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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 is currently children’s programme director of the FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival. She 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

My Friend Andy
Fluffy, an excitable little dog, loves going for walks with Mum and Lilly. He has fun chasing balls in the park though he’d really like to play with his friend Andy, which is never allowed. When Fluffy gets lost though, it’s Andy and his owner who look after him, taking him home to the mattress in the subway where they sleep, and then back to Mum and Lilly. Next time they go to the park, Mum stops to chat to Andy’s owner while the two dogs play together. Quietly and through Fluffy’s ... View Full Review
Moonshadow The Derby Winner
Tilly Redbrow loves everything to do with horses and spending time at Silver Shoe Farm riding stables is her dream come true, especially as it means she can see lots of Magic Spirit, the horse she cares about most. Tilly and her friends are excited to be having a birthday sleepover in the stables but the arrival of a band of horse thieves out to steal visiting Derby winner Moonshadow, adds more drama than they were ever anticipating. Tilly and Mia have to act quickly to save the day, especially as Tilly’s beloved Magic Spirit is in danger ... View Full Review
Panda and Penguin Find A Thing
This charming, lively story of two little friends will make young children laugh as it slips in a cautionary note about our obsession with technology. Panda and Penguin, gorgeous and so cuddly in Zehra Hicks’ bright, tactile illustrations, are very best friends and do everything together. Until one day, they find the Thing. It’s got lights, funny faces, in fact it’s pretty amazing and they decide to take it with them everywhere. Fun as it is however, when Panda has the Thing, he won’t play with Penguin, and vice versa. It’s ... View Full Review
Look Out! Hungry Snake
It’s dinnertime! Hungry Snake is in the mood for something that hops, or something furry, or featured, or something that swims … Little ones can lift the flaps to see who’s hiding and watch gleefully as they make their escape leaving Snake to slither off still hungry. In scenes that glow with bold colours and shapes, there’s lots for children to spot and identify, guaranteeing discussion and conversation, and it also makes for a lively introduction to the foodchain. View Full Review
Look Out! Hungry Lion
It’s dinnertime! Hungry Lion is licking his lips, who will be dinner? Not the monkey swinging in the trees, not the zebra who gallops away, not the snorting buffalo who can hold his own … Poor Lion ends up dinner-less and grumpy, but little ones will have had lots of fun pulling down the flaps to see who’s hiding, and they they’ll make their escape from Lion. Bold colours make this very eye-catching with lots to discuss on each page, and it’s certainly a lively introduction to the food chain. View Full Review
Tiny, the Secret Adventurer: The Mystery Visitor
With brown skin and eyes, and wavy brown hair, Tiny looks like any human child, but unlike human children, she’s just the height of your finger. She lives in the garden of a school, sleeping cosily on a sunflower head, and is friends with all the birds and animals that live there too. When a new animal arrives, it’s up to Tiny to welcome him and ensure that her animal friends make him feel at home too. Children will love the details of Tiny’s daily life, her thrilling rides through the trees on Squirrel&... View Full Review
The Dark Portal Book One of The Deptford Mice
Bravo to Pushkin Children’s Books for reissuing Robin Jarvis’s thrilling Deptford Mice series. Though first published some years ago, there’s still little to challenge these books for action, adventure, characters to love or sheer excitement. The Deptford Mice – young Arthur and Audrey, Oswald and their other friends – live happily and peacefully in the skirting boards of an abandoned old house in south London, careful to avoid the Grille that leads into the sewers. The sewers are home to the rats – always hungry for a tender mouse – and it’s ... View Full Review
The Impossible Secret of Lillian Velvet
Anyone who hasn’t yet discovered Jaclyn Moriarty’s Bronte Mettlestone series is advised to do so as quickly as possible. A series of inter-linked though stand-alone fantasy stories set in the neighbouring world of the Kingdoms and Empires – lands like our own world though more old-fashioned and with a lot more magic – they’re ingeniously plotted, full of excitement and humour, and star a brilliantly colourful cast of characters. The surprise gift of a pickle jar full of gold coins somehow opens up this magical world to 10-year-old Lillian Velvet and sets her on ... View Full Review
Help! We Need a Story
With a lively rhyming text that will stand repeated readings and gorgeous illustrations from prize-winning illustrator Mariajo Ilustrajo, here’s a book to put paid to boredom! It’s another day in the jungle and most of the animals are bored, in fact they’re ‘bored, bored, bored’. Artie the macaque isn’t though, he’s drawing, and what’s more, he’s making up a story starring all his friends. In the adventure he creates for them, they’re fighting dragons, robot sharks and even zombie hens! They’... View Full Review
Hide and Seek : a Bletchley Park mystery
The government’s efforts to protect the nation’s art collection from destruction during the second World War is the backdrop to Rhian Tracey’s latest spy story. Ned has accompanied his mother to the village of Manod in Wales, both engaged in the care of hundreds of priceless masterpieces transported there from the nation’s galleries. To keep the artworks safe, they’ll need to win the hearts and minds of locals, while simultaneously keeping word from spreading out beyond the village, especially when it seems there’s a spy in their midst. ... View Full Review
Paper Dragons: The Fight for the Hidden Realm Book 1
Young fans of high-stakes adventure stories set in vividly-described other worlds and starring intrepid young protagonists are being particularly well served right now. Hot on the heels of adventures such as Mia and the Lightcasters, Nevermoor and Skandar and the Unicorn Thief comes Paper Dragons. Paper Dragons stars twelve-year-old Zhi Ging, an orphan, something of an outcast, now training in Hok Woh, home of the immortals, to become immortal herself. It emerges that she has special powers, but they only serve to put her into more danger. With her own life and that of her friends at stake, Zhi Ging ... View Full Review
Bridget Vanderpuff and the Great Airship Robbery
Orphan no longer, Bridget Vanderpuff is ready for more adventures and this time the setting is Paris, reached via an action-packed voyage on the luxurious airship Le Bonbon du Ciel. Up to their usual tricks are the League of Meanies, who somehow manage to steal Mr Vanderpuff’s precious gold whisk. With the help of her friend Stacy and fuelled by the most delicious cakes and pastries it’s possible to imagine. Bridget determines to get it back. Her sleuthing skills get better and better and her adventures are always hugely enjoyable, full of the unexpected and very ... View Full Review