Pavilion Children's Books

This is one long fold out book written and illustrated by Rob Jones, depicting a daytime and a night-time scenario for Tilly and her pals. It’s a down on the floor type book, best read unfolded and displayed in its entirety. Then you can travel along the length of Tilly to find out why she is laughing so much and who exactly is the mystery tickler. All her dinosaur friends seem to be minding their own business having tea, reading, swimming or roasting marshmallows and it is not until the very last page that we find out who the tickler is.

Grandma is a cat lover, the biggest one in the neighbourhood, much to the annoyance of her neighbours who are fed up of all the strays she takes in ‘pooping in their flowerbeds and widdling in their garden sheds’.

Creatures really are incredible, and maybe a bit odd. Like the penguins in Antarctica who propose with shiny rocks, or the Cockatoo birds in Australia that make their own drumsticks and jam with their musical mates. These Cockatoos would probably love to hang out with the Sharks who love Death Metal music.

This is the book we all need right now.

Today’s rapidly changing world can sometimes seem overwhelming, between climate change and the pandemic, we might often feel we have little control over our surroundings, and our futures. This book offers a glimmer of hope. Think of it as a manifesto. Inside, readers can learn about pursuing a cruelty-free and environmentally conscious existence.

It’s Your World Now! is the début picturebook from Barry Falls, a well-known Belfast illustrator. Written entirely in rhyming text, this picturebook is a gorgeous celebration of individual potential and possibilities.

I am conflicted with this review. On the one hand I dislike overly moralistic or ‘message’ books. Which is book certainly is. On the other hand the message, that we are polluting the earth and only if we work together and work hard can we fix it, is simply not sinking in to society. So maybe we do need to be hit over the head, repeatedly, for the message to start getting through.

From a sit-down protest by overworked Egyptian pyramid builders in 1170 BC to defiant Native American Ghost Dancing in the 1890s, and from medieval Indian peasant revolts to modern actions by young Extinction Rebellion and BLM activists, this book is a highly ambitious and intriguing take on the concept of people power.

Billy McGill lives all alone on the top of a hill. He likes it that way. Away from the noise and the rush of the city below, his splendid aloneness is without a sound until ... a horrible scratching and squeaking disturbs him. A mouse! So, Billy gets a cat to chase the mouse away. When that doesn’t work, he gets a dog. Then a bear, then a tiger ... with a terrible cold. Before too long, Billy’s peaceful house is filled with noise and CHAOS!

There’s a world of engineering and technology at our fingertips nowadays, but can you explain how a touchscreen works, if robots can think and why diversity in engineering makes our world safer? The latest book in the Cool series does not disappoint in answering these questions and many more and is packed with fantastic facts and exciting experiments.

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.