Posted on: 22/01/2013
Each month we choose some recently published books that we have bought to share with you. We try to stop at three, one for younger readers within the 0-7 range, one for older readers (7 and up, up, up) and this month, a counting book…
All August, the narrator of this book, wants to be is ordinary. Everything he does is ordinary: playing on his Xbox and riding his bike, but owing to a facial disfigurement, people don’t see him that way. They see him as extraordinary. Even his over-protective sister, Via. In fact, the only person who sees him as ordinary is himself.
Struggling to find acceptance, Auggie is about to start mainstream school for the first time, having been homeschooled (not for the way he looks, he tells us, but rather because of the surgery he’s had to have over the years). Will he find the acceptance he craves, or will children continue to run screaming in the playground?
As funny as it is touching, honest as it is astonishing, this will really support PSHCE discussions about the need for acceptance and belonging as well as dealing with difference. We predict wonderful things for this debut novel by R J Palacio.
Chu is a small panda with a sneeze that is anything but! When he sneezes, you don’t want to be in its path! This delightful picture book charts a whole day of adventures, starting at their local library (run by a giraffe and some very efficient mice!), which all provide an entertaining setting for Chu’s sneezing capers and the potential chaos that ensues. From the library (full of old book dust) to the diner, where pepper really gets up his nose, Chu desperately tries to hold back his sneeze, but it is the circus full of smelly animals that finally proves too much for the loveable panda…
Charming and funny, this picture book illustrated by Adam Rex and written by Literacy Tree favourite Neil Gaiman, is a must for younger readers. With its familiar, patterned language is great for encouraging prediction and early inference.
In his latest offering, Anthony Browne, shows off his startling attention to detail, vibrant palette and his ability to construct simple, beautiful narratives. In One Gorilla, Anthony Browne explores the family of primates from gorillas to gibbons, macaques to mandrills, moving through each, whilst highlighting their similarities and differences through his unique illustration style and finally, artfully reminding us of our own attachment to their extended family.
This really is no ordinary counting book and, as with all Anthony Browne books, it is the richness and depth of the illustrations that really help create something special. For those looking for a lively and engaging way to introduce younger readers to numbers and counting, it will be hard to top this for its simplicity, vividness and humour.
