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.
Joy Court - Editorial Expert
Joy Court is co – founder of All Around Reading, having previously managed the Schools Library Service in Coventry, where she established the Coventry Inspiration Book Awards and the Literally Coventry Book Festival, as well as being the Reviews Editor of The School Librarian and Chair of the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals. She now just concentrates on books and libraries as a freelance consultant while continuing to be an activist with the Youth Libraries Group and sits on the National Executive of the Federation of Children’s Book Groups. She has chaired and spoken on panels at festivals and conferences around the UK as well as delivering keynotes and workshops.
She is a Trustee and member of the National Council of the United Kingdom Literacy Association, where she sits on the selection panel for the UKLA Book Awards, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of The English Association and an Honorary Fellow of CILIP. Author of Read to Succeed: strategies to engage children and young people in reading for pleasure (2011) and Reading by Right: successful strategies to ensure every child can read to succeed (2017) FACET.
One always has a frisson of anxiety when about to embark on a sequel, or in this case prequel, to a much loved and admired book. Will this live up to the excellent When the Sky Falls? But really, I was foolish to worry! With Phil Earle you are in very safe hands, and I have to say he has absolutely excelled himself with this powerful, evocative historical adventure.
The opening chapter is a masterclass in how to hook a reader; we are deep in the jungle, with ruthless hunters wanting to capture a gorilla and then horrified by the ... View Full Review
Part of a successful series of books written by the author, who is an experienced specialist in PSHE and SRE education, this provides a child friendly introduction to mental and emotional health and will prove its value within both home and school contexts. The publisher describes the series as ‘helping grown-ups have difficult conversations with little people’ and this is exactly what this book does. The lively and amusing illustrations help to engage the reader and the scenarios provide prompts for discussion and the explanations are perfectly pitched and yet in enough depth to provide many a useful ... View Full Review
This is in every sense of the word an utterly beautiful book, not just for the breathtaking, luminous pictures or the lyrical, evocative words, but also as a physical object; the size and feel and the paper quality. It is a book which is so nice to hold and touch and that little hands will want to stroke.
This book tells the story of Rosie, a real dog belonging to the author’s daughter and her first summer at their home in Pembrokeshire. The illustrator also lives in Pembrokeshire and one gets the distinct impression that this was ... View Full Review
While this extraordinary historical novel is a new departure for this best-selling author, it retains her trademark skill in delivering empathetic, nuanced characters and capturing authentic dialogue and childhood relationships.
Perfectly published to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the end of World War 2, this gripping story is about the lives of a group of young boys living in London at the start of the war. 12 year old Ronnie, his younger brother Micky and his best friend Lugs are the self-styled Shrapnel Boys, full of banter and bravado, especially with their rival gang, the Wreckers. Initially, the prospect of war ... View Full Review
It is hard to believe that this hilarious parody of an information text, is actually the author’s debut picturebook. An author who had the good luck to be paired with the best selling and Caldecott medal winning illustrator Dan Santat, who has taken a very funny text to even greater heights with his gloriously funny illustrations. These range from the hyper realistic images accompanying the definitions of mammals, reptiles and birds, to the imaginative absurdity of the giant fish robots invading the beach as fish attempt world domination.
This is a delightfully absurd mix of fact and fiction ... View Full Review
Written by the founder of Aukids magazine, a positive parenting magazine for families of autistic children, and mother of twin autistic boys, and as the afterword tells us, also illustrated by an artist diagnosed with autism in his twenties, this genuinely helpful book is suffused with actual lived experience.
It is aimed at children, but it will be incredibly helpful for parents and teachers too, not least for modelling positive parenting behaviour and how to perfect clarity in explanation. It really is exceptionally well written and the non patronising tone will be much appreciated. It certainly makes you think about ... View Full Review
Winner of the inaugural Imagined Futures Prize for YA eco science fiction, this gripping novel, by architect turned author Kenechi Udogu, is an all too plausible apocalyptic vision of a London suffering extreme weather conditions. The heat is so intense that people can only venture outside in special suits, and almost all plant life has been destroyed. Every sixteen-year-old must go through an Augmentation procedure to enhance an ability they have been studying and practicing, for the greater good of humanity.
Having spent years training to be a coder, Akaego, from a close knit British Nigerian family, has just been ... View Full Review
Anything which promotes using libraries is always going to be a good thing and this delightful and engaging rhyming story adds a very appealing fantastical twist to a library visit with Mum!
The Llama Library covers all sorts of topics that might be of interest - cookery, history, art, music and science, but instead of collecting a book, you take home a specialist llama who will tell you all about the topic. But as Mum warns, ‘Pick wisely’ because ‘I’ve heard that some llamas cause nothing but fuss.’
The lively rhyming text has lots ... View Full Review
Helen Rutter writes hugely empathetic stories, often about boys facing particular challenges, but I am entirely in awe of how she has constructed the tale of Fred Timple. It is an interactive story, and readers do have to make decisions and choices about what Fred will do next, but it is a far cry from the choose your own adventures where you are solving puzzles and finding treasure!
The whole book is actually about making choices and about young people having agency in their own lives, about making bad choices and the consequences that can arise, about genuine mistakes, regrets ... View Full Review
Shortlisted for the Carnegie and now the UKLA Book Award with her debut novel Safiyya’s War, Hiba Noor Khan has written another masterclass in historical fiction, this time shining an unflinching and evocative light on a very dark period of history for the Indian subcontinent.
The Partition in 1947 is insufficiently studied or known about and yet it is very much a part of family history for so many in our society and often the reason why families are here at all. With her superb ability to create indelible and credible child characters, that live with you long after ... View Full Review
Although absolutely nothing to do with Easter; featuring bunnies, carrots and growing things makes this the perfect book for Spring projects at home or at school! But it is actually a beautiful fable about friendship.
Whilst we cannot literally grow our friends like Mr Rabbbit unwittingly and then deliberately does, his advice about the need to prepare your ground and show love patience, care and warmth is absolutely spot on.
The multiple award-winning author illustrator has created Mr Rabbit’s world in luscious watercolours, with the most delicate inked lines adding the quirky characterisation that she does so well. ... View Full Review
The first YA novel from an esteemed MG author is always an intriguing prospect and I think Zillah Bethel will surprise her fans with this short but powerful text, which is darkly comic and even a touch macabre. It certainly does not set out to flatter Port Talbot or its characters, but it is utterly convincing both in setting and characterisation.
Port Talbot, as the cover depicts, has a coastline dominated by the steelworks and the book is structured in sections relating to the steelmaking process. This and the opening with its wryly comic list of The Players and Stuff ... View Full Review
