Books for Children: Summer

Reviews by Alice Ellerby

Clara and the Man with Books in his Window by María Teresa Andruetto, illustrated by Martina Trach, Greystone Kids

Set in 1920s Argentina, this is the true story of how the author’s mother, as a little girl, befriended a wealthy, lonely recluse, and how each opened up the world for the other. Clara is tasked with returning Juan’s freshly washed laundry. As instructed, she leaves the basket outside his front door and collects the money from under the mat. Free of fear or judgement, Clara speaks to Juan through the window. He asks if she can read – she’s been taught by her grandmother – and from then on, each time Clara arrives with the washing, she finds a book for her to borrow, placed under the mat with the coins. She reads more and more and a new world emerges for Clara. As their friendship grows, Clara learns what has kept Juan shut away all these years. Words are used sparingly to tell this story and the illustrations have a haunting beauty. There’s a powerful message that, with courage, we can be our true selves and take bold steps into the world.

Mysteries of the Human Body: Weird and Wonderful Anatomy Explained by Dr Azmain Chowdhury, illustrated by Daniel Nelson, Neon Squid

This book is full of the kind of facts my daughter and her friends like to impress each other with. It asks questions all children want to know the answers to: “Why do I get wrinkly when I’m wet?” “Are yawns contagious?” “Do brains really freeze?” It’s a fascinating and entertaining look at the science of the body, introducing concepts such as the fight-or-flight response, mirror neurons and the sleep cycle. The book is brilliantly designed with illustrations that are bright and bold, and bite-size chunks of text that are great for young readers. What’s more, next time your child eats their ice cream too quickly, they’ll know exactly what’s going on in their blood vessels and the trigeminal nerve!

The Great Pollination Investigation: And How We Get Food from Flowers by Deborah Hocking, Templar Books

This highly illustrated, interactive, lift-the-flap book takes a deep dive into the process of pollination. With a spirit of curiosity and ‘let’s find out’, it illuminates the process of how flowers make food. Large-scale colourful diagrams of the inside of a flower reveal how seeds develop when pollen travels from the stigma, down the style, to reach the ovules. The fruit then grows around the seeds to protect them. It’s fun to find ourselves looking down a microscope at a pollen grain, and to meet some of the animals who assist with the process. Bees and other insects, sure, but also birds, bats, rodents, primates and lizards. My favourite is the black-and-white ruffed lemur. The vibrant illustrations communicate these processes in detail and with clarity for children.

Words Can Fly: Mindful and Uplifting Poetry for Children by Donna Ashworth, illustrated by Eirinn McGuinness, Templar Books

This illustrated, cloth-bound poetry book for children is a tonic to soothe the worries of growing up. The poems, full of compassion and understanding, offer a moment of peace, mindfulness and reflection. Some consider family, in all its guises, some nature and the planet, and others gratitude, fear, anxiety and the whole complexity of feelings. Donna Ashworth suggests one way to read her collection is to turn to a page at random and discover what the message is there, or alternatively, the reader might use the index to find a poem on a certain theme that might be present in their thoughts. Either way, there’s solace to be found in this beautiful book.

The Brightest Star by Meg Grehan, Little Island Books

In this follow-up book to the award-winning The Deepest Breath, Stevie and her friends Chloe and Andrew are starting secondary school. With that comes an array of new challenges: a new environment, new people, and the changing dynamic of their friendship. Stevie and Chloe are excited to join the Rainbow Club, and to feel happy and accepted in the school’s LGBTQIA+ community. Andrew, however, is struggling to know where he fits in. Each character has their own demons, but the love and trust between them gives them the space they need to figure things out. It’s really refreshing how supportive the characters are of each other. Like Grehan’s other books, The Brightest Star is written in verse, which makes it accessible for all readers. Succinct text and lots of white space on the page support those with dyslexia or visual stress, for example, as well as reluctant readers.

Once I Was a Tree by Eoin McLaughlin, illustrated by Guilherme Karsten, Nosy Crow

Words and pictures are matched perfectly in this laugh-out-loud book. With a healthy ego, the book itself offers a personal history of how it came to be, from its glory days as a handsome pine. “I smelled good too… Go on. Smell me. It’s not weird. Just go for it. Breathe me in. Mmmmmmmmm.” Not, it must be said, before its seed suffered the indignity of being eaten by a squirrel, squeezed from its bottom, and rolled around for a while by a dung beetle. For all the hilarity, the book paints an accurate picture of the tree’s lifecycle, and it feels tragic when we turn the page to find that somebody has chopped it down. But all is not lost for the tree when it realises it will be turned into a book. Far from dying out, its bounty now lives on through the people who enjoy reading it – and I am sure that you will. As any book evangelist – like this book – knows, a good story lasts for ever.

When I’m Big by Ella Bailey, Flying Eye Books

Newly hatched dinosaur Fern is curious to discover what she will be like when she’s big. Small but mighty, she is an endearing character, who looks to the fully-grown dinosaurs around her for clues as to what she might become. As she reacts to their strange ways, she soon begins to learn more about her own likes and dislikes, but she’s no closer to discovering what she’ll turn out to be. It’s only when she stumbles upon the egg she previously emerged from that she realises she’s already much bigger than she was. This warm and beautifully told story reminds us there’s no rush to grow up. The future is a mystery to be enjoyed as it unfolds. There are lots of dinosaurs to identify as you turn the pages. Perhaps you’ll realise what Fern will be when she grows up before she does.

The Wild Robot on the Island by Peter Brown, Piccadilly

Written and illustrated by Peter Brown, this is a picture-book retelling of his bestselling novel for children, The Wild Robot, and it makes a satisfying story for younger readers. Roz, the robot of the title, washes up on an island and must survive in an environment she’s not designed for. The island is a wild and beautiful place, with animals in abundance, and Roz embraces the challenge of adaptation. She gradually makes friends and a home for herself, and one day finds an orphaned goose egg, which brings with it a new challenge for Roz. This is a tender and moving story about that wonder of nature, our capacity to learn and adapt, and how we are capable of more than we could have imagined.