Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks.
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
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
With delicate colour illustrations, this book introduces readers to the eight pagan festivals that mark out the year. We explore each of them, in the company of two sisters, Gaia and little Selene, starting in the autumn at Samhain, through the dark of Yule, brightened by red holly berries, into Imbolc, the first of four fire festivals; next comes Ostara and the spring equinox, Beltane in May as the days begin to feel lighter, Litha, time of the summer solstice, Lughnasa and finally Mabon, time of the autumn equinox.
Each chapter contains information on different festival traditions from around the ... View Full Review
This lovely picture book about the transformative power and beauty of nature is made even more beautiful thanks to the intricate lasercut pages that turn illustrations of a hidden glasshouse into 3D wonders.
The story is of a young girl who discovers a glasshouse overgrown and forgotten in the centre of a city. In contrast to the grey blocks of the city buildings, inside is a tropical forest full of huge plants and tangled vines. It becomes her special, secret place and, learning from old books she finds there, the girl starts to tend the plants.
Other children arrive too ... View Full Review
Inquisitive young explorers are invited to embark on a voyage to five magnificent destinations in this appealing illustrated information book. Together we discover the five oceans – Arctic, Atlantic, Pacific, Southern and Indian, and from the sunlight zone closest to the surface, all the way down to the Hadal Zone, 6 – 11,000 km below sea level.
The tone is warm and conversational, posing and answering questions, encouraging readers to see themselves and act as real ocean explorers, and conveying the awe-inspiring wonder of its subjects. The design makes good use of die-cut pages and gatefolds to convey a huge amount of ... View Full Review
Everyone worries, and this book does a great job in explaining that for children and in showing them things they can think about and do to help them stop worrying so much and feel better if they are.
It goes through twelve common situations that will make children worry, from falling out with a friend, to when their parents argue, to when they feel no-one is listening to them. It lists how you might feel, what you might be thinking and a set of reassuring things to remember. It’s all present through examples children will understand and a ... View Full Review
Destiny Ink’s school is holding a baking competition and she’s determined to win (Destiny never does anything by halves). She helps her mum create a wonderful carrot cake, but they’re dancing when the timer goes off and it gets a bit burned. Mum fixes that, only for Destiny to accidentally drop it. There are even more recoveries and mishaps before the day of the competition arrives.
Spoiler alert: Destiny and her best friend Olivia don’t win, but they agree they’ve had the best time ever.
With the author’s ... View Full Review
Perfectly pitched for the very young, and a treat for grown ups too, here are a set of gorgeous first rhymes from award-winning poet and former Waterstones Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho, selected from his bumper collection Blow a Kiss, Catch a Kiss. Each one encourages little ones to move and play, and there’s a lovely physicality to it all, as in the poems ‘My Favourite Food’, where we can hear the crunch and snap of apples and carrots, or ‘Kissable Cheeks’, full of hugs and squeezes from grandma and aunty.
Nicola ... View Full Review
Families come in all shapes and sizes, and whatever yours looks like, or your best friend’s, you’ll find it represented in this accessible, informative book.
Our guides are a friendly little dog called Murphy, and a wise little bird called Tiki, and together they answer all the questions children might have about families, how they form, who’s in them, what makes them. It’s illustrated in full colour throughout, and the illustrations are full of humour and details that children will recognise – look out for the mum covered in baby food in ... View Full Review
This book takes a close up look at maps and flags, and in the process reveals lots about our world, its geography, politics and even its symbolism and art.
Divided by continent, it takes readers on a world tour of every country, passing on key statistics such as the country’s population, or the currency it uses, and, of course, illustrating its flag. We learn when the flag was introduced – fascinating in itself – and what its appearance means, what the colours represent, and what any stars, coats of arms or other special elements symbolise. This is all ... View Full Review
After their families are killed by the Taliban, Samim and his best friend Zayn first flee their village in Afghanistan with their uncle and then they leave their country too. They travel across continents, by bus, lorry, boat, train, car and finally an overcrowded dinghy to arrive in England. Their journey takes two years, ten months and 26 days – numbers are an important support to Samim – and along the way they lose their uncle, and another good friend too.
Indeed, when we first meet Samim, finally placed in a foster home in the UK, Zayn is there only as ... View Full Review
Magic, science and history mix in Lindsay Galvin’s new story for Barrington Stoke.
Ann works in her family’s apothecary shop and has special skills learned from her grandmother that make her healing tinctures particularly effective. With input from a young Isaac Newton, the family’s new lodger, she creates an elixir with truly extraordinary powers. When plague arrives at her village, Ann moves quickly to save her community, only to put herself in the sights of a cruel witchfinder.
Lindsay Galvin packs lots of action into this short, ultra-readable novel, as Ann finds herself in ... View Full Review
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
-329x400.jpg)
