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

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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Kay Maguire and Danielle Kroll
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|isbn=1839948493
|title=Nature's Day: Out and About
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|title=A World of Dogs
|rating=4
+
|author=Carlie Sorosiak and Luisa Uribe
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=I love books which encourage children to interact with nature - as opposed to a computer screen.  I like to see them getting outdoors, preferably getting a bit dirty, being independent and getting excited about nature.  A good teacher will inspire children, but ''Nature's Day: Out and About'' provides support and encouragement in equal measures and might just be what a child needs.
+
|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 devour.  Then I'm going to go back and read it properlyAnd 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184780800X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Danielle Kroll and Nghiem Ta
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|isbn=1529507987
|title=Pattern Play: Cut, Fold and Make Your Own 3D Animal Models
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|title=The Repair Shop Craft Book
|rating=4
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|author=Walker Books and Sonia Albert (Illustrator)
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
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|rating=4.5
|summary=Here's a neat idea for you.  Provide pages with animal prints on one side - only by animal prints, I mean the sort of colours and pattern which you see on animals, not paw prints!  Some are subtle and others are rather more in-your-face.  On the reverse of these printed pages provide a cutting line so that you can cut and fold the paper and it becomes a 3D model of an animal.  Provide some stickers which replicate faces, tails or beaks - or whatever else you feel needs highlighting - and number these so that they get into the right place.  All you need to add to the mix is a pair of scissors, parental supervision if necessary for the cutting, a little imagination and you have hours of fun.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847807321</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Martin Handford
 
|title=Where's Wally: The Colouring Book
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Are you looking for something relaxing, easy to complete and which will allow your mind to wander freely as you gently colour in a pleasing design? Do you want to indulge your imagination and use the colours which tempt you at the moment, content that it will not affect the finished creation? Would you like large spaces which you can shade in large swoops as it pleases you?  Are you aiming for a soothing finished product which is easy on the eye?
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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 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?
 
 
Sorry: you've got the wrong book.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406367303</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Deborah Patterson
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|isbn=024162343X
|title=My Book of Stories: Write Your Own Adventures
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|title=Stolen History
 +
|author=Sathnam Sanghera
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=If you happen to have two children, born five years apart, you can count on having to live through practically four full years of school holidays – and that doesn't include Bank Holidays or teacher trainingWeather permitting, that's well over 1,400 days where the impetus is on to take them somewhere, or spend moneySo what better and cheaper place to take them than their own imagination?  And if you can't quite unlock the door that leads there, we can certainly suggest this book.
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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 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 placeLooking back, I still believe I was right - but I regret that I lacked the maturity to approach 'the problem' politelyI wish I'd had Sathnam Sanghera's ''Stolen History''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712356355</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Anna Claybourne
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|author=Jeremy Dronfield and David Ziggy Greene
|title=50 Things You Should Know About: Wild Weather
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|title=Fritz and Kurt
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Oh, this takes me back.  Out of all the things we learn at school and profess to never want to need as an adult, the water cycle is one that I had forgotten about, until nowIt forms the basis of a lot of our weather, after all – the way landmasses and seas warm the air above them differently, thus causing motion in the shape of winds and altering atmospheric pressure, that we call weatherAnd from the gentlest high pressure, that someone somewhere will always deem too hot, to the most furious electrical storm, weather is certainly something a lot of people like to talk aboutIs this book the ideal place to learn the basics of such a thing?
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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 schoolKurt 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>178493304X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=024156574X
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Maria Ana Peixe Dias, Ines Teixeira do Rosario, Bernardo P Carvalho  and Lucy Greaves (translator)
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|isbn=1913750353
|title=Outside: A Guide to Discovering Nature
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|title=Britannica's Word of the Day
|rating=4
+
|author=Patrick Kelly, Renee Kelly and Sue Macy
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=I'm on a mission: I want children - adults too - to spend a lot more time outside.  I want them to have the benefits of fresh air, increasing their levels of vitamin D and the knowledge of what nature can offer them.  I'd like the television, computers, mobile phones, video games and even books to be laid aside and attention given to what is available for free, but which - if we don't care for it - might not always be there.  Fortunately the authors of ''Outside: A Guide to discovering Nature'' have the same ideas.
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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 tooI don't think I've ever encountered a word which uses the letter Z four times before!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847807690</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Caz Buckingham and Andrea Pinnington
 
|title=The Nature Explorer's Scrapbook
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Animals and Wildlife
 
|summary=''An activity book, but not as you know it'' is what it says on the back cover - and I have to agree.  Here at Bookbag we tend to avoid 'activity books' as they usually have soft covers, lots of stickers and they're the sort of thing you pick up at the supermarket checkout in the hope that it will buy you an hour or two's peace in the school holidays.  ''The Nature Explorer's Handbook'' is a different beast altogether. It's part album in which you're going to collect and store your own finds, part explanation of the best practices of how you should go about this and part nature guide.  It's a substantial hardback book with an elastic band to keep it shut - as it's really going to get quite bulky when your collection grows.  Production values for the book are high - this really is something which will be treasured for years.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190848926X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Peggy Caravantes
+
|isbn=0711266204
|title=Marooned in the Arctic
+
|title=The Secret Life of Birds
 +
|author=Moira Butterfield and Vivian Mineker (illustrator)
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Biography
+
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Misogynists are manmade.  And if anyone was in a position to hate men and the lot they put on their shoulders, it was Ava BlackjackHer surname spoke of an abusive man she had a son by, but it was her time with four other men that made for one of the last century's more remarkable storiesAn Inuit native, but one brought up in a city and with English lessons, she was invited on an excursion alongside many other 'Eskimo' and four intrepid Westerners, to the uninhabited Wrangel Island, perched off the northern Siberian coast.  They were there just to stick a flag in it and call it British, even if they were pretty much fully American and Canadian, and the chap whose ideas these all were bore an Icelandic name; she was along to provide native expertise, especially waterproof fur clothing.  And that was it – none of her kin joined her, leaving her in one tent and four men in another, in one of the world's most remote and inhospitable placesAnd that was just the start of her worries…
+
|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>1613730985</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Andrea Pinnington and Caz Buckingham
+
|isbn=0192779230
|title=The Little Book of Woodland Bird Songs
+
|title=Very Short Introductions for Curious Young Minds: The Invisible World of Germs
 +
|author=Isabel Thomas
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Take a well-put-together board book (don't worry about it being a board book - no one is going to say that they’re a bit too old for a board book once they see it), add exquisite pictures of a dozen birds - one on each double-page spread - and then fill in the details. You'll need the name of the bird in English and Latin and a description of the bird in words which a child can understand but which won't patronise an adult. Then you'll need details of where the bird is found, what it eats, where it nests, how many eggs it lays, how the male and female adults differ and their size. Then you need a 'Did you know?' fact and this needs to be something which will interest children, but which adults might not know either. Does it sound simple? Well it isn't, but 'The Little Book of Woodland Bird Songs' does it perfectly. And there's a bonus, but I'll tell you about that in a moment.
+
|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>1908489286</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Serge Bloch
+
|isbn=1800464495
|title=3, 2, 1... Draw!
+
|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=I can't draw.  I've never been able to draw.  A blank sheet of paper and a pencil frightens me. I thought I was probably a little bit old to change my ways but then I discovered ''3, 2, 1... Draw!'' and there might have been a movement within the tectonic plates of my brain. It's a drawing book which isn't about blank pages: it's about imagination and inspiration, with the first encouraged and the second delivered by the barrow load. I've just had more fun than I thought possible with pencil and paper!
+
|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>1847807240</amazonuk>
+
 
}}
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Did you know this? I didn't! How about:
{{newreview
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|author=Juno Dawson
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''Maths ability on entry to school is a strong predictor of later achievement, double that of literacy skills.''
|title=Mind Your Head
+
 
 +
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.
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=1406395404
 +
|title=The Awesome Power of Sleep: How Sleep Super-Charges Your Teenage Brain
 +
|author=Nicola Morgan
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=
+
|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 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.
The number of young people suffering from mental ill health is increasing year-on-year. Yet we still find it difficult to talk about. And mental health still hasn't achieved parity with physical health in terms of services and healthcare available. Enter Mind Your Head.
 
This is a frank and accessible overview of the issues facing young people with regards to mental ill health. It covers the various types of illness, the treatments available, how to manage them. It includes personal stories and exercises and is written in a chatty but serious way. Juno Dawson is the transgender author you might have known before as James Dawson. She's brought in clinical psychologist Dr Olivia Hewitt to help her. And also illustrator Gemma Correll to avoid any appearance of dourness. Because Mind Your Head is about serious things but is an absolute pleasure to read.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471405311</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Isabel Sanchez Vegara and Eng Gee Fan
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|isbn=1849767343
|title=Little People, Big Dreams: Frida Kahlo
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|title=Count on Me
|rating=4
+
|author=Miguel Tanco
|genre=Emerging Readers
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|rating=4.5
|summary=Frida Kahlo was born in Mexico.  When she was a young schoolgirl she contracted polio and was left with a leg which was ''skinny as a rake'', but she bore the problem stoically and in some ways delighted in being differentThen one day Frida was in a bus which crashed into a car. She was badly injured and even when she was over the worst she still had to rest in bed and filled the time by drawing pictures, including a self portrait.  Eventually she showed her pictures to a famous artist - Diego Rivera - who liked the pictures, ''and'' FridaThey married and Rivera encouraged Frida's painting.  She exhibited, eventually in New York, to great acclaim.
+
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847807704</amazonuk>
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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 journeyIt 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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Isabel Sanchez Vegara and Ana Albero
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|isbn=1849767009
|title=Little People, Big Dreams: Coco Chanel
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|title=It Isn't Rude to be Nude
|rating=4
+
|author=Rosie Haine
|genre=Emerging Readers
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|rating=5
|summary=Gabrielle Chanel lived in an orphanage in a French town and after the death of her mother she went to a strict convent school.  The fact that she was ''different'' didn't make her life ''easy'', but there were early indications that she was going to be a seamstress.  After she left school she sewed by day and sang by night and it was as she sang that she gained her nickname - ''Coco'' - which came from the soldiers in the audience.  But her dream was designing clothes and the first step was designing and making hats: this led to her opening a hat shopOne evening, at a party she realised that a lot of the women weren't dancing: their corsets were so tight that they could hardly breathe and it was this that prompted Coco to create a new styleHer clothes were simple, straight and comfortable to wear.
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|genre=For Sharing
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847807712</amazonuk>
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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 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 fineIn fact, they're wonderful.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Jason Quinn and Naresh Kumar
+
|isbn=1776572858
|title=World War Two: Against the Rising Sun (Campfire Graphic Novels)
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|title=How Do You Make a Baby?
|rating=4.5
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|author=Anna Fiske and Don Bartlett (translator)
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
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|rating=5
|summary=World War Two – so often a lesson subject for our primary school children, even after all this timeNazis, Soviets, Pearl Harbor – but waitThat last wasn't just the clarion call to the Americans to join in with the rest of our Allies – it was a mere episode in a fuller story – the half of the war that was never seen by those in Europe, beyond the fact the British Empire was certainly changed foreverThe War in the Pacific is something I was certainly never taught much about in school, at any ageAnd here's a graphic novel version of the tale from a publisher in India that can serve at last as a salutary lesson.
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|genre=Home and Family
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>9381182051</amazonuk>
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|summary=It's more than sixty years since I asked how babies were madeMy mother was deeply embarrassed and told me that she'd get me a book about itA 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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Lewis Helfand and Lalit Kumar Sharma
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|isbn=1526362759
|title=World War Two: Under the Shadow of the Swastika (Campfire Graphic Novels)
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|title=Dosh: How to Earn It, Save It, Spend It, Grow It, Give It
|rating=4
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|author=Rashmi Sirdeshpande
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=One of the most common subjects at primary school, getting on for three generations since it happened, is of course World War TwoIt has the impact that sixty million dead people deserve – but only if it's taught correctlyOne of the ways to present it is this book, which comes from a slightly surprising place – an Indian publisher completely new to me – but succeeds in being remarkably competent, complete and really quite readable.
+
|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 itYour 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>9381182140</amazonuk>
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}}
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{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=178112938X
 +
|title=Survival in Space: The Apollo 13 Mission
 +
|author=David Long and Stefano Tambellini (illustrator)
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
 +
|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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Chris Packham and Jason Cockroft
+
|author=Kathleen Boucher and Sara Chadwick
|title=Amazing Animal Journeys
+
|title=Nine Ways to Empower Tweens
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=Confident Readers
 +
|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. 
 +
|isbn= 0228818826
 +
}}
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 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=1609809173
 +
|title=Eiffel's Tower for Young People
 +
|author=Jill Jonnes
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=It's only relatively recently that man has actually moved home at certain points of the year to take advantage of the weather or the availability of food, but wild life has been doing it for much longer and every year billions of animals move from one part of the planet to another - that's birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish and insects.  This is known as migration - and it's a real pleasure to see it used other than in the context of sensationalist newspaper headlines. Wildlife expert Chris Packham has written this introduction to the subject and it's been beautifully illustrated by Jason Cockroft.  (He's the man who did the cover artwork for the final three Harry Potter books!)
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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>1405277459</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Christina Wilsdon
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|isbn=1848576536
|title=Ultimate Reptileopedia
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|title=Humanatomy: How the Body Works
|rating=4.5
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|author=Nicola Edwards and Jem Maybank
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Have you ever wanted to know more about reptiles?  Scratch that.  Have you ever wanted to seemingly know everything that there ever was to know about reptiles?  If so, you don't just need a normal encyclopaedia that will have a page or two on the subject, but a Reptileopedia that has more information and images of reptiles in it than you could shake a snake at.
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|summary=''Get under your own skin, pick your brains, and go inside your insides!''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1426321031</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
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= Meredith Hooper and Chris Coady
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|isbn=Langford_Emily
|title= The Drop in My Drink
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|title=Emily's Numbers
|rating= 5
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|author=Joss Langford
|genre= Children's Non-Fiction
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|rating=4
|summary= This brilliant book tells the story of where water comes from in a wonderfully captivating way. In full colour picture book style, it does far more than explain scientific facts about our planet, the way life has evolved and where our water comes from. It takes the reader on an inspiring, exciting and eye-opening journey through millions of years – the same journey one little drop of water in one child' cup may have taken!
+
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847807143</amazonuk>
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|summary=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.)
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Paul Thurlby
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|isbn=Buckingham_Dawn
|title= L is for London
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|title=The Little Book of the Dawn Chorus
|rating= 5
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|author=Caz Buckingham and Andrea Pinnington
|genre= Children's Non-Fiction
+
|rating=5
|summary= I spend a lot of time in London for work, and we tend to walk to a lot of our destinations which works out quite well since London days are long days and long days tend not to include time for the gym. But, as you walk from Euston to Waterloo or Elephant and Castle, you also get to see a lot of a wonderful city. I've never lived there, but I feel like every week I know it a little better. This book is London all over and whether you live elsewhere in the UK or further afield, it's a fantastic way to learn more about the place.
+
|genre=Animals and Wildlife
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144491877X</amazonuk>
+
|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 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?
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Peter Goes
+
|isbn=Pankhurst_Women
|title=Timeline
+
|title=Fantastically Great Women Who Made History
|rating=3.5
+
|author=Kate Pankhurst
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=''Tick followed tock followed tick followed tock.''  Once, that is, we'd got over the Big Bang, which of course was silent.  We flash forwards a few billion years to the creation of the earth, have a quick look at prehistory, then it's in with the world's happenings we can be sure of and date accurately.  This book makes an attempt at conveying it all along one river of time – albeit with many tributaries – and with a strong visual style points us to all that is important about our past along the way.  Flick through it backwards and you can recreate a different Guinness advert to the one I quoted – but it's probably worth a much longer look.
+
|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>1776570693</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Helaine Becker and Brendan Mullan
+
|isbn=Ignotofsky_Sport
|title=Everything Space (National Geographic Kids Everything)
+
|title=Women in Sport: Fifty Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win
|rating=3
+
|author=Rachel Ignotofsky
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=It has to be said that too many children habitually want to be involved in the dangerous jobs – firefighter, sportsman, pilot, racing car driver, astronaut.  Yes, looking up at the Milky Way or seeing planets and suns drift around in planetariums or movies seems particularly benign, but you have to bear in mind astronauts have to face severe G-force pressures when they take off, put themselves into the hands of thousands of scientists, engineers and so on to keep them safe, and face a lot when they do get out there.  It seems it's just another job a child should be safely steered away from aspiring to. Luckily there is both so much we know about space, and so much we have yet to learn, that they can have a satisfying life in that world from a cosy room in an observatory.  Books like this are designed to be the first step through those doors – a primer in all things from the biggest galactic clusters to the tiniest particles of dark matter.
+
|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>1426320744</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Various Artists
+
|isbn=Rooney_Dino
|title=Doctor Who: The Colouring Book
+
|title=Discovering Dinosaurs
 +
|author=Anne Rooney and Suzanne Carpenter
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=In my youth colouring books were popular for children: they helped to teach some valuable skills. But teachers, 'experts', thought that they stifled creativity and once you'd mastered being able to stick within the lines they were whisked away as being 'childish' and you were restricted to artistic completion of maps in geography or illustrations of experiments in science.  The fact that colouring could be relaxing and fun had been forgotten.  Fortunately times have changed: adults are encouraged to relax with one of the hundreds of colouring books now available and I'm delighted to see a resurgence of the idea for not just the youngest children but for those who're a bit older 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>0141367385</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Natasha Slee and Becca Stadtlander
+
|isbn=Mason_poo
|title=Style Guide: Fashion From Head to Toe
+
|title=The Poo That Animals Do
|rating=4
+
|author=Paul Mason and Tony de Saulles
|genre=Crafts
+
|rating=5
|summary=In ''Style Guide: Fashion from Head to Toe'' we have a guided tour through fashion from the eighteen nineties to about 2010, taking a decade or so at a time and exploring several aspects of each decade.  For instance the period 1890 to 1914 is divided into ''The Belle Epoque'', ''Out and About'' and ''The Orient''.  Each division has a picture to be coloured but rather than being a picture of ''one'' garment, there's a montage of garments and accessories from the period: ''The Orient '' has eight different pictures - of the triangle bag, a fur-trimmed shawl, kimono, pleated gown, a folding fan, a Ballet Russes costume and slippers and finally a turban.  On the reverse of each picture is a key.  The article is numbered on the main picture and in the corresponding key you'll find some historical information and some colour details.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847807348</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Joseph Garrett
 
|title=Stampy's Lovely Book
 
|rating=3
 
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=If you still think of Stampy as the elephant in ''The Simpsons'', you need to get with it.  For one thing, TV is so last century – now it's all about Minecraft and other computer game worlds, and often second-screening between different new media at the same time.  So why does this book from a Youtube star of Minecraft tasks, pranks and other activities, remind me of a certain TV programme that used to invite us to turn off and do something more active instead?
+
|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>1405281561</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Gabrielle Balkan and Sol Linero
 
|title=The 50 States: Explore the U.S.A. with 50 fact-filled maps!
 
|rating=2.5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|summary= I've often shouted at people on UK quiz programmes for their ignorance of geography about their nation.  People just don't seem to have learnt about or been to other areas of the place they call home.  But while they get little sympathy from me when they lose the programme's cash prize, I can imagine that it would be much harder for them if they actually lived in a large country, such as the USA. 50 whole states of different size, all with a rich history of their own, their own famous places and their own noted people – the facts involved in absorbing all that's relevant would take a lot of research – or, paradoxically, this handy child-friendly book.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847807119</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