World Book Day costumes at the ready!

It's World Book Day, a cause for celebration for all lovers of books, and an annual event that usually has us standing slightly back and watching with sheer awestruck looks on our faces as schools across the land, and parents, and kids all embrace the tradition of celebrating their favourite books by dressing up as their favourite characters.

Taking a break from all things vehicle-shaped for a moment, here's William Bee's latest adventure for his fabulous artist character Arty Farty.

In "Arty! First Artist in Space" NASA has a problem.

Try as it might it can't recruit any famous artists to volunteer for the space programme. There's an awesome opportunity to paint amongst the stars, but no one quite fancies being strapped into a rocket and shot off into the stygian void.

Arty Farty doesn't really like the sound of it either, but his agent can't miss an opportunity to make a fast buck off the back of an amazing PR opportunity like this, so signs Arty up.

After some rather stomach-churning training, it's time for Arty to don his special art-supply-laden spacesuit and roar off into space.

First stop: The Moon!

Can you imagine being a colourful and inspirational artist and fetching up on a grey dustball like that?

Sacre Bleu! No way are we going into space, sayeth these famous artists.

Arty soon has plans though, plans to change space forever - through the medium of ART!

Arty's super-pushy agent Mr Grimaldi can't wait to sign Arty up for a seemingly impossible mission

This is a hilarious adventure from a hugely talented storyteller and illustrator, which made us chuckle loads (we loved that spread with the famous artists!)

Not the most inspiring landscape to paint, right?

Sum this book up in a sentence: Where no frog has gone before, where no artist has gone before, where no book has gone before!

"Arty! First Artist in Space" by William Bee is out now, published by Pavilion Children's Books (kindly supplied for review). 

It looks like Lantana Publishing will once again make a huge impact on children's publishing in 2019, with their first crop of new releases looking every bit as the fantastic books we raved about in 2018.

First to hit our review pile is "Maisie's Scrapbook" by Samuel Narh with illustrations from Jo Loring-Fisher.

Maisie is a playful little girl with tons of joie de vivre. She loves her family very much indeed.

Maisie's mum loves to wear linen and also loves to play the Viola, the deep sounds filling the air.

Maisie's dad loves to wear Kente cloth in traditional african designs and colours, and he plays the Marimba - a fascinating instrument with its own unique rhythms and sounds.

Though Maisie's mum and dad both come from different places, they're united in their love - and of course they love their daughter very much indeed.

Maisie is inspired to start her own scrapbook, talking about her life and family, and sharing it with others.

This is a fabulous inclusive book celebrating mixed race families and once again doing something Lantana does really well, showcasing books that kids will identify with, and indeed see themselves in. Absolutely brilliant.

Sum this book up in a sentence: A brilliant first title for 2019 from Lantana celebrating diverse families and all the things that everyone holds dear about their own families too.

"Maisie's Scrapbook" by Samuel Narh and Jo Loring-Fisher is out now, published by Lantana Publishing (kindly supplied for review). 

From amazing Author-Illustrator Patricia McCarthy, author of "Run Elephant Run" comes a new adventure - this time diving under the waves into the deep blue ocean off the coast of California.

"Dance Dolphin Dance" journeys out into the ocean, deep down in the kelp forests where Dolphins love to play.

A young Dolphin dances with sea lions but danger is always just around the corner.

Suddenly he meets a Great White Shark... and then a Killer Whale... Dance, Dolphin, dance for your life!

A dramatic underwater chase set in the Pacific Ocean takes us on an amazing journey exploring the various flora and fauna that lives in our oceans, with 36 sea creatures and birds to spot.

Children will delight in the story, but also be able to spot creatures both familiar and unfamiliar, from the Red Octopus and Blue Cannonball Jellyfish to the Crowned Squirrelfish and the Sea Otter.

This book is utterly beautiful, and piques the curiosity of young readers as they try to find all the amazing creatures - and enjoy Dolphin's playful antics.

Sum this book up in a sentence: An utterly beautiful undersea adventure highlighting the importance of our oceans and the rich diversity of life that call the seas their home.

"Dance Dolphin Dance" by Patricia McCarthy is out now, published by Otter-Barry Books (kindly supplied for review). 

Fashion is definitely a 'thing' with C, who loves to design outfits and make clothes for her dolls.

So we were keenly interested in this new title from Otter-Barry, looking at costumes and clothing from all around the world - but also looking to the future at what we may all be wearing in a few years time!

"The Wonderful World of Clothes" by Emma Damon is a gorgeously illustrated celebration of style, a smorgasbord of wearables from many, many countries - each with their own culture and uniqueness that can feed into a child's imagination as they begin to think about how clothes are made, how they came about, and perhaps even how they'll be made and designed as technology begins to play more of a role in how clothing is produced.

See what children wear in Siberia, in the Sahara desert or at the Vietnamese Moon Festival. 

We love quality board books for tiny tiddlers, and we're taking a look at two more brilliant titles coming up from Usborne Publishing.

First is the latest in the mega-successful "That's not my" series from Fiona Watt and Rachel Wells

"That's Not My Mermaid" invites you on an undersea adventure with superb textured board-book pages to tempt little ones into a sensory experience with their first books.

Sturdy and beautifully presented, these books are always a total win with us - and we love recommending them to parents who are looking for a set of collectable titles to introduce their children to the joy of reading.

"That's not my Mermaid" by Fiona Watt and Rachel Wells is out on 7th March 2019 published by Usborne. 

Out on the same date is another treat, this time for unicorn fans...

"Are you there Little Unicorn" by Sam Taplin is a brilliant addition to Usborne's "Little Peep-Through" books, again encouraging exploration, curiosity and interaction.

There are lots of opportunities for littlies to explore and enjoy the colourful illustrations and peep through sections in the book, and let's face it who DOESN'T love a book full of Unicorns?

Great fun for the tiniest of tinies.

"Are you there, Little Unicorn" by Sam Taplin is also out on the 7th March 2019, published by Usborne Books. 

(Both titles kindly supplied for review).

Our YA Comic / Graphic Novel of the Week this week is very much a topic-du-jour mostly thanks to a new Netflix series based on Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba's stunning comic series.

"The Umbrella Academy Volume 1: Apocalypse Suite" is the jumping in point for the series, collecting together the initial origin story for a wildly dysfunctional, diverse and truly lethal family collected together by a harsh and unloving father figure.

All born on the same day, the incumbents of The Umbrella Academy are actually seven orphans, six of which show signs of incredible and strange superpowers under the watchful and controlling eye of one Sir Reginald Hargreaves.

Sir Reginald begins to train the children to become a super-force to be reckoned with, and in the comics we're given more of a backstory to their super-heroics than you will eventually see in the TV show - mostly thanks to an excellent and stunning set piece where the six main heroes fight an animated and bestial version of The Eiffel Tower in a scene you dearly, dearly wish they had the budget for in the TV show (but is sadly lacking).

Klaus, Allison, Vanya, Diego, Luther, Ben, and Number Five are trained to work together as an elite team of superheroes and assassins, but each child has their own flaws - which come to light as the graphic novel digs its treads into the snow and starts to gain traction.
The seventh child, Vanya, is told throughout her early life that though she was born on the same day as the other kids, she has no special powers at all. Something that later on in the graphic novel leads to her discovering quite the opposite (trying not to spoil things too much but Sir Reginald turns out to be a terrible, terrible liar and an absolutely appalling father figure).

Gerard Way, the talented ex lead-dude of "My Chemical Romance" who is now possibly more famous for his exquisite comic writing has created a distinctly different set of heroes, often deeply flawed, seemingly lied to and misled throughout their entire lives, but drawn together again by the death of Sir Reginald - and a doom-laden message from Number 5 / The Boy, a diminutive member of the family cursed with being a 58 year old trapped in a child's body, who witnessed the end of the world in the rapidly approaching future, and has mere days to convince the others to assist him in preventing the apocalypse.

As two bounty hunters are dispatched by a sinister organisation known as "The Commission" - the previous 'employers' of Number 5, to kill their errant agent, the whole story barely takes a breath as it whips from one excellent scene to another, culminating in a final confrontation that could bring about the end of the world.

I absolutely loved this when I first encountered it some years ago, and wanted to re-read the first few volumes before dipping into the show. The graphic novels are inventive, crazy, original and weird - and it's at least worth reading this first volume even if you don't want to get into the nitty gritty of the later volumes.

Thankfully the show only seems to touch content from the first volume anyway, so again do yourself a favour and track down a copy of this before watching the Netflix show (which, actually, is also very good all things considered, with a cracking cast particularly Number 5 who is a total badass!)

Sum this comic up in a sentence: Utterly unmissable, wildly original, and totally cool.

"The Umbrella Academy Volume 1: Apocalypse Suite" by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba is out now, published by Dark Horse Comics (self purchased, not supplied for review).

Stare into the eyes of one of the most feared characters in children's fiction (and children's TV if you have a long enough memory!).

"The Demon Headmaster: Mortal Danger" ushers the return of that hypnotic and scary denizen of the school office and this time it could be curtains for the young protagonists unfortunate enough to get a new head teacher at their school. A strange head teacher...who...must...be...obeyed...at...all...costs.

Sorry, you really do get drawn in by the eyes on the cover. Young Lizzie doesn't really think anything of it when her school gets a new head teacher. In fact the school seems to have improved loads.

Kids are allowed to actually do things they really enjoy, and what's more, the school seems to have an unlimited budget to hire in special experts from outside to make all the kids aspirations come true!

Best of all, Lizzie thinks she's in with a chance to win the adventure trip of a lifetime through a special school competition. Enlisting the help of her pals, Lizzie doesn't realise that anything is amiss until it's too late, and that all too familiar voice - and the complete obedience of the pupils at school - points to something more sinister.

Lizzie could in fact really be in mortal danger this time!

I think the setting, the characters and the whole atmosphere that Gillian whips up around The Demon Headmaster books just makes them utterly compelling. Either that or she's genuinely hidden some sort of hypnotic device in the cover to make us love these so much. 

We go absolutely crazy for this type of book on the blog and I'm happy to see that our prediction that 2019 would be "The Year of the Environmental Book" was accurate and is being fulfilled with amazing titles like "The Incredible Ecosystems of Planet Earth" by Rachel Ignotovsky.

Rachel is the bestselling author of "Women in Science" and this time turns her gaze to producing a book that showcases what an amazing planet we live on.

This illustrated tour of our planet's ecosystems both large and small, from reefs, deserts and rainforests to a single drop of water not only shows how beautiful our world is, but what we stand to lose if we don't join the rallying call to action to address and combat climate change before it's too late.

Through exquisite illustrations, maps and infographics, Rachel explains how our planet works, from its incredible ecosystems and the plants and animals that live there to the importance of biodiversity, weather cycles and more. 

They don't actually drink Um Bongo here. Just thought it was worth stressing that up front.

Even close to home you'll find rich diverse ecosystems of vital importance to wildlife, and of course to us all!

Our Book of the Week this week once again collects together a stunning slice of science - but this time with a pinch or two of prestidigitation thrown in...

"Science is Magic" by Steve Mould is for all the kids like us who could never quite do fancy card tricks, or make rabbits appear out of top hats.

With the appliance of science, Steve shows us how to perform some simple experiments at home that can truly bring science to life, and make it seem like magic (well, technically it IS magic but you'll know what we mean once you dig into this fantastic book).

From the author of "How to be a Scientist" comes a new collection of simple experiments and mesmerising science facts that show you exactly why the tricks contained in the book work in the way that they do.

Stunningly illustrated and really simple to follow for a range of ages, this is once again brilliant stuff from Steve.

Magical lights in the sky? Science has an answer for that...

We rather love Steve's sense of humour that creeps into the book and makes science even more fun (as if it wasn't already the most fun thing anyway!)

A simple magic trick using nothing but your own fingers and a bit of muscle power!

Stun your friends (not literally, there are no tricks in the book like that, trust us!) and astound your parents with a set of tricks you can try out on them that should work every time!

OK, definitely do NOT try this one at home!

Sum this book up in a sentence: An astounding, astonishing collection of amazing science facts, experiments and explanations for kids who love science and want to impress the socks off family and friends, courtesy of magician Steve Mould!

"Science is Magic" by Steve Mould is out on 7th March 2019, published by Dorling Kindersley (kindly supplied for review).