This is a particularly exciting year for the Greenaway Medal, with a variety of formats recognised in the top 20, including several non-fiction titles, which is most welcome. I will be doing short reviews of all top 20 titles in the run-up to the shortlist announcement on 16 March, and here is the first installment. …
Sally Gardner, with artwork by David Roberts (Indigo, an imprint of Orion Children’s Books) Otto has been a soldier for most of his life, and tired of war and wounded, he nonetheless makes a final stand by defying Death. His escape takes him to a dark world of magic, mystery and blood-thirsty beasts. He also …
Here are a few titles for newly independent and more fluent readers which will suit Halloween-themed reading. Arthur and the Witch Johanne Mercier (text) & Clare Elsom (illustrations) Arthur et la sorcière de bout du lac, translated by Daniel Hahn (Phoenix Yard) When Arthur find a secret hoard of blueberries at Picket Lake, he decides to …
Kenneth Grahame (text) & David Roberts (illustrations)(Oxford University Press) I only discovered The Wind in the Willows as an adult, another cultural gap attributed to my non-British upbringing, and I was not bowled over by it, I have to admit. But I do believe that if one is to build a library for a child The …
Daren King (text) & David Roberts (illustrations)(Quercus) After scaring off the coinhabitants – the lives ones – of their house, our frightfully friendly ghosties are back in a new adventure. It’s winter and it is cold so they decide they fancy a holler-day by the sea, where apparently the weather is always nice. They seem …
