles to solve and a good dose of metaphysics thrown in.
Greta and the Giants is a new picture book containing a fictionalised forest story inspired by Greta Thunberg, the Nobel Prize nominee who has stirred people to action worldwide through the youth climate movement. The book itself is printed on 100% recycled paper and with every purchase a donation is made to GreenpeaceUK.
Greta is a young girl who lives in the forest. The forest is beautiful but is threatened by a group of giants, who chop down trees to make big houses and have extended their busy city until there is nearly no forest left. Greta realises that the forest may soon disappear but the unthinking giants are too busy to listen. When some of the forest animals approach Greta to ask for help in saving their home, she has an idea to make herself small. As a single voice, the lumbering giants will never take notice, but once other people and animals notice her peaceful protest and decide to join too, soon the giants begin to see their actions in a new light.
The vibrantly illustrated story allegorises the spirit of Greta’s real campaigns while putting it into words and pictures that are accessible to even the youngest of children. There is an additional section at the back of the book with information about the real Greta and some positive actions that everybody could take to make a difference to the environment.
Can an information book solely about frogs really be that good? Yes. It can and it is.
Although ‘Fanatical about Frogs’ is not the only book by Owen Davey on one particular type of animal (there are more in his series on sharks, monkeys, cats and beetles), it is the first I have read and it certainly won’t be the last. This fascinating book provides an excellent overview into everything you’d ever want to know about frogs in a child-friendly yet technical way.
Upon opening the book, the beautiful endpapers are striking and confirm the book is not just informative but also very artistic in style. The stylised illustrations throughout encourage the reader to look for the details more than a photograph of a frog might. My eyes were drawn all over the pages and I enjoyed looking for the nuggets of information scattered across the page.
As I made my way through the book I found myself looking up the various frogs and realised what a brilliant book this is in inspiring readers to look deeper. The information included within each section is just enough that the reader builds an understanding, yet not so much that readers won’t be inspired to go and discover more on their own. The book is not overloaded with content; the balance between the information and images is a good one and it is therefore a book that a whole range of reading abilities could access and enjoy equally.
This is a book that any nature-lover would likely enjoy and also a good choice for more reluctant non-fiction readers. The mix of thoughtful design and informative facts could provide young readers with a new way of seeing non-fiction books altogether.
Review by: Nathan Wilcox , Primary School Teacher
Suspenseful historical fiction set in the Edwardian period. Tightly woven around a central family mystery are eccentric characters with quirks aplenty and a plot brimming with darkness and intrigue.
Helena and her pet parrot, Orbit, move away from their family home in London to live in Cambridge, where her father has secured the role of clock-keeper in Mr Westcott’s house. There’s not just one timepiece to keep an eye on, though, or even a few – Mr Westcott’s house is filled with clocks in every room and he seems to believe that keeping the clocks ticking is the most important thing of all. If even one of the clocks were to stop, warns Mr Westcott, the consequences for everyone involved will be severe.
As Helena settles in, she begins to glimpse a deep strangeness around the house as a series of mysteries present themselves. As if the house wasn’t creepy enough with its never-ending cacophony of ticks and tocks, Helena soon notices a ghost-like figure watching her father wind the clocks and her curiosity reaches new heights. Before long, she finds herself deeply intrigued by the Westcott family’s mysterious past. It soon becomes clear that her family’s future is in danger and that unravelling the mysteries of the house before it’s too late is going to be a race against – well, time.
There’s plenty to unpack in A M Howell’s alluring narrative. The novel explores how different people respond to bereavement and the role of compassion in helping others through their grief. Themes of friendship, time, poverty and empathy ebb and flow through the plot, pulled together by sharp historical details that pave the way for the gender roles of the time to be examined with due nuance. Balancing the sadness of the themes of grief and loss is a thread of hope that picks up strength as the story progresses, especially in relation to the liberation of gender constraints – a hope that is personified in the characters who opt to compose themselves with integrity and forge their future path without compromising on either rights or morals.
I found this to be a clever and atmospheric story and, for me, it had added personal interest for two reasons – one in that the setting is my own hometown of beautiful Cambridge, and the other is that two of the siblings in the story share names with my own children!
The House of Light is a gorgeous book, which skilfully blends stirring descriptions of the natural world with the drama and excitement of a dystopian adventure and a deep emotional meditation on the value of those we love, those we lose and those we leave behind.
Bonnie lives with her Granda by the coast in a not-so-distant future Britain where freedoms have been curtailed and the right to travel has disappeared, along with much of the technology we currently enjoy. Despite the loss of her mother at a young age and a hankering for adventure, Bonnie is generally happy in her loving home with Granda; growing their vegetables, tending their hens and telling stories. Until the arrival of a boat and a boy widens her mind to the possibility of following her mother over the sea and escaping to a better life.
The relationship between the boy, Ish, and Bonnie develops beautifully from mistrust and fear between two damaged children to a deep empathy and indestructible bond. They are young, they are resilient, and they will risk anything to seek wider horizons. Granda, however, is at the opposite end of his journey, his physical horizons narrowing but his yearning for freedom as strong as ever. The final chapters of the book are heart-breaking and uplifting in equal measure.
The House of Light is a beautifully crafted work, one of Julia Green’s best yet, and my favourite book of 2019 so far. The accessible and well-paced writing, the poignant characters and storyline make it almost impossible to put down. I will be pressing it fervently into the hands of KS2 readers who need to believe in the ability of compassion and hope to overcome darkness and fear.
Reviewed by: Carol Carter, Librarian
A unique take on the magical world, The Last Spell Breather is an intriguing adventure that will appeal to many readers. Rayne finds herself in a predicament; she adores her mother and desperately wants to please her but finds it difficult to live up to her mother’s expectations to become a Spell Breather. Like any other young girl, she longs to be with her friends, not stuck inside as her mother’s struggling apprentice. Rayne soon finds that her clumsy ways put the people of her village, and her friends, in grave danger and she is forced to embark on a dangerous journey to attempt to rescue them.
I really enjoyed reading this book and can see that it would easily appeal to many children. With pupils often citing ‘Harry Potter’ as one of their favourite series, this is a great book to continue their love of magic. The main character, Rayne, is endearing and will resonate with lots of people as the reader gets a real insight into her insecurities and can go on her journey with her. Readers will see her flourish and root for her through her journey as she steps into her own. Many of our children have their own insecurities or lack self-confidence and will easily to relate with the character.
This is definitely one to add to your to-be-read pile and a great choice for KS2 classrooms or school libraries.
Reviewed by: Christine Ivory, Y6 Teacher
This moving World War 2 novel begins with Anna, the grandmother, explaining how she was sent away by her parents, following the events during the night of the ninth of November 1938 in Germany on Kristallnacht.
Knowing that, as a Jew, she would no longer be safe, young Anna manages to get a space on the Kindertransport, bringing children like Anna to the relative safety of Britain. Following an arduous journey, Anna is taken in by a family in Kent, who live and work on a country estate. During 1940, when the threat of invasion pervades the country, Anna and her foster siblings Molly and Frank find themselves drawn into a dangerous web of deceit and betrayal. This is Anna’s opportunity to prove whose side she is on.
Told in the first person, Anna’s story has an immediacy that grips the reader, drawing them in as she adapts to her new life. There is poignancy as well as excitement, through short chapters that keep up the momentum of the adventure, as well as exploring Anna’s feelings.
A super-fun and cheerful picture book with a gentle message about the emptiness of materialism, Sneaky Beak is a great choice for storytime in EYFS and KS1.
Anyone who has ever been swayed by an advert for a new gadget or service upgrade will easily relate to Bear and Hamster as they learn the hard way that some things in life are great the way they are. Once perfectly content, the duo of animal friends are suddenly given cause to question whether they are missing out on something better when they encounter a smooth-talking avian called Sneaky Beak who has impressive salesmanship and a state-of-the-art catalogue of the latest gadgets. Is your bath bubbly enough?, he causes Bear to wonder. Is your bed bouncy enough, your cereal crunchy enough and are you sure you can ever be satisfied without succumbing to the wonders of a rocket trip to the moon?
Young readers will likely already be aware of the ‘upgrade now’ culture and will quickly tap into the story’s clear message about finding contentment in what they already have. Tony Neal’s bright and eye-catching illustrations (we especially enjoyed the close-up of the animals’ facial expressions) are a perfect match for the tongue-in-cheek, lilting story that uses gentle humour and fun characters to offer – in an unfailingly cheerful way – a cautionary tale for the modern generation.
Reviewed by: Alison (Founder of BooksForTopics) & Florence (aged 6) after attending the Little Tiger Picture Book Showcase.
Lantana Publishing brings us a stunning picture book offering from the Brazilian duo Stella Elia and Weberson Santiago.
A tender storytelling moment unfolds between a grandson and his grandpa, who says that ‘every line on my skin tells the story of my life.’ Grandpa’s seafaring tales speak of amazing voyages around the globe, joyfully traversing different continents and collecting new stories as he goes. The stories, the seas and the characters encountered along the way sit somewhere between the boundary of real and magical and it never really matters to the reader either way – because stories are stories and the joy here is in the retelling.
Not in the business of colonising, Grandpa’s love of each place he visits is poured out in his lyrical ode to each continent. The only treasures he collects on his travels are the stories with which he fills his luggage as he packs up and moves on from each place. The artwork is wonderful – capturing the spirit of the adventures and the wide-eyed wonder of the young boy as he sits and listens to Grandpa.
This is a truly lovely picture book that enchants as much as it entertains – an ode to adventures real and imaginary and a gentle plea to encourage loved ones to bring to the surface life stories that long to be retold.
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