You know how it is – you’ve had your toast, your bath, a bit of a read and you’re settling down for a good long sleep. Then, along comes all manner of the most annoying noises to keep you awake. Adored, multi-prize winner Gravett returns with a cacophony of forest creatures and their marvellous cries, keeping our tired bear from his nap. It all works to a glorious crescendo, with a twist to close. Beautifully and boldly illustrated, it feels like a new favourite for a generation to come.
It’s another classic from the much-loved Belfast writer/illustrator, Oliver Jeffers, known for Lost and Found and TheWay Back Home. This one is about a little girl, Bridget, who has a birthday. She would like to spend it with friends but none of them seem to have any free time. There are jobs to be done, lists to cross off, places to go to. Will Bridget have to spend her birthday alone? I’m Very Busy is superbly illustrated with Jeffers’ trademark charm, gentle wit and poignancy. Jeffers said he wrote this to combat the popular idea that busyness means success, and to suggest that simple being present in the moment is more important.
A seasonal retelling of the classic nursery rhyme, Five Little Ducks, this tactile, interactive version will have requests of ‘again’ ringing in every parent’s ears. Jill Howarth’s rich, heartwarming illustrations create the perfect winter wonderland. It’s a book that’ll last long after the tinsel is down.
Annie Booker is both the author and illustrator of this fascinating tale, which tells the story of a new threat to the polar bear’s habitat. Guess which species is most dangerous to the animals of the Arctic? With an emphasis on the grandeur and nobility of the great beast, we learn how the polar bear patrols the oceans protecting the local animals and sustaining the fragile balance of life on the planet. The ultimate message is one of hope, of working together. This is an exquisitely illustrated book, with a strong environmental message – at the back of the book there is an information spread focusing on humanity’s attempts to restore the nature of the Arctic and protects animals from extinction. A perfect choice for an animal lover or budding environmentalist.
This is the tale of Commander Julia who heads a team of astronauts looking for life beyond Earth. They are about to give up their mission, having only found stardust, and will just visit one last planet. Besides, the crew are getting on each other’s nerves in that small, smelly, shared space where everyone is scratching and snoring and sneezing. But guess what happens on that last planet? Buy this for children who are curious about the world around them and beyond the stars. And who understand that answers to the big questions might be found in the least likely places. The full-page illustrations are stunning too, with a gorgeous combination of intriguing detail and bold flashes of colour.
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Dara McAnulty is a past Big Issue book of the year winner, so we know how enthralling the youngest ever winner of the prestigious Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing is when he’s writing about the thing he loves. This book explores the hidden joys and surprises of nocturnal habitats, all evoked with McAnulty’s usual delight in the simple everyday. With fabulously atmospheric illustrations by Barry Falls, McNulty takes us through five different environments at night, explaining how best to find hedgehogs and moths in the garden; bats, owls, foxes and badgers in the woods; glowworms on the coast; Manx shearwater in the sky; and dormice and woodcock in the farm. He tells us how best to attract wildlife, how to light your garden and how to build a sand trap to lure critters. Interspersed between invaluable fact lists is McNulty’s sensitive and rousing poetry, a mixture of information and expressions of wonder. Another winner from a Big Issue favourite.
Northern Irish writer Kirtley digs into some local folklore for this inspiring mystical tale. Pip lives with his mum in an isolated cottage and struggles to fit in at school. But when he is at home, examining the nature around him, he feels happy. In wintertime he awaits the swanfall – the swoop of Arctic swans returning from Siberia. But this time there is a worry – his three favourite swans are not there. Other clues suggest that something sinister is happening and Pip takes it upon himself to discover the mystery of the missing swans, coming up against an unexpected power. This is a book that will excite young nature lovers and those who enjoy a strong character-driven story.
Book two in what is set to become a much-loved series, Mallory and her pass-remarkable, talking skull Maggoty return. Maggoty has much to say about a new wig it wants – The Elegenza, from Les Wigs – so much so that Aunt Lilith gets into a spot of bother trying to raise funds, driving Mallory and Maggoty deep into the bowels of Castle Carrion to try and sort it out. To complicate things, Death, with his big scythe, pops up. Imbued with goth spirit, most importantly, this is very, very funny, laden with the sort of broad humour young readers will adore.
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Burton, best known for her debut novel, international bestseller The Miniaturist, returns with her third young fiction book. Bo, a young mudlarker along the Thames (“a vein in her body”), living at time when “stevedores… roll out cargo… by the factories towards Vauxhall”, turns up an incredible treasure – a bejewelled moon that fits in her palm. A 12-year-old stranger, Billy, is suddenly there too and so begins the adventure – lyrical, moving and twisty, where reality is never quite clear. That motif Burton favours, of an uncertain past knocking and having a telling influence on the present – courses through. A story that remains and sustains.
De Grasse Tyson has built his world-renowned reputation on an ability to make some of the most incomprehensible secrets of the cosmos consumable, all with a simple wit. For this, answering questions from “working adults, retired senior citizens… school children and prison inmates”, he uses the cypher of Merlin “as old as the earth”, an intergalactic superknowledge source. He tackles big subjects, such as how noisy is the sun, could Superman really turn back time by twisting the Earth, and what would happen if the moon was vaporised (less than you think). You’re not getting to get this level of deep, odd knowledge from a Google search. Not specifically for younger readers, but a joy for curious minds of all ages.
It begins with Margo, a 16-year-old, broken by the death of her father, on a train from Cork to Dublin heading towards a new start. Except, she is suddenly, without changing, on a train to New Davia, a place between worlds, where time flexes, danger knocks, and nothing makes sense. Thankfully, Moon, a boy of unclear age, has stepped in as her, (reluctant) helper and guide. A book about belonging and not belonging, about the value of time – literally – about sadness and how we can get lost even when we think we know where are. It’s sci-fi, romance and adventure, with a dash of societal politics. Knocking along, breathlessly, with a nod to Italo Calvino at open and close, it’ll speak loudly to young readers mapping their way in the world.
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Michael Morpurgo has cited Rundell as the natural successor to Tolkien and Pullman. Like them, she is the builder of huge complex worlds which set fire to kids’ imaginations. This is a follow-up to her lauded Impossible Creatures and a return to that epic land. It begins with a beautiful sequence; a boy wakes up to a miniature dragon chewing on his nose. And from there the adventures begin. This time there is an urgent rescue mission, which must be accomplished on the back of a Sphinx with a girl and her flock of birds alongside. A superlative, exhilarating tome.
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