As every parent or childminder knows, bedtime for small children can be a very fraught experience. Even the promised story can trigger anxiety, delaying tactics or full-on resistance, so calling this book This Is Not a Bedtime Story is a clever way to turn everything on its head. A gang of scary monsters try very hard indeed to be as horrid as possible, but they turn out to be cute, silly and even a little sleepy.
‘What exactly is life all about?’ asks this contemplative picturebook by Christian Borstlap. ‘Life’ here encompasses the full range of Earth’s ecosystems, including plants, animals and microorganisms. Throughout the book there is an emphasis on empathy for all life forms and an invocation to look beyond the narrow sphere of human existence and recognise that life is occurring all around. Although it was created before the current pandemic, the message of the book resonates strongly with this global moment: all life is interdependent, and all life forms need each other to survive.
Balthazar the dog is busy snoozing, dreaming of all the charming things that he and his favourite bone can do together. He is roused from this serene state when he suddenly realises his beloved bone is missing ... WHERE BONE? Balthazar bounces around the house in search of his favourite companion. Readers get a glimpse into Balthazar’s thinking through the text, as he becomes more agitated in his search for his bone. His short, jumping thoughts are exactly as frantic as can be imagined from a rambunctious panicked pup!
An eggcorn, Chris Judge tells us, is a term coined by professor Geoffrey Pullum to describe the hilarious mishearings and mispronunciations made by children. It all started when Chris shared a few of his kids’ eggcorns, which he illustrated, on social media.
Kip huddles on the ‘Midway Branch’ of the ‘Chess Nut Tree’ in self-seclusion from the daily horrors of school life and the dreaded Miss Gubbins, or ‘The Snibbug’. His reversal of her name is an attempt to ward off the continual damage done by her carping. An encoded message drops from the sky, forcing Kip to use his knowledge of chess to puzzle it out.
One bright spring day, Lisette goes for a walk and finds a lone green sock. Thrilled with her find, she pops it on and continues on her way – only to run into Tomcat and Timcat, two brothers intent on spoiling her day. Now Lisette must find the other sock, but with the help of her friend Bert, she ultimately discovers something else entirely.
Lucy Worsley’s The Austen Girls is a historical novel exploring the life of Jane Austen from the perspective of her young nieces, Anna and Fanny.
Avocado’s world is rocked to the core (or stone) when a girl at the supermarket asks Mum whether an avocado is a fruit … or a vegetable. When Mum can’t provide the answer, poor Avocado sets off on a journey of self-discovery to find out who they are and where they belong.
In A Bear Named Bjorn, author and illustrator Delphine Perret brings us along on the daily adventures of Bjorn and his friends in the forest, from the eventful to the mundane. Each chapter offers us a different insight into the life of Bjorn, while mirroring our own lives and priorities. When Bjorn wins a prize from a catalogue, does he keep it just because it’s what other people want? When he gets his eyes checked, how does he handle the unexpected results?
Hattie is a street-smart country girl who lives just outside of nowhere, next to no one and is so, so bored. Hattie can’t wait to start school, make friends and start having adventures. This is the story of that first year at school, from registration day to summer holidays, and all the little exploits and adventures that happen along the way.
