Safe & Sound is a sweet bedtime picturebook in which the reader is presented with a wide variety of baby animals who are kept safe by their respective grown-ups in all sorts of different environments: chipmunks live underground, anteaters ride on their mothers’ backs, kangaroo joeys need a comfy pouch and crocodile hatchlings hide inside their mother’s mouth.
Like a poem, this book almost sings. The pink, sparkling thread that weaves its way enchantingly throughout the book draws us into a child’s world of creativity and imagination. The illustrations fully capture the magic that is at work here.
In the acknowledgements of this stunning work, arguably the most important and impressive gay teenage novel ever published in Britain, Patrick Ness cites two influences: Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and Judy Blume’s Forever. He utilises the structure of the former and Blume’s empathetic frankness, making both very much his own. The novel is also informed, perhaps, by elements of authorial experience: Adam Thorn, like his creator, is a gay American from an evangelical background.
Elliot McHugh is a young woman just starting out in college. This novel is about her freshman year, and the struggles she has, both academically and with her personal relationships. This book is fast paced, often funny, written in colloquial and informal language. Elliot is a bisexual girl, living with a diagnosis of ADHD, and her college life is rather chaotic and eventful.
A tender and calming tale of overcoming inhibitions and learning to trust people as well as yourself. When unexpected music on the breeze breaks the stillness and piques Chi’s curiosity, she finds herself being led in a positive direction. A Song in the Mist is a true masterpiece and unforgettable in its potent simplicity.
There’s a lot going on in Dan’s life – writing songs, finishing primary school, keeping an eye on the unworthy boy who’s making the moves on his sister Kit, and chasing after his younger brother, Joe, when he escapes from the house. Joe has special needs, and the whole family do their part to take care of him, keeping all of them happily busy. Until Kit and his parents go to Italy for a wedding, leaving Dan and Joe with their headstrong Granny, who doesn’t quite understand just how much work looking after Joe can be.
These four stories cover a day in the life of Charlie and his little brother, Mouse. We meet them in bed, the smaller lump assuring the larger that, despite their conversation, he’s still asleep. If that sounds impossible, a trip to the parental lumps’ bed proves Mouse’s point. When he asks, ‘How can you be sleeping? You are talking,’ the answer from the grown-up lump is, ‘I am a mom. I can do what I want.’
A sulking boy and his busy mother arrive at their holiday home in the rain. Our narrator is sent outside to play and on his journey loses his games console. From this, Beatrice Alemagna weaves the story of a child’s reconnection with his natural environment.
Inspired by the birth of his son, Jeffers’s gentle text channels the voice of a parent trying to introduce a newborn to the infinite complexity of life on planet Earth.
Jade and Becky are the best of friends, until a nasty comment from her ex causes Jade to compare herself to Becky. Jade starts to realise how often she comes second to her best friend. When the two girls find themselves standing against each other in the school’s general election, is this Jade’s chance to finally come first? But at what cost?
