story time books

The publishing team at Chicken House, lead by Barry Cunningham, keep finding amazing books. This one, by Lucy Christopher, is quite stunning. Isla is the narrator, it’s all in the present tense, which in the wrong hands can become annoying, but in these hands gives an immediacy which adds to the atmosphere. Isla has a lovely relationship with her father, who has a very uneasy one with his father, and all of them share an interest in, and love of, birds, particularly swans, and especially whooper swans. While her father is in hospital after a heart attack, Isla finds a young swan on a pond below the hospital, and also meets Harry, a boy who has cancer and is waiting for a bone marrow transplant. The fragility of life, the beauty of flight, the necessity of risk and the difficulty of growing up and learning to fly are all part of the story. This book is another classic example of the power of the “show don’t tell” adage, as information about the family personalities and histories unfolds gently and naturally. It is a beautifully crafted novel that is almost musical in its structure, with themes and motifs stepping forward and back while the story continues. Beautiful characters, beautiful writing, deeply emotionally satisfying themes and story; I’m struggling to recommend this book highly enough and I’ve barely scratched the surface in this review. For good readers of  eleven or twelve up, but probably mainly secondary age. As I’ve said many times before, many adults would also enjoy.

Pamela Allen’s picture books have been around for something like 30 years. This is a new paperback edition of a 2006 book, five cautionary tales about Billy and Ben, who fail to share, in spite of advice from the rooster and the hen in each case: a pink sticky bun,  blue boots, an apple in a tree, an umbrella, and almost fatally, a boat. The consequences in each case are humorously sad, or sadly humorous, depending on one’s point of view.  Great illustrations, minimal words, a lovely combination and a good lesson to learn as early as possible.

Some of the verse in this picture book is quite irregular, but a few practices will see it tripping off the tongue, and the illustrations more than make up for  a few extra syllables here and there. It’s a countdown to bedtime, as the title suggests, with an all New Zealand cast of characters, except for the fruit bats. I don’t think our native bats are fruit bats, but never mind. There’s a kiwi on every page, attempting to disguise himself amongst the other skinks,  fantails, black stilts, bats, snails, snapper, wood pigeons, frogs, giant weta, and tui. So heaps to look at, lovely colour, and great fun. The caricature animals capture the essence of each beast effectively and there is lots of other native nature to point out or look for.

This is another chicken House publication, written by Pat Walsh. According to a Guardian review I’ve just read, it was runner up in the Chicken House/Times competition in 2008, to Reaver’s Ransom, which is now being retitled Flood Child. This is a great read too. It’s set in  the winter of 1347. Will, an orphan, has been taken in by the Crowfield Abbey, where he’d be nothing but a hard-worked servant if not for the friendship of Brother Snail. Into the abbey come two men, a leper and a sinister-looking servant, just after Will has found a hob caught in a trap and taken it home for Brother Snail to cure. The hob tells Will about some strange events in the history of the area, and the strangers seem to know the story too. From there the story develops, with wonderful writing, terrific characters and a good vs evil clash to match Harry Potter. I liked this book very much. It has one of the most striking covers I’ve seen in a while, (the picture here doesn’t do it justice at all) and the book doesn’t disappoint after that. For fantasy and spooky-story lovers from about nine up, and a good read for anyone older than that.

As of Sunday afternoon, the corner of the shop which had held an ATM machine until last year, is now part of  Story Time Books for Kids. It doubles the amount of natural light coming into the shop from the road, allows people to see into the shop much more than before, increases the space for window displays, and gives more floor area which allows more flexibility for events like the author visits and concerts which we have at times. Come and see the difference!

Diana Wynne Jones has been writing children’s books about magic (including the Chrestomanci  series and the filmed Howl’s Moving Castle) since the 1970s. While fashions have come and gone, and authors like J.K. Rowling have made unimaginable amounts of money, she has written before and after such trends. This is her latest novel,  a lovely stand-alone story with wonderful characters. Andrew Hope, the hero of this story, inherits his magician grandfather’s house and field-of-care. Andrew remembers spending much of his childhood there, but much is also forgotten, and while Andrew is dimly aware of his own magical powers, he hasn’t used them much. Strong-minded and thoroughly eccentric staff try to bend him, and introduce their relatives into the mix, and a 12-year-old boy appears needing refuge from some shadowy threats. Giant vegetables and an oversupply of cauliflower cheese are running gags, and Andrew is a lovely gentle character who almost immediately falls in love with one of the new staff. English eccentricity and magic combine well and Jones is a consummate storyteller with plenty of practice who creates a wonderful consistent slightly alternative reality. Well worth a read, especially for those who don’t like the darkness of Harry Potter. There are villains here, but they are not very scary, being rather more of the bombastic and bumbling variety.

This is a wonderful book. Until now there have been only a few books on fossils for children, and they’ve been written elsewhere, so to have a New Zealand book, especially one as good as this, is great. So congratulations to publishers Random House and authors James Crampton and Marianna Terezow from GNS Science. The book has a very clear introduction to fossils, geological time scales, finding and collection fossils, classification, and how to use the book. Then each chapter covers a site where fossils can be found, with a clear structure within each chapter of: “Where is it?”  “What rocks are there?”  “Where will you find the fossils?” “What fossils will you find?” “How old are the fossils?” and “What did [the site] look like in the [period when the fossils were laid down]?” At the end there are driving instructions for finding each site, map references and a good index. A practical plasticised cover so that the book is protected in the car and backpack is a sensible addition. Beautifully presented, by people who know their subject, and written in a style which is accesssible without being dumbed-down, this is an essential addition to the library of fossil hunters, or schools.

The second new Step-by-Step title from Gecko, this one by Michele Mira Pons, illustrated by Marion Puesch, is just as good as the first (see review below), another great combination of easy-to-read text and illustrations which add to the explanation and to the experience. It includes information about where food comes from, food types, likes and dislikes, how taste works, energy balances, history of food, balanced eating and even some recipes. Full of the uncommon sort of common sense, it is an eclectic selection of facts about what we eat. Once again, as good an introduction as I’ve seen of this topic and like The Adventure of Life, should be in every school library.

This is one of two new titles in Gecko Press’s translations of the Step-by-Step series. By Jean-Benoit Durand, with illustrations by Robin Gindre it is an excellent introduction to scientific theories of the origin of the universe and the evolution of life on earth.  Complete with explanatory pictures and graphics, it explains current theories on how life came from simple chemical beginnings to where we are now, and where things might go in the future. By far the best short introduction for children to these subjects I’ve seen, and as with many good children’s books many adults might be enlightened by the chatty explanations of concepts they may have found difficult to grasp.

This is a series for Scholastic by Gabrielle Lord. The first book, January, actually arrived in October or November, and now there’s one every month for the rest of this year. We already have standing orders for every book in the series, an indication that it will probably become more popular as word-of-mouth recommendations take off. Often series start slowly in terms of sales, but pick up momentum as more books are published. In the first book the premise was set up: Callum Ormond is chased by a staggering, sick man who tells him that, “They killed your father. They’ll kill you. You must survive the next 365 days.” It’s a thriller mystery with chases, violence, doubts and fears, so not for the faint-hearted, but it’s very exciting, and there are add-ons like a website where Callum blogs. Each book (so far) is under 200 pages,  with a largish font, numbered from back to front to reinforce the countdown aspect of the plot, and it’s written like a diary with chapter headings for days and subheadings for times within the days. The plot certainly thunders along and there’s plenty of tension, with each book (so far again) finishing on a cliffhanger moment. I think the series will appeal to quite a few who are not regular readers, so it’s well worth a try if you have a slightly reluctant reader who finds many books a little slow.