.png)
Picturebook Reviews
A Little Sailing Lesson
Sara Stefanini, pub. Post Wave
A Little Sailing Lesson is a reassuring read based on the premise of 'what matters most in life is the journey and not the destination’.
Stefanini's simple prose and beautiful artwork supports this comfortingly gentle, encouraging message.
Aldo is an experienced sailor and tells us that the first thing to do when sailing is to set a destination. A destination that can be reached, even though there may be things that can often take you by surprise and give you pause for thought, but help you not to lose heart along the way. It's reassuring to have someone by your side - such as the experienced and trusted sailor in this story - to help you get through and to enable you to achieve your goals.
The spreads are just glorious with simple typography and a lovely message, ending up on the reassuring thought that "our ship will always get somewhere, because what matters most is the journey and not the destination." Aah, how lovely.
Carol Farley
Doctor Fairytale
Catherine Jacob, illus. Hoang Giang, pub. Walker Books
Do you love fairytales with beautiful watercolour artwork? If yes, then I would like to suggest this adorable book. Doctor Fairytale is a novel rewriting of fairy tales from a little doctor’s perspective. The titular character is a little doctor who treats characters from fairy stories - dragons who develop a sore throat because of fire induced roaring; princesses with headaches from really, really long hair which is used for climbing towers! The book is a fresh take on fairy tales and will definitely be loved by children and parents alike. Doctor Fairytale also helps Cinderella and her sore foot and the Fox who wanted to huff and puff away the house of the Three Little Pigs! It has references to a couple of other popular and much-loved fairytales such as the tale of Goldilocks and Snow White!
The book is a cute, winter night read with big bold art, a rich portrayal of the warmth of a house over the different seasons and hours of the day. The journey through the easy-to-read verses along with the immersive illustrations lets the reader indulge fully in the tale. It’s bound to make kids curious, joyful, as well as help them create their own versions of fairy tales with doctors, police personnel, scientists, artists and more! This book offers an-out-of-the-box outlook on fairy tales, chiming well with the contemporary evolution in children’s literature.
When she advertises for a waiter, the only applicant is Glumfoot. Rene is not sure whether he is going to be a suitable employee. However, when an ogre arrives looking for food it is Glumfoot who understands what the customer wants and changes the dishes, so they look like the food the ogre would normally eat. Glumfoot’s help encourages Rene to understand that she needs to rethink the way she promotes her food, to rethink her ideals and helps the café become a great success.
There is lots of humour in this book from the outset as we get to know Rene and Glumfoot. At an adult level you could say it is about knowing your market and clientele, but it also reflects on the way that many people (especially children) can be very picky about their food choices. We all know someone who says they don’t like certain foods but love them when they are presented in a different way. The addition of the full colour illustrations really does make the book, adding a lot to the humour we find on every page. This story has much to teach us about not judging people by their looks and being flexible in the way we deal with others. It is a great read for children across the primary age range.
Ishika Tiwari
Eli and The Uncles
Jehan Madhani, illus. Rashin Kheiriyeh, pub. Walker Books
This story is about a young child called Eli, who is dropped off by his mother to spend an exciting day with his eight affectionate uncles. Throughout the book Eli tells us a bit about the specialties of each of his uncles. Every uncle is larger and taller than the last, from the dancer Aman to the joke teller Riz, and each has an oversized personality to match!
As if that were not enough, every uncle has a distinctive beard that sets them apart from all the others. Whatever the style or texture of the beard, whether it be short or long, curly or straight, bristly or soft, each elegant beard is a sight to behold. The day comes to an end with Eli saying goodnight to his eight loving uncles and their elegant beards as his mother picks him up again to leave for home.
We truly enjoyed this charming picture book about extended families where a young nephew learns more about his eight adoring uncles' talents and beards after spending the entire day being looked after by them. There is nothing better than reading a book that's bright and cheerful, it is sure to keep younger children interested and engaged while reading.
Katy Ralph
The Hare Who Wouldn’t Share
Steve Small pub. Simon & Schuster Children's Books
The danger with books that adults choose to help hammer home a learning point is that sometimes the message is stronger than the story. Thankfully, that’s not the case with Steve Small’s picture books – previous delights have included The Duck Who Didn’t Like Water and I’m Sticking With You (with Smriti Halls). In The Hare Who Wouldn’t Share, themes of friendship, community and working as a team are an added bonus, wrapped up as they are in a charming story which young children will love.
The whimsical illustrations shine out from the page; I love the little details such as Hare’s coffee pot which keeps popping up throughout the story, and the double page spread of Hare racing through a dark forest is just gorgeous. Hare and the other characters speak in rhyme, which never feels forced and makes the story a joy to read aloud:
“Come meet our friends, Hare,
Please pull up a chair.
The soup’s almost done
and there’s plenty to spare.”
Hare, despite or perhaps because of his grumpiness, is an appealing lead character; he has grown so used to being by himself that he can’t imagine living any other way. Will his new neighbours, the rabbits, help him to discover the benefits of belonging to a community? I think you can already guess the answer, but nonetheless you’ll enjoy following Hare on his journey.
Louise Clover
Hot Dog
Doug Salati, pub. Pushkin Children’s Books
This delightful picture book has already won both the Caldecott Medal and the Ezra Jack Keats Book Award and been described as a breath of fresh air, which is indeed what this hot dog needs!
A long-haired dachshund is not enjoying feeling the heat of the city street under his paws, and finally goes on strike, lying down across a zebra crossing and bringing the traffic to a halt. His understanding owner kneels and looks into his eyes: she knows what he wants. She picks him up, hails a taxi, takes the subway, then a ferry, and they walk to the beach. Here he can feel the breeze, (see his ears blow back), be let off his lead, and find enough energy to run about (follow his pawprints) and have a lot of fun. He can also get into trouble when he mistakes a seal for a rock, and help his owner make a shape in stones of him running along. As the shadows lengthen, the stones are packed away the sunshade folded, and they go back to the city, which is now much cooler. With the stones lined up on the windowsill and the curtains gently fluttering, they go to sleep, and the dog dreams…
The dog is full of character, and his owner, with her huge round glasses like those of Iris Apfel, comes across as a caring and thoughtful person. Doug Salati has illustrated three books; this is his first as author/illustrator. He lives in New York and says he does not escape to the beach nearly as often as he should!
Diana Barnes
Knight Owl and Early Bird
Christopher Denise, pub. Little, Brown & Co.
Knight Owl is the captain of the Knight Night Watch! He’s incredibly important and has a vital role – keeping the castle safe while the other knights are sleep.
Early Bird is his biggest fan and would love to become a Knight Owl even though she is young and small; what she doesn’t have in size, she makes up for with determination and spirit! But when Early Bird goes missing, Knight Owl puts himself in incredible danger to see if he can find her and bring her back to the castle safe and sound. With both birds out in the perilous forest, and daunting sounds filling the air, it will take courage, strength and teamwork to make sure that both birds return home to safety.
Knight Owl and Early Bird is a great story for young readers which explores the values of friendship, courage and determination. The characters are simple yet brilliant – a wise, brave old owl who is an experienced defender of the castle, and a young, energetic bird who is desperate to prove her worth.
The illustrations are super and capture the classic medieval storytelling feel of knights and castles, tunics and shields, bunting and hobby horses along with the subtle classic colours of reds, greens and silvers. The book cleverly directs the reader to emphasise Early Bird’s voice through use of bold fonts and capital letters to ensure that her enthusiasm and energy jumps off the page and makes this a fun read to share.
This is a lovely story that could be enjoyed by a young reader but may be even better as a bedtime story shared between a parent and child.
Tom Joy
Not My Circus
Janet Sumner Johnson, illus. Patrick Corrigan, pub. Raintree
Olivia was supposed to buy eggs at the store. Instead, she bought a circus! Between food fights and a lack of potty training, her mom is not thrilled. When Mr. Victor refuses to take the animals back, it's off to the zoo for Olivia's new friends ... unless she can find a way to prove that she is in control of her circus…
Janet Sumner Johnson takes a simple idiom and turns it into a hilarious story of one girl's love of animals, weaving in themes of responsibility, determination and creative thinking. Not My Circus is a wacky fantasy picturebook about a girl who buys a circus at a farmers' market and winds up with all manner of problems before she teaches the animals how to behave and embarks on a new neighbourhood service.
I wasn’t sure where this was going to go plot wise but I was happy with the ending. I liked how modern the text was, with emails playing a major part. This book is funny and shows one child’s love of animals, but there are also powerful messages about responsibility, determination and thinking outside the box. The illustrations are active, funny and bright. This is definitely one heading for my library.
Helen Byles
One in a Million
Smriti Halls, illus. Nila Aye, pub. HarperCollins Children’s Books
The adorable Debra the Zebra is keen to show of her new skill of counting to ten in this charming and delightful rhyming picturebook. But when she is challenged to count her stripes she becomes unstuck when she reaches ten and there are still plenty more stripes to count. What comes after ten? Various animals from the African savannah have ideas but there is only one who is sure to know the correct answer.
Debra the Zebra’s mama is the “wisest of wise” and teaches her daughter how to count everything they find on their walk. “Tens became hundreds and thousands … all the way up to a million and two.” Aye’s illustrations are beautifully vibrant and full of character, especially on this spread which looks like an explosion of flowers, leaves, and creatures of all types. It is easy to believe that Debra the Zebra may have got to that immense number by counting everything in this scene.
Debra is excited by numbers and their ability to grow but when her mama encourages her to play with the other zebras on the grasslands Debra’s new understanding of numbers daunts her. How is her mother possibly able to spot her in the sea of “a hundred, a thousand, a million or more” black and white stripes? But the book ends with her mother reassuring her that sometimes the number one is the best number of all and in a “million-squillion” zebras Debra is her mother’s special and only one.
The illustration of the dazzle of zebras sweeping across the orange/yellow savannah is another standout image, one that absorbs the reader with plenty of eye-catching detail and individual characters to pore over.
Smriti Halls and Nila Aye have created a lovely, poignant, endearing picturebook with a sweet main character, a fun rhyming story to read, beautiful illustrations to savour, and a celebration of numbers, large and small, and being an individual amongst many.
Natalie J. McChrystal Plimmer
Panda and Penguin Find a Thing
Zehra Hicks, pub. Andersen Press
This is a delightful book about friendship and how distractions can have a detrimental effect on it. Before you even open the book, you are treated to a wonderfully bright front cover, depicting the two characters looking up at the word THING, with sound marks around the word – is the THING noisy? The word THING is also stripy, just like the object in the book, but we have no idea what it is and neither do the characters, who although simple in form, have very expressive faces throughout the story, conveying many different feelings, so great is the talent of Zehra Hicks, as an illustrator.
Told in a simple narrative and complimented by these bright, lively pictures we are introduced to Panda and Penguin, who are best friends. How can you tell? Well, they do absolutely EVERYTHING together: climbing trees and sliding down mountains. Their life is just perfect, until the THING appears in it. What do you do with an unfamiliar object? Experiment with it! Panda and Penguin work together to try and find out what the THING is and is it so enjoyable watching their discovery process. It’s a MOBILE PHONE and this is where the clever weaving of the truth about owning one of these devices starts to happen because, as each of them starts to play with it, they ignore the other. One of them is always left out. Three is definitely a crowd and some very negative feelings start to manifest. It’s not until they each take some time out that they realise that they don’t miss the THING at all, but they do really miss each other. The topic of how distractions can impact our relationships is really apt at the moment as technology seems to be commanding more of our time.
This book is a joy to read. It is engaging for younger readers and for story time, but with a very important message, it can appeal to older children too. There is a lovely twist at the end, but you will have to read it to find out what that is!
Claire Webb
Paper Wishes
Tara Knudson, illus. Kirsti Beautyman, pub. Raintree
This picture book opens with a child, probably a boy, whooshing his paper aeroplane, and wishing he could see his grandparents. Imagining himself travelling in various vehicles made of red paper, he would fly, cross the stormy seas, speed on a train or drive, until he reaches the purple house, where he would present a gift, and they would be so pleased to see him.
Even though they are so far away, there is one thing he can do: he makes an origami heart, and pops it in an envelope, and watches from the balcony of his apartment as the post is collected. He waits and waits, and wonders where it is: on a truck? In a plane? A boat or a train? He wants to see them smile, and finally he does, when they do a videocall. His grandparents are possibly Indian, and Grandma is definitely an older version of his Mum: the use of computer graphics mean that Mum’s and Dad’s images are obviously tweaked to create the older maternal grandparents, with identical expressions. Dad could be Chinese or Japanese. Instructions for folding a paper heart are given at the back of the book.
Diana Barnes
Welcome To the Best Bakery
Yue Zhang, trans. Adam Casciaro and Liu Yinan, pub. Post Wave
This is an absolutely delightful picture book about baking the best bread in the world. Bunny discovers wonderful aromas coming from a bread van but is scared by the large wolf who is the baker. Overcoming this fear, he asks if the wolf will show him how to bake bread. Unfortunately, Bunny’s efforts do not work out and he is told not to come back to the bakery, which is very upsetting. Wolf is actually a kind soul and regrets getting upset, so they decide to start again and with help and with more explanations Bunny makes his first good loaf.
What a wonderful story about not just the love of food, but also about sharing, being understanding and not judging people by their looks. Whilst the story is set in a human-looking world, it is inhabited by a wide range of animals, showing a very international world.
The book is translated from Chinese, so the illustrations reflect those cultural traits; however, the fashion choices of the characters reflect the wide range of diverse interests, beliefs and cultural groupings. The clarity of the illustrations and the layout of the book makes this great for reading to an audience, but also as a reader for those just starting out on their own reading journey. This is highly recommended for the KS1 age range.
Margaret Pemberton
What Feelings Like Best
Tina Oziewicz, illus. Aleksandra ZajÄ…c, trans. by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, pub. Pushkin Children’s Books
What Feelings Like Best is a terrific story about different feelings. It personifies feelings and explains who they are by showing their characteristics and who they pair well with – Courage for example, is the sister of Trust who keeps putting himself in risky situations by building bridges between people. Malice, on the other hand, is constantly on the search to find Happiness, or Joy, and find ways to teach them a lesson!
This book is a brilliant way to teach young readers about the different feelings and emotions that we all experience and delve into their own stories to gain an understanding of what they all are. Through this book, children will learn about the feelings that they have in a safe, fun way rather than having to think about their own personal experiences. Children often find it challenging to name the emotions that they are feeling at certain points, especially when heightened or in distress, so this book presents them with a great opportunity to develop that understanding so that when they are in those situations where they need to communicate their own feelings, they have more of a chance of doing so.
This is originally a Polish book but has been translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones into English so that its brilliant messages can be shared with more children across the world. Tina Oziewicz has written an international bestseller What Feelings Do When No One’s Looking and this title is a brilliant follow-up. The illustrations by Aleksandra ZajÄ…c are superb as well, capturing each feeling accurately and playfully.
What Feelings Like Best is a brilliant book which brings the feelings that we all experience to life in a fun and relatable way.
Tom Joy