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Andrea Reece - Editorial Expert
Andrea Reece has spent almost her entire working life in children’s books, first as publisher, latterly as consultant, project manager and critic.
She has reviewed for LoveReading4Kids since 2015, is editor of the leading children’s books review journal Books for Keeps and administrator of the Klaus Flugge Prize and Branford Boase Award.
She was children’s programme director of the FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival until 2023, spent three years as manager of National Poetry Day and works with CLPE on the CLiPPA (CLPE Children’s Poetry Prize) and with The Full English on the Poetry By Heart national competition. She has judged children’s prizes including the Costa Children’s Book Award and Alligator’s Mouth Award.
Latest Reviews By Andrea Reece
Felix Lee and his best friend Isaac love detective stories so when a crime – of sorts – occurs in Felix’s parents’ Chinese takeaway, the Lucky House, they’re determined to solve it. Who knocked over Optimus Prime, aka the Lees’ lucky money plant and can they save the family luck?
At first, the list of suspects features everyone in the takeaway at the time, including regular customers, though Felix also adds his nemesis, super smart Nina Ding. As they set about solving the mystery though, it gets bigger: could the accident that befell ... View Full Review
Things you’ll learn from this brilliantly illustrated graphic adventure: what dopamine is and how it makes you addicted to your phone; what a virus does, and how cytokines and white blood cells can see them off; how our ears work. Plus, if you didn’t know it before, you’ll also learn that Jim Smith is one of the most consistently clever, funny and inventive writers around.
In this their latest outing, Graham Knee, aka Genius Kid, is determined to go viral, despite down to earth advice from his friend, Flea. No matter how gloriously ridiculous ... View Full Review
Wow. Secret societies, a boarding school with a difference, kids on the run and missions impossible – Shadow Thieves has it all, and lots more besides.
When we first meet our hero 13-year-old Tom Morgan, he’s getting by as a pickpocket on the streets of an alternative London, one of a gang of kids living on their wits and hiding from the authorities and life in one of the dreadful workhouses. When his friends are captured, Tom is determined to get them out, no matter the risk to himself, but he’s caught the attention of another ... View Full Review
Whether you live in the countryside or in a city, near a woodland or in a village, there are lots of things you can do to help your local ecosystem, and this bright, attractive book lays out lots of ways to make a difference.
In chapters dedicated to different environments, from gardens to grasslands and even in your house, it lists the wildlife to look out for, describes the impact of human activity and lists simple actions we can all take to lessen that.
There are suggestions of activities too that will reveal more about the local ecosystem or boost ... View Full Review
Felix has known he’s different since he was eleven and his Grandad Jim started warning him about terrible events that hadn’t happened yet. The fact that Grandad Jim died years ago makes this even more unsettling.
Trying to alert people to catastrophes about to befall them doesn’t win Felix any friends, and life at home with his grandma is sad since his parents were killed in an accident (also foreseen by Grandad Jim). Things get worse when he’s threatened with expulsion from school, but salvation arrives in the form of a young ... View Full Review
Ross Welford always comes up with original and fantastical plots and The Unlikely Diary of Prince Kal the Alien is no different. Prince Kalimonka Evergreen Wildgore of the Imaginaria Forest arrives by accident on the seashore of Budle Bay, Northumberland – a mishap caused when he falls into his tutor Feliquoz’s time bending Anywhere Cabinet, attempting to retrieve a Fortune Crystal from the paws of an injured oofus he’s been trying to help.
Kal stands out in Ingle-land, as he has it, being only the size of a toddler and completely hairless. His demands to see ... View Full Review
Marvin and his grandad are enjoying a day out at Adventure Zone and meeting up with Grandad’s old friend Steve. Marvin is fascinated to learn that Steve used to be none other than supervillain Professor Feather, controller of a massive robotic duck that could fire sonic blasts from its beak and came very close to beating his grandad. Fortunately, Steve saw the error of his ways and gave up supervillainy.
It seems like his granddaughter Izzy is a chip off the bad old block though. First, she wants to cheat when they do youngsters versus oldie bowling ... View Full Review
Meet Nova, dreamer, scientist, self-styled genius and a little girl who’s bound to become a huge star.
Nova’s parents are scientists, and she is too, and in this her first adventure she decides to tackle a really important problem: plastic waste. Excited to hear that scientists have discovered plastic-eating mushrooms and mealworms but frustrated at the speed with which they do it, Nova nips down to her secret underground laboratory and starts inventing. She mixes up a special potion, adding her big sister Cassi’s bubble gum at the last minute, and creates a (pink) ... View Full Review
Emily Coxhead’s bright, uplifting and thoroughly positive book does exactly what it sets out to do and shows readers of any age – but particularly the youngest – how to feel their happy.
Narrated by a very small and cute animal (a sloth?), it offers practical appealing strategies for when things are too loud, ‘find somewhere quiet to be still and calm’; are just new or strange, ‘I take my softest teddy to snuggle so it smells of home’; or for when the world seems too bright, ‘I ask someone to read me ... View Full Review
Using a bright, friendly picture book approach to present children with situations they will recognise and understand from their own everyday experiences, this book explains what consent is, how to give or withhold it, and how to ask for it. It does this by posing a series of questions, illustrating the answers with child-friendly scenarios, and providing clear, easy to follow answers.
Questions range from ‘what is giving consent?’ and ‘what should you do when someone says “no”’ to ‘what should you do when someone doesn’t ask for consent?’ The ... View Full Review
Two little friends play, try to help, make a mess and say sorry before a cosy family tea in this charming new story starring Tiger and Mei.
Setting out on a sunny morning they see Granny picking tea leaves and Tiger thinks it looks fun. They try too, but it’s harder than it looks, especially with big paws. Papa is busy drying tea leaves and that looks fun too, but proves just as tricky – oops! When they accidentally pull the handle from the churn, there’s only one thing to do – run! But as they ... View Full Review
The Hat of Great Importance is about the trials and tribulations of Monitor Lizard Zeke and his friends, fellow Monitor Lizards Alicia and Daniel.
In this story, Daniel has taken to wearing a flamboyant pink hat, including to school, while Alicia has struck up a friendship with new pupil Peggy, a flounder. Daniel’s pink hat and Alicia’s friendship with Peggy unsettle Zeke, for reasons he doesn’t really want to acknowledge, but which come to threaten his relationship with his oldest friends. There’s also the added problem that someone (he strongly suspects pelican ... View Full Review
