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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
Lionel is a rhinoceros, a very large rhinoceros. He’s so big in fact that he doesn’t fit on one page, he needs two.
His size, combined with his equally large levels of enthusiasm, is an issue when playing with his mice and bird friends. When he climbs on their bus, he squashes it flat, his voice drowns out the orchestra, and he gets so excited making holes in bagels in their baking session, that he pokes a hole in the page of the book. He does – and you can peep through it to follow his ... View Full Review
Pandora is off for a summer holiday with her parents. They’re in the front, bickering about directions, she’s in the back with her head stuck in a Detective Crow mystery story, her favourite reading. They’re heading for Puzzlevale but no sooner have they arrived, than Pandora’s parents vanish. To find them – this is Puzzlevale after all – she’ll have to solve a series of puzzles, and so does the reader.
There are 25 different mysteries in fact, each one including three puzzles, the answers to which need to be combined ... View Full Review
Put on the special 3D glasses packed inside the front cover of this handsome, large format book and set off with adventurous Little Ladybird on a journey across pages teeming with insect life.
As she travels through forests, by ponds and into different habitats, she and the reader meet and learn about all sorts of creatures, from caterpillars and spiders to moths and even frogs. They’re all depicted in close up detail on the left-hand page and in their natural setting of foliage and plants on the right-hand side.
You need to look carefully to spot them all ... View Full Review
Finley Swinnerton is probably not the kind of person you’d chose to have on your side in a fight.
Until the events recounted in this story, the most dangerous things he’s ever done are staying up until midnight (on holiday) and gargling ‘Jingle Bells’ with milk.
He’s not brave either and in fact sending him out against the aliens that have invaded his school is like sending a chocolate bar to put out a fire. But Finley is smart (particularly in science), organised (he loves a list), loyal and, we discover, capable ... View Full Review
Netta Becker and the Timeline Crime is a timeslip thriller steeped in ancient history and Greek myth. Netta and her family are on a special holiday to Crete. Netta’s little brother Remy is particularly excited because he’s fascinated by history and can’t wait to tour the Palace of Knossos, near their holiday villa. The villa owner Oz is full of information about the site, but Netta is missing her friends and competitive swimming, her talent and passion.
But it’s Netta who is suddenly swept back thousands of years to the court of ... View Full Review
Starting school is a big deal, no matter who you are, and Sunny tries her hardest to impress on her first day at Weather School. Unfortunately, she tries so hard that her rays melt the frozen yoghurt in Frosty’s lunchbox and dry up the puddles Mizzle and Drizzle had picked out for a game of splash.
When the class head into the school garden to learn about using their weather powers to help plants grow, she makes another mistake, but with a bit of Weather Tots teamwork, soon everything in the garden is lovely again.
This will be ... View Full Review
Meet the funniest trio in town says the strapline on the cover of Blue, Barry and Pancake’s latest adventure, and this definitely stands up under the trade description act. This trio are indeed extremely funny – and endearing – and their comic strip adventures will have readers laughing out loud.
In this latest episode, they’re heading off to Mount Choco to collect a tub of ice cream to help Barry win a trophy in the local Build-a-Sundae contest – even though it may cost them their lives, the chocolate being guarded by a giant razor-toothed ... View Full Review
Poor Cub, he arrives at school his head full of thoughts – endpapers showing stormy grey seas matching his mood. His friends try to cheer him up, but he snarls at them, and when little Mo offers him her teddy to cuddle, he throws it high up into the big tree.
It’s then, as he swings on the tree’s lower branch, that Cub begins to work through his big feelings. Pushing against the branch and letting it sweep him back makes him feel likes he’s going somewhere good. Soon his friends join in, ... View Full Review
Lucky George – imagine the thrill of being offered a scholarship to a top boarding school for the best young equestrians. She’ll eat, sleep, breathe horses and riding while learning how to compete at the top level and while making new friends. There’s just one problem: her partner in all of this isn’t Timmy, the perfect pony she’s come to love, it’s scruffy, stubborn Bear, who seems determined to show her up in every way he can.
Some of the other pupils don’t need much of an excuse ... View Full Review
Little Mei and her friend Tiger enjoy an adventure in the snow in this charming picture book.
Mei has to explain what snow is to Tiger who has never seen it before but is delighted to find it tastes cold, “like ice cream”. Mei thinks they should stay in the warm, but Tiger wants to play, so play they do, making footprints, rolling down the hill, having a snowball fight.
When Mei starts shivering, Tiger takes her home where mum is waiting with a big bowl of soup. This is a such a lovely book for the very ... View Full Review
Just in time for the holiday season, but fun for any time of year, this sun-soaked picture book is funny, charming and full of life lessons too.
Bunny is setting off on her annual holiday and has it all planned out: park the caravan well away from anyone else and put up the fence. As far as she is concerned, a break is best enjoyed alone. But even the best laid plans of holidaymakers can go wrong, and a (clearly very friendly) monster sets up camp right next door.
At first, Bunny watches – it's hard not to as her ... View Full Review
Presented in the form of a journal and beautifully illustrated this extraordinary book mixes adventure, mystery and discovery as we follow the enigmatic narrator on an expedition to the coral seas to find out more about them and the people who live in them. He’s immediately plunged into danger, thrown off the ferry he’s travelling on into the ocean after witnessing something he shouldn’t have seen.
Washed up by enormous luck on a coral island, he has to survive alone until he meets three children, Aba, Aleefa and Sarna. Born and brought up ... View Full Review
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