Nano adores his big brother Felix. He says that they are best friends, that they invented wrestling and that Felix is ‘totally grape’ (their code words for ‘really cool’). Unfortunately, Felix doesn’t always reciprocate these feelings … This book about sibling rivalry depicts how two young brothers navigate their relationship in a humorous and relatable way.
Whirby is a robot who loves school. His favourite subject is gadgeteering because he gets to compete in bot battles. However, Whirby gets so excited the night before a contest that he can’t stop thinking about it. Instead of plugging himself in and recharging his battery, he practices all night long. But the following day his battery runs out – how will he compete in the contest?
Anyone familiar with the Burkes’ previous work will recognise the style of the striking illustrations. This boardbook is a welcome addition to the Irelandopedia series, and is aimed at the youngest readers, featuring the numbers 1–10. The numerical form as well as the word in English and in Irish appears in clear white font on brightly coloured pages. This dual language format makes it easy for parents to introduce small children to numbers in two languages simultaneously.
This book is an explosion of colour and positivity and contains a strong message for its young readers about both freedom and acceptance. There is no conventional storyline within the book, rather the text addresses children directly, emphasising the importance of just being themselves, while allowing others the freedom to do the same. The text rhymes, and features some lovely, lyrical verse, which makes it perfect for reading aloud.
School sports day is approaching, and Luna is apprehensive: she doesn’t think she is good at sport. As Luna and her friend Abiola try out lots of different sports, they discover that it is not all about being the best, that just participating can be lots of fun. This story shows there can also be a magic to sport, for instance when a lesson in a pool turns into swimming with dolphins and diving for treasure.
This special picturebook deals with the very difficult topic of death in childhood. The story features an angel called Barnabel who longs to become a guiding angel, but the older angels tell him he is too young and that he doesn’t yet understand the Dark Things. The image of a bridge is used to explain what happens after a child dies. A guiding angel meets them at the bridge, helps them across and relieves them of their Dark Things, which are feelings like pain and fear.
Down on Old Worrall’s Farm, the hens are laying very unusual eggs. Some are striped, some are spotty and some even glow! When the narrator of the story interjects to challenge the hens on the patterns appearing on their eggs, they admit the truth: they’ve chosen to fake the patterns on their eggs in order to meet the rhyming criteria of the text so that they can appear in the story!
This charming and funny story provides a twist on night-time fears of monsters, as the story explains that monsters have to go to bed too!
This fun, engaging picturebook is the fifth in the Pick a Story series where the reader is in control of the plot. Big brother Bo chooses the perfect stick for his little sister Kai when hers snaps. However, it suddenly disappears, and the reader has to help Bo track it down before Kai gets upset. But who is the culprit – a wizard, an astronaut or a pharaoh? The reader gets to choose who they will pursue first!
This book provides a wonderfully inclusive definition of family, in which every child is sure to recognise their own. Two narrators, a bird called Tiki and a dog called Murphy, are used in a clever and humorous way to explore the various topics in the book, and their conversation, conducted through speech bubbles, reflects questions a child reader might have about family.
