Review: Lightning Mary by Anthea Simmons

This new biography of Mary Anning is perfectly pitched for the Middle Grade market, a dramatic retelling of the life story of an extraordinary girl fighting to become a scientist in an age where the social mores were against her.

The opening line of the prologue sets the tone:

“Tisn’t everybody gets struck by lightning and lives to tell the tale.”

From this moment the reader is enraptured by the engaging narrator (the story is written as a first person narrative) and her tale of battling against her poverty stricken, lower class background to prove her sparky intelligence.

This version of Mary Anning’s life gives young readers an excellent insight into the life of a poor, female member of the lower classes and the way in which she contributed a great deal to science but received no acknowledgment for her discoveries during her lifetime. The author captures the disappointment and frustration that her place in society denies Mary the chance to join the new scientific societies that were being established. It also touches on the friction between the scientific discoveries and the religious authorities, as evidence emerged that living creatures had evolved rather than been created in their current forms. The pencil illustrations by James Weston Lewis fit perfectly with the description of the drawings made of Mary’s “curiosities” by her friend Henry De la Beche.

A great book to inspire children aged 9+ to be determined in the face of difficulties and to understand the scientific upheavals taking place during the nineteenth century.

Review: Magical Kingdom of Birds The Snow Goose byAnne Booth

This is a wonderfully gentle story, perfect for children from the age of six who love magical, fairy adventures and have an interest in the natural world.

Firstly, the book itself is irresistible with its seasonably scarlet cover featuring the titular snow goose, embellished with just the right amount of glitter to appeal to its intended readership. The 117 pages are beautifully illustrated by Rosie Butcher, which together with the font size make this book ideal for newly confident readers.

The story begins with Maya enjoying the company of her big sister Lauren, who has newly arrived home from university. They are preparing for Christmas, enjoying building a snow goose in the fresh snowfall and looking forward to a visit from two of Lauren’s university friends. When they go inside to warm up, Maya notices that the “Magical Kingdom of Birds” her special colouring book is open in her bedroom, with a picture of a snow goose waiting to be coloured.

Only Maya is aware that this book, inherited from her mother, transports her to the Magical Kingdom of Birds as she colours the pictures. Once there she helps Princess Willow and a talking magpie named Patch to foil the wicked plans of Willow’s uncle, Lord Astor. This time Maya finds herself sitting beside a lake, in a wintry landscape, which is covered with magnificent white and blue geese. Princess Willow appears and explains to Maya that the geese are waiting for the Silver Snow Goose to arrive, bringing the first snows of winter, and then leading the Winter Festival before guiding the flock in their migration south. However, it appears that Lord Astor has kidnapped the Silver Snow Goose and it will take a great act of bravery to rescue him and ensure that the noisy gaggle of geese are safely lead to their winter feeding grounds.

As the adventure unfolds, the courage and teamwork of the geese is explored and an incredible amount of knowledge about these awesome birds is provided quite seamlessly as a natural part of the story. The loyalty and community spirit of the birds is inspirational to Maya and the lesson “to find your own way and listen to your heart” is presented in a non-preachy way. I loved the fact that Maya’s physical disability does not prevent her showing courage and contributing her skills and ingenuity to the rescue mission.

At the end of the book there is a factual section presenting a great amount of interesting information about snow geese; this is followed by an introductory chapter to another Magical Kingdom of Birds adventure, The Silent Songbirds.

I thoroughly enjoyed this delightful story and highly recommend it to readers of 6+.

With thanks to OUP Children’s Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review: The Boy with the Butterfly Mind by Victoria Williamson

This new book from Victoria Williamson brims over with emotion as it flits between the alternate voices of Elin and Jamie, two very different children who are pulled together into a new blended family.

Elin is an eleven year-old, struggling to come to terms with her parents’ broken marriage and hoping that if she lives up to her dad’s “ perfect princess” label he will return to the family. When her dad left she felt “ like he’d taken my wings and the blue summer sky with him.” She clings to her precious memories of life in their previous fairy tale home and bottles up her anger at her new circumstances, only revealing how she truly feels in the fantasy story that she adds to during her lonely, friendless break times at school.

Meanwhile, Jamie is ignored by his mum’s new boyfriend Chris, but hopes that when the three of them move to California the American doctors will be able to fix his broken brain. He wants an alternative reality to his current one of being “the boy who can’t concentrate for more than half a second before his mind’s fluttering off somewhere else like a butterfly.”

When Jamie’s mum delivers the devastating news that Chris does not want him to accompany them to America, but instead he is to move in with his Dad’s new girlfriend and her daughter in Glasgow, Jamie’s violent and destructive reaction is absolutely heart-wrenching. His reflections on his anger-management issues show his struggles and his self-awareness at the same time as his utter inability to control his behaviour when the chaos in his brain becomes unbearable.

Elin is furious at this messy arrival into her home and even more enraged when Jamie joins her class at school, causing disruption to the one area where she feels in control. She labels him “the enemy” and decides that she will have to get rid of him and his dad Paul if she is to have any hope of getting her own dad back to live “happily ever after with just me and Mum.”

The clever story structure lets you inside the minds of the two young protagonists, and seeing the tale play out through their perceived realities gives the reader an incredible empathy with the contrasting viewpoints. Elin is a difficult character to warm to, her dismissiveness of kind, gentle Paige, her absolute refusal to meet her Dad’s new daughter or girlfriend and her desire to put her fairytale family back together all begin to make sense when seen through the prism of her desolation at losing her father. Meanwhile Jamie is a hugely sympathetic character with a kind heart and a continual struggle with ADHD. In one incredibly moving paragraph he sums up his reality in these words:

“It’s funny how just four letters can mean the difference between being normal and being the kind of monster whose own mother moves to a different country to get away from him.”

The extreme and deceitful measures that Elin takes to remove Jamie from her home appear to be unforgivable, but the reader has to take Jaimie’s big-hearted lead and believe that redemption is possible.

In addition to the sensitively written characters of Jamie and Elin, I think that the character of Jamie’s dad Paul is wonderfully realised especially as kind, sensitive Dads are largely missing from MG fiction. Right from the start it is clear that he goes out of his way to respect Elin’s space and to show her understanding despite her coldness towards him, and his devotion to helping his son is all-encompassing. The quietly diplomatic Paige, a lonely character who blossoms as her friendship with Jamie develops is another key element in this story.

I loved the book’s structure, progressing through the different stages of a butterfly’s development and the way that this device was included in the children’s science project. The emotional journey of Elin and Jamie’s metamorphosis into a new blended family is handled with such sensitivity by Victoria Williamson that it teaches us all a valuable lesson in empathy – both for children living with ADHD and those suffering emotionally following divorce. This is one of those books that I know will stay in my heart long after I finished reading it.

I absolutely recommend this book to everyone of age 10+, and I cannot wait to see what Victoria Williamson writes next.

It is heart-warming to see that 20% of the author royalties are being donated to Children 1st, a Scottish charity helping families and children.

If you love this book, make sure you read The Fox Girl and the White Gazelle by the same author.

Review: Seek and Find Cities by Kate Baker

This colourful, informative book is perfect for opening up the world to primary school-aged children. The “blurb” describes it as “The ultimate urban treasure hunt” which is an excellent description. Cat and her friend Bird, set off on a whistle stop tour of celebrations, sights and marketplaces around the world, with each full-colour double-page spread featuring a different city. Starting with an ice-rink in a Toronto city square, the variety in this book includes Carnival in Rio de Janeiro; a Running Festival in Sydney; The Day of the Dead in Mexico City; and marketplaces in Marrakesh, Nairobi and Moscow.

As you visit each scene there is a list of objects to spot on the busy, bright, boldly illustrated pages, which encourages careful observation from the reader. This will appeal to fans of “Where’s Wally” with the added appeal in this book of a short, factual description of each object. I shared this book with a Key Stage 1 child during library time and he was utterly engrossed throughout a 20 minute session and asked to borrow it from the library immediately. It was very clear that the task of seeking the objects was totally engaging. At the end of the book there are pages of additional facts on flags, clothes, animals, landmarks, food and souvenirs from the featured countries. A perfectly balanced combination of child-friendly text from Kate Baker and visually arresting illustrations by Sandra de la Prada make this an excellent addition to any school or home library.

Thank you to Toppsta and Lonely Planet Kids for my copy of this super book, which is already a big hit in the school library!

Review: Eco Rangers by Candice Lemon-Scott

Eco Rangers is a new adventure series with an ecological theme, aimed at the MG market, written by Australian author Candice Lemon-Scott.

Book 1: Eco Rangers Pelican in Peril

12-year-old Ebony and her best friend Jay live next door to each other in a small seaside town – and yes, there is a map at the start of the book, which always scores brownie points from me! On an everyday visit down to the beach Ebony spots a “black, feathered mound” at the base of the pontoon, closer inspection reveals a pelican covered in smelly, black gloop. The children try to help the pelican out of the water, with comically wet consequences for Jay, and eventually Ebony manages to gain the confidence of the distressed bird sufficiently to lift it into the milk crate on the back of Jay’s bike.

After pedalling to the conservation centre the children take the pelican, named Poseidon by Ebony, to the vets in the Wildlife Hospital (Dr Battacharjee – known as Dr Bat, and Dr Tan). This earns them the sobriquet “Eco Rangers” and starts their adventure as Ebony decides to investigate whether the oil spill from a cruise ship in the harbour is accidental or more sinister. Are the slimy manager of the cruise ship and his crew really taking their oil waste to the correct disposal facility? It is up to the intrepid Eco Rangers to find out!

This is a fantastic book for newly confident readers to read alone, a perfect length at 102 pages of easily-readable font, alternatively it would make an excellent bedtime story. The action is fast-paced, driven along in short chapters, and contains just the right degree of peril for an audience aged 6+. The friendship between Ebony and Jay is utterly believable; Ebony’s determination and bravery is matched by Jay’s loyalty to his best friend and his endearing tendency to think about food at every opportunity. The ecological message that underlies the story shines through the entertaining plot and is a great start to a discussion of these issues with a young child.

Book 2: Eco Rangers Microbat Mayhem

The second book in the Eco Rangers series starts with Ebony and Jay enjoying their reward, from the Wildlife Hospital staff, of a free pass to Super World theme park. However, it doesn’t take long before they are pulled into another ecological investigation and adventure after discovering two baby microbats abandoned on the grass outside the derelict Wild Jungle Ride which is due for demolition.

In this adventure, Jay and Ebony are up against a devious and greedy theme park manager in their fight to save the microbat colony. The manager of the theme park, Ms Pitts, does not take kindly to Dr Bat and Dr Tan telling her that she will have to delay demolition while the bat colony is rescued and re-homed. She “doesn’t look like someone who loved rides, or kids.” It soon transpires that she doesn’t like protected wildlife species either, especially if their roosting site might delay her plans to cash in on the summer tourist season with a huge new roller coaster ride! Will Ebony and Jay be able to foil her machinations and save the colony before the bulldozers roll in? Read this exciting adventure to find out!

Again, this is a perfect book for Key Stage 1 readers who are ready to progress to early chapter books. It is printed in a thoughtful size for small hands and I am particularly impressed that it has been published on slightly buff-coloured paper which is especially helpful for children with certain reading difficulties.

I am very grateful to New Frontier Publishing for sending me review copies of these books in exchange for an honest review.

For children who enjoy the combination of adventure with an ecological theme demonstrated by the Eco Rangers stories, I highly recommend, as next steps, the Kat Wolfe Investigates series (for age 8+) and the Carl Hiaasen children’s books, Hoot, Flush, Scat and Squirm (for 10/11+)

Review: The Nature Girls by Aki

I picked up this book as the cover transported me back to one of my favourite childhood series, the Madeline books, with their iconic description of “little girls in two straight lines.” This time the girls are dressed in pith helmets and yellow safari suits and they travel further afield, but the book has exactly the same warmth and feel-good factor.

The Nature Girls tell the tale of their explorations in rhyming sentences, as they leave their school building with rucksacks packed ready for their adventures. Starting on a tropical beach they dive beneath the ocean to meet a pod of dolphins and numerous fish. Onward into the jungle they trek to look at birds, followed by expeditions to the desert, the savannah, the Arctic and finally a great forest.

Every page is illustrated in a bright, bold style, with only two rhyming sentences which are printed with imaginative font effects. The writer and illustrator Aki has included a wealth of detail in the illustrations which will reward repeated viewing. The final pages explain, in simple and straightforward terms, the biomes featured throughout the book.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, godparents and librarians to share with pre-school and Key Stage 1 children. The sixteen Nature Girls will inspire an early interest in the natural world and all of its diversity. I would have loved to read this to my own children had it been available when they were little!

Review: The Somerset Tsunami by Emma Carroll

A hauntingly atmospheric tale set on the North Somerset coast in 1616, this book evokes a creeping sensation of foreboding as we follow Fortune Sharpe from her home in the hamlet of Fair Maidens Lane to the house of a rich merchant further up the coastline of the Bristol Channel.

It is the reign of King James, and his men are prowling the Somerset countryside , seeking to grab productive land and arresting midwives and other women skilled in the art of healing with herbs on suspicion of witchcraft. Fortune has to leave her home in a hurry when she is spotted rowing a boat on the Sabbath; her mother sends her away, disguised as a boy, to be hired as a servant at the market in Bridgwater. The only item that she takes from home is a strange package, which is taken from her at the market by a mysterious stranger.

Fortune finds herself hired as the personal servant to Ellis Spicer, the heir to a merchant who has made his fortune from the sugar trade. In Berrow Hall, a house of secrets, Fortune must adapt to a life of subterfuge, helping her new master hide his ambition (to become a performer) from his bullying father who will only countenance him taking over the family business. The glittering house is suffused with sadness, after losing his wife during childbirth, Mr Spicer loathes women and wants nothing to do with his baby daughter Bea who is left in the care of her siblings and servants. He and the sadistic barber- dentist, Dr Blood have a plan to hunt “witches” and gain favour from the King, hoping to win naval protection for their trading ships..

After a night of celebrations for Twelfth Night, Ellis disappears, and whilst searching for him, Fortune and Susannah start to sense “ an ice-cold dread that something very terrible was about to happen.”

From this moment the plot gains a momentum that will knock you off your feet and leave you breathless until the final pages, when you can at last come up for air!

As always, Emma Carroll effortlessly weaves a tale from real historical facts, a tangible sense of place and her supreme talent for character creation. The venal Dr Blood is a character to freeze the contents of your veins! The story is suffused with an underlying message of accepting everyone’s differences and the dangers of looking for scapegoats when things go wrong. There is a fine cast of strong female characters, standing up for their rights against the patriarchy of the age, but I also loved the inclusion of a great male role model in Fortune’s brother Jem, whose love for his sister is bravely demonstrated.

A highly recommended read for upper Key Stage 2 children (10+).

Review: Pages & Co, Books 1 and 2 by Anna James

The receipt of a review copy of the second Pages & Co book made me realise that I had neglected to review the brilliant first book in the series, so here’s a double review post…

Pages & Co 1: Tilly and the BookWanderers

If, like me, you love getting lost in a good book, this is the perfect read.

Matilda (Tilly) Pages has lived her 11 years in the bookshop owned by her grandparents, Elsie and Archie, who have taken care of her since her mother disappeared when she was a baby. Tilly is struggling to fit into friendship groups at secondary school and wishes that real-life relationships were as straightforward to navigate as those she finds in books; a trait that I’m sure many readers will recognise. Rather than hanging out with a group of gossiping and giggling girls, Tilly would rather find a comfortable sofa in a secluded corner of the, marvellously imagined, Pages & Co bookshop and seek solace in the company of literary creations.

Her bookish traits are clearly inherited from her family and as the story progresses Tilly realises that the three Pages are all being visited in the shop by their favourite characters from books. The vivacious Lizzie Bennett, who apparently bears a striking resemblance to Tilly’s absent mother; Sherlock Holmes who is allowed to smoke his pipe in the shop, and Alice (from Wonderland) as well as “Anne-with-an-e” from Green Gables.

When Oskar, a classmate who lives in the bakery across the road, gets dragged off to Avonlea with Tilly and Anne, Grandad realises that it is time to take action. He accompanies Tilly and Oskar to the Underlibrary of the British Library, where the Librarian, the brilliantly named Amelia Whisper begins to explain bookwandering!

I won’t give any plot spoilers, but this magical adventure encapsulates everything that a book lover dreams of. I am sure that I am not the only bookworm who longs for the ability to read so deeply that the walls between fiction and reality are broken down, allowing interaction with favourite characters.

I adored the description of the stomach-lurching sensation the bookwanderers experience as they are pulled into books; I think I might have experienced it myself with the re-telling of the Ladybird Peter and Jane books which transported me a long, long way back in time to revisit my 5 year-old self! A glorious celebration of the joy of books and reading, this really is an essential addition to every school library.

Pages & Co 2: Tilly and the Lost Fairy Tales

This is the second in the Pages & Co adventures and the story again begins in the north London bookshop, owned by Tilly’s grandparents. Christmas is approaching, and with it a sense of apprehension as Tilly worries about her mother and the strange turn of events at the Underlibrary where Amelia Whisper has been fired, only to be replaced as Librarian by the slippery character of Melville Underwood. Melville has mysteriously reappeared from the realm of fairy tales into which he wandered many years earlier, both Archie and Elsie Pages, along with Amelia Whisper, clearly distrust his explanation of his lost years and his lost sister. For any adults reading this book aloud, the political machinations at the Underlibrary might look uncomfortably familiar! The author brilliantly manipulates the mood from apprehension to impending doom.

As the mood in London darkens, Tilly and her best friend Oskar are due to travel to Paris to stay with Oskar’s father. Before they leave London they are warned by the adults not to try any book wandering while they are away, and especially not to travel into any fairy tales which are wild and unpredictable places! Will they obey the adults, or will Tilly’s curiosity and Oskar’s loyalty to her mean that they take matters into their own hands and explore the “structural discord within fairytales”? You will have to read this brilliantly imagined tale, to find out!

The exuberant writing by Anna James in these books swept me into the stories and fully captured my imagination. Accompanying the brilliance of the text, the illustrations by Paola Escobar, on the covers and throughout the book, and the playful use of font effects make these books visually as well as imaginatively arresting.

Highly recommended for all bookworms of 10+

With thanks to Toppsta.com and HarperCollins Children’s Books for my review copy of Tilly and the Lost Fairy Tales, which is now in the hands of a library borrower!

Hey Warrior and Hey Awesome by Karen Young

In an age where anxiety seems to be affecting young people at an alarming rate these two books are a welcome addition to any school library, or collection of books for pastoral care purposes. The author, Karen Young began her career as a psychologist and has clearly put that training to great effect in producing these titles to explain anxiety and empower a young audience.

In a gentle and accessible manner these books help children to identify stress and understand that anxiety is something which can happen to anyone, whether they are an astronaut, a lion-tamer or a child! I love the fact that the author respects her readers to the degree that she explains the workings of the amygdala, presenting it as the “warrior” part of the brain which is designed to protect us from any threats. She uses brilliantly child-friendly comparisons, for example, explaining that sometimes the amygdala can set off false alarms, like a smoke detector going off when the toast is just a little overdone! Clearly detailed descriptions of the physiological changes caused by the released stress hormones are discussed, again with language and imagery that children can understand.

The second half of the books present simple strategies for dealing with attacks of anxiety, taking back control of the brain and rebuilding self-esteem. In essence Hey Warrior helps guide children to embrace their inner warrior, while Hey Awesome encourages the belief that the active imagination which causes anxiety can be harnessed to develop the individual’s creativity.

The beautiful watercolour illustrations, in muted tones, by Norvile Dovidonyte not only reinforce the text, but embody the soothing, calming sentiments of the books. I think these titles will be a great asset to those adults working in a pastoral role with primary school children and are likely to be most useful when adult and child read and discuss them together.

Karen Young’s website www.heysigmund.com is packed with resources and advice on the subject of anxiety.

I am most grateful to Little Steps Publishing for sending me copies of Hey Awesome and Hey Warrior in exchange for an honest review.

STEM Picture Books with Websites

Recently I have received a number of stunning picture books which are accompanied by interactive websites, I will review two of them in this post.

Firstly, Engibear’s Dream by Andrew King, illustrated by Benjamin Johnston.

A fabulous rhyming story designed to get primary school aged children interested in STEM. Engibear needs to make time to pursue his work and his dreams, and is determined to build a robot to take on some of his workload. However, construction does not go entirely to his beautifully-drawn plans and he finds that he has to learn from mistakes and iterate many times to build his robot.

The astonishing technical detail in the illustrations by Benjamin Johnston will have young engineers poring over the blueprints, and the logical presentation of the improvements presents a great model for progression from initial idea to finished product, in any field.

The rewards of persistence are clear at the end of the book, which is a great example to children to persevere with their dreams. The writer and illustrator have engineered a wonderful book with a perfect mix of colourful and technical drawings, humour, a lovable protagonist and a tool-box-full of educational content to excite children about the marvels of STEM.

There is an accompanying website, with construction simulations and other games here: www.engibears.com

My second book for this post is Goodnight Starry written by D’Arcy Lewis and illustrated by Andrew McIntosh.

A glossy, paperback, bedtime story which introduces young readers to the wonder of the planets and stars. The text has rhyme and rhythm and the same soothing quality for bedtime as such classics as Goodnight Moon. In this lovely, gentle storybook, published in the year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landings, the reader wishes each of the planets in our solar system goodnight. The illustrations by Andrew McIntosh are in a blue and yellow palette, with imaginative and charming representations of the planets accompanied by an interesting fact about each one. An excellent introduction to our closest celestial neighbours for very young children.

The team who created this book have put together a website which you can find here www.goodnightstarry.com The resources and links here have enough fascinating and educational content to be used throughout primary school as an excellent teaching resource.

I am most grateful to the team at Little Steps Publishing for sending me review copies of these delightful, educational books.