Newest Emerging Readers Reviews
Vasilisa the Beautiful (Russian Folktales) by Anthea Bell and Anna Morgunova
When I say to you the first response I had on picking up this book was 'Ooh, someone knows their Klimt', and that I thought I had seen Kandinsky in the art inside, it tells you the aesthetic is definitely to the fore here. (That latter claim was a bit false – but there's definitely a touch of Picasso.) Of course there is a story, and a more-than decent story it is too, but with the intriguing, detailed and unusual artwork of Anna Morgunova, this picture book with many words really does come to life. Full review...
Hilda and the Troll by Luke Pearson
Hilda, a rather delightful small, blue-haired girl, is never far from an adventure. She is confident and excitable, brave and creative, and her stories are slightly mad, and very, very readable! Full review...
Finding Winnie: The Story of the Real Bear Who Inspired Winnie-the-Pooh by Lindsay Mattick and Sophie Blackall
A little boy called Cole wanted a story. He particularly wanted a true story and it had to be about a bear. It was getting late, but Mummy said that she would do her best. Her story began about a hundred years before Cole was born and it was about a man called Harry Colebourn who lived in Winnipeg. He was a vet and was on his way to Europe to look after the horses of the soldiers fighting in the Great War when he met a trapper with a baby bear: his head might have said that there was nothing he could do, but his heart told him to get hold of the bear and he gave the trapper $20. Winnipeg, as he named the bear, went on the train with Captain Coulbourn and his troop, across the ocean and finally arrived in England. Full review...
My Funny Family Gets Funnier by Chris Higgins and Lee Wildish
Mattie is nine years old and the second child in a wonderfully big and loving family, where all sorts of very funny things are prone to happen. Like the day Uncle Vez's brother and his wife, Uncle Bruce and Aunty Sheila (not their real names!) turn up on the doorstep. They're visiting from their home in Australia and it isn't long before they're causing quite a stir in the Butterfield household – and beyond. Full review...
The Tiny Tree by Allan Plenderleith
Deep down in the woods there was a tiny pine tree, stranded in a clearing and surrounded by BIG pine trees. She dreamed of being a big tree and hoped that one day she would be beautifully dressed and surrounded by laughter and love. The other trees thought that she was being silly. Actually, they were quite nasty to her and rather too full of themselves. Then one day the big machine came and started cutting down trees - and Tiny Tree was cut down by mistake. But who is going to want a tiny Christmas tree? Full review...
Take Away the A by Michael Escoffier and Kris Di Giacomo
What happens when you take away the letter 'A' from the word 'Beast'? You get 'Best'! Similarly without the 'B' the 'Bride' goes for a 'Ride' or without the 'C' the 'Chair' has 'Hair'. Full review...
Stampy's Lovely Book by Joseph Garrett
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? Full review...
Aliens! (Dirty Bertie) by Alan MacDonald and David Roberts
For my sins I have never met Bertie before now – something that from the merits of this book I now think should have been corrected a long time ago. He's a friendly young chap, and we meet him in friendly, short episodes. Here are three of them, which I have to assume is the norm. One shows him quite gullible if well-meaning, the next has him stuck in a situation he dislikes where he still gets the upper hand, and the third is a sustained look at what happens when he starts a hole for himself with a simple, poor decision. He's a lad such as you probably have close by you, he's amiable, he's not too smart, and he's really quite likeable – even if he does apparently have a very snotty nose… Full review...
Where's Gilbert? The Not So Little Princess by Tony Ross and Wendy Finney
This title is part of a new series which develops Tony Ross's unforgettable Little Princess for older children reading on their own. The Not So Little Princess hasn't really grown out of her teddy bear, Gilbert, but she's old enough to have become self-conscious when her friend Ollie finds her telling stories to the teddy in the garden. She denies and abandons Gilbert. Full review...
The Great White Man-Eating Shark by Margaret Mahy and Jonathan Allen
This is the story of Norvin who was a good actor but rather plain. In fact he looked like a shark… There were not many parts in the world of theatre for boys who looked like sharks so Norvin took up swimming. Soon he was able to shoot through the water like a silver arrow but he found it tedious having to share the delightful space of Caramel Cove with all the other swimmers. Almost every young reader will be able to guess what Norvin did next – but they might not anticipate the way in which his plan goes wrong. Full review...
Smile by Michelle Magorian and Sam Usher
Josh is tired, fed up and feeling put out and ignored. No, he isn't having a tantrum – something big has happened (well, two things actually) and his world has turned upside down. You see The Howler has arrived and everything has changed and not, so far, for the better. Baby brother Charlie is just seventeen days old and is not only taking up all of his parents' time, but also stopping everyone in the house from getting enough sleep with his constant howling. Will the crying 'ever' stop? And there's worse because the really terrible thing is the baby's arrival meant a very special event had to be cancelled. Full review...
Jacqueline the Singing Crow by Mandi Kujawa and Claude St Aubin
Meet Jacqueline the crow. She's perfectly happy up in Canada, with a whole forest of trees to choose from, enough to eat, and a whole sky into which she can thrust her birdsong in celebration. She has, in fact, a lot to crow about. Until she hears humans talk of her as drably black, dumb, and ugly to both look at and to hear. What she chooses to do as a response is a surprise worth discovering in this large format picture book. Full review...
The Wonder Garden: Wander through the world's wildest habitats and discover more than 80 amazing animals by Jenny Broom and Kristjana S Williams
Is it any wonder that this book calls the outside world The Wonder Garden? I know things in fiction books, on TV and in games can be fabulous, but can they compete – really – with what nature has presented? You only need a gate through which to go, and a willingness to explore. This book provides those gates – there they are, shining luxuriously on the cover of this jumbo-sized hardback. And in five easy-to-take steps, the rest of the book provides for that exploration, taking us down south in Amazonia, down below the waters of the Great Barrier Reef, and up – to deserts and mountains, via Germany's own Black Forest. And the trip is nothing if not spectacular to look at. Full review...
City Atlas: Discover the world with 30 city maps by Martin Haake and Georgia Cherry
It's not every time I mention the feel of the book I'm reviewing, but this time it's worth a mention. This volume has been lavishly presented in a roughened card cover, as opposed to the gloss of others in this format from this publisher, and so looks and feels like an old stamp catalogue. The title image is indeed a stamp, stuck on the centre of the cover. And just as all stamps the world over are practically the same yet completely different in design, so are the world's cities. The point of this book is to bring the common elements as well as the unique features of all the world's capitals to the fore, to show that while a city may be a city is a city, their constant variety is what makes each and every one worth a visit. With that being on the costly side, this is a decent enough substitute. Full review...
The Princess in Black by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale and LeUyen Pham
Princess Magnolia has a double life. On one hand she has a perfectly prim, proper and pink castle turret to live in, on the other she has a secret escape tunnel. On her head she has a tiara, on her finger a monster alarm. Her life is also full of threats – on one side a horrid, blue, goat-eating beastie, on the other a prim and proper visitor intent on finding out if the perfect Princess has any secrets. Well we know she has, but will they be discovered – and which is the greater threat? Full review...
Mortimer and the Sword Excalibur by Joan Aiken and Quentin Blake
If you think about all the many unsuitable items that Mortimer the raven has eaten, from staircases to bowler hats, it's surprising that he's still in as good a shape as he is. This time, Mortimer finds himself left alone with Mrs Jones' sewing machine. I'm still not sure why Mrs Jones ever lets him out of her sight, since he has an unerring capacity for trouble, yet here we find him, gobbling down the pink material that is intended for Arabel's new dress, swiftly followed by the needle! When Mortimer eventually discovers the foot pedal that makes the sewing machine go he and Arabel are turfed out of the house and allowed to go across the road to the park where a crowd has gathered around an interesting find in a large hole… Full review...
The Spiral Stair by Joan Aiken and Quentin Blake
I'm rather fond of Arabel and Mortimer. I like the outlandish situations that they find themselves in, and the way Joan Aiken wrote the stories without speaking down to her readers in any way, inserting humour for the grown ups reading them too. Here our terrible twosome have been sent to Uncle Urk at the zoo whilst Mr Jones is in hospital. Aunt Effie, however, has little patience for a noisy raven. Will Mortimer land them both in trouble? Or will they somehow manage to save the zoo from a scurrilous animal-stealing plot? Full review...
The Little House by the Sea by Benedict Blathwayt
By the sea, on the Isle of Mull, there was a ruined cottage, but it wasn't entirely uninhabited. The roof had fallen in and the windows were empty but that didn't stop the mice finding snug and dry homes in the walls. Rabbits enjoyed the weeds in the garden and the doorway to the cottage was used as a shelter by the sheep when it rained. Sparrows nested under the roof and a stray cat slept in the pile of leaves in the fireplace. Then one day Finn came along. He was a fisherman and he began to repair the house. He worked too - catching fish and taking tourists to see the seals and Fingal's cave. But what about the birds and animals who had lived in the cottage before Finn came along? Full review...
Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf by Catherine Storr
Polly opens the door one day to find a large black wolf standing on the doorstep. With no preamble whatsoever, not even a cursory hello, the wolf informs Polly that he intends to eat her up. Incredibly Polly invites the wolf into her home and even into the kitchen! What can she be thinking of? Well, young Polly is clever, resourceful, independent and charming. The wolf is a wolf of very little brain. Therefore it is not long before she is able to outwit the wolf and send him packing. This first story is very short but sets the scene for the ongoing battle of wits between Polly and the wolf that will continue for the remaining twelve short stories in this charming and entertaining book. Full review...
The Bolds by Julian Clary and David Roberts
The Bolds, Mr and Mrs and their two small children, live in an ordinary semi-detached house in suburban Teddington. They have jobs; Mrs Bold designs and sells flamboyant hats and Mr Bold writes jokes for Christmas crackers. But they are most definitely not an ordinary family. Oh no! They are in fact hyenas. So far they have managed to successfully pretend to be human beings. Although very hairy and prone to laughing a lot they have kept the truth (and their tails!) a secret from everyone. But their grumpy next door neighbour, Mr McNumpty, is growing suspicious and then a trip to the local safari park has repercussions. Will the Bolds' carefully long kept secret be revealed? Full review...
When I Am Happiest by Rose Lagercrantz and Eva Eriksson
If Dani leaves her school for the summer holidays with one souvenir, it will either be the memories of the fabulous friendship she formed with Ella, who struck a chord in book one then moved away, or it will be a book she has written and compiled to remind her of all the happiness she has encountered along the way. That is not quite finished, for the following day is to be the great end of year party, and her classroom decorations are complete and her dress has been bought new specially. But not all of life is happiness and jollity – and Dani is removed from the classroom to face very bad news. What ending is in store, for her book and for ours? Full review...
Claude: Lights! Camera! Action! by Alex T Smith
Ah, Claude! How I do enjoy reading these funny little stories about this sweet doggy! This time Claude finds himself embroiled in shenanigans on a film set, helping with wigs and make up and a film star gorilla! Claude is as endearing as ever, and Mr Bobblysock continues to enchant us with his hot flushes and requirements for a little lie down. Full review...
Cheeky Charlie by Mat Waugh
My book is about all the naughty things that my brother Charlie has done. Some of it is funny, some of it is a bit sad, and lots of it is disgusting, because that's what Charlie can be. It might even make you be sick, so get ready.
You know what? That's about the size of it. After Harry has introduced herself - she's almost seven years old, she doesn't like her freckles, she's used to people thinking that someone called Harry ought to be a boy, and she has a younger brother, who is three and called Charlie. This is Harry's book about Charlie. Charlie is a cheeky chappie. He never shuts up. He likes to push his luck. And, having pushed his luck once, he likes to push it again. And again. And again. This is much to Harry's exasperation, as she explains by dint of a book full of anecdotes... Full review...
Travels of an Extraordinary Hamster by Astrid Desbordes and Pauline Martin
Meet Hamster. He's a bit curt with his so-called friends, the other animals in the Clearing – Mole, Snail, Ant, Bear, Hedgehog, Rabbit and Squirrel. He demands one of them build him a spaceship. He is far too dismissive of another's attempts at writing a thousand-page novel. But considering he doesn't really get on with anything and anyone, there is no chance of him joining in when they all go to meet the Bear's Arctic cousin, is there? Full review...
My Pen by Christopher Myers
How long does it take you to read a picture book? Don't worry counting the number of words, forget totalling the pages, and ignore how many times you may return to bring it off the shelf. What matters so much more than how long it takes to scan a page can be how long it lies in the memory, and what it can lead to. This example, for instance, can be perused in seconds, but creates a vivid and long-standing mental image, and will if it hits the right buttons lead to untold future activities. You can't judge something like this on the value of time. Full review...
Best Friends’ Bakery: Birthdays and Biscuits by Linda Chapman and Kate Hindley
In this, the fourth story in the Best Friends’ Bakery series, Hannah is recovering from her sadness at being thrown off the Junior Baker show on TV. Fortunately there’s plenty going on in her town and at her mum’s bakery to keep her busy. There’s a new beauty shop opening to bake for, a doggy rescue centre in trouble, and a new girl who seems intent on stopping anyone from befriending her. How will Hannah get on with these new challenges in her life? Full review...
Eddie's Tent and How to go Camping by Sarah Garland
Mum, Tom, Tilly, Lily and Eddie wanted to go on holiday and camping seemed like the ideal way to go. Lily and Tilly thought it was a brilliant idea and they had some experience, although their 'tent' did look just a little bit like a duvet over a chair. It's surprising what you need for a holiday, but Lily and Tilly had to be told to start again when Mum saw what they'd packed! But finally, Tom began to load the car and off they went. Full review...
