Children Book Reviews

Name: Lucy Russell
25 April 2018;

Genre: Representation & Inclusion

Eleven-year-old Aya has arrived in Britain from Syria. She has left her homeland behind, lost her father and is holding the rest of the fragile family together, responsible beyond her years. When she glimpses the dancers in the community centre's ballet class, she longs to dance again - ballet...

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Name: Alison Kelly
23 April 2018;

Genre: Adventure

It's not often that I get to review poetry collections written by a dog. It feels like no time ago that I was chuckling over Moses' and Stevens' Waggiest Dogs anthology and now the delightful Thinker has arrived. This unusual collection (Pub: Tiny Owl) opens with 'Naming me' in which a new puppy...

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Name: Alison Kelly
23 April 2018;

Genre: Adventure

Firecrackers (Troika Books) is a magical and generous new collection of poems, stories and plays. It's beautifully presented and designed with Jo Riddell's wonderful illustrations enhancing the rich array of texts that Zaro Weil has composed. The hefty hardback book opens with 'Long ages ago' (...

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Name: Ruby B
23 April 2018;

Genre: School Stories

Izzy, Zach, Maisie and Jodi go to a normal school, in a normal county, in a normal country, but with a not so normal Lollipop man! When Jack the Lollipop Man is replaced with a new Lollipop Lady, the group get suspicious. Maisie is sure that he's in Rome, but the others just won't believe it. And...

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Name: Dawn Woods
23 April 2018;

Genre: Animals

The third adventure of Pug with his owner, the child Lady Miranda. Again Pug finds himself in strange situations without quite knowing how he got there. After a nightmare one night, Lady Miranda passes the blame onto Pug and announces Pug needs to face his fear of lions and go on safari. Pug h...

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Name: Jacqueline Harris
19 April 2018;

Genre: Adventure

In a great mish-mash of reality and fantasy, this is a debut novel suitable for lower Key Stage 2 children. Alice Dent, the heroine of this story, gets a cold. So far, so ordinary. But this is not an ordinary cold in the slightest. Alice's cold has amazing side effects and it is highly contagious...

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Name: Ellen King
18 April 2018;

Genre: Adventure

Sam in Lyttle Lies is a small boy who tells BIG lies and the funny storylines, comic illustrations and short bursts of text make it ideal for reluctant readers as well as children developing in confidence as readers. In this second story in the series, The Stinky Truth, Sam is forced to tell th...

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Name: Aidan Severs
17 April 2018;

Genre: School Stories

I'm always dubious of the quality of books aimed at the 7-9 age bracket, especially ones which feature lurid cartoonish illustrations and crazy typesetting. It can sometimes seem like funny books are the only thing available to children who are just getting into reading longer books, especially w...

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Name: Max Age 10
16 April 2018;

Genre: Adventure

It introduces an amzing storyline right from the beginning to keep any reader carrying on and shows all the fantastic elements every story needs to make you carry on. It includes small amounts of humour while continuing with the outstanding story and allowing new things to fall into place as you...

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Name: Emma Long
13 April 2018;

Genre: Representation & Inclusion

Boy 87 is an accessible if often difficult story that reminds us that, behind every refugee statistic, is a real person with an often desperate story.The Boy 87 in this story is Shif, a 14 -year-old boy who is numbered the day he and his friend, Bini, are arrested...

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