There is something for everyone in this colourful, well-designed book: adventure, danger, discovery, intrigue and more! From ancient times to present day, colour has shaped our perceptions and engagement with the world and drawing on history, chemistry, sociology and economics, Gifford tells the story of how colours we take for granted today came into being.
Votes for Women! is number 14 in the hugely popular Heroes In a Nutshell series from Poolbeg Press. Published to coincide with the 100-year anniversary of the granting of the parliamentary vote for women in Ireland, four of the women closely associated with the Irish Women’s Suffrage Movement are featured in short accessible biographies.
Plot twist alert! In this follow up to All Kinds of Families, Sophy Henn again flips the script. Instead of depicting human interactions to explore different types of relationships, she turns to the animal kingdom and unusual animal pairings found in the wild. The relationship between each animal pairing is used to help young readers understand what it is to be a friend, encouraging them to think about their own relationships.
We are living through challenging and confusing times and this book responds to them perfectly. Drawing on her own experiences, Burke describes how she came to understand and accept herself and develop her abilities to cope with life’s challenges as a small person.
Lorna Scobie’s beautiful illustrations bring this book alive. Working in watercolour, she has created realistic drawings of mammals, birds, fish, insects and plant life, but all have an engaging picturebook quality that will encourage the reader to imagine the animals outside the book. This engaging quality is fully realised by the storytelling features of the accompanying narrative.
Readers are challenged to decide whether this is a maths book or an art book. Personally I come down on the side of art! Anna Weltman has done it again, effortlessly putting the STEAM into STEM, she has created a terrific follow up to her 2016 Educational Writers’ Award winning This is Not a Maths Book.
