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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.
Equally exciting and moving, this compelling adventure story stars a young boy who is brave, loyal, determined and very funny. He’s also a refugee from Afghanistan, recently arrived in the UK by small boat.
Those who have read Fidan Meikle’s award-winning debut My Name is Samim will already know Zayn well; everyone else will be immediately taken by this lively boy, always ready with a joke or cheerful saying, no matter the situation.
Zayn and Samim were separated when the dinghy they were travelling in capsized in the English Channel and Zayn doesn’t know ... View Full Review
The latest in Anthony Kessel’s thrilling detective-story-plus series sees Edie, fresh from receiving the George Cross for gallantry, investigating her Jewish family’s history and drawing on the strength and wisdom of her still much-missed mum to uncover corruption and evil even at the heart of the British government.
Her mum had been investigating the possibility that the German army had stolen artwork from the family during the war. Edie manages to find out more and on a trip to Poland with her father, brother and grandparents, uses her detecting abilities and courage to discover what turns ... View Full Review
Through beautiful, expressive illustrations and a thoughtful, sensitive and engaging text, rising star Circle Yuen tells a story that will have special relevance for many young people.
It’s a big day for Ruby and her little sister Cindy: Mama is marrying Alex, Cindy’s father, and they are to be flower girls at the wedding. Little Cindy bounces up and down with excitement, typically exuberant, but Ruby is quieter. She is excited too but also thinking about how her daddy, Daddy Daniel, is feeling.
The girls find their mummy crying, but it’s happy tears. Granny ... View Full Review
Gleefully, deliciously dark, Martin Howard’s series about a young Necromancer and her best friend a talking (non-stop) skull is required reading for children who like their Gothic comic and fans of Lemony Snicket will wolf this up.
When a conniving stage magician called Majika deVinckel tempts Mallory into making a terrible mistake – holding out the promise of a reunion with her parents – everything changes. Mallory can no longer see the gruesome ghosts that throng Carrion Castle, she can’t hear the Castle groaning and whispering, even Maggoty Skull is silent. Heaven? Not at all; she&... View Full Review
Illustrated funny, diary style stories are very popular right now and with The Detention Diaries Sam Copeland puts a boysy twist on the format, even adding a touch of the detective story in a book that is guaranteed to have readers snorting with laughter.
Arthur Guppy is determined not to get a detention. His dad is holding out the offer of a MetaVR3000 as an incentive so no games of Bumflap with his best friend Carlos Chickens, no messing with the Fooligans. But each day it seems as though he’s failed, only to escape by incredible strokes of ... View Full Review
Popular picture book character Martha maps out her own family tree and explores all the different ways we’re connected in this latest adventure, Leigh Hodginkson’s bright, textured illustrations inviting readers to pore over each page. The imminent arrival of a new baby sibling prompts Martha’s focus on her family, and her first carefully labelled map is of her mummy, resting on the sofa with baby in her tummy.
A beautifully drawn family tree a couple of pages on – in the form of a real tree (upside down) – shows the baby all the ... View Full Review
Part The Incredible Journey, part My Side of the Mountain, bestselling author Steve Cole’s new book is utterly thrilling, the story of a band of animal friends on a journey of survival, supporting one another in a very dangerous world as they try to make their way to safety.
Scamp, a Jack Russell, is comfortable at the pet care centre that is his home, where he’s loved and looked after by the manager, Pam. Everything changes on the ‘Night of the Great Growl.’ Suddenly the world is changed, buildings destroyed, humans gone, even – ... View Full Review
Sam Usher’s quirky, energetic watercolour and ink illustrations and his well observed representations of young children are perfectly suited to this wonderful celebration of silliness.
It opens with a proclamation from the Committee for Sensibleness issuing a line of ‘pipsqueaks’ – young and old – with strict rules: no diving into the paddling pool full of alligators, no picking your nose, no using rude words like ‘gurning flabtruck’ or ‘plop,’ and definitely on no account are you ever, ever to press that red button. Could you resist pressing the button? ... View Full Review
With tabs to pull on every page of this sturdy board book, the very youngest are in for eye-catching surprises and some deliciously witchy Hallowe’en fun.
A jolly witch is delivering Hallowe’en gifts to her friends, but they’re not what they seem. Chant ‘Abracadabra!’, pull the tabs and watch them transform. Three little eggs in the bird’s next becomes three boogying skeletons, a candle for owl is really some friendly little ghosts and the skull for Frog is actually Spider with sweets.
Watching the pictures change will be fascinating for ... View Full Review
Picking up from her popular How to Grow Magic picture books, Rachel Morrisoe mixes magic with the joys of gardening in this fun-fulled page-turning first chapter book, which also benefits from delightful two-colour illustrations by her collaborator Steven Lenton.
It’s always a treat for the children at Enchantment Street Primary School when Mr Pottifer comes in to teach them Magical Gardening. Today they’re growing runner beans, just in time for sports day. Something seems to be interfering with the magic though and when one of the stalks comes into contact with unicorn poo it grows right ... View Full Review
Friendship, family and above all identity are the subject of Evie and Maryam’s Little Lies, the absorbing follow up to Janeen Hayat’s award-winning debut Evie and Maryam’s Family Tree.
Friends Evie and Maryam are going slightly separate ways: Maryam has been offered a scholarship place at a prestigious private boarding school, meanwhile the play the two wrote about their great-grandmothers has won them a place on a top theatre fellowship programme for young writers and Evie is 100% focused on that.
The experiences prove difficult for both: Evie feels that the programme director doesn’... View Full Review
This is the third book in a witty, informative, imaginatively illustrated picture book series that puts the entertainment into entomology.
Want to know the truth about flies? Uncle Freddo is ready to spill the beans on Fly Club to his nephew Frankie and we lucky readers get to peer into the secret world of these supervillains too.
Fly superpowers are revealed: reproduction, amazing eyesight, and their superhydrophobic wings. We learn about their enemies, including frogs, fish, spiders and dragonflies; and there’s a trip to the Fly Club Diner too (warning: you might need a strong stomach for this ... View Full Review
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