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Thursday, 6 August 2020

#Booky100Keepers Day 95: "The Apartment: A Century of Russian History" by Alexandra Litvina, Anna Desnitskaya and Antonina W. Bouis (Abrams Books for Young Readers)

Posted by ReadItDaddy at August 06, 2020 Labels: #Booky100Keepers, Abrams Books for Young Readers, Alexandra Litvina, Anna Desnitskaya, The Apartment: A Century of Russian History, translated by Antonina Bouis

Russia has always fascinated me. There's just something about this amazing nation that draws you in from its often turbulent history, to its triumphant and successful space program, and its rich and diverse culture.

Finding books on Russia that aren't dry and boring isn't that easy but "The Apartment: A Century of Russian History" takes an entirely different approach to most non-fiction books that is so brilliant and ground-breaking I would dearly like to see it become 'the norm' for a lot of non-fiction subjects.

Inside the apartment, the lives of several families are chronicled over the space of an entire century, from the revolutionary Russia of the early 20th Century, right through to the present day.

As the apartment changes and evolves to meet the needs of each new set of tenants, we find out a little bit more about Russia in each decade, through the first and second world war, and through to the eventual fall of the Iron Curtain, and a relaxation and more ready acceptance of some of the western influences that have worked their way into Russian culture in later years.

Alexandra and Anna have done an amazing job here, packing in so much detail and so much anecdotal history that there's something new to discover every time you read this book.

We also absolutely loved the format of this. It's a huge hardback tome, the sort of book we describe in our reviews as being made for sprawling out on the floor with and we learned so much from it, from what Russian people ate and what they did during harsher times, through to their subversive counter-cultural reactions to some quite often harsh laws.

Like most of our keepers, this is something that is read again and again on a regular basis, and there's no surprise it was a book of the week and indeed one of our picture books of the year last year.

Original Review Links:

ReadItDaddy's Second Book of the Week: Week Ending 1st November 2019 - "The Apartment: A Century of Russian History" by Alexandra Litvina and Anna Desnitskaya, translated by Antonina Bouis (Abrams Books)

Our Picture Book, Chapter Book and Comic / Graphic Novel of the year winners for 2019

#Booky100Keepers Day 90: The fantastic non fiction books from Wide Eyed Editions

Posted by ReadItDaddy at August 01, 2020 Labels: #Booky100Keepers, Wide Eyed Editions

We love non-fiction and we've been very lucky during our tenure on the blog to see the rise and rise of absolutely top quality non fiction titles shouldering aside fiction picture books to establish themselves as a force to be reckoned with in engaging young readers with a lifelong love of reading.

Wide Eyed Editions (a Quarto imprint) stunned us with their first set of releases some years back, and it's been a delight to see the range maintain those high standards, gorgeous presentation and of course a serious amount of writing and illustrative talent contributing to their amazing range of books, covering a massively diverse range of subjects.

"The School of Art" was an early title that impressed the socks off us, taking the approach of involving the reader in a love of art - and showing them how they can draw on (pun intended) their own skills with the help of awesome art tutors who pop up throughout the book. It's a dazzling little title this, and such a great idea because kids instantly gain confidence if a book takes the right approach in showing them how to tap into their own creativity and imagination.

The "Illumanatomy" book with its innovative use of a red lens to show multiple pictures in the same page spread was also an instant wow.

One thing we always look for in non-fiction books are books that can serve up a ton of facts and interesting information but do so in a 'wow factor' kind of way, and this certainly fits the bill. Though kids are often lured away from non-fiction books by a wide range of interactive apps on mobile phones and tablets, it's been great to see books clawing some of those readers back, and inviting more reader participation and interaction as they convey their information.

These books have always gone down really well on the blog, and they're often the titles people ask us about when they're searching out books for their kids (adults, it seems, are more inclined to pick up an interesting non-fiction title for a child relative than they are a fiction title, I wonder why that is?)

Four gorgeous new books to brighten up your summer from Walker Books

Posted by ReadItDaddy at July 22, 2020 Labels: Africa Amazing Africa Mouni Feddag, Angela Brooksbank, Anna Hibscus, Atinuke, Catch That Chicken, Lauren Tobia, Too Small Tolla, Walker Books

The summer holidays are here, as is the sunshine, and you can almost hear the exasperated exclamations of parents across the land as their kids grump around the house, listlessly scrolling on their tablets or mobiles. But hark, there is hope - and there's no better time to drag 'em outside, find a nice sunshiney nook to curl up in and enjoy a truly glorious set of books from Walker UK.

Starting with "Too Small Tola" by Atinuke and Onyinye Iwu, this is a trilogy of treats, three stories featuring the effervescent little Nigerian girl and her family.

Tola might be small but she's a mighty girl after our own hearts, loving life in Lagos alongside her brother Dapo, sister Moji and Grandmummy (the real boss of the household).

Tola's adventures span the three stories, whether it's visiting the vibrant market with her Grandmummy, or saving a local tailor when his goods aren't delivered. This determined little girl is always ready to pitch in and help, and these stories are filled with atmosphere and enjoyment for emergent readers just beginning to stretch their reading legs with longer books, still filled with plenty of gorgeous illustrations.

"Too Small Tola" by Atinuke and Onyinye Iwu is out now, published by Walker Books.

Nest up is the glorious "Anna Hibiscus" again by Atinuke with illustrations this time from super-talented Lauren Tobia.

It's another slice of African life with awesome Anna, who never turns down the chance to have an adventure or two. This edition features four stories featuring this fearless mighty girl, enjoying a day at the beach with her family and her cousins, or partying with her aunties in her home town.

Anna has a secret wish though. She would love more than anything else to see something you don't often see in Africa. Glorious crisp snow! Will she ever get her wish?

Again this title is perfect, taking content from the hugely successful picture books featuring Anna Hibiscus, and wrapping them in a pocket sized edition that's just perfect for tucking in your bag and taking to the beach with you.

Illustrated throughout by Lauren, this is a fab compilation of Anna's best stories.

"Anna Hibiscus" by Atinuke and Lauren Tobia is out now, published by Walker Books.

Younger readers can also join in the fun with a glorious pair of large format picture books.

"Catch that Chicken" by Atinuke and Angela Brooksbank is a fab little story featuring Lami, a little girl who absolutely loves all her feathery friends, and is the very best in her village at rounding up and catching the chickens when they escape from their pens.

Poor Lami has an accident one day and really hurts her ankle, making her chicken-catching duties very hard and very painful.

But Lami is smart and clever, and begins to think about other ways she can be the best at what she does.

Watch out chickens, you can't keep a mighty girl down!

We really loved the illustrations in this one, I mean just look inside at this page spread and how gorgeously detailed and atmospheric it is. It's almost like being there!

"Catch that Chicken" by Atinuke and Angela Brooksbank is out now, published by Walker Books.

One last book, and this one's probably our favourite, a superb slice of non fiction describing the sights, the sounds and what life is like in "Africa Amazing Africa by Atinuke and Mouni Feddag.

More than just an atlas, this is a country-by-country tour of all the amazing places, people and culture that you'll find in the African continent.

From the busy cities to the desert plains, from the coastal towns and villages right into the heart of the savannah, this is a truly amazing guide that will make you want to visit this amazing place.

With 55 countries covered in the book, you'll find a rich and diverse set of contentfor younger readers, dividing Africa up into five sections: South, East, West, Central and North, each with its own introduction.

This is followed by a page per country, containing a delightful mix of friendly, informative text and colourful illustrations. With just a a couple of facts per page, the book is perfectly geared toward seven year old readers, and imagined as a diving-off point: to inspire children to find out more about each and every country, and perhaps make Afrida the subject of classroom projects and topics of discussion.

It's a real treat and the large format with gorgeous colour illustrations makes it a real winner, and so eyecatching that you can't possibly pass it by.

"Africa Amazing Africa Country by Country" by Atinuke and Mouni Feddag is out now, published by Walker Books.

(All books kindly supplied for review).

#Booky100Keepers Day 66: "Murilla Gorilla" by Jennifer Lloyd and Jacqui Lee (Simply Read Books)

Posted by ReadItDaddy at July 08, 2020 Labels: #Booky100Keepers, Jacqui Lee, Jennifer Lloyd, Murilla Gorilla, Simply Read Books

Let's face it, one of the biggest trials as a parent comes when your kids are 'transitioning' between reading picture books and reading more wordy chapter-based fare.

In our experience, most 'early readers' are absolutely appalling, lathering horrid moral lessons in twee illustrations - the very point when a child is looking to maintain their engagement with reading is the point where they are totally switched off by the sort of books they're given in school or often at home (Biff, Chip and Kipper are not in our Keepers list for a reason - though I still admire the subversive streak in the art in those books and maintain that's where their true worth lies).

We were lucky though - we had these fantastic books, the "Murilla Gorilla" series by Jennifer Lloyd and Jacqui Lee as our early readers for C and I can't shout loudly about how great these still are even today.

We first met Murilla back in 2013 when C was just about to start "Big School" for the first time. Back then there weren't very many books that properly embraced the 'chapter' format, but with full colour illustrations and a completely hopeless but utterly engaging lead character, these books were worth their weight in gold for ensuring C became more interested in solo reading.

Murilla is a Gorilla, working as a Jungle Detective in the wilds of Africa. Number one in a field of one, Murilla's slightly haphazard detective methods seem to happen more by accident than design. She's a bit scatterbrained, and before each case her biggest problem is usually finding where all the bits of her detective kit have got to in her rather messy house.

With every case, Murilla is brought in by other animals to solve strange mysteries, disappearances, and even outright theft. She takes her time, is often governed by her rumbling tummy, and quite often likes a snooze in the middle of cases - much to the exasperation of her customers.

However she proves just how smart she is in the end, solving the case with a deft bit of observation and copious notes in her little notebook.

The setting for the books is gorgeous, depicting a junior view of what life might actually be like in an African township where the hustle and bustle of activity around the markets is depicted in these books quite beautifully.

The diverse animal characters are also nicely written but it's Jennifer's humour, alongside Jacqui's brilliant illustrations that mark these out above other early readers. They're genuinely funny (pant-wettingly so for their younger audience but also enough to make us cynical old adults crack a wry grin too).

I used to perform stupid voices when reading these aloud. Murilla as a slightly sonorous sleepy kind of soul, with Mrs Chimpanzee being quite loud and brash and outspoken, and the crocodiles being slightly snappy too.

I always wished these books would turn into a massively successful series (we only have three of them - and never got sent "The Missing Mop" for review sadly, but I can't find any mention of more, which is a real shame as they're utterly brilliant!) But it's my duty while we're still here to raise their profile a little bit. Honestly, if you're looking for a far better alternative to those detestable kids in the Biff Chip and Kipper books, you really ought to seek these out, they're just fantastic!.

Original Review Links:

Murilla Gorilla - Jungle Detective by Jennifer Lloyd and Jacqui Lee (Simply Read Books)

ReadItDaddy's FIRST Book of the Week - Week Ending 12th September 2014 - "Murilla Gorilla and the Hammock Problem" by Jennifer Lloyd and Jacqui Lee (Simply Read Books)

ReadItDaddy's Book of the Week - Week Ending 6th December 2013 - "Murilla Gorilla and the Lost Parasol" by Jennifer Lloyd and Jacqui Lee (Simply Read Books)

#Booky100Keepers Day 64: The work of Chris Riddell

Posted by ReadItDaddy at July 06, 2020 Labels: #Booky100Keepers, Chris Riddell

Many of the folk fetching up in our #Booky100Keepers list are folk who can enviously wear both author and illustrator hats equally well, fantastically in fact.

Chris Riddell's books - whether he's illustrating his own writing, or helping otherwise godawful books lift themselves up a notch by providing illustrative genius - have been a mainstay of our "Book of the Week" slots since we started out back in 2010.

But it was the "Goth Girl" series that really caught C's eye - first read with me reading them aloud to her, then solo read on her own, the distinct cleverness of Riddell's drawing-in of pop culture figures fused with his glorious ink illustrations, coupled with the whole idea of producing gothic novels for middle grade, was just a huge huge lure.

Ada Goth lives with her eccentric father, Lord Goth in a rambling mansion with the most curious gardens. Riddell expertly draws us into the story of Ada and her ghostly companion, a tiny mouse named Ishmael, and the strange goings-on around Goth Manor. There's something deliciously dark about these books, drawing in influences as diverse as Frances Hodgson Burnett and Diana Wynne Jones, but underpinned beautifully by Chris's drawings (and of course his wonderful end-paper maps of Ada's amazing home).

The series goes from strength to strength, in fact they just get funnier as they go along - particularly for adults who will appreciate some of the humour that sails completely over their kids' heads.

Of course Chris is equally at home illustrating amazing books by other authors, including "The Sleeper and the Spindle" - a collaboration with Neil Gaiman, who needs no introduction at all - as one of the primary figures in fantasy fiction, and a god amongst men when it comes to spinning up amazing stories.

This one is more of a grown up fairy tale, a response to the rather antiquated views of the handsome prince rushing to save the sleeping princess from a thousand year snooze.

Woven with Chris's talent for drawing gorgeous fantasy bookscapes, but with a thoroughly modern and bang-up-to-the-minute exploration of what loves means, regardless of gender, this one is probably one to keep for when your kids are a bit older.

It's mesmerisingly good stuff though.

Chris has even managed to salvage an utter wreck of a celebrity book from being completely disastrous. Russell Brand's Trickster Tales was obviously meant to spin out into a story series, but the first book arrived to a deafeningly ambivalent reaction from the book-buying public.

That said, the best thing about "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" is the inventive way Chris draws up the characters from this rather self indulgent version of the classic fairy tale, proof positive that he can turn even a dog's breakfast into a book of the week.

Following Chris on Twitter is a joy - when he's tweeting about various book-type things or having a go at our dreadful government, his enviable talent shines through.

God I'd love to be able to draw like him.

Original Review Links:

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell (Bloomsbury)

Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse by Chris Riddell (Macmillan Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's Book of the Week - Week Ending 7th November 2014 - "Russell Brand's Trickster Tales - The Pied Piper of Hamelin" by Russell Brand and Chris Riddell (Canongate Books)

ReadItDaddy's Book of the Week - Week Ending 23rd January 2015 - "Goth Girl - A Fete Worse than Death" by Chris Riddell (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Something Else by Kathryn Cave and Chris Riddell (Picture Puffin)

ReadItDaddy's Chapter Book of the Week - Week Ending 11th October 2019: "Guardians of Magic (The Cloud Horse Chronicles Book1)" by Chris Riddell (Macmillan Children's Books)

"A Kid in my Class" by Rachel Rooney and Chris Riddell (Otter-Barry Books)

A Great Big Cuddle - Poems for the Very Young by Michael Rosen, Illustrated by Chris Riddell (Walker Books)

"Fortunately the Milk" by Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell / Skottie Young (Bloomsbury Publishing)

ReadItDaddy's Chapter Book of the Week - Week Ending 3rd August 2018: "Coraline" by Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell (Bloomsbury Children's Books)

ReaditDaddy's Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 3rd July 2020: "I Am Not A Label" by Cerrie Burnell and Lauren Baldo (Wide Eyed Editions)

Posted by ReadItDaddy at July 03, 2020

We know and love Cerrie Burnell for her exquisite and beautiful middle grade writing, but did you know that she's also an accomplished biographer?

"I am Not a Label" by Cerrie Burnell and Lauren Baldo could have easily been mistaken as "just another influential figures" book. We've seen dozens over the last few years, either collectively describing influential and inspirational people from the past and present, or focusing on the life story of individuals.

However "I Am Not a Label" chooses its subjects from a diverse pool of amazingly intelligent, talented and (the important bit for kids) instantly identifiable characters that kids may already look up to.

Deep thinkers rub shoulders with creative artists, sports superstars and those who have pushed themselves beyond their limits to achieve amazing things. Each mini-biography is sensitively and beautifully written to give kids a great place to start researching about these amazing people, perhaps including them in classroom projects or other activities both in and out of school (C found the book particularly useful for some of the Guide badges she's working on at the moment).

As you'd expect from Wide Eyed, the presentation of the book is brilliant too - and Lauren's illustrations sweep through each page spread, filled with colour and creativity.

Cerrie herself is a brilliant choice to head up this book, being worthy of inclusion in here herself. This is fantastic and inspirational stuff, and particularly relevant to a lot of the causes and movements in the world that kids are becoming a huge part of.

Sum this book up in a sentence: A brilliantly written and beautifully illustrated collection of biographies of some truly amazing people who offer inspirational life stories and their own examples of how we can overcome even the most difficult obstacles in life if we put our minds and bodies to it.

"I Am Not A Label" by Cerrie Burnell and Lauren Baldo is out on 7th July 2020 - published by Wide Eyed Editions (very kindly supplied for review).

#Booky100Keepers Day 54: The Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling (Bloomsbury)

Posted by ReadItDaddy at June 26, 2020 Labels: #Booky100Keepers, Bloomsbury, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling

Good grief, what is there left to write about the publishing phenomenon known as Harry Potter? We started to read the entire set of books about four years ago, and it took us nearly that long to get through them all.

At first I wasn't really sure what C would make of them, and I think it's probably one of my worst habits as a dad that I feel I want to get her as enthusiastic about stuff I love as I am. Bad bad habit, kids should really be able to find their own routes into reading.

Between watching the movies and reading the books I didn't actually have that hard a task convincing her that Harry Potter was a thing she would end up loving to bits, and as we read through "The Philosopher's Stone" the books began to sink their serpent's teeth into her - as did the world of Hogwarts.

Probably the most interesting thing about C's appreciation of Harry Potter is her intense dislike of the boy wizard himself, which holds quite the parallel to my own dislike of J.K Rowling, the creator of a world that won so many over with its appearance of appealing to hugely diverse audience, yet when you scratch the surface you find Rowling's blisteringly unpopular politics seeping up from the foundations of her bookworld like dry rot.

Like many authors and creatives, you've got a straight choice of distancing yourself from them and their work because of their outspoken beliefs, or you can choose to do what many others have done, and take the work and make it your own. We've had to do this so rarely on our #Booky100keepers list - we admire the work hugely, but the folk themselves are dumpster fires, best avoided when they're on a rant.

I didn't actually realise that it was a "thing" that quite a lot of Harry Potter fans are not fans of Harry at all. As we read the books C began to question just how HP ended up as "The Chosen One" at all. He seems to stumble his way through the books, saved again and again by his besties Ron and Hermione, or any supporting characters who just happen to come along at the time.

Think what you like about J.K. Rowling, but despite her outright thievery of just about every possible children's fantasy story trope, she somehow managed to concoct a book world that gets its hooks into you (and I still maintain that the movies have an awful lot to do with the colossal worldwide success she's enjoyed - and if there's one thing no fan would deny, it's the sheer amount of amazing work and effort that went into those movies - both by the actors and their performances, and the amazing art and special effects teams that worked on them to bring Hogwarts properly to life).

The books still inspire us, in that they feel comfortable when you dip back into them, that they spur our imagination (particularly our visual imagination, helped in no small part by the truly glorious illustrated versions we have with Jim Kay's beautiful work in them, and production books from the movies filled with awesome concept art and amazing props and costumes).

When we got to the end of our mammoth read of all the novels, I wondered if C would ever return to them on her own - to hoover up the bits where I skirted through chapters that weren't quite suitable for a ten year old - or bits where she might have missed some of the subtle allegorical stuff that J.K. managed to work in there, despite her sometimes really clunky dialogue and prose.

I sound a bit negative about these but let's face it, if a book series can have a huge effect on a child's love of fantasy fiction, who am I to deny that those books are keepers for sure? Damned shame about J.K though. All that money and she just can't keep a lid on her poisonous opinions (seems to be 'a thing' for rich folk in general, I guess).

Original Review Links:

ReadItDaddy's Book(s) of the Week - Week Ending 22nd December 2017 - "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone / The Chamber of Secrets / The Prisoner of Azkaban" by J.K Rowling and Jim Kay (Bloomsbury)

'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' marks J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros return to 'Harry Potter Universe'

"How can you NOT like Harry Potter, Daddy?" - A ReadItDaddy Editorial

Happy 20th (US) Birthday Harry Potter - A good excuse for a booky ramble...

When is the best time to introduce your child to the Harry Potter universe? A ReadItDaddy Editorial

Having the 'Bad Guy' Talk - What on earth do you do when your daughter loves Draco more than Harry? A ReadItTorial

#Booky100Keepers Day 42: "The Welcome to the Museum" Series (Big Picture Press)

Posted by ReadItDaddy at June 14, 2020 Labels: #Booky100Keepers, Big Picture Press, The Welcome to the Museum Series

It's about time we had some non-fiction in this list, and what better series of books to feature than the wonderful "Welcome to the Museum" series from Big Picture Press.

These gigantic books aim to recreate the thrill (for us at least) of visiting museums, checking the exhibits and hopefully learning something new.

The series kicked off with "Animalium", a thorough and meticulously curated guide to all the creatures that stalk, wade, swim or crawl across our beautiful planet.

If you've ever visited the fascinating (but quite grisly) Natural History Museum at Tring you'll probably feel right at home with a book that puts so many species in front of you, so many creatures both familiar and unfamiliar - and presents them like a classic Victorian reference book.

In fact that theme is common to all the "Ium" books, as they're just so beautifully put together, always with a team of experts and an amazing set of illustrators to bring the 'exhibits' to life.

"Botanicum" is another favourite, like a beautiful book-based version of some of our favourite destinations such as Kew Gardens or the Batsford Arboretum.

This time an amazing collection of plant life has been brought together, from the mundane to the exotic, showing just how vibrant and diverse the planet's plant life is, and how so many different species and sub-species contribute a huge amount to our world and the preservation of life that relies on these plants to survive (including us, of course!)

Once again though the book is lovingly crafted to look like those fabulously illustrated Victorian plant-collector journals, it's brought bang up to date with new scientific knowledge of plants and their benefits, and for us the section on Fungi is awesome (as we're a bit obsessed about them to be honest!)

Each book is massive, which helps the level of engagement when you're sprawled out on the floor with these, either just browsing through or looking up a nugget of information for a school project or a piece of artwork (they are really lovely reference books that will last your kids years!)

"Anatomicum" is our favourite by far though, turning its steely gaze on our own bodies and how incredible they are, thanks to a good dig through the Wellcome Collection.

Inside-out, the book is packed with detail about the amazing biological machine that is the human body, from our skeletons to our nerves, our vital organs and our skin.

We are amazing - and this book is too, illustrated with so much detail and, like the other books, really useful if your kids are studying Biology and need a really thoroughly researched reference book that doesn't talk its subject down to the simplest levels, yet is instantly child-friendly and approachable thanks to great design and fantastic descriptions.

All of the books in the series are worth checking out, and we feel very lucky to have quite a collection of them. Non-Fiction has had something of a golden age and a brilliant revival over the course of the last ten years while we've been beavering away at this blog. Stunning books like this just show how you can 'win kids back' from their screens if the source material in fabulous non-fic is put together in the most amazing ways.

Original Review Links:

ReadItDaddy's Second Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 1st December 2017 - "Dinosaurium (Welcome to the Museum Series)" by Lily Murray and Chris Wormell (Big Picture Press)

ReadItDaddy's Second Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 25th October 2019: "Anatomicum (Welcome to the Museum Series)" by Dr Jennifer Z. Paxton and Katy Wiedemann (Big Picture Press / Wellcome Collection)

ReadItDaddy's First Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 19th October 2018: "Planetarium (Welcome to the Museum)" by Raman Prinja and Chris Wormell (Big Picture Press)

ReadItDaddy's Book of the Week - Week Ending 12th December 2014 - "Animalium - Welcome to the Museum" by Jenny Broom and Katie Scott (Big Picture Press)

ReadItDaddy's First Book of the Week - Week Ending 23rd September 2016 - "Botanicum - Welcome to the Museum" by Professor Kathy Willis and Katie Scott (Big Picture Press)

ReadItDaddy's First Book of the Week - Week Ending 23rd September 2016 - "Botanicum - Welcome to the Museum" by Professor Kathy Willis and Katie Scott (Big Picture Press)

"Diversity is not a shiny brooch to wear to impress your friends" - This Week's ReadItTorial

Posted by ReadItDaddy at June 11, 2020 Labels: #ReadItTorial 2020

2020 might well be remembered as the 'year of the virus' but it's also going to be remembered as the year that an entire nation stood up to a stupid shredded-wheat haired President and shouted "enough is enough".

One thing I wasn't really prepared for was how angry Twitter would make me while #BlackLivesMatter protesters the world over mobilised and began to make their voices heard (not anger at them of course, but anger at the way they were being portrayed).

Some of the sources of annoyance were obvious, for example our own trash-fire political system slyly trying to brush its chief advisor's blatant ignorance of the COVID-19 lockdown to serve his own ends, while simultaneously readying itself to blame the inevitable 2nd wave of COVID-19 infections on the protests that have been taking place in major cities here.

The other annoyance was the disgusting "bowing and scraping" going on from the publishing industry. Suddenly every agent or commissioning editor seemed to be crawling out of the woodwork to offer black creatives all sorts of tantalising deals, almost a free run at the submissions process so that they could tell their stories, make themselves heard. Silently in the background listening to the "Ka-CHING!" from book sales of fast-tracked titles pushed out to serve a public who now, more than ever, want to make sure their kids know what's going on and are kept well informed from an early age.

It's laudable, of course it is but I'm horribly cynical about this stuff, just as I was horribly cynical about the tidal wave of eco-cash-in books that arrived when Greta Thunberg's plaintive globe-saving messages began to come to public attention, or the many books that pull the same stuff with women's rights.

If there's a buck to be made, it seems, the industry knows no shame.

As it says in the header of this article, true diversity and representation of black talent in children's books isn't some gaudy little brooch to pin to your publishing house, wearing it around to impress your friends and notch up a few extra book sales.

Simultaneously to the hideous (and quite rightly pilloried) guilt-assuaging going on was a Twitter thread about the money that authors are paid as advances by their publishers. The UK figures told the same old story they always do. UK authors and illustrators get a pitiful sum compared to their US counterparts, and of course the more famous you are, the bigger the loot grab from writing or illustratng (well, that is common sense). But then there's the whole question of the whopping great big advances paid to celebrity authors who (in most cases) will inevitably end up with their well-meaning books clustered like flies at the bottom of the bargain bin in factory clearance outlets like "The Works".

Back to #BlackLivesMatter though, and the simple fact that some publishers - independent and still sadly considered 'non mainstream' really know how to promote and encourage black talent, in fact world talent from a rich and diverse set of cultures stretching right across our planet. As much as the UK children's publishing industry seems locked in a litany of producing and publishing the same tired old moral messages and themes year in year out, publishers such as Tiny Owl and Lantana are quietly, without pomp or ceremony, producing some of the best diverse books on the planet by some of the most awesome black authors and illustrators.

Some Twitter folk have been, quite rightly, rounding on those who have been making advances to them, pointing out that the rather empty gesture won't be sustained. The UK Children's publishing industry is still an industry that systematically fails to consider the rich diversity of our country, and still seems to think it's fine to parade the inclusion of a minor black character in a book like it's some new amazing pioneering thing they've just discovered, when really all kids want to see in a book is themselves, their lives, and the way they look and feel about things being treated as it always should be, as the norm not the exception.

We've had a lot to say on this subject for quite some time, and have always championed diversity here. Racism is an antiquated concept that has held the world back for far too long, it's about time it got in the bin.

https://readitdaddy.blogspot.com/search?q=diverse

ReadItDaddy's Second Book of the Week - Week Ending 5th June 2020: "Amazing Islands" by Sabrina Weiss and Kerry Hyndman (What on Earth Books)

Posted by ReadItDaddy at June 05, 2020 Labels: Amazing Islands, Kerry Hyndman, Sabrina Weiss, What on Earth Books

Non-Fiction books have the power to inspire kids, and our Book of the Week this week is from a publisher who fully understands how to get the best out of their creative teams to put together the most amazing, immersive and engaging books.

"Amazing Islands" by Sabrina Weiss and Kerry Hyndman is indeed amazing, taking us across the globe to island habitats and a glimpse at how we humans co-exist with fabulous flora and fauna.

Sabrina and Kerry take us to 100 different islands, each with their own diverse and unique environments, weather patterns and of course creatures and plants.

Imagine an entire island populated by fierce (Komodo) dragons, or islands comprised completely of shells, or the finest sand, the darkest volcanic rocks and even human habitats that have long been abandoned yet taken over by nature once more.

This is stunning stuff, we loved leafing through this, imagining what it would be like to be able to visit these places ourselves before they disappear for good (the book does not shy away from talking up ecological / environmental issues but does so without making the subject dull or boring for kids).

Utterly brilliant.

Sum this book up in a sentence: a truly stunning natural history book showing just how amazing our planet is, and how islands across the globe are home to some wonderful lifeforms we should protect and preserve.

"Amazing Islands" by Sabrina Weiss and Kerry Hyndman is out now, published by What on Earth Books (kindly supplied for review).

Out Today: "I'll Believe You When..." by Susan Schubert and Raquel Bonita (Lantana Publishing)

Posted by ReadItDaddy at June 04, 2020 Labels: I'll Believe You When, Lantana Publishing, Raquel Bonita, Susan Schubert

Now here's a fantastic idea for a book - and one that is sure to be a huge talking point in classrooms and schools where kids are becoming more and more switched on to world culture and what their compatriots in other countries get up to in an average day.

Examining the way other countries use language, and in particular aspects of language that have been passed down from generation to generation is never anything less than fascinating to kids - who may hear their parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents using strange idioms and phrases that sound odd to their young ears, but are cool to adopt and use nonetheless.

"I'll Believe You When..." by Susan Schubert and Raquel Bonita begins with that simple idiom, and shows how other countries use their own unique take on it.

From the UK to the Netherlands, from India to Russia, everyone has their own version - and some are just so much fun you'll end up pinching them yourself!

"When Pigs Fly" is a well known one but how about "When the stork turns black?" or "When Cows Dance on Ice?"

Sum this book up in a sentence: A super-fun and diverse look at how we use language across the world.

"I'll Believe You When" by Susan Schubert and Raquel Bonita is out today, published by Lantana (kindly supplied for review)

#Booky100Keepers Day 20: "The Dunderheads" and "The Dunderheads Behind Bars" by Paul Fleischman and David Roberts (Walker Books)

Posted by ReadItDaddy at May 23, 2020 Labels: David Roberts, Paul Fleischman, The Dunderheads, The Dunderheads Behind Bars, Walker Books

David Roberts is a name that's going to come up quite a few times in our #Booky100Keepers list - here working alongside Paul Fleischman to provide two utterly fantastic and diverse books that don't bore the absolute pants off you by making diversity some sort of horrid mechanism to drive a point across.

Here's the thing with both "The Dunderheads" and "The Dunderheads Behind Bars" though - despite the kids all having groovy and cool super-talents, they also feel like kids that any young reader might know themselves.

In the first book this crazy gang get together to defeat their horrible teacher, the intimidating Miss Breakbone (who could probably arm-wrestle The Trunchbull into submission, she's that fearsome).

Junkyard's best find ever is confiscated, so alongside his pals Wheels, Pencil, Spider, Hollywood and the rest of the gang, it's time for sweet sweet revenge.

In "The Dunderheads Behind Bars" a sneaky thief is on the loose, just as the kids are breaking up for the summer holidays - and have a shot at fame as a big hollywood blockbuster is filming in town, and they need a bunch of cute kids as extras.

Hollywood herself is absolutely delighted, as her idol, Ashley Throbb-Hart is in the movie - and she just can't wait to nab an autograph. But guess who else got a part in the movie, and guess who else puts a gigantic jail-bar sized spoke in the wheel of The Dunderheads plans for the perfect summer?

Yep, Miss Breakbone, aided by her weird lookalike police officer brother! Someone's going to be wearing a natty orange suit (poor Spider!)

Once again it's up to the kids to solve the mystery of the missing loot, and spring Spider from jail!

These books are fab - most kids love books where they can identify with the kid characters themselves, and there's really something for everyone in these, doing a brilliant job of representing diversity - and not just that, representing really interesting kids with a whole range of quirks, foibles and strange habits - and for that they really do deserve to be keepers.

Original Review Links:

The Dunderheads by Paul Fleischman and David Roberts (Walker Books)

The Dunderheads - Behind Bars by Paul Fleischman and David Roberts (Walker Books)

ReadItDaddy's Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 8th May 2020: "The Big Book of Blooms" by Yuval Zommer (Thames and Hudson)

Posted by ReadItDaddy at May 08, 2020 Labels: Picture Book of the Week 2020, Thames and Hudson, The Big Book of Blooms, Yuval Zommer

Spring might not be our favourite season, but if there's one talented chap who can bring forth what an amazing array of gorgeous plants and flowers we can expect to see sprouting all around us as Spring continues, it's Yuval Zommer.

In our Picture Book of the Week this week, "The Big Book of Blooms", Yuval's glorious colourful page spreads and brilliantly written descriptions show off the world's most amazing flowers and plants at their very best, in his own superb style.

This is a lovely book to sprawl on your favourite patch of sun-kissed grass with, not just showing off flowers that are renowned for their beauty, but also describing some of the more interesting (and in some cases REALLY stinky!) plants that we share a planet with.

There are flowers designed to tempt in pollinators, as hard working bees flit from one to the next.

There are pitcher plants, large strangely alien plants that trap flies and slowly digest them (ew!)

There are even gigantic flowers that really pong terribly!

Let's take a look inside at some of the page spreads in this truly wonderful book:

Cherry Blossoms in China and Japan, the most amazing springtime spectacle

Each page spread mixes gorgeous painterly artwork with immersive descriptions of the plants depicted.

Prickly customers indeed. Fabulous cactii!

The book takes us through the seasons, and plants that thrive in amazingly diverse climates and locales across our planet, from the deepest forests, and even in the deserts and snow.

Insects, animals and birds all do their bit as pollinators, keeping our plant life thriving

Sum this book up in a sentence: If you're lucky enough to live near Kew Gardens, or any of the other amazing botanic gardens across the country, or perhaps even live where these plants grow natively, this is a fabulous book to show you our beautiful plant life at its best and another non-fiction winner from Yuval!

"The Big Book of Blooms" by Yuval Zommer is out now, published by Thames and Hudson (kindly supplied for review).

ReadItDaddy's Chapter Book of the Week - Week Ending 24th April 2020: "Goddesses and Heroines: Women of Myth and Legend" by Xanthe Gresham-Knight and Alice Pattullo (Thames and Hudson)

Posted by ReadItDaddy at April 24, 2020 Labels: Alice Pattullo, Goddesses and Heroines, Picture Book of the Week 2020, Thames and Hudson, Xanthe Gresham-Knight

Regular readers of our blog will know we love mighty girls in our books, but how about a whole host of amazingly mighty women.

Our picture book of the week this week is the superb "Goddesses and Heroines: Women of Myth and Legend" by Xanthe Gresham-Knight and Alice Pattullo.

Xanthe and Alice have come up with a brilliant and diverse selection of mythical and not-so-mythical women in a truly brilliant book packed with classic characters we all know and love, plus quite a few more obscure ones waiting to be discovered and admired - even if some of them are probably not quite the role models you'd want your kids to emulate (Baba Yaga anyone?)

This book may sound like an instant classic, but it's actually the voice used to describe the characters that appeals the most. Talking to kids (particularly my daughter) in a cool and contemporary way about these characters is an instant way to win over your audience, and also a really fantastic way to describe legendary characters they may have encountered before in a new and exciting way.

From Aphrodite the mighty creator of the world, to Mulan the original cross-dressing mighty warrior herself, this globe-spanning collection of mythical mighty matriarchy is absolutely perfect - and a brilliant way to engage kids with finding out even more about these characters from other sources too!

Sum this book up in a sentence: An enviable cast of amazing mythical and legendary female characters that kids will love learning about, summed up in a mighty tome of awesomeness. Unmissable!

"Goddesses and Heroines: Women of Myth and Legend" by Xanthe Gresham-Knight and Alice Pattullo is out now, published by Thames and Hudson (kindly supplied for review).

"Every Child a Song" by Nicola Davies and Marc Martin (Wren and Rook)

Posted by ReadItDaddy at April 07, 2020 Labels: Every Child a Song, Marc Martin, Nicola Davies, Wren and Rook

Here's a hugely inspirational book that taps into those moments when children realise that their voices, their opinions and their rights are just as important as anyone else's, in this stunning piece of prose - both beautiful to read and to look at.

"Every Child a Song" by Nicola Davies and Marc Martin is a lyrical and powerful story built around a celebration of children's rights.

A stirring and rallying cry to all kids to stand up and be heard, be counted, and make their opinions matter in a world that is dominated by voices that would quite like children to still be seen and not heard.

Nicola writes with such a passionate voice, working in conjunction with Marc Martin's stunning illustrations showing children all over the world answering that call to use their own powerful arguments to save the planet, and make us all sit up and take notice of what they're saying.

Let's dip into this gorgeous book for a closer look:

Children at play, raise your voices and be heard!

Stunning, characterful and diverse throughout, this is a real treat indeed.

Children are children and have rights too, no matter where they come from

This is the sort of book that's perfect for building classroom activities around, for climate change projects, or projects about migration and fleeing war-torn lands in search of a better life.

Bring your friends, bring your adults, time to mobilse for your rights!

Sum this book up in a sentence: Absolutely stunning stuff, stirring and inspirational for all kids who need to hear the message loud and clear that they matter, and they deserve better in this world!

"Every Child a Song" by Nicola Davies and Marc Martin is out now, published by Wren and Rook (kindly supplied for review).

"I Saw It First: Ocean" - A family spotting game with brilliant illustrations from Caroline Selmes (Laurence King)

Posted by ReadItDaddy at March 24, 2020 Labels: Caroline Selmes, I Saw It First Ocean, Laurence King Publishing

Our oceans are teeming with life, a rich diverse and amazing world exists beneath the waves.

What better way to get to know all those amazing creatures than with this brilliantly simple but hugely entertaining new board game from Laurence King Publishing.

With fab illustrations by Caroline Selmes, "I Saw It First! Ocean" compliments the previous "I Saw It First: Jungle" edition, with a fast paced observation-based game for younger players.

Each player takes it in turn to draw a token from the box, and then the first person to spot that creature on the board gets a point.

Are your sharp eyes quick enough to spot the creatures before your opponents?

Packaged in an attractive triangular box, with a huge hexagonal board and accompanying tokens, it's perfect for a bit of family gaming time - something we're hugely keen on here at ReadItDaddy Towers

Sum this game up in a sentence: A hugely entertaining, fun and beautifully presented game that's perfect for tiny natural historians who love finding out more about our amazing oceans and the animals that live in them.

"I Saw It First: Ocean" with illustrations by Caroline Selmes is out now, published by Laurence King (kindly supplied for review).

"The Great Big Brain Book" by Mary Hoffman and Ros Asquith (Frances Lincoln Children's Books)

Posted by ReadItDaddy at March 18, 2020 Labels: Frances Lincoln Children's Books, Mary Hoffman, Ros Asquith, The Great Big Brain Book

Your brain is an amazing thing. No really, it is. Sometimes you might not think so, but the human brain is a complex and dynamic organic machine that is capable of some truly wonderful things.

Following on from their successful books about our bodies, our families and our world, "The Great Big Brain Book" by Mary Hoffman and Ros Asquith once again takes a colourful and diverse look at our amazing brains in a bumper book filled to the brim with brainiac facts about our grey matter.

Think of all the things it allows us to do - most of which we take for granted - and you'll find them in this book, everything from the day-to-day functions of our bodies that our brain largely controls automatically, to the more fanciful things that our brain is capable of.

Our dreams, our imaginations, our creativity and our cleverness are all down to that wrinkly grey thing we keep in our skulls!

Let's take a closer look inside this wonderful book!

Your amazing brain can do all these things and more (look out for that scene-stealing cat on every page!)

Poor cat! Might be a tiny brain but they still rule the internet

Different areas of the brain do different things, even from left to right!

Sum this book up in a sentence: Another brilliant, colourful, fact-filled and characterful book by Mary and Ros, cooking up a superb slice of non-fic all about our amazing brains!

"The Great Big Brain Book" by Mary Hoffman and Ros Asquith is out now, published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books (kindly supplied for review).

"Modern children's books are ugly" apparently - are you !Y@£&@ kidding me? This week's #ReadItTorial

Posted by ReadItDaddy at March 12, 2020 Labels: #ReadItTorial2020

"Ugly?" - What planet are you on?

Ugh, snobs. I hate snobs and always have. I hate elitism but from time to time it creeps into things I like - and this week it crept into kidlit like an unwelcome fart in a broken-down elevator packed with people.

As ironic as it probably sounds from someone who has a mere peripheral involvement in children's literature through blogging about kids books with my daughter, I cannot stand articles from sites that profess to cover kidlit 'professionally', but serve no purpose other than to get everyone's backs up.

With sweepingly inaccurate statements from the outset, designed to serve as nothing more than anger-inducing clickbait (I don't know what makes me more angry, the fact I clicked on the damned site, or the fact I read through the whole article, right through to its contradictory non-event of a conclusion), there's really no place for stuff like that in kidlit - but it seems even our hallowed favourite place to hang out is not without its trolls.

Like many others who were equally outraged and took to Twitter to vent about the particular article in question, I won't bother linking to the site or the article (and in fact I'm never going to make the mistake of going there again for children's book news or opinions, pretty sure they won't miss me) but if you missed it and want to read some drivel (delivered by someone whose mouth was probably in this shape while typing it up), go google for "modern children's books are ugly".

Here's the thing though. Kidlit folk are, in general, absolutely lovely so when you find a jarringly critical article that tries to pass itself off as a deep thinkpiece on children's abilities to decode illustrations, it throws you a curveball, and you're left wondering what the original intention of the piece really was other than the aforementioned trolling / clicks for kicks aim.

Initially, two things rolled through my mind once I got to the bitter end...

1) Of course modern children's books aren't ugly. That's probably one of the most inaccurate statements about kidlit I've ever heard, and what the hell does 'ugly' mean anyway?

2) Making a huge sweeping judgement of particular art styles based on your own (seemingly extremely limited and narrow) taste, then assuming that your views should be shoved up everyone's nose is, quite frankly, breathtakingly conceited. Apparently the article took two years to see the light of day. What a shame it ever did.

One of the artists in the firing line was Ella Okstad whose work we've always enjoyed (particularly in the fantastic "Squishy McFluff" books - which are just huge amounts of fun). Hailing from Norway, Ella's work is full of energy, often full of colour, and really is quite beautiful (the header pic above is from Morag Hood's excellent "Sophie Johnson: Unicorn Expert" - a book the article piled into like an angry rhinoceros).

Others were mentioned, before the article started to contradict itself by describing several examples of what the author considered 'beautiful modern classics' - works by some of the industry's most celebrated authors who do indeed turn out beautiful books - but are probably horribly embarrassed to be name-checked in a piece of tosh like this (in fact one of them very quickly took to Twitter to make a solid point about the richness and diversity of art styles present in modern children's books - Well done Benji, you're the man, and you phrased a response with a far more level head than I can manage!)

The more I thought about it (read: ranted about it to anyone who would listen), the more problems I found with the article.

In fact in 10 years of writing this blog, seeing many, many amazing children's books and a huge diverse variety of different art styles, quite often I'm amazed at how children are not only one of the toughest audiences to write / illustrate for, they are quite capable of making up their own minds about particular art styles that some adults might turn their nose up (or make that stupid upturned trapezoid mouth shape about).

It's all about context. Sometimes a story works just as effectively with sparse, energetic, sometimes even monochrome or pure line art. Sometimes stories work beautifully with highly rendered art that has quite obviously been laboured over. The key message is that the many different styles (of illustration AND writing) that exist in kidlit are the very thing that have kept us writing about children's books in our spare time for ten years.

I remember this sort of knee-jerk stuff being commonplace when I was a lowly art student, on the sharp end of criticism during my two years of formal training. With every project came a critique session, and with every critique session, usually came a stream of very personal (and sometimes quite cruel) "reviews" of particular art styles or finished pieces that didn't fit with that critic's own preferred styles.

Such is the nature of any creative endeavour that you will encounter negative criticism as well as positive, but there's a huge difference between constructive criticism or outright nastiness, or a lazy-pass crit just trotted out to massage the person's own ego (and by gad, I bet the author of that article is enjoying all those angry clicks, grrrr!)

Children are very tough, truthful and yet also constructive critics - yet the "boss" of this blog (my daughter) has never once levelled the insult "ugly" at a children's book (in fact again, after ten years of this, I can't actually recall a single commercially published children's title that has passed through our hands that you'd class as ugly). Sometimes C objects to books and we don't review them because of this - but I can honestly state that it's very unusual for the issue she has with a book to have anything do to with the artwork or an illustrator's particular chosen style. Quite the opposite in fact, it's usually the author who gets both barrels - and even that is such a rare occurrence that I can count the number of books on the fingers of one hand (after ten years and many thousands of reviews).

The article's core insult isn't just levelled at the book illustrator, it's levelled at the designers, the layout artists and the hard working art teams who can sometimes take an illustrator's work and turn it into something magical, within the severe confines imposed by the current favoured picture book "standards". It's also levelled at those who work hard to ensure that their catalogue of books represents the rich diversity currently present in the industry. Where would we be if all books looked the same just to fit a narrow view of 'beauty'?

Probably in the same place the beauty industry is currently.

Commercial art is not a breeze to produce (as anyone with meagre art skills will tell you - turning out professional commercially viable art is ridiculously hard, ever wondered why you rarely see celebrity book ARTISTS rather than authors?) - so we have nothing but admiration for children's book illustrators who define their own style, and use it to lift a story from something mundane into something magical.

I could list many, many gorgeous books - even books published this year in just two short months - that are absolutely stunning works of art in their own right. Both Fiction and non-fiction, living testament to the talented folk who didn't listen to twerps like the article author, and continue to hone their craft with each and every piece of work they put out there.

One of those cases where my own curiosity at what several disgusted twitterites were talking about actually bit me on the bum. Really wish I'd never seen it, though a week on at least it seems to have disappeared into a black hole so, ahem, sorry to bring it all up again.

Thursday, 6 August 2020

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