Ragged Bears ISBN 9781857144659 £6.99 A fun, yet worrying part of a visit to a safari park is driving through the monkey car enclosure and watching the monkeys descend and begin to dismantle windscreen wipers and aerials. Led by Banana Bill, the smart troop of monkeys have acquired a huge number of spare car parts,…
Wayland Books ISBN 9780750297707 £11.99 Emily Davison brings to life the world of the suffragettes and the fight of some women to get the vote. It is, in effect, a brief biography of Emily, presented in an engaging way. Language is accessible, there are big pictures on each page, and often questions that need researching…
Troika Books ISBN 9781909991361 £6.99 A simple KS1 picture book telling the story of two dog friends, Dubbin and Todd, one of whom happens to go skateboarding rather than just for a walk. Todd struggles to keep up with his freewheeling friend especially as he is lugging around a bone. The story takes a sinister…
Franklin Watts ISBN 9781445147246 £11.99 Based on the children’s television programmes, this series introduces young children to philosophy by exploring different emotions and ideas through a variety of amusing and familiar situations. Its aims are to promote and develop thinking skills and encourage children to make up their own minds. The subject of anger and…
Orchard Books ISBN 9781408336885 £11.99 This hardback book follows the adventures of Max the tiger in Paris, as he dreams of becoming a ballet dancer. The drawings are ‘childlike’ in quality and are evocative of the screen-printing style that Fabi likes using in her work. The colours are bold and vibrant and young children will…
Frances Lincoln ISBN 9781847808066 £11.99 The rich, Rousseau-like cover invites us in to discover why – or if – there actually is a tiger in the garden at Nora’s Grandma’s house. Despite being surrounded by toys, Nora is bored, and when Grandma suggests she plays in the garden Nora doesn’t fall for the story that…
Orchard Books ISBN 9781408337288 £11.99 Jack finds life hard. His little brother, Super Stan, is amazing and admired by everyone. No one notices Jack. Whatever Jack does, Super Stan does something better that eclipses Jack’s achievement. Jack is tired of always being second best. Jack’s birthday treat is a trip to the zoo. He begs…
Hodder Children’s Books (www.hodderchildrens.co.uk) ISBN 9781444929317 £9.99 I absolutely loved this book – it is a laugh-out-loud story from page one and the writing and illustration are so wonderfully complimentary that the characters leap to life from the very beginning. It should become a children’s classic and is already much lauded by others well known…
Little, Brown Books for Younger Readers ISBN 9780349131924 £5.99 Polly and the Puffin is Jenny Colgan’s first children’s book, published alongside Summer at Little Beach Street Bakery which first introduced adult readers to the main characters of Polly and Neil the Puffin. Polly is our young protagonist and her father is a local fisherman at…