Special Delivery: A Book's Journey Around the World

Special Delivery begins with Jay who is counting down to his birthday. This is a great hook into this book. Who doesn't get excited by a birthday?

The book then begins the making and journey of the book we are actually reading! What a clever idea. Lots of new vocabulary is introduced about manufacturing and the movement of items around the world. When reading the book with Year 2, they learned about cranes at ports and container ships and the book explores the time container ships are at sea. Once back on land, Jay's birthday book continues on its journey, eventually arriving at Pip's Bookshop.

The book cleverly shows the journey of the book and the people who help. This shows children the journey of just one single item and opens their thinking about what is sold in our local shops and the distance these items have travelled and the amount of people involved.

This is a lovely book to use in Geography work and I will definitely be using it in our work. The book finishes with some special delivery number facts. WOW!

Picture Book / Reviewed by Maria, teacher

Suggested Reading Age 5+

Special Delivery: A Book's Journey Around the World is an interesting story that follows a book's journey all around the world! The story starts with a little boy who is patiently counting down the days until his birthday. It shows a factory, many miles away, which is producing books. Each process of the book's journey from the factory to being delivered to Jay is followed carefully and explained simply.

The illustrations include bright colours and will help young children to gain an understanding of some of the language that's used. At the back of the book, there are a couple of pages of non-fiction text where children can learn more facts about the processes of manufacturing and shipping.

Picture book / Reviewed by Lucy Newton, teacher

Suggested Reading Age 5+

Special Delivery: A Book's Journey Around the World describes the different stages a book goes through from being printed cut and pressed to landing in the readers' hands. We meet the factory workers and train drivers, the container ship captains, post office staff and finally the booksellers.

The images are bold and colourful, yet the text didn't hold my six-year-old daughter's attention. Children who are interested in how things work or different transport vehicles may find this book more engaging. The concept that the actual book we were holding had travelled all the way around the world was a little lost on my daughter but after explaining it again she seemed quite impressed.

Picture book / Reviewed by Jemma Jeffrey, teacher

Suggested Reading Age 5+