Art and creativity

The second book in Biddulph's clever, creative and delightfully funny Peanut Jones series, The Twelve Portals continues Peanut's adventures in the magical world of Chroma alongside her genius little sister and science-minded best friend Rockwell. When colour begins vanishing from the city that inspires all the world's creativity, Peanut and her pals are determined to find out why ¬¬- and to ensure Chroma's increasing monochromaticity doesn't cross over into their world.

Noor and Sal live in the desert town of Juniper, California. As part of the tiny Muslim community, they are treated as outsiders in school. Their lives have been filled with trouble and tragedy, but they have grown up almost as brother and sister under the loving eye of Sal’s mother Misbah. It is the voices of these three complex and wonderfully-developed characters that narrate this engrossing YA title.

Mia lives in Nubis, a city plunged into a forever night by the menacing Reaper King. After a scary encounter with a wild umbra, a shadow creature, in the Nightmare Plains, Mia decides she no longer wants to follow her dream of being an umbra tamer.

Set on a ship-theatre, docked in a gloriously stinking, tatterdemalion alt-Bristol, Mouse Heart is the tale of a theatre-orphan turning detective to save her friend from the gallows and the fictional Queen Anne II from assassination.

This is the second collection of poetry by Gambian British poet Sophia Thakur. Through her strong narrative voice and arresting language, this collection explores Sophia’s expressed need to understand how the women in her life became so ‘compassionate, fierce, gentle and powerful.’ Loosely grouped into themes, the collection covers a broad range of subjects, woven through with common threads of love, God, and the formidable influence of her family and friends. Her poems resonate with a powerful rhythm.

The Last Storyteller opens with a promise of a new adventure for Petra. Petra and her family are amongst a select group of people chosen to travel to a new planet to start a new life, as a comet is on track to destroy Earth. However, this journey is not what Petra is expecting. The many twists and turns in the plot will keep the reader engaged and the pages turning.

Inspired by the Endangered Alphabets project, Winston tells a story of many languages of the world, represented in soft water-coloured bubbles filled with different script patterns. The bubbles start to be devoured by a black and white bubble that decides it is the most important story in the world. As The One and Only Story consumes all the other stories, the illustrations move from many colourful bubbled pages to a growing black blob, to a solid black page.

Rowan Ellis has written a frank, inclusive and kind guide to discovering your sexuality and dealing with the good and bad stuff that comes with it. She takes on the role of the cool older sister who tells you everything you want to know, while also giving you the tools to keep yourself safe. The book provides a glossary of terms associated with the LGBTQ+ community, looks at issues such as mental health, homophobia, and consent and also celebrates people who have made a difference to the lives of queer people.

On the surface, Prince Jones and Danielle Ford live in separate worlds – he’s the popular kid, not just in school, but in all of Detroit, charming the city with his insight as DJ LoveJones on his uncle’s radio show. Meanwhile, Dani’s spent the last year doing everything she can to stay out of the spotlight, focused only on earning a spot in NYU’s competitive undergraduate writing programme. When they collide in the local library, they start a remix that brings out the best of both their tracks and reminds us that even though love loves to play, it doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game.

Navigating the tricky issue of parental separation/ divorce, this picture book is an invaluable resource for a child experiencing familial disruption. The text is simple yet poetic - ‘I am a snowflake in a snowstorm, spinning and twisting’ - anchoring the changes in the child’s life to the natural changes of the seasons, and with the very positive central message that although change is worrying, sometimes it is unavoidable, and happy times can still be found.