Review: Viking Voyagers by Jack Tite.

The Vikings gained a reputation as fearsome and bloodthirsty warriors, but their contributions in other areas deserve equal attention. This book offers a more rounded picture of the Vikings as a voyager civilization. 

An account of the Viking era – which spanned more than 300 years and various countries – is presented alongside information about the Viking myths and legends. That history is given together with mythology offers the reader a rich picture – after all, the stories we tell most often offer clues to who we are as people. The book is divided into six chapters, covering everything from mythology and seafaring to home life, legends and an overview of the earlier and later parts of the Viking era. I was particularly pleased with how the book situated the Vikings within a context of world geography – by showing a world map marked with Viking travel routes, the book makes clear that other parts of the world were home to different people. 

Illustration brings to life the Norse myths and the day-to-day life within a Viking settlement. Showing the two side by side makes plain how the stories we tell grow out of our geography and our lived experiences. Seeing the same mountains in pictures of the Gods as in the picture of a small farmstead made this plain in a way that no words can. Not only will readers of this book learn about history, but they can begin to think about the links between mythology and life. 

As well as larger, double-page spread illustrations, smaller groups of pictures are labelled clearly such as the food the Vikings might have eaten or the names of the lesser deities. Seeing pictures with labels enables children to learn and test their memories, and readers will soon return to their favourite spreads to find their favourite images. 

Fold-out spreads offer even more to look at. I was particularly impressed with the spread on the Bayeux Tapestry – it looks more modern than replicas of the real thing but maintains a faithful style, engaging younger readers and allowing them to browse and ask questions about what is going on at their leisure. 

This is the kind of book that encourages children to engage their own creativity. The drawing style invites readers to copy or to put the characters and images into scenes of their own. I can see this being hugely popular in classrooms where the topic is being studied for its engaging and intelligent content. It maintains a serious tone whilst offering readers plenty to look at if they aren’t up for a long read. Some spreads have very short sections that are a few sentences long, yet they are all informative and interesting. 

A winner both with adults and young readers. Viking Voyagers offers a rounded perspective and beautiful content to bring to life a favourite topic. 

Blog Tour: Q&A with author of The Bat Book Charlotte Milner.

About The Bat Book. 

What is a bat? What do bats look like, and what do they eat, and how do they fly? Whereabouts in the world do bats live? 

This fantastic volume answers every question a reader could have about bats. Additionally, it is informative about the threat bats face today from deforestation, demolition of old buildings, and pesticides. A helpful section at the back advises readers on how to keep a bat-friendly garden. 

With pages divided into short sections – the text is in chunks from a couple of simple sentences to a paragraph – this book is perfect for less confident readers, and for children under 7. The bold, close-up pictures make it easy to visualise the topic in question. 

I was lucky enough to be given a chance to put some questions to author and illustrator Charlotte Milner. Her responses tell us not only about bats but about her approach to nature writing. 

Thanks to Charlotte Milner for your time and answers. 

Q&A with author of The Bat Book Charlotte Milner. 

Q: Your books deal with environmental conservation issues and facts about the natural world. Please can you tell us about your approach to the subject?

A: My aim with each of the books is to inspire a love of nature by offering children an understanding of the amazing ways that animals survive within the context of different ecosystems.

When we understand how plants and animals interact with each other, we can understand why certain problems like climate change or habitat loss have an effect on them and what can be done to help. I try to make the books as simple and as visual as I can, and I hope that the books can be used as a tool for parents and children to have a conversation about conservation issues while enjoying learning about animals.

Q: What are the most common misconceptions about bats?

A: I think generally a lot of people see bats as either being scary or as vermin, I’ve heard them being described as ‘flying mice’ before. But bats are not even closely genetically related to rodents, they belong to their own order, Chiroptera, and as the only mammals that can fly, there really are no other animals like them. While it is important never to touch a bat, they are also no more likely to carry a disease than other wild animals.

As a common Halloween symbol, I can also understand why people might think of bats as spooky but bats keep to themselves and are unlikely to fly anywhere near a human. As nocturnal animals, most of the time we don’t even know they are around. I hope that The Bat Book will give a more in-depth understanding of how bats live, and how, as pollinators and important seed dispersers, they have a really important ecological role.

Q: What sort of experiences did you have with bats whilst researching the book?

A; I went on a fantastic bat walk in Hyde Park. I’d really recommend a bat walk, it’s a great way to see the different bat species that live around you, which you might not have even known were there. You also get to use a bat detector, which is a very exciting gadget that detects the high-pitched calls of bats and translates them into sounds we can hear. This is a really useful for understanding echolocation- the way that bats use sound to ‘see’ what is around them so accurately that they can catch tiny-fast flying insects.

 

Q: Please can you share your favourite facts about bats? (I think if you can share just the one, that would be great as these are featuring in a different blog post I think!)

A: My favourite bat fact has to be that bats pollinate over 500 species of plant, including plants that grow tropical fruits such as bananas. Many of the plants that bats visit for nectar from have evolved to attract their nocturnal pollinators. The flowers will often bloom at night, and have white petals to stand out in the dark. Unlike the sweet-smelling flowers that bees love, bat-pollinated flowers often have a rotten smell that attracts bats during the night-time.

 

Q: How can humans help bats? What can everybody do to make the world a friendlier place for bats?

A: Yes they can! The main problem that bats face is habitat loss which means that there aren’t enough places for bats to roost and find food. If you have a garden you can make it more wildlife-friendly by adding certain plants. Plants such as borage, cornflower, night-scented stock and evening primrose release their scent in the night-time which attracts moths and flies that bats love to eat. Putting a bat box up is also great for giving bats a place to roost.

 

Q: Any hints about which areas of the natural world you are currently writing about?

A: I’m having a lot of fun writing the next book which is all about a part of the world that feels a million miles away from my London home. It’s a place where there are endless animal species to write about that have all evolved in the most fascinating ways to survive in an environment that is wildly dense!

The Bat Book is available from Dorling Kindersley Books. RRP. £12.99.

Thanks to Antonia Wilkinson PR for organising this promotional blog tour. Opinions my own.

Review: Silk Roads (ed by Susan Whitfield).

Silk Roads is extraordinary in its scope. It is comprised of short essays from academic contributors. For the reader, this offers multiple perspectives and creates a book to dip into and savour.

There was no Silk Road. This is the first point made in the introduction. Silk Roads is a romanticised term used to describe the trade and interaction across Afro-Eurasia between roughly 200 BCD and 1400 CE. The term Silk Roads came into play during the Victorian Era.

What becomes clear from the earliest sections is that this period of trade and interaction between different civilizations challenges us to accept the limitations of one source of knowledge. This is seen especially clearly in one of the book’s early essays called Mapping The Silk Roads by Peter Whitfield. Ptolemy’s world map, described by Whitfield as a touchstone for modern European Cartography was later proved inaccurate and remapped using the knowledge of Chinese historians.

Rather than dividing the book by time period or country, the essays are divided by landscape – Steppe, Mountains And Highlands, Deserts And Oases, Rivers And Plains, and Seas And Skies. To keep the reader grounded, detailed and labelled maps are printed regularly throughout the book. 

As a newcomer to the subject, I couldn’t have asked for more. This is not an easy subject to begin studying because it encompasses not only a vast area of land and space of time, but it also takes into account conflicting and often absent histories. A recurring theme throughout the essays was that history is dominated by the written record, but that by looking more closely at cultures whose voices have been overwritten, a richer and more nuanced understanding can be gained. What worked for me as a novice to the subject was that the different essays touched on such different aspects that the book demonstrated the scope of this history.

Photography both historical and modern, of land and of artefacts, is included throughout the book. These visual references help situate the reader and to give a sense of what life might have looked like during different eras. From textiles to architecture, coins and pottery and implements of war, the clear and detailed images make it possible to browse the book as one might browse a museum exhibition. Full page photographs of different landscapes draw the reader in and make the geography real.

Silk Roads is a book to treasure. One to read slowly and return to regularly. It is visually stunning and the text and the photographs together build a rounded overview of the subject. The recurring themes about interaction between cultures and overlapping histories make us think about broader ethical issues and overall it is a beautiful and informative volume.

 

Thanks to Thames And Hudson for my copy of Silk Roads. Opinions my own.

Review: 1 to 20 Animals Aplenty by Katie Viggers.

Count from one through to twenty with the help of some animal friends. 

1 fox in a pair of socks. 

2 gorrillas looking in mirrors. 

On we go through llamas in pyjamas, dogs with frogs and moles making holes, all the way to 20 birds who have the last words. Counting animals works on so many different levels. It helps the reader to visualise and compare different quantities, it allows them to compare on quantity to another and it encourages them to look at realistic drawings of animals. 

At the end of the book, over two double page spreads, the animals are lined up together in rows. This helps the reader to understand some basic numerical princples. For example, there is only one fox, but there is one gorilla and another one gorilla, and that makes two. Children encounter numbers in different contexts. The number 2 bus, for example, uses the number as a label but it is only one bus. This is a nominal use of the number 2. It can be terribly confusing to understand that the number two can also be broken down into 2×1 or 1+1. The number 2 can represent a quantity. 

Chanting the names of numbers is only the beginning. By looking at the illustrations, readers will gain a deeper understanding of numbers as a quantity. 

For all the whimsy of the rhymes, the illustrations show animals in realistic poses. Certainly, most foxes don’t wear socks but aside from the knee-high stripey socks the illustration is realistic and clearly informed by observation. Later on in the book, different species of dog, cat and bird are clearly labelled. As well as introducing readers to basic numeracy, this increases their vocabulary about the natural world. This gives an added advantage. Books like this are read over and over across a number of years – say from toddlerhood through to the end of Infant’s School. The adult reader is less likely to get bored if they enjoy the artwork. 

A beautiful and intelligently designed introduction to animals and numbers .

 

Thanks to Laurence King Publishing for my copy of 1 to 20 Animals Aplenty. Opinions my own.

Review: 2020 Nature Month-By-Month by Anna Wilson and Elly Jahnz.

The earliest Almanacs, according to the introduction to this one, were created over 3000 years ago. They were created by Ancient Egyptians, who listed dates that were thought to be lucky and unlucky. They were also used to help farmers know when to plant seeds and harvest crops. 

2020 Nature Month-By-Month takes inspiration from earlier almanacs but is catered to the modern-day and especially to children. It lists special days – from religious festivals to bank holidays – but it also suggests different activities to help its readers connect with the outdoors at different times of the year. 

The National Trust preserves some of the most special places in the UK, from coastline to land, to historic parks and gardens. According to its website, it believes that everybody has the right to escape to the outdoors. This comes across in this book, which goes to great efforts to suggest activities suitable to people in different areas and situations. We live in a society where fewer people than ever have outdoor spaces of their own and where cities are increasingly crowded and difficult to escape at a weekend. However, if we look around, we can find outdoors to interact with, even if it is the clouds above us and the puddles beneath our feet, and we can engage in activities that make us friends of the outdoors. 

As the title suggests, the pages are divided up by the month. Each month begins with a list of dates and anniversaries and then is separated into short sections about festivals, walks, birds, nightlife and craft among others. These sections are a page or two long but they are beautifully detailed. Although this is aimed at children lots of information would be of interest to a wide age range, making it perfect for families to share. 

The pages are beautifully illustrated with pictures of plants and animals and people enjoying outdoor spaces. Almanacs are one of the places to traditionally link illustration with nature and it is encouraging to see this continue. The art so clearly comes from observation and it makes the reader want to get outside and do some looking around of their own. 

Not only is this full of wonderful ideas, beautiful illustrations and fascinating facts, but it is a handy size perfect for slipping into a pocket or a rucksack. Get your walking boots or wellies on and prepare for a year of outdoor adventure fun. 

 

Thanks to Nosy Crow in association with The National Trust for my copy of 2020 Nature Month-By-Month. Opinions my own.

Blogmas 2019: Illustrated Non-Fiction Gift Ideas.

 

Anatomicum by Katy Wiedemann and Jennifer Z Paxton. 

Welcome to Anatomicum – a museum that is open 24 hours a day with displays about the anatomy of the human body. 

Have you ever wondered what you look like inside? What you really look like, with nothing held back? This book examines the different systems inside the body in fine detail with pictures of everything from veins and connective tissues to the different chambers of the heart.

The illustrations are drawn in the style of Victorian anatomy pictures but the style of the book feels fresh and modern. What I like most about this is that the book not only has broad appeal but it treats its younger readers as serious students. 

With the biggest museums in the UK mainly in London, a large number of people are shut out of accessing one of the most incredible forms of education. Putting some of those facts into books in a very visual format brings knowledge to people who might not otherwise access it. 

This series has been a big favourite for its high-quality production and serious approach to different disciplines. A book like this will remain a favourite for years and would make a wonderful gift this Christmas. 

 

Colossus by Colin Hynson. Illustrated by Giulia Lombardo. 

Colossus explores some of the most amazing engineering and architecture in human history. From the Great Pyramids of Ancient Egypt through to the Eiffel Tower and the artificial islands of the modern-day, this book studies a range of buildings, bridges, and structures and celebrates the ingenuity behind their designs. 

Take a tour around the world to admire the greatest structures and feats of engineering – from the ancient to the futuristic. With lots of books suddenly available about travel and exploration it is lovely to see one that looks at the world through this lens. 

Nothing is missed out here. I was delighted to read pages about building for specific needs, such as earthquakes. There are facts here that most people would never know and it is wonderful to see a book for young readers that doesn’t underestimate its audience. It was also lovely to see a book about engineering in context. This shows so clearly how engineering is tied up with design and imagination and that art and creativity can be related to STEM subjects. 

With some double-page spreads dedicated to one structure and others exploring a specific area – such as canals – this book is an eye-opening tour of the world that will encourage readers to question whether they too could become an engineer and create amazing things. 

With striking illustrations and design, this will be a real favourite with young readers. 

 

Darwin’s Voyage Of Discovery by Jake Williams. 

Step on board HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin and learn about the voyage that led to his theories about evolution. From the invitation to join a warship to the return home five years later, learn about the events that lead to one of the most famous and groundbreaking scientific theories of all time. 

With beautiful full-colour pages and illustrations, this book is one to treasure. 

It is important to learn the links between disciplines and this book reminds us that there is a history in science. How did Charles Darwin come to be on a ship and how were his studies carried out? What kind of kit did he have? The fact that the book follows Darwin’s progress in chronological order allows the reader to imagine themselves inside the story. The detailed pictures of the kit he handled, too, make the story feel more real because by thinking about what kind of objects Darwin might have handled we can think of him as a real person. 

My favourite pages are about the animals Darwin saw. There are clear links between natural science and geography and each section begins with a map of the location. 

Darwin’s voyage is one of the great adventures and as such, it is a favourite story among aspiring scientists and explorers. This wonderful volume brings the story to life and makes studies of the science richer. 

 

Dr Maggie’s Grand Tour Of The Solar System by Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock. 

Get set for an adventure in the solar system with space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock. 

What is space? How do humans get there? What are the conditions like on the different planets? These questions and so many more are answered in this fantastic guidebook to the world beyond our planet. Layed out like a guidebook, this not only offers readers a chance to learn about the solar system but it encourages them to believe in themselves as future space scientists. 

With photographs and clear diagrams, this dispells so many common myths about the solar system. Hands up who once saw a picture of all the planets in a neat row when learning about the relative distances of planets from the sun? (Hand right up). Hands up who heard vague descriptions about gas planets that made it sound as if one was very much like another? Now that so much has been discovered about our solar system, and that so many fantastic images have been taken from space, it makes sense for readers to learn about space with photographs of the real thing alongside non-confusing images. 

Many of the pages are broken into bitesize chunks of text in boxes. This allows readers to digest one fact at a time on a very big subject, but the levels of both the information and language never underestimate the audience. 

The perfect introduction to space for aspiring scientists. 

 

Explorers by Nellie Huang. Illustrated by Jessamy Hawke. 

Tales of sea and ice are not for the faint-hearted. 

With so much information available now at the touch of a button, it is difficult to imagine that, not so long ago, people had to set off on great voyages to learn about other parts of the world. Presented like an inspirational people book, Explorers delves deeper into the stories of people who set out to learn more about our world. 

With beautiful illustrations and clear colour photographs, this is a great book for readers who are interested in the history of natural science. 

There are different definitions of ‘exploration’ and I like that different kinds of explorers are represented. From space scientists to sea navigators to all-out chancers, this book takes us back to a time when there was everything to learn about the science and geography of our world. 

Exploration has been tied up with colonialism. This book only touches on the realities of this when it talks about a couple of artifacts that have been returned to other countries. However, it does at least acknowledge this somewhere and this offers adults a chance to open important conversations with younger readers about whether or not ‘discovered’ artifacts belonged to the explorers who stole them from their homelands. 

 

Heroes by Jonny Marx. Illustrated by Gerhard Van Wyx. 

Not all heroes wear capes. Some are ordinary, everyday people. The kind you might pass on the streets, like firefighters and engineers and artists. This book showcases different kinds of heroes and looks at the work they do. 

With the number of books about inspirational people on the shelves, it is important to see that not every kind of heroic or amazing job is newsworthy. Not every hero goes down in history (although some people who start such a job find they do almost by accident). This book showcases historical and well-known figures alongside names that are never mentioned or heard. 

Although I have seen more inspirational people books in the past 18 months than I can count, this one stands out because it introduces different fields and the events that stand out within their history before giving profiles of people. This shows readers that being inspirational isn’t only about individual actions, but that learning from other people and belonging to a field comes first. Even self-taught people learn from books and conversations and following work that has come first. 

The other thing I like about this is the striking design. It is part comic-book and part retro-style poster and, with the orange, black and green colour scheme, it really makes a strong impact.

This achieves the tricky balance of allowing readers to reach for the heights whilst being grounded in the everyday work that involves. This is why I would recommend it of all the inspirational tales books this Christmas. 

 

Inventor Lab by Jack Challoner. With a foreword from Dr Lucy Rogers.

Do you know anybody who pulls everything apart to see how it works?  Are you looking for a gift for a young engineer or inventor? This is the perfect book for anyone who wants to makes things work for themselves.

From nightlights to a door alarm to a wire buzzer game, this book is packed with ideas for things to create and explore.

Everybody has seen a recipe book but this is the first time I have seen a book about simple engineering laid out in a similar way. The unwritten message of this book, unlike so many other STEM titles, is that inventing and putting together is something to do on a day-to-day basis, instead of something that happens in a secret laboratory in a faraway place. This is the very best part of this title because it shows readers that engineering is for everyone.

The book begins with introductory sections that show clear pictures of tools and components that might be used. It runs through basic safety and also some simple skills that might come in handy. I like that this has been done over a good number of pages and that everything is backed up by clear pictures. This is so important when readers might not know how something is supposed to look.

Every step of the project is pictured and labelled clearly too and it is impossible to flick through without wanting to have a go.

The perfect book for young inventors as well as for the insatiably curious.

Tyrannosaurus Rex – A Pop-Up Guide To Anatomy by Dougal Dixon. Illustrated by Rachel Caldwell.

Have you ever wondered what a T-Rex looks like underneath its skin? Now you can lift the flaps up on 3D illustrations and study the anatomy of the world’s most famous dinosaur.

The first thing everyone has said in response to this book is ‘Wow’. Think pop-ups. Think beautifully designed pop-ups. Then throw in some interaction. This is learning through play at its greatest. It is impossible not to be amazed when a realistic-looking dinosaur model forms seamlessly out of the pages.

This book explores different areas of the tyrannosaurus rex’s body, from its skull to its abdomen. It also introduces us to what tyrannosaurus rex eggs look like and to the kind of habitat it might have lived in. Text around the diagrams explains how different features would have been an advantage to the dinosaur, which is a wonderful early introduction to ideas about adaptation and evolution.

Dougal Dixon is a paleontologist and educator who has written previous children’s titles on dinosaurs. This idea – of turning readers into scientists who can see and deduce things for themselves, proves that he knows his stuff. Combined with Rachel Caldwell’s striking illustrations – both the pop-ups and the line drawings – this is bound to be a hit with young dinosaur explorers.

 

Weather by Isabel Otter. Illustrated by Hannah Tolson. 

Snow, rain, wind, sun, and thunder. Weather is everywhere and there is so much to find out about what makes it happen and change. 

It is a beautiful introduction not only to naming different types of weather but to the science behind them. What I like about this is it is divided into five double-page spreads, like mini-chapters on Sun, Rain, Wind, Snow, and Ice, and Thunder and Lightning. Young children are often introduced to weather as one big list of names but this means they have to be separated out again when children come to study the science. By keeping things in like groups from the start, this allows children to think of weather as a series of different but related systems. 

The big attraction here is undoubtedly the sliders. Each spread has two illustrations that are merged together. One can be changed for another by pulling the slider across. The very best of these is the slider about the water cycle, which lends itself perfectly as a subject to this format. 

As well as the sliders, the spreads are broken up into little boxes and each box is beautifully illustrated. This will go down beautifully with readers who are used to seeing tablet and smart-phone screens as each box is like a separate window. 

 An impressively designed book with just the right amount of facts for a new reader or to share with younger children. 

 

When We Walked On The Moon by David Long and Sam Kalda. 

Getting humans to the moon and back began long before 1969. It was a tremendous feat of human engineering and it took the greatest intelligence and resources of the day to achieve. This book looks at the story behind the 1969 moon landing and at missions to the moon before and since. 

With the 50th anniversary of the 1969 moon landing celebrated this summer, the moon will be a hot topic amongst readers of all ages, and especially amongst young readers who learned all about it during the build-up. When We Walked On The Moon is a great book to give this holiday season because it looks at the wider picture of missions to the moon. 

This covers both history and science. It is told in chronological order, beginning with the Space Race and working through to the present day. It looks at the science needed both to build the space crafts and then to get them from the Earth to the Moon’s surface and back again. Later parts of the book detail the kind of work scientists have done on the moon and in space from collecting samples to repairing spacecraft and working on the International Space Station. 

With the Appollo Mission patches reproduced beautifully on the chapter page and pictures of the missions in progress, this book will recall an era of hope and excitement in human progress. 

 

With thanks to Big Picture Books, Templar Publishing, Pavillion Books, Buster Books, Dorling Kindersley, Little Tiger Press and Quarto Publishing Group UK for the titles supplied for review featured in this title.

Opinions remain my own.

Review: Ada Lovelace Cracks The Code and Madam C.J. Walker Builds A Business (Rebel Girls).

Goodnight Stories For Rebel Girls shook the world and made readers everywhere demand more stories about girls and women. Goodnight Stories For Rebel Girls 2 was met with equal applause. Now the stories of individual Rebel Girls have been published for the first time. 

Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, has a keen mind but she feels stiffled by a string of boring governesses. Then Miss Stamp arrives and introduces Ada to engineering and mathematics. Her mind comes to life with the amazing possibilities and she sets to work making wings of her own. She is opposed by her mother who believes that all this flying stuff is a load of nonsense and that girls should remain in their places. Other influences persuade Ada that she can have both a marriage and an intellectual life and slowly Ada finds the confidence to continue her work. 

Sarah Breedlove (aka Madam CJ Walker) is her family’s hope. She is the first of her family not to be born into slavery and that means she can attend school. However, life is still hard for Sarah because she has to work in the house where she is staying as well as washing for money and picking cotton. Her hair becomes crunchy and itchy and falls out. Years later she invents a product to help it better than any shampoo she has tried. She starts to sell her product and demand grows so quickly that she is able to set up a manufacturing company. 

Two inspiring stories set in different times and places prove that women can do extraordinary things even in the most difficult of circumstances. 

It is lovely to see books that go deeper into the life stories of women from around the world who have done extraordinary things. These stories prove that extraordinary isn’t something people are born with but a combination of effort and daring and hope. 

The new format fits nicely on a shelf with chapter books and the stories are short enough for younger readers, but pitched nicely so that they might still be of interest to teenagers and adults. 

The illustration and design is as striking as the two Rebel Girls anthologies and each book has patterns and a colour-scheme to make each story feel unique when it is placed among the others. 

Perfect for bookshelves, libraries and rebel stockings everywhere. 

 

Thanks to Riot Comms. and Rebel Girls for my books. Opinions my own.

Review: Santa’s Christmas Handbook by Christopher Edge. (Assorted Illustrators).

It’s a big job being Santa. 

With Sleigh regulations and weather forecasting and present selection all coming under the job title, it takes more than a little training to pull off the Christmas Eve dash. Santa’s Christmas Handbook is available to help and, for the first time, he is sharing it with everyone else. 

Filled with fun facts and information about Santa’s job, this book quickly gets readers thinking and dreaming. How exactly does Santa avoid collisions with aeroplanes? Whereabouts in the Sleigh does he store his lunch – not to mention food for the reindeer? Knowing more about Santa’s work will soon get readers asking questions of their own, and chances are they can be answered by the handbook. 

With flaps, puzzles, games, and pop-ups, this is a beautiful gift-book. Just opening the front cover feels exciting. 

Not only is this the perfect Christmas Eve book, it will give little – and big – people who are excited about Christmas a place to turn to during the build-up. This is especially handy for anyone who has explained for the tenth time that they just don’t know how all the presents fit in the sleigh.

Full-colour illustrations and backgrounds make this feel magical and interesting, while smaller black-and-white line-drawings are used to great effect to reproduce the information (details pictures of drinks to look out for in living rooms, for example). The range of illustration styles makes this a richer and more interesting book and the team of illustrators (Tim Hutchinson, Richard Johnson, Maggie Kneen, Sandy Nightingale, and Mike Phillips) have worked together to produce something special. 

This has been a big hit in my family (with not-so-little readers). I had barely taken it out of the delivery box before two other people had put in a bid for it. Although similar books have appeared before, the big draw here is in using a talented and established writer. Christopher Edge has got all the facts, and he has made the book not only informative but just plain fun. It would be a lovely book to share and enjoy together and it is the sort of title which will come out year after year. 

Review: Rebel Dogs! Heroic Tales Of Trusty Hounds by Kimberlie Hamilton.

 

Wow – bow-wow wow, in fact. This book is packed with tales of history’s most heroic hounds. You’ve heard about Rebel Girls. Now it is time to acknowledge the rebel dogs. 

Rebel Dogs follows on from the surge of interest in real-life stories, especially stories about the great and extraordinary. This year, tales about our animal friends have been added to the shelves. Rebel Dogs tells the stories of dogs such as Trakar, the 9/11 search and rescue hero, Aussie the penguin protector, and Mari, who helped an elderly man escape from an earthquake. 

From dogs whose faces are widely known (like Laika the space dog) to dogs whose stories have rarely been told, this book is filled with stories of our canine companions. I was particularly interested in the story about a dog called Robot who discovered a prehistoric cave. This was a tale I had never heard and it would be a rich source of inspiration for anyone looking to write something creative. 

Our fellow animals are capable of more than some people know. Stories like these are reminders that our interactions with other animals can be moving and extraordinary, and that they deserve as much respsect on a daily basis as our human friends. 

The book is made extra-informative with timelines and snippets of information about other well-known dogs. It is also beautifully illustrated with contributions from an entire team of illustrators. These illustrators are credited at the back of the book with a little snippet about their careers and lives. 

Young readers are often especially inclined to pick up a book if it is about their favourite animal friends, so there is space for this kind of non-fiction any day of the year. The perfect present for a dog lover this Christmas. 

 

Thanks to Scholastic LTD for my copy of Rebel Dogs! Heroic Tales Of Trusty Hounds. Opinions my own.

Review: Greta And The Giants by Zoë Tucker and Zoë Persico.

Her name was Greta. She lived in a beautiful forest filled with animals. The giants had always been there, but they had stopped caring about the forest. They chopped down the trees and built cities to generate money. Luckily Greta wasn’t daunted by their size. 

 For years everyone has known that the climate is in terrible peril but too many people have found it easy to wave this fact away rather than sacrifice their own comfort. It took one voice to remain strong. One person to point out – regardless of the response she met – that saving our world was more important than capitalism. 

And suddenly other people felt bold enough to join in. 

That person was, of course, Greta Thunberg, and she has become an icon not only for her generation but of our times. She and other young eco-warriors have moved the conversation about the climate crisis to a new level. 

It is what the politicians and major broadcasters and other giants of our world failed to do. 

What Greta Thunberg proved was that if every small voice speaks a bit louder the world starts to listen. Her school strike hit adults where it hurt because they had to admit that, while the loss of education was a serious issue, the children had a valid and urgent message. Books like this one, aimed at young readers, remind us that no voice is too small to make a difference. Stand a little higher, shout a little louder and someone somewhere will listen. 

I am delighted to see books and media for children about environmental issues. I was fascinated by these issues at twelve or thirteen but there was nothing aimed at children or teenagers. It was too easy for my peers to dismiss something they only heard about in a couple of science or PSHE lessons. If children grow up with books that reflect what is happening, they will respond in a more positive and informed way than any previous generation. 

 The illustrations in this book are like a modern take on a traditional fairy tale anthology. With cooking pots and leafy forests and little people taking on the giants, this could be a tale as old as time. Except that it is happening here and now and there are some cities and bright modern raincoats to prove it. 

This story could be told over and over again until readers are familiar with its morals and that is what makes it stand out amongst the sudden rush of books about the environment. It is relatable and memorable and, although it is quick to tell, it raises some big issues which will take a lifetime to learn about. 

 

Thanks to Frances Lincoln Children’s Books (in association with Greenpeace) for my copy of Greta And The Giants. Opinions my own.