This is an inspiring collection of poetry, gorgeously illustrated and presented. The cloth bound cover promises magic within, and the book delivers on every page. Editor Ella Risabridger’s introduction sets the tone and both it and the conclusion are thought provoking and beautiful. They whisper gently about acceptance of all our different ways of being, about stepping into our own power and what it means to be alive in this time.
Bear and Mouse are back and living harmoniously together at Christmas time. But what happens when they have a difference of opinion about how to decorate their Christmas tree? Mouse likes baubles, tinsel and unusual tree-toppers, and Bear likes dazzling lights, candles and unique tree placement – will they ever manage to agree?
Wales, 1890, and protagonist Wren is an inventor like her mother. She feels trapped by the rules of society and her domineering father. Alarming things are also happening to their rather odd home. Wren wants to fly away from it all. When her father threatens to send Wren to a school for wayward girls, she vows to find a way to escape her fate.
Written in an inventive and engaging style, this is a heartwarming, thoughtful story of a mouse named Clementine and her quest to get ‘home’ to her friend Rosie the chimp. Clementine is a laboratory mouse, genetically engineered for super-intelligence. Held in captivity and under threat of death, she manages to get free from the lab where she has lived all her life (in the company of Hamlet, a fellow lab mouse). All she wants is to ensure the freedom of the other animals in her lab, most especially Rosie.
This lovely picture book follows a little mongoose as he crosses the plains of the Serengeti. With night falling, he makes his way back to his burrow while passing animals sleeping.
Max could think of lots of reasons why his school could just suddenly close down – meteor strikes, alien teachers, an army of squirrels, but a global pandemic never featured on his list. When his school does close suddenly, it turns out it is not that much fun after all, nor is being stuck in his house all day with his mum who likes to be quiet and who has to work all day. One day Max starts counting to a million, at first it is mainly to annoy his mum, but his count soon becomes something much bigger.
The most refreshing thing about this lively book of short stories for girls – written to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of women getting the vote in the UK – is how vastly varied the characters in it are. From latter-day ‘posh girl’ suffragettes to present-day girls who love insects and then on to future dystopian heroines battling climate change, no one is excluded from between the covers of this rebellious collection, the front of which is aptly illustrated with a big megaphone.
Published by Nosy Crow in collaboration with the British Museum, Mummy! invites the reader on a journey around an ancient Egyptian village as a little girl looks for her mummy. Follow the little one as she searches behind baskets of fruits and among the reeds. She finds some interesting mummies and their babies, from cats to frogs, before finding her own mother. With each turn of the page, the young reader is introduced to hieroglyphics as well as ancient Egyptian objects. Can you spot a sphinx, some pyramids, or a hippopotamus?
Do you have a young reader who’s animal mad and can think of nothing better than spending every day helping animals? For anyone who wants to be a vet but doesn’t know where to start, we have the book for you! It can all seem a bit like being an animal detective, especially since animals can’t just tell you what they need. This book opens with everything you need to learn. Page after page lets you in on the secrets of how vets help animals stay healthy and happy, the different animals they treat, the places they work and even the history of veterinary medicine.
This is quite simply one of the most sumptuous non-fiction books for young readers at the moment. It makes a considerable effort to only delve into important things that little children would prefer to learn; like how do you cure your hiccups in Mexico? With red string stuck to your forehead, of course! Or what do mice say in different countries? Pip, pip in Sweden, zi zi in China and squitt squitt in Italy.
