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Deborah Maclaren - Editorial Expert

Latest Features By Deborah Maclaren

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Latest Reviews By Deborah Maclaren

What Are They Feeling?
Following on from What Are You Feeling?, The School of Life delivers another beautifully illustrated book providing further opportunity to start conversations with children about feelings.  As well as how to recognise and respond to your feelings, it’s important to think about what our friends and family might be feeling. This book is a wonderful way to open up discussions about building empathy, the difference between empathy and sympathy, how we better understand the people around us and how to be a great friend. Accompanied by Detective Feelings (brilliantly brought to life by illustrator Daniel Gray-Barnett) the ... View Full Review
Croaky: Quest for the Legendary Berry
Croaky Hopper is a daring amphibian adventurer, an excitable and enthusiastic froggy who leaps before he looks. And he can leap a fair distance, I can tell you! Always ready for an adventure, everyone needs a Croaky in their life. And preferably with a Sheena by your side, Croaky's sensible sidekick. In this second outing, Croaky, Sheena and Winston the Puffin aka their Woggle Scout Leader dive into deep waters as they attempt to follow the footsteps of the famed flamingo adventurer Penny Lightfoot. In Legendary Berry Quest, the motley crew search for a mythical fruit that promises everlasting youth, ... View Full Review
The Twirly Wiggly Dance
This dazzling debut is an inspirational and educational picture book bursting with colour and celebration. Travel along with Intisar on this empathetic journey to the heart of a South-Asian Muslim wedding where individuality is celebrated. Rather than hide her light, Intisar is encouraged to leave her nerves behind, be herself and embrace her difference, mistakes and all. It's a marvellously moving reminder of dancing your heart out and living life to the full, in your own unique way.  The story is enhanced by information across the final pages about all the elements of a Muslim wedding, and make this ... View Full Review
What the Crow Saw Below
A magnificent murder of crows attempt to educate a young crow in this beautifully-written fast-paced foray into the forest. That is until the curious young crow has a thought and starts to wonder what there is above their safe tree tops. Consumed by the perils below the crows had never dared to look above and investigate the possibilities. Stunningly illustrated this story is about courage and encouraging others to see things with fresh eyes and challenge the status quo. On closer inspection the brave young crow realises that all is not as it seems and that the hazard-heeding hoots of ... View Full Review
I am Cat
In a similar format to the award-winning The Lost Words, I Am Cat is a treasure of a book for cat lovers of all ages. Ten wild habitats, ten wild cats and one domestic cat are dramatically and beautifully illustrated in this unique celebration of the cat. In bold pictures and a simple text, Jackie Morris brings alive Cat who, when asleep in the day, dreams of being all kinds of other cats. Sometimes she’s a lion lounging in the heat of the day; sometimes she’s a cheetah sprinting after prey in the hot desert; sometimes ... View Full Review
The Dinosaur Next Door
Liz is convinced that her next-door neighbour Mr Wilson is a dinosaur. Maybe a brachiosaurus or a diplodocus? But no-one else seemed to notice, no-one else believed her. After all, they became extinct over 65 million years ago and she would know as she's a dinosaur expert. This book will have dinosaur lovers everywhere living in hope that one day they'll find the Narnia-esque tunnel leading to another world where dinosaurs still roam. I for one, hope and believe in that sprinkle of magic! But unfortunately one person did listen and Mr Wilson was whisked away, all in the name of ... View Full Review
Troll
Beautiful illustrations by Stefano Martinuz complement the vivid verse which will have you chuckling all the way through. A brilliant book to read out loud to children with dialogue, danger and some hilarity, this is set to become a sure-fire favourite to be read again and again. Below the bridge, beneath the log, underneath the burping bog, where townsfolk whispered, cringed and crept, a terrifying monster slept... As group after group of animals encounter the dreaded bridge, they are confronted with the terrible Troll hidden in the depths below. Inspired by internet trolls, cloaked in anonymity, he delights in shouting ... View Full Review
Out Of This World The Weirdest Poems of All Time
This book feels like another instant classic from the award-winning team of former Children's Laureate Rosen and the incredible Ed Vere. Featuring an otherworldly collection of a dozen dazzling poems, Out of This World is full of poems to make you laugh, make you smile and make you think. Properly think. What if you lived in AD3528 and lived in Underwater London? Imagine a beast, a monster whose only food was letters, gobbling up the whole alphabet. What a nightmare that would be! What would it be like to be a red blood cell? Imagine a day in the ... View Full Review
Bee You!
Smriti Halls collaborates with Clare Fennell to produce a buzzilliant book bursting with bee-autiful imagery and is a reminder to bee-lieve in yourself. Full of positive affirmations, this book shares the importance of understanding the highs and lows of life and how it's important to stay positive, look after each other and most importantly be yourself. The illustrations are a joy and will provide children hours of fun noticing every little detail, every bee playing their part and doing what they love. Complemented by the wonderful rhymes, it's a celebration of life: an inclusive and empowering book for everyone which ... View Full Review
Silent Sister
On the face of it Grace and Maddy had it all. The Stoll girls. Two sisters with a closeness most of us would dream of. Educated in an exclusive private school. Until we begin scratching beneath the surface and page by page we are enlightened. We uncover secrets. We find the skeletons in the closet. And with every twist and turn we find truths but are in the dark until the final page. Maddy's portfolio for the writing scholarship was submitted months ago. In secret. Her parents didn't know she wanted to attend Trinity University. She was hopeful it would ... View Full Review
The Dictionary Story
Ooh here we are again and I'm giddy with excitement. And The Dictionary Story certainly doesn't disappoint. Hands shaking as I open the package, eyes glistening with the gold foil lettering on the stunning hardback as I stroke the cover and the pages within. One day, Dictionary decided to bring her words to life. No longer happy with being the home of all words, she wants to tell a story of her own. Page by page she brings the words within to life as characters from the alphabet are allowed to ramble. After a series of mishaps, things get a ... View Full Review
Fairy Shopping
In this wonderful world of fairy shops we visit Silverbell Street for a spree where anything can be yours, just by wishing. With a familiar cast of characters bursting from the pages, this will enrapture your young reader and become a firm favourite in any household. If you believe in fairies, this is a shopping trip you'll never forget. Where a hat can make you a king or queen for the day. The pet shop where the pet chooses you. Buy a cloak of invisibility or magic lamp. An umbrella that will transport you to the stars. Fix your wonky ... View Full Review