Posted on: 05/03/2020
In addition to our usual reviews this month, we loved the wonderful selection of authors and titles included with this year’s World Book Day £1 books that we thought we'd review some of our favourites! So, here's a few of the twelve texts released this year, including offerings from Robin Stevens, Matt Haig, Onjali Q. Rauf and Matthre Syed. It's easy to spend your token wisely with our reviews all written by members of the Literacy Tree team!
As we experience a global climate emergency and our rainforest is being destroyed at a faster rate than ever, this short story by Matt Haig seems to have particular resonance. It is a further adventure in the Evie and the Animals story that was also illustrated by Emily Gravett. It continues the story of Evie, who has discovered she has the unique ability to communicate with animals. This talent has brought her a lot of fame (and instagram followers) which presents itself problematically at the start of the story – hence the decision to escape to the Amazon Rainforest. It’s here she meets some pink dolphins, a sloth named ‘Ah’, a jaguar and a professor who’s trying in vain to protect the needless destruction of the forest for the grazing of cattle. This is where Evie decides to use her powers (and fame) for good, deciding to interview the animals of the forest to find out what it’s really like for them – publishing it on the internet and eventually in newspapers around the world! This does nothing to quell her fame (ending up with more followers than Ed Sheeran!) but it does save the rainforest! We think any environmentally aware child in Years 2 or 3 who’s moving into reading illustrated novels would love this story and would definitely want to read more about Evie’s adventures - which is lucky, as there's a teaser at the end!
This is a book for anyone who has ever dreamed of being really good at something but found the process daunting, difficult or just plain dull! Taking the reader through his top tips for finding confidence and building resilience, Matthew Syed teaches us that the process of learning to perfect something takes time, commitment and probably quite a lot of failure along the way. Filled with inspiring quotes and the stories of plenty of famous faces - from Einstein to Beyonce - this text will be sure to inspire children to stick at it and not be afraid of the challenges ahead. We would recommend it to anyone looking for that bit of motivation to keep going, but especially to children in KS2 who will enjoy the fun, chatty style and just a little bit of technical science stuff!
This is the seventh quirky adventure from Laura Ellen Anderson’s series about the “plucky little” vampire Amelia Fang and her friends. This instalment sees Amelia faced with one of her most nightmarish challenges yet – weekend homework! She has to write a story for her teacher and has a terrible case of writer’s (or should we say vampire’s) block. To look for inspiration, she ventures with her, by now, all-too-familiar friends in tow to the Lost Limb’s library, called this because the books are tended to by the lost, severed limbs of mummy maids (the bandaged, groaning type). If this isn’t ghoulish enough for you, the plot thickens when she discovers many of the books have been eaten by story-hungry bookworms. How will she get her weekend homework finished in time? Chock-full of witty jokes, ghostly puns and loveable characters, this would be a great novella for a Year 2/3 child with a love of Halloween, movies like Hotel Transylvania and looking for a new addictive series of books to follow!
Much as we did last year, we’ve broken away from our norm of staying within fiction appropriate for the primary child and have reviewed the World Book Day offer for teens. Firmly within the realms of Young Adult fiction, ‘Split’ is a gripping insight into being a fifteen year old girl and all that that might entail in this day and age. Salma dreams of a career in acting but Tariq – a boy with whom she had just one date – behaves appallingly when he shares what appear to be compromising pictures of he and Salma. Whilst this is a shocking trope perhaps to us adults who (probably very fortunately) did not come of age when social media and digital technology was as it is now, it will be – sadly – familiar and important as subject-matter to our teens. But what’s worse for Selma is the rounding on her by her own religious community including the parents of her best friend. Salma is fiercely angry – and rightly so – at her school’s take on her reaction to this false claim that has now been widely shared through her school: here, classic ‘victim blaming’ comes to the fore.
Undeterred, Salma – now going behind her mother’s back – is determined to attend an audition and there ensues a day of as much tenderness as there is misadventure. Forming a bond with non-binary Billie, Salma realises the importance of being true to oneself and that she’s not the only one who feels othered at times. An extraordinarily gripping, brilliantly written novella where the significance of the title is only revealed in the final line.
The Day we Met the Queen is an exciting new story with the characters we loved in 2018’s multiple award-winning The Boy at The Back of the Class. This story gives us another sneaky peak into the lives of Alexa, Michael, Josie and Tom to see how life has changed since Ahmet entered their world from Syria. Like its predecessor this book is bold and funny and yet again, tackles issues of xenophobia head on. We love how this book shows that the Queen (and the police) would stand against the bullies in school and in life.
The brilliant thing about Dog Man by Dav Pilkey is the way it has been written as if it is a child’s own comic creation, from the simple, yet brilliantly-effective illustrated characters, the child-like handwritten captions and even some of the phonetic spelling! This gives it such a charm and appeal that we think younger readers, especially those in Key Stage 1, will really love! Dog Man is the heroic story, told over three separate tales, of George and Harold’s comic creation created from the severed head of a police dog and the body of a police officer! As they set off on a number of adventures, from capturing criminal cats in The Wrath of Petey or to saving the world from a troupe of zombie cops in The Tongue of Justice, children of all ages will love the characters and the hilarious escapades the get themselves wound up in! This choice is certainly laugh-out-loud all the way!
The Case of the Drowned Pearl is the latest mini-installment of the Murder Most Unladylike series – one of the most popular sets of books published in the last few years for 9-12s, showing that old-fashioned crime and murder-mystery is still a popular genre – with all ages! In this special edition adventure, the two young detectives, Hazel and Daisy investigate the death of famous Olympic swimmer, Antonia Braithwaite. We love this series for its wit and characterisation; and we all want to be friends with the smart-thinking detective duo!
Although this is from last year's selection, we know there are many copies of this one still available, so we thought we'd sneak it in! Cadpig the Dalmatian pup is playing hide and seek with her siblings in the park but she hasn’t heeded Missis and Pongo’s warning that Cruella de Vil might be in the vicinity. Off Cadpig runs to hide but too far perhaps as not one of the other pups finds her and she realises – to her dismay – that she’s lost! And then cue Cruella... rescue comes in the form of two other canine allies and a box of face paints. They say that a leopard cannot change its spots but perhaps a Dalmatian can, at least temporarily! A lovely incarnation of the Hundred and One Dalmations stories with gorgeous illustrations and even a cockney twist: at one point, one of the characters exclaims, ‘Blimey!’ A great choice for children in Reception or year 1.
Posted in: Literature Review
