Difference between revisions of "Newest Children's Non-Fiction Reviews"

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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Robyn Swift and Sara Lynn Cramb
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|isbn=1839948493
|title=National Trust: Complete Night Explorer's Kit
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|title=A World of Dogs
|rating=4
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|author=Carlie Sorosiak and Luisa Uribe
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|rating=5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=There is a misfortune to the modern world, in that we have killed off a common hobby from when I was a ladNowadays  light pollution is so awful it's certainly not uncommon for people to hardly see any of the stars and to get to learn the constellations, and while I only went out to go 'meteor hunting', it's patently obvious that the chance to lie down and stargaze is a dying oneElsewhere the nocturnal youth can struggle to have much opportunity to explore the night-time nature as this book suggests – it begins with setting up a tent in your back garden, and too many don't even get that chance, for want of possession of oneYes, if this book is only read once in the daytime and never referred to again, due to lack of opportunity, it really will be a crying shame.
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|summary=In the interests of full disclosure, I must tell you that I'm a sucker for dogsIn nearly eight decades, I've never met one I didn't trust and I've loved most of them.  I wish I felt the same about human beings.  So, any book about dogs, I'm going to sit down and devourThen I'm going to go back and read it properly.  And so it was with ''A World of Dogs'', with ninety-six pages devoted entirely to my four-legged friendsAuthor Carlie Sorosiak found herself the accidental owner of an American Dingo - she's learned quite a lot about dogs since then.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857638777</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Goldie Hawk and Rachael Saunders
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|isbn=1529507987
|title=National Trust: Go Wild in the Woods
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|title=The Repair Shop Craft Book
|rating=4
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|author=Walker Books and Sonia Albert (Illustrator)
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=I am a man who likes his creature comfortsAlways have been, always will – and creature comforts don't involve snuggling down in a sleeping bag, however comfortable, to watch creatures, as far as I'm concernedLuckily, however, many people are of another bent entirely – they find no problem in getting out and about, taking whatever weather and wildlife can throw at them, and spending time out of doors for the hell of itThis book is the first stage to that, and needs to be read in full before you step out your front doorAnd even if it's your ''only'' stage, it will still be pleasantly educational…
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|summary=I love ''The Repair Shop''It's my go-to programme when I want to be cheered up.  After a hard day, there's nothing better than watching experts repair treasured items without ever mentioning what they're worthYou see, the value is in what these possessions are worth to the people who own them and the memories they holdNo expense appears to be spared and the experts spend as much time and effort as is required to achieve the desired resultRegular viewers know the experts and they're all brilliant at explaining what it is they're doing.  But how did they start?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085763917X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Giles Chapman and Us Now
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|isbn=024162343X
|title=The Story of the Car
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|title=Stolen History
|rating=4.5
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|author=Sathnam Sanghera
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
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|rating=5
|summary=Dinosaurs… farm machinery… science fiction… trains… cars.  I can't think of many other subjects that inspired the young me to have a full non-fiction book about them on my juvenile shelves.  Most of course I lost interest in with maturity.  But the young child these days won't be much different, for good or bad, and so they will like as not want a book about broom-brooms for the shelf.  And this is pretty much the go-to volume for such an interest.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1526360268</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Libby Walden
 
|title=In Focus: Cities
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=The [[In Focus: 101 Close Ups, Cross-Sections and Cutaways by Libby Walden|first book in this series]] promised 101 close-ups, cross sections and/or cutways, but here we're restricted to just tenWhyBecause the subject matters are so much bigger – one is home to 37 million people, of all thingsYes, we're talking cities, and while this book tries to follow the previous – different artist every page, an exclusive inside look within the volume, and a self-deceiving page count – we are definitely in new territory.  We're seeking the trivial, the geographical and the cultural, all so that the inquisitive young student can find out the variety to be had in the world's metropolises.
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|summary=I was the bad company other people got into at school.  I was disruptive in religious education classes because I disputed the existence of a 'god'.  Where was the proofIn history lessons, it was probably worse stillNot too long after the end of WWII, I didn't so much want to learn about the British army's successes (and occasional failures, but we didn't dwell on those) in what came to be called 'the colonies' as want to dispute what right the army had to be there in the first place.  Looking back, I still believe I was right - but I regret that I lacked the maturity to approach 'the problem' politely. I wish I'd had Sathnam Sanghera's ''Stolen History''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848575912</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Mojang AB
 
|title= Minecraft Guide to Creative: An Official Minecraft Book From Mojang
 
|rating= 3.5
 
|genre= Children's Non-Fiction
 
|summary= Minecraft isn't just about surviving Creeper attacks or crafting enough torches to stop the Skeletons from spawning near your respawn point. Alongside the survival mode there is also the Creative side. This book explores what you can do when you aren't having to make everything from scratch.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405285982</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Mojang AB
 
|title= Minecraft Guide to Exploration: An official Minecraft book from Mojang
 
|rating= 5
 
|genre= Children's Non-Fiction
 
|summary= Ever wondered how on Earth to get started with this 'ere Minecraft malarkey? Look no further as this is the guide for you!
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405285974</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Jeremy Dronfield and David Ziggy Greene
|author=Geraldo Valerio
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|title=Fritz and Kurt
|title=My Book of Birds
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction 
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=I never really caught the bird-watching habit, even with the opportunity of growing up on the edge of a village in the middle of nowhereIt was in the family, too, but I resigned myself to never seeing much that was spectacular, and once you've seen one blackbird you've seen them all, was my thinkingIf I'd had this book as a youngster, who knows – I may have come out of it differently, having been shown the diversity of the bird world in snippets of text, and some quite unusual illustrations…
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|summary=We start with the pair of brothers Fritz and Kurt, and their muckers, doing things any Jewish lad in 1930s Vienna would want to do – kicking things around the empty market place, helping the neighbours, being dutiful when it comes to the synagogue choir and at a vocational school.  Kurt has to make sure the lamps are turned on at their very Orthodox neighbours' each Friday night – the Sabbath preventing them for using anything nearly as mechanical and workmanlike as a light switch.  But this is the time just before the Austrian leader is going to cave to Hitler's will, and instead of having a national vote to keep the Nazis out, invite them in with open arms.  ''Kristallnacht'' happened in Vienna just as much as in Germany, as did all the round-ups of JewsThese in their turn leave the younger Kurt at home with his mother and sisters anxious to hear word of an evacuation to Britain or the US, while Fritz and his father are, unknown initially to each other, packed off on the same train to Buchenwald and the stone quarry thereAnd us wondering how the titular event for the adult variant of all this could come about…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1526360004</amazonuk>
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|isbn=024156574X
 
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}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Robert Hansen
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|isbn=1913750353
|title= Cool Coding: filled with fantastic facts for kids of all ages
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|title=Britannica's Word of the Day
|rating= 3
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|author=Patrick Kelly, Renee Kelly and Sue Macy
|genre= Children's Non-Fiction
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|rating=5
|summary= An introduction to coding aimed at ages 10 and upwards. This book is filled with enthusiasm, information, fun and… unfortunately it just falls flat of its goals.
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|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843653230</amazonuk>
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|summary=''Britannica's Word of the Day'' has a sub-title: ''366 Elevating Utterances to Stretch Your Cranium and Tickle Your Humerus'' which probably tells you all that you need to know about this brilliant book.   It starts on January 1st with ''Razzmatazz'', tells you how to pronounce it (''raz-muh-TAZ''), gives you a definition and then includes the word in a sentence so that you know how it should be used.  You also get an engaging and frequently amusing illustration too. I don't think I've ever encountered a word which uses the letter Z four times before!
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Dan Farrell and Donna Bamford
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|isbn=0711266204
|title=The Movie Making Book
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|title=The Secret Life of Birds
|rating=4
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|author=Moira Butterfield and Vivian Mineker (illustrator)
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=In my youth we had to make do with a camcorder that would fit a mini-tape that you recorded ontoThis mini-tape would then slip into a casing that could be watched on your VHS (imagine something like a DVD player, but with awful fidelity)In all, making a film was a big old faff, but trying to do anything fancy was almost impossibleThere is no longer this excuse for kids today with their camera enabled smart devices, but just because they can do something does not mean they will be any good.  A guide for movie making would certainly help! 
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|summary=I have recently discovered a great pleasure: I sit and watch the vast numbers of birds which visit our garden on a daily basis.  An hour can pass without my noticingI've established which species feed from the ground, which pop to the feeders for a quick snatch of some food and who settles in for a good munch but I wish I was more knowledgeableIt would have been wonderful if, as a child, I'd had access to a book such as ''The Secret Life of Birds''So – what is it?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0711238871</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Tim Hopgood
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|isbn=0192779230
|title=Doodle Dogs: Best in Show
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|title=Very Short Introductions for Curious Young Minds: The Invisible World of Germs
|rating=4.5
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|author=Isabel Thomas
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=''Doodle Dogs'' introduces a wide variety of artistic styles through the idea of a dog show!  Tim Hopgood shows us different kinds of dogs, all of which can be created very easily, and you soon find that doodling a dog can be a lot more detailed, and interesting, than you perhaps previously appreciated!
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|summary='Germs' seems to have become a catch-all word to cover anything unpleasant which has the potential to make you ill.  In the first book in what looks to be a very promising new series, OUP and Isabel Thomas have provided a clear and accessible introduction to the world of germs.  We get an informed look at how people originally thought about diseases and what they thought caused them and how the thinking has developed over time.  The vocabulary can be confusing but Thomas gives a regular box headed 'speak like a scientist' which explains some of the trickiest concepts and you'll soon be familiar with bacteria, fungi, protists and viruses – and how we should protect ourselves.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1509820817</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Claudia Boldt and Eleanor Meredith
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|isbn=1800464495
|title=Think and Make Like an Artist
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|title= 100 Ways in 100 Days to Teach Your Baby Maths: Support All Areas of Your Baby’s Development by Nurturing a Love of Maths
 +
|author=Emma Smith
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Having been banned from the Tate Modern by my partner for making too many snarky remarks, I am not sure that I ever want to think or make like an artist.  My unartistic brain is unable to comprehend most art. I see a rain dirty valley, but the artists sells you BrigadoonA lot of what makes art great is knowing what it is meant to represent; even I have been swayed on occasion once I have been informedTherefore, to teach art appreciation to a young audience will hold them in good stead and could also be great fun.
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|summary=''Babies seem to be born with an amazing number sense: understanding shapes in the womb, being aware of quantities at seven hours old, assessing probability at six months old, and comprehending addition and subtraction at nine months old.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0500650985</amazonuk>
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Did you know this? I didn't! How about:
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''Maths ability on entry to school is a strong predictor of later achievement, double that of literacy skills.''
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I didn't know this either! I think most parents are aware that giving your children a good start in literacy - reading stories, teaching pen grips, singing rhymes - gives children a solid foundation when they start school. But do we think the same way about maths, beyond counting? I don't think we do, in part because so many of us are afraid of maths. But why are we? Most of us use maths in daily life without realising and it follows that giving our children a similar pre-school grounding will be just as beneficial.
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{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=1406395404
 +
|title=The Awesome Power of Sleep: How Sleep Super-Charges Your Teenage Brain
 +
|author=Nicola Morgan
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Teens
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|summary=2020 has been a strange year: I doubt anyone would argue with that statement.  Lots of our routines have been completely dismantled and for some teenagers this will have brought about sleep problems.  Some teens will dismiss this as irrelevant ('who needs sleep? - I've got loads to be doing) and others will worry unnecessarily.  Most people, from children to adults will have the odd bad night but worrying about your lack of sleep is only likely to make it worse.  And there's also the fact that for far too long, lack of sleep has been lauded as a virtue and sleep made to seem like lazinessBeing up early, working late has been praised and the ability to survive on little sleep has almost become something to put on your CV.
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=DK
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|isbn=1849767343
|title=Children's Illustrated Thesaurus
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|title=Count on Me
 +
|author=Miguel Tanco
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=One of the most valuable literary skills which children can learn is how to use reference booksAs a child every question which I began with ''how do you spell...?'' would be answered with ''EXACTLY as it says in the dictionary''.  This was fine, but the family's Collins Little Gem Dictionary didn't encourage exploration, not least because the font was small and difficult to readFortunately those times have now changed and reference book for children are now much more invitingNot every book comes with a set of instructions but it's worth studying the ''How to...'' section, not least because similar systems are used in other reference books.
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|summary=The title and format of this book might lead you to think that it's either about responsibility - or it's a basic 1-2-3 book for those just starting out on the numbers journey.  It isn't: it's a hymn of praise to mathsIt's about why maths is so wonderful and how you meet it in everyday life.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241286972</amazonuk>
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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1849767009
 +
|title=It Isn't Rude to be Nude
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|author=Rosie Haine
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|rating=5
 +
|genre=For Sharing
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|summary=This could have been one of those books which 'preaches to the choir': the only people who'll buy it are the people who know that nudity is OK and the ones who ''know'' that it's shameful will avoid it like they avoid the hot-and-bothered person in the supermarket who is coughing fit to bustBut... Rosie Haines makes it into something so much more than a book about not wearing clothesIt's a celebration of bodies: bodies large and small and of every possible hue.  Bodies with disabilities and markings.  They're fine.  In fact, they're wonderful.
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1776572858
 +
|title=How Do You Make a Baby?
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|author=Anna Fiske and Don Bartlett (translator)
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|rating=5
 +
|genre=Home and Family
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|summary=It's more than sixty years since I asked how babies were made.  My mother was deeply embarrassed and told me that she'd get me a book about it.  A couple of days later I was handed a pamphlet (which delivered nothing more than the basics, in clinical language which had never been used in our house before)  and I was told that it wouldn't be discussed any further as it ''wasn't something which nice people talked about''. I ''knew'' more, but was little ''wiser''.  Thankfully, times have changed.
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Dorling Kindersley
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|isbn=1526362759
|title=First Science Encyclopedia
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|title=Dosh: How to Earn It, Save It, Spend It, Grow It, Give It
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|author=Rashmi Sirdeshpande
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=I wasn't introduced to 'science' until I was eleven and went on to senior school: I wasn't alone in this, but it really was too lateThankfully, times have changed and children at primary school are getting to grips with plants and animals, atoms and molecules and even outer space from a very young age.  What's needed is a good, basic reference book which will introduce all the subjects and give a good grounding.  It needs to be something which would sit proudly in the classroom library and comfortably on a child's bookshelf.  The ''First Science Encyclopedia'' would do both well.
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|summary=What a relief!  A book about money, for children, with clear explanations of what it is, why it matters, how to acquire more of it (nope - robbing banks is out) and what you can do with it when you've managed to get hold of it.  Your reasons for wanting money don't matter: we all need it to some extentYou might want to go into business, be a clever shopper, a saver (you might even become an ''investor'') and there might be something you really, ''really'' want to buy.  There's also the possibility of using to do good in the world.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>024118875X</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=The British Museum
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|isbn=178112938X
|title=Origami, Poems and Pictures
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|title=Survival in Space: The Apollo 13 Mission
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|author=David Long and Stefano Tambellini (illustrator)
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Crafts
 
|summary=Sometimes you find a delight of a book.  On an afternoon when it was unseasonably cold and decidedly wet I discovered ''Origami, Poems and Pictures'' and I was transported to Japan.  As the title suggests we're looking at three celebrated arts and crafts: the ancient art of paper folding, haiku poetry and painting.  I'll confess that it was the origami which caught my attention, but I was surprised by the extent to which the rest of the book caught my imagination.  We begin with something very simple: a boat and in case you're worried, all the entries have a degree of difficulty (from 'simple' through to 'tricky') and this one is at the lowest level.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857639382</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
 
|author=Alan Gibbons
 
|title=The Beautiful Game
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
 
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
|summary=Football is all about its colours.  And even if I write in the season when one team in blue knocks another team in blue from the throne of English football, it's common knowledge that red is the more successful colour to wear.  But is that flame red?  Blood red?  The red of the Sun cover banner when it falsely declared 96 Liverpool FC fans were fatally caught up in a tragedy – and that it had been one of their own making? And while we're on about colour, where were the people of colour in football in the olden days?  There are so many darker sides to football's history it's enough to make a young lad question the whole game…
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|summary=It's fifty years since the Apollo 13 mission was launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, but the story of that journey remains one of the greatest survival stories of all time. ''Survival in Space: The Apollo 13 Mission'' is a brilliant retelling of what happened.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781126917</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Matt Sewell
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|author=Kathleen Boucher and Sara Chadwick
|title=The Big Bird Spot
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|title=Nine Ways to Empower Tweens
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
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|genre=Confident Readers
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|summary=''9 Ways to Empower Tweens'' is a self-help book for tweens, setting out to show them vital #lifeskills. Don't groan! I know there is a market glut of such books for we grown-ups and for young adults too, but there is a needful space in an increasingly technological world accessible to younger and younger children for material for tweens too. 
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|isbn= 0228818826
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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1609809173
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|title=Eiffel's Tower for Young People
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|author=Jill Jonnes
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Recently I stood on a viewing platform at the RSPB reserve at Bempton Cliffs as a very helpful volunteer guided my sight line to one of the puffins who'd arrived on the cliffs in the last few days.  Finally, I found one, after visually sorting through all the other birds on the precipitous cliff face.  It was great fun and very rewarding. The third double-page spread in wild-life author and artist Matt Sewell's first book for children, ''The Big Bird Spot'', shows some cliffs very like those at Bempton, but this time you're going to be looking for twenty three Little Auks, in amongst the guillemots, puffins, herring gulls and razorbills. Oh, and you're looking for a pair of binoculars too: our bird watcher is very careless, because you're going to have to find them in every picture.
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|summary=Brash and elegant, sophisticated, controversial and vibrant, the 1889 World's Fair in Paris encompassed the best, the worst and the beautiful from many countries and cultures. The French Republic laid out model villages from all their colonies, put on art shows, dance performances, food festivals and concerts to stun the senses. And towering above it all, the most popular and the most hated monument to French accomplishment and daring – the Eiffel Tower.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843653265</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Alice Bowsher
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|isbn=1848576536
|title=Lift-the-Flap and Colour: Ocean
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|title=Humanatomy: How the Body Works
|rating=4
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|author=Nicola Edwards and Jem Maybank
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|rating=5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=When you think about it, it's quite startling that oceans cover most of our planet and they're home to nearly half of all species, apart from humans.  We don't know a lot about the oceans either - less than 5% of the area has been explored, but it is an area of outstanding beauty.  With Alice Bowsher's ''Lift-the-Flap and Colour: Ocean'' children as young as two have the opportunity to do a little exploration and to colour their own pictures.  The flaps are a stroke of genius: when we look at the sea we see little more than the movement of the water, but how different it would be if you could see a little of what is going on underneath.
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|summary=''Get under your own skin, pick your brains, and go inside your insides!''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847809294</amazonuk>
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 +
That's what ''Humanatomy'' invites you to do and honestly, I don't see how you could resist. This informative book provides a wonderful primer about the human body to curious children- from the skeletal system to the muscular system via circulation, respiration and digestion, right up to the DNA that makes who we are.
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Lisa Jane Gillespie and Yukai Du
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|isbn=Langford_Emily
|title=100 Steps for Science
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|title=Emily's Numbers
|rating=3.5
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|author=Joss Langford
 +
|rating=4
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Science is a far reaching subject that covers almost everything that exists in the Universe from the smallest specks to the largest space bound objectsPoint at anything and there will be some sort of scientist who has studied itTrying to fit all of this into 100 hundred steps for children is ambitious and should be lorded, but if you are going to try and do this; at least make it readable.
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|summary=Emily found words ''useful'', but counting was what she loved bestObviously, you can count anything and there's no limit to how far you can go, but then Emily moved a step further and began counting in twosShe knew all about odd and even numbers.  Then she began counting in threes: half of the list were even numbers, but the other half was odd and it was this list of odd numbers which occurred when you counted in threes which she called ''threeven''.  (Actually, this confused me a little bit at first as they're a subset of the odd numbers but sound as though they ought to be a subset of the even numbers, but it all worked out well when I really thought about it.)
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847808050</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Amanda Wood, Mike Jolley and Frances Castle
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|isbn=Buckingham_Dawn
|title=Spot the Mistake: Lands of Long Ago
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|title=The Little Book of the Dawn Chorus
|rating=4.5
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|author=Caz Buckingham and Andrea Pinnington
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
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|rating=5
|summary=You'll like as not have seen a children's book before and harangued it for containing errors.  This book has at least two hundred, and that's not a problemYes, in personifying the idea of learning through your mistakes, we get ten large dioramas of historical activity, all containing twenty things that shouldn't be thereYour task, should you choose to accept it, is to try and find them all.  And the learning is also here, as we get text to tell us what the goofs were designed to show usMake no mistake, this is a clever and absorbing read…
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|genre=Animals and Wildlife
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847809634</amazonuk>
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|summary=What a treat!  I really did mean to just ''glance'' at ''The Little Book of the Dawn Chorus'' but the pull of the sounds of a dozen different birds singing their hearts out was far too much to resist on a cold and rather wet February morningI spent an indulgent hour or so reading all about the birds and listening to their songThen - just because I could - I went back and did it all again and it was just as good the second time aroundSo, what do you get?
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Matthew Clark Smith and Matt Tavares
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|isbn=Pankhurst_Women
|title=Lighter than Air: Sophie Blanchard, the First Woman Pilot
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|title=Fantastically Great Women Who Made History
|rating=4.5
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|author=Kate Pankhurst
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
+
|rating=5
|summary=We're in Paris, and – not to be too rude about things – we seem surrounded by idiots.  For one, it seems they think the perfect place to experiment with manned hot air balloon flights is in the middle of the biggest city in the world.  For another, they think only men could suffer the slightly colder and slightly thinner air experienced on such an adventure – women would never be able to cope.  Meanwhile, a young girl is dreaming of flight, as so many are wont to do, completely unaware that she will soon marry one of the most famed balloonists.  They will have joint journeys skyward, before his early demise – leaving the young woman, Sophie Blanchard, to go it alone and become the first female pilot.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0763677329</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jonathan Litton and Thomas Hegbrook
 
|title=The Earth Book: A World of Exploration and Wonder
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|summary=The Earth.  I kind of quite like it, you know – it seems to serve my purpose.  I don't think I've taken too much out of it, all told, and if it's divided up into 200 countries I'm getting close to having visited a quarter of them.  But way back when I just didn't get on with studying it.  I didn't like geography – what with having to draw maps, oxbow lakes and whatnot I think it was one of those subjects I was put off through the pictorial element – and dropped it as soon as I could.  But then, I didn't have the likes of this book to inspire me…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848575246</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Catherine Barr, Steve Williams and Amy Husband
 
|title=The Story of Space
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=I have no actual idea how I first got an interest in space. Perhaps it's there because I'm so old to almost coincide with the last Apollo astronauts being on the moon (and that's pretty old, it's been so long) and it kind of rubbed off on me.  Perhaps in fact all young children are interested in space anyway, and don't need any impetus or reason to look up in wonder. But if they do, this is the newest way of nudging the newer child towards a keenness for all things celestial.  And it's a pretty good way indeed.
+
|summary=A lot of history is about men. Kings and generals and inventors and politicians. Sometimes, it feels almost as though there were no women in history at all, let alone ones young girls might like to read about or regard as role models. Of course, this isn't true and there are plenty of women who, throughout history, have achieved amazing things or shown incredible bravery, or created something never seen before. So here, in this wonderful picture book from Kate Pankhurst, are the stories of some of them.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847807488</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Nicola Davies and Emily Sutton
+
|isbn=Ignotofsky_Sport
|title= Lots – The Diversity of Life on Earth
+
|title=Women in Sport: Fifty Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win
 +
|author=Rachel Ignotofsky
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary= How many different kinds of living things are there on Earth? Lots…that's how many. Children will learn lots and lots from this wonderful book. I learned lots from it too.  There are 100,000 different kinds of mushrooms. Who knew? Well I certainly didn't. This is one of those special books with cross-over appeal. Tiny children will adore the illustrations, slightly older ones will learn fascinating facts and readers of any age will be moved by the message that we need to take better care of our beautiful environment.  
+
|summary=''Women in Sport'' is coming to us just before the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February 2018. It celebrates a century and a half of the development of women's sport by looking at fifty of its highest achievers, covering sports as diverse as swimming, fencing, riding, skating, and much more. Think of a sport and a pioneering woman succeeding at it is probably in this book somewhere. Each entry is a double-page spread with a brief biography and a striking portrait.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406360481</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Kiki Ljung
+
|isbn=Rooney_Dino
|title=Build a ... Butterfly
+
|title=Discovering Dinosaurs
|rating=4.5
+
|author=Anne Rooney and Suzanne Carpenter
 +
|rating=4
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=I love butterflies: they're one of the delights of my garden and it's always a pleasure when there are children there and they see a butterfly close up, possibly for the first time, as it rests on a flower.  Kiki Ljung has given us the opportunity to learn about butterflies and also to build a 3D model of our own.  The book is primarily aimed at the five to eight year old age group, but I have to confess that I had a great deal of fun building my own painted lady. I learned quite a bit too!
+
|summary=Lift the flap books have progressed somewhat since I was a child. This one comes with sounds! Taking us layer by layer, through various different ages of dinosaurs, we meet a variety of creatures, some of whom are very familiar but some I'd never heard of before! Each scene peels open, layer by layer, showing you what the various dinosaurs are getting up to, with background noises, roars and squawks to accompany them! The book creates a dinosaur experience, rather than just being facts about dinosaurs it's very visual, placing the dinosaurs in their habitats and giving us sounds too that spike your imagination.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847809154</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo
+
|isbn=Mason_poo
|title=Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls
+
|title=The Poo That Animals Do
|rating=4.5
+
|author=Paul Mason and Tony de Saulles
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
+
|rating=5
|summary=It's been said very often that 'history is told by the winners'.  Well, too often history, the news and even destinies are written by men, and the proof is between these covers.  I didn't know anything about this before reading it, even if it has become the most richly-backed crowd-funded book ever.  I'd never heard of the Hollow Flashlight, powered purely by body warmth – which is rich if you're old enough to remember the brou-ha-ha when a maverick British bloke did a wind-up radio.  I'd never read about the Niger female who has successfully made a stand against forced, arranged marriage, rejecting a cousin for a fate she wishes to write for herself.  My ignorance may, perhaps, show me up to be a chauvinist of sorts, but I think it is further evidence that 'the gaze is male' and that the media are phallocentric.  I hope too that this book doesn't turn any of its readers into a feminist, for that would be as bad as the chauvinist charge against me.  If anything it is designed to create equals, and that is as it should be, even if there is still a long way to go…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>014198600X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Adam Hancher
 
|title=Taking Flight: How the Wright Brothers Conquered the Skies
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Flight.  It happens all around us, wherever we may be, and many are the young audience members for this book who have taken to the air already.  But it was once something impossible to take for granted, and this book easily takes us back to those days. It presents us with danger, determination, and a certain pair of American brothers going all out to get both their names in the history books and their feet in the skies…
+
|summary=I know, I know, sometimes you really don't want to encourage your children's poo jokes, but this book is brilliant! I sat and read it by myself when the kids had gone to school and found it fascinating! Who knew there was so much I didn't know about poo? The book manages to be both funny (and silly) as well as being very interesting and educational. Using a mixture of facts and figures, photographs and funny cartoons, you come away having sniggered a little at the vulture who poos on its own feet but also knowing a lot about different types of poo, why poos smell, and why wombats do square poos.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847809286</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
 +
Move on to [[Newest Children's Rhymes and Verse Reviews]]

Latest revision as of 13:29, 9 September 2023

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Review of

A World of Dogs by Carlie Sorosiak and Luisa Uribe

5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

In the interests of full disclosure, I must tell you that I'm a sucker for dogs. In nearly eight decades, I've never met one I didn't trust and I've loved most of them. I wish I felt the same about human beings. So, any book about dogs, I'm going to sit down and devour. Then I'm going to go back and read it properly. And so it was with A World of Dogs, with ninety-six pages devoted entirely to my four-legged friends. Author Carlie Sorosiak found herself the accidental owner of an American Dingo - she's learned quite a lot about dogs since then. Full Review

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Review of

The Repair Shop Craft Book by Walker Books and Sonia Albert (Illustrator)

4.5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

I love The Repair Shop. It's my go-to programme when I want to be cheered up. After a hard day, there's nothing better than watching experts repair treasured items without ever mentioning what they're worth. You see, the value is in what these possessions are worth to the people who own them and the memories they hold. No expense appears to be spared and the experts spend as much time and effort as is required to achieve the desired result. Regular viewers know the experts and they're all brilliant at explaining what it is they're doing. But how did they start? Full Review

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Review of

Stolen History by Sathnam Sanghera

5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

I was the bad company other people got into at school. I was disruptive in religious education classes because I disputed the existence of a 'god'. Where was the proof? In history lessons, it was probably worse still. Not too long after the end of WWII, I didn't so much want to learn about the British army's successes (and occasional failures, but we didn't dwell on those) in what came to be called 'the colonies' as want to dispute what right the army had to be there in the first place. Looking back, I still believe I was right - but I regret that I lacked the maturity to approach 'the problem' politely. I wish I'd had Sathnam Sanghera's Stolen History. Full Review

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Review of

Fritz and Kurt by Jeremy Dronfield and David Ziggy Greene

4star.jpg Confident Readers

We start with the pair of brothers Fritz and Kurt, and their muckers, doing things any Jewish lad in 1930s Vienna would want to do – kicking things around the empty market place, helping the neighbours, being dutiful when it comes to the synagogue choir and at a vocational school. Kurt has to make sure the lamps are turned on at their very Orthodox neighbours' each Friday night – the Sabbath preventing them for using anything nearly as mechanical and workmanlike as a light switch. But this is the time just before the Austrian leader is going to cave to Hitler's will, and instead of having a national vote to keep the Nazis out, invite them in with open arms. Kristallnacht happened in Vienna just as much as in Germany, as did all the round-ups of Jews. These in their turn leave the younger Kurt at home with his mother and sisters anxious to hear word of an evacuation to Britain or the US, while Fritz and his father are, unknown initially to each other, packed off on the same train to Buchenwald and the stone quarry there. And us wondering how the titular event for the adult variant of all this could come about… Full Review

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Review of

Britannica's Word of the Day by Patrick Kelly, Renee Kelly and Sue Macy

5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

Britannica's Word of the Day has a sub-title: 366 Elevating Utterances to Stretch Your Cranium and Tickle Your Humerus which probably tells you all that you need to know about this brilliant book. It starts on January 1st with Razzmatazz, tells you how to pronounce it (raz-muh-TAZ), gives you a definition and then includes the word in a sentence so that you know how it should be used. You also get an engaging and frequently amusing illustration too. I don't think I've ever encountered a word which uses the letter Z four times before! Full Review

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Review of

The Secret Life of Birds by Moira Butterfield and Vivian Mineker (illustrator)

5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

I have recently discovered a great pleasure: I sit and watch the vast numbers of birds which visit our garden on a daily basis. An hour can pass without my noticing. I've established which species feed from the ground, which pop to the feeders for a quick snatch of some food and who settles in for a good munch but I wish I was more knowledgeable. It would have been wonderful if, as a child, I'd had access to a book such as The Secret Life of Birds. So – what is it? Full Review

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Review of

Very Short Introductions for Curious Young Minds: The Invisible World of Germs by Isabel Thomas

5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

'Germs' seems to have become a catch-all word to cover anything unpleasant which has the potential to make you ill. In the first book in what looks to be a very promising new series, OUP and Isabel Thomas have provided a clear and accessible introduction to the world of germs. We get an informed look at how people originally thought about diseases and what they thought caused them and how the thinking has developed over time. The vocabulary can be confusing but Thomas gives a regular box headed 'speak like a scientist' which explains some of the trickiest concepts and you'll soon be familiar with bacteria, fungi, protists and viruses – and how we should protect ourselves. Full Review

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Review of

100 Ways in 100 Days to Teach Your Baby Maths: Support All Areas of Your Baby’s Development by Nurturing a Love of Maths by Emma Smith

4.5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

Babies seem to be born with an amazing number sense: understanding shapes in the womb, being aware of quantities at seven hours old, assessing probability at six months old, and comprehending addition and subtraction at nine months old.

Did you know this? I didn't! How about:

Maths ability on entry to school is a strong predictor of later achievement, double that of literacy skills.

I didn't know this either! I think most parents are aware that giving your children a good start in literacy - reading stories, teaching pen grips, singing rhymes - gives children a solid foundation when they start school. But do we think the same way about maths, beyond counting? I don't think we do, in part because so many of us are afraid of maths. But why are we? Most of us use maths in daily life without realising and it follows that giving our children a similar pre-school grounding will be just as beneficial. Full Review

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Review of

The Awesome Power of Sleep: How Sleep Super-Charges Your Teenage Brain by Nicola Morgan

5star.jpg Teens

2020 has been a strange year: I doubt anyone would argue with that statement. Lots of our routines have been completely dismantled and for some teenagers this will have brought about sleep problems. Some teens will dismiss this as irrelevant ('who needs sleep? - I've got loads to be doing) and others will worry unnecessarily. Most people, from children to adults will have the odd bad night but worrying about your lack of sleep is only likely to make it worse. And there's also the fact that for far too long, lack of sleep has been lauded as a virtue and sleep made to seem like laziness. Being up early, working late has been praised and the ability to survive on little sleep has almost become something to put on your CV. Full Review

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Review of

Count on Me by Miguel Tanco

4.5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

The title and format of this book might lead you to think that it's either about responsibility - or it's a basic 1-2-3 book for those just starting out on the numbers journey. It isn't: it's a hymn of praise to maths. It's about why maths is so wonderful and how you meet it in everyday life. Full Review

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Review of

It Isn't Rude to be Nude by Rosie Haine

5star.jpg For Sharing

This could have been one of those books which 'preaches to the choir': the only people who'll buy it are the people who know that nudity is OK and the ones who know that it's shameful will avoid it like they avoid the hot-and-bothered person in the supermarket who is coughing fit to bust. But... Rosie Haines makes it into something so much more than a book about not wearing clothes. It's a celebration of bodies: bodies large and small and of every possible hue. Bodies with disabilities and markings. They're fine. In fact, they're wonderful. Full Review

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Review of

How Do You Make a Baby? by Anna Fiske and Don Bartlett (translator)

5star.jpg Home and Family

It's more than sixty years since I asked how babies were made. My mother was deeply embarrassed and told me that she'd get me a book about it. A couple of days later I was handed a pamphlet (which delivered nothing more than the basics, in clinical language which had never been used in our house before) and I was told that it wouldn't be discussed any further as it wasn't something which nice people talked about. I knew more, but was little wiser. Thankfully, times have changed. Full Review

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Review of

Dosh: How to Earn It, Save It, Spend It, Grow It, Give It by Rashmi Sirdeshpande

5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

What a relief! A book about money, for children, with clear explanations of what it is, why it matters, how to acquire more of it (nope - robbing banks is out) and what you can do with it when you've managed to get hold of it. Your reasons for wanting money don't matter: we all need it to some extent. You might want to go into business, be a clever shopper, a saver (you might even become an investor) and there might be something you really, really want to buy. There's also the possibility of using to do good in the world. Full Review

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Review of

Survival in Space: The Apollo 13 Mission by David Long and Stefano Tambellini (illustrator)

5star.jpg Dyslexia Friendly

It's fifty years since the Apollo 13 mission was launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, but the story of that journey remains one of the greatest survival stories of all time. Survival in Space: The Apollo 13 Mission is a brilliant retelling of what happened. Full Review

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Review of

Nine Ways to Empower Tweens by Kathleen Boucher and Sara Chadwick

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

9 Ways to Empower Tweens is a self-help book for tweens, setting out to show them vital #lifeskills. Don't groan! I know there is a market glut of such books for we grown-ups and for young adults too, but there is a needful space in an increasingly technological world accessible to younger and younger children for material for tweens too. Full Review

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Review of

Eiffel's Tower for Young People by Jill Jonnes

5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

Brash and elegant, sophisticated, controversial and vibrant, the 1889 World's Fair in Paris encompassed the best, the worst and the beautiful from many countries and cultures. The French Republic laid out model villages from all their colonies, put on art shows, dance performances, food festivals and concerts to stun the senses. And towering above it all, the most popular and the most hated monument to French accomplishment and daring – the Eiffel Tower. Full Review

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Review of

Humanatomy: How the Body Works by Nicola Edwards and Jem Maybank

5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

Get under your own skin, pick your brains, and go inside your insides!

That's what Humanatomy invites you to do and honestly, I don't see how you could resist. This informative book provides a wonderful primer about the human body to curious children- from the skeletal system to the muscular system via circulation, respiration and digestion, right up to the DNA that makes who we are. Full Review

Langford Emily.jpg

Review of

Emily's Numbers by Joss Langford

4star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

Emily found words useful, but counting was what she loved best. Obviously, you can count anything and there's no limit to how far you can go, but then Emily moved a step further and began counting in twos. She knew all about odd and even numbers. Then she began counting in threes: half of the list were even numbers, but the other half was odd and it was this list of odd numbers which occurred when you counted in threes which she called threeven. (Actually, this confused me a little bit at first as they're a subset of the odd numbers but sound as though they ought to be a subset of the even numbers, but it all worked out well when I really thought about it.) Full Review

Buckingham Dawn.jpg

Review of

The Little Book of the Dawn Chorus by Caz Buckingham and Andrea Pinnington

5star.jpg Animals and Wildlife

What a treat! I really did mean to just glance at The Little Book of the Dawn Chorus but the pull of the sounds of a dozen different birds singing their hearts out was far too much to resist on a cold and rather wet February morning. I spent an indulgent hour or so reading all about the birds and listening to their song. Then - just because I could - I went back and did it all again and it was just as good the second time around. So, what do you get? Full Review

Pankhurst Women.jpg

Review of

Fantastically Great Women Who Made History by Kate Pankhurst

5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

A lot of history is about men. Kings and generals and inventors and politicians. Sometimes, it feels almost as though there were no women in history at all, let alone ones young girls might like to read about or regard as role models. Of course, this isn't true and there are plenty of women who, throughout history, have achieved amazing things or shown incredible bravery, or created something never seen before. So here, in this wonderful picture book from Kate Pankhurst, are the stories of some of them. Full Review

Ignotofsky Sport.jpg

Review of

Women in Sport: Fifty Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win by Rachel Ignotofsky

5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

Women in Sport is coming to us just before the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February 2018. It celebrates a century and a half of the development of women's sport by looking at fifty of its highest achievers, covering sports as diverse as swimming, fencing, riding, skating, and much more. Think of a sport and a pioneering woman succeeding at it is probably in this book somewhere. Each entry is a double-page spread with a brief biography and a striking portrait. Full Review

Rooney Dino.jpg

Review of

Discovering Dinosaurs by Anne Rooney and Suzanne Carpenter

4star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

Lift the flap books have progressed somewhat since I was a child. This one comes with sounds! Taking us layer by layer, through various different ages of dinosaurs, we meet a variety of creatures, some of whom are very familiar but some I'd never heard of before! Each scene peels open, layer by layer, showing you what the various dinosaurs are getting up to, with background noises, roars and squawks to accompany them! The book creates a dinosaur experience, rather than just being facts about dinosaurs it's very visual, placing the dinosaurs in their habitats and giving us sounds too that spike your imagination. Full Review

Mason poo.jpg

Review of

The Poo That Animals Do by Paul Mason and Tony de Saulles

5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

I know, I know, sometimes you really don't want to encourage your children's poo jokes, but this book is brilliant! I sat and read it by myself when the kids had gone to school and found it fascinating! Who knew there was so much I didn't know about poo? The book manages to be both funny (and silly) as well as being very interesting and educational. Using a mixture of facts and figures, photographs and funny cartoons, you come away having sniggered a little at the vulture who poos on its own feet but also knowing a lot about different types of poo, why poos smell, and why wombats do square poos. Full Review

Move on to Newest Children's Rhymes and Verse Reviews