Newest Emerging Readers Reviews
Lupo and the Secret of Windsor Castle by Aby King and Sam Usher
Based on the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's real dog, this is Lupo's story, and although it uses the real Royals it is, of course, a fictional story as you soon realise with the talking mice from MI5 and the evil villain in the form of one of the Queen's Dorgi's (a cross between a corgi and a Dachshund). If you're looking for a fantasy animal adventure, with plenty of action, then look no further. Full review...
Best Friends' Bakery: Cupcakes and Contests by Linda Chapman and Kate Hindley
Hannah's favourite TV show is Junior Brilliant Baker, and when she hears that they are auditioning for new contestants for the show she simply can't wait to apply. She rushes to tell her best friend, Mia, about the competition as she's also a fan, but then what will happen if only one of them gets on the show? And what would they bake for the auditions? And would the show live up to everything they've imagined? Full review...
When Dad Showed Me the Universe by Ulf Stark and Eva Eriksson
Dads are wonderful, aren't they? One minute they can be working as a dentist, the next they can be showing you the universe, and even tell you how cold it is. Mind you, mothers can be fabulous too, making sure you're going to be warm enough if you go out to see the universe. But dads are best – they even make sure you get chewing gum as provisions when you're exploring the universe. And what a universe it is – from what's right under your feet to what's right out in the furthest reaches of the night sky… Full review...
The King and the Sea by Heinz Janisch and Wolf Erlbruch
Meet the King. He's a very good King – or is he? He has to be taught by a cat that there is more to worship – the sun's rays, for one. He is so powerful yet he cannot get a trumpet to play without him being its servant, and giving it his air; he cannot persuade a cloud to stay and enjoy his kingdom; and even he is resigned to a shadow that turns his petite, glistening gold crown into a large grey shape on the floor. No, the King might think he has it all, but he hasn't. Full review...
Paddington at the Zoo by Michael Bond and R W Alley
Cast your mind back to the weeks before the Paddington movie enchanted the world. There was a lot of press at the time about how the film had such mild peril and sexual innuendo that it was a PG-rated movie, and not a U. It became headlines due to the unassailable fact that Paddington just never seems to carry any threat to the audience, and to not have a single daunting bone in his body. But those larger books can easily be daunting to the very young people in which you wish to instil love of the character, which is where the picture book range of stories comes in. They're a lot smaller than the chapters in the main novels, and while those main books were still being produced as well they were quite uncommon occurrences, but with the 'proper' books out the way, these were pretty much all Michael Bond was producing as regards our favourite bear. Which can only mean one thing – they're equally brilliant. Full review...
The Dog Dectectives in an American Adventure by Zoa
Whatever you might think of the USA, you cannot deny that it is a country with fantastic natural surroundings from the mountains to the beaches to the vast cactus strewn deserts. This children’s book embraces this and takes the Dog Detectives and their new friends on a whistle-stop tour of the country which is a great way to introduce some facts to young readers. Full review...
Wild Thing Goes Camping by Emma Barnes
Wild Thing is truly wild, keeping worms in her grandma's handbag, building dens in muddy holes in the garden, or setting up camps, complete with sticks ready for a fire, in her big sister's bedroom! She's the sort of child who sends her parents grey in their twenties! Poor Kate, her older sister, is stuck being the sensible one in the family, trying to keep an eye on Wild Thing and help her dad out (her mum died when Wild Thing was very little), and the strain of always being sensible and reliable begins to show and Kate starts to think maybe she'd like to be wild too! Full review...
Bully by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
He's a bit of a... well, a bully, really. The farm animals want to play with him, but he just calls them names. He proceeds to insult each one until a brave little goat stands up to him and calls HIM a bully. How will Bully react to that? Full review...
Robopop by Alice Hemming and James Lent
Some say the grass is always greener on the other side of the hill. Others say better the devil you know. Dylan and Daisy don’t say either of these things, but the sentiment is there. Other people’s fathers are much better / funnier / more normal than their dad. Why can’t he be more like everyone else? The thing is, their dad is an inventor of sorts, so well placed to teach them a lesson they’ll never forget. Welcome Robopop, a robot dad in a box! He’s going to babysit Dylan and Daisy for the afternoon…if they last that long. Full review...
Paddington At The Palace by Michael Bond and R W Alley
I’m not someone who bangs on about being proud to be British. I find it odd that people can seem so fulfilled based on the fact they were born in a certain nation. And anyway I’d much rather be a citizen of the world. But every so often I come across a book, typically aimed at little ones, that does bring me out in a touch of national pride. London is the obvious choice, and in cases like The Queen's Hat by Steve Antony it can result in frightfully good books. Full review...
Max's Wagon by Barbro Lindgren and Eva Eriksson
Max had a wagon and he began putting his treasures into it. First it was his bear, then the dog, who was asleep on the chair and looking decidedly disinterested in what was going on, but he played his part. Then it was Max's ball and the contents begin to seem just a little precarious and were even more so when Max's car was added to the pile, but bear sat astride Dog and Max pushed the wagon whilst holding the car on top of the ball with the other. Then he added his cookie and Dog began to look just the tiniest bit distracted and bear fell out. Dog got bear and brought him back and he did the same when the car and the ball fell off the wagon (in the literal sense of the phrase). Then the cookie fell out... Full review...
Battle Bunny by Jon Scieszka, Mac Barnett and Matthew Myers
Young children do not always have the best poker face so when they are given a gift they don’t really want, they may not spare your feelings. The little boy who received Birthday Bunny was seriously unimpressed, so much so that he has taken out his pencils and rewritten the story. Gone is the tale of a rabbit trying to work out if any of his animal friends have remembered his birthday and instead we get an epic battle of bunny versus the animal kingdom. Full review...
My Village: Rhymes from Around the World by Danielle Wright (editor) and Mique Moriuchi (illustrator)
I'm thinking that of all the kinds of books that have ability to surprise, high up on the list are poetry books. You can generally see the style, idea or genre of a novel from the cover, and beyond a few shocks and twists nothing changes. But take poetry on board, and there are surprises on each page – the concentrated form of the literature surely gives the author more chance to bedazzle, to pull the rug over the readers' eyes and to generally give something the audience didn't expect. And so it is with this book, for while Michael Rosen's introduction spoke to us of nursery rhymes, I had already flicked through and still was not expecting a spread of them. Even when he itemised the various kinds I didn't foresee finding them all on the pages, although that is what I got. Who would have thought that such a small, succinct and varied little volume would have that much capacity to surprise? Full review...
Imagination According to Humphrey by Betty G Birney
If you haven't already, meet Humphrey – the most squeakily vocal inhabitant of Classroom 26. The charming and inventive hamster is here with yet another of his main novels – as opposed to early readers, quiz and joke books, anthologies, guides to having pets – there are so many around that my edition didn't try to put them all on one inventory page, but chose to leave a few out. Here the series continues with Humphrey and the same children as he's befriended over the last few volumes, and it's storytime. The class is being read a novel about a boy and the dragons doing evil to his village's weather, and everyone is trying to write creatively about flying as a response. But when someone threatens to bring a real-life dragon to class, how could the little class pet be safe, especially when he hasn't the imagination to see what the result could be? Full review...
Desirable by Frank Cottrell Boyce
Poor George. He knows that he is not popular but when even his own Grandad doesn't want to stay around for his birthday party he realises that things are even worse than he thought. However this was before he discovered the contents of the present from his Grandad and experienced the dramatic impact on his life an aged bottle of aftershave would bring. Although George tries to think himself invisible in order to cope today he is not invisible. In fact he is not only visible but desirable too! Full review...
Circle, Square, Moose by Kelly L Bingham and Paul O Zelinsky
If you have children you have no doubt read loads of books about shapes; the circle, the square, the dodecahedron. They are all variations of the same things – this wheel is round like a circle, this bread reminds me of a square, what on earth is a dodecahedron? Why not spice the book up by throwing in a moose, but not just any moose. This is a moose that brings chaos to everything he touches and must be chased from the book! Full review...
Rita's Rhino by Tony Ross
Rita really wants a pet, but when she asks her Mum for one she isn’t so keen. They’re smelly and greedy and take lots of hard work. Eventually she relents, and gives Rita a jar with a flea in it, his name is Harold. Obviously, Rita isn’t happy with this so she decides to take matters into her own hands. What will she do, and how will she manage to hide a Rhino from her pet-fearing mother? Full review...
The Illustrated Old Possum by T S Eliot and Nicolas Bentley
This title is clearly of importance to the house of Faber. To this day their puff mentions it was one of their first childrens' books, after the author sent his publisher's son, his godson, some writings based on jellicle cats and some of their scrapes. It's clearly a book that's important to Andrew Lloyd Webber, too, but we'll gloss speedily over that. It's a book that was important to me as well – I certainly had a copy, a thin, barely illustrated, old-fashioned style paperback of it once I had seen the musical. And with the excellent writing here and the ability of it to delight so many people of so many ages, it has the power to be important to a future generation. Full review...
Nonsense Limericks (Faber Children's Classics) by Edward Lear and Arthur Robins (illustrator)
There was a young man whose critique
Of this book was submitted one week
When they asked 'Was it fine?'
He said 'No denyin' –
'There's very little here they could tweak!'
Full review...
Katie's London Christmas by James Mayhew
We have never been strict about Christmas in our house. It's usually my husband who starts it, with a carol or two during the summer! It's hard to resist that Christmas urge if you're a die-hard fan of the season! I have a friend who keeps all her Christmas related stories safely in a cupboard, brought out in a special basket only during the season itself. We, meanwhile, have Christmas stories all year round because, honestly, who doesn't like a bit of Father Christmas magic now and then?! Anyway, this is all to say that here is a Christmas story that some purists will tuck away until Christmas Eve but we have quite happily read during Halloween! Katie is back, and heading back to London, but this time she's on a mission to help Father Christmas... Full review...
Good Dog Lion (Little Gems) by Alexander McCall Smith
Being a firm fan of Alexander McCall Smith's novels for adults, I wasn't surprised to find that I thoroughly enjoyed this children's story. Written with the same gentle understanding of human nature, and so very deftly told, I read this story with a great deal of pleasure. Although the story behind Timo's life is rather sad, with his father leaving him and his mother when Timo is only young, and his mother then struggling to find enough money to raise both of them, it never descends into tragedy but remains positive and upbeat. It's a story of strength, and bravery, and I'm not just talking about Timo and his mother. Full review...
The Bonkers Banana by Allan Plenderleith
Father Christmas has a problem. Because the house had no chimney he had to use his magic dust to shrink himself down so that he could slip into the house through the keyhole. All went well until the very tiny Santa bumped into a fruit bowl containing just one banana and all his magic dust flew up in the air - and landed on the banana. The banana was rather pleased - brought to life he jumped up and down and began dancing and singing - but Father Christmas was distraught. Without the magic dust he couldn't ride his sleigh and deliver all the presents. Eventually the banana calmed down sufficiently to realise that Santa had a problem and the only way out of it was for banana to fly Santa to the moon so that he could get more magic dust. Yes - I know - it's bonkers. Full review...
The It Doesn't Matter Suit and Other Stories by Sylvia Plath and David Roberts
I've said it before and I'll say it again, that you should always approach classical authors through their least typical, shortest and more individual works – you won't gain much insight perhaps into why they were famous, but you will find more entertainment and greater pleasures by staying outside the canon. And the lovely people at Faber and Faber have a case in point – rather than plough through serious dross from Eliot, why not stick to The Illustrated Old Possum by T S Eliot and Nicolas Bentley? And with Sylvia Plath I cannot think of a better place to start with her oeuvre than with these snappy and delightful pages. Full review...
Pigsticks and Harold and the Tuptown Thief by Alex Milway
Problems are afoot in Tuptown, leading up the annual Butterfly Ball – bit by bit the whole thing is being stolen. Harold has made a special statue for the occasion, but has awoken to find it missing, the berries for the catering have vanished – and someone's even run off with the butterflies. It's up to our heroes Harold (the hamster) and Pigsticks (the, er, pig) to don their stereotypical detective outfits and save the day. Full review...
The Witch Dog by Margaret Mahy and Sam Usher
Every witch needs a cat. Everyone knows that. But when we meet Mrs Rose, she’s not really a witch. She’s a mum whose children have left home, and now she’s finding herself with a bit of time on her hands. Her husband suggests she join him with his hobby of Bowls, but that’s a bit boring, thinks Mrs Rose, so instead she decides to do an evening class. In how to become a witch. Full review...
It's Snow Day by Richard Curtis and Rebecca Cobb
We all remember the best sort of school days, don’t we? Snow days. Waking up in the morning and seeing the glow of white through the curtains, and looking out of the window to see the whole world of our back gardens and rooftops turned white. This is a book all about that, and the only two people who turn up at school on this particular snow day. Full review...
Horrid Henry's Haunted House by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross
Horrid Henry is a character I remember vaguely in passing, a bit like Just William. I knew the books existed and regularly saw them in the children’s room of the library, but I didn’t bother to pick them up. The clue was in the name. And I was the sort of girl who didn’t want stories about nasty, horrible boys. Having read my first Horrid Henry story now, though, I can let you in on a little secret. He’s actually quite a funny boy and not the naughty thing his nickname would suggest. Full review...
