Big Bad Wolf Investigates Fairy Tales Catherine Cawthorne and Sara Ogilvie Bloomsbury Children’s Books Behind every fairy tale is a ‘what if ?‘. Behind all scientific discoveries also lies a ‘what if ?’. Bring the two together as author Catherine Cawthorne does here and the result is a really fun debunking of six of the most popular fairy tales by none other that the lupine villain of several of them. First to come under his scrutiny is The Three Little Pigs and here, as with the others, he presents the story first and then on the next spread, proceeds to ask some somewhat crazy science quest ..read more

A Sprinkle of Happiness Lucy Rowland and David Litchfield Scholastic Told in rhyme by Lucy Rowland and pictures by David Litchfield, this story starts with a seed (nothing special at all) and a boy, kind, brave and smart. What should he do about such a seed, the lad wonders. A sprinkle of happiness, a pot together with ‘Some soil and some water. A bit. not a lot.’ That’s what he tells the seed and his Grandma, who is in agreement, so they do the necessary. Then each day they sit happily outside and before long, the seed grows a short stalk: ‘ … the best stalk I’ve seen.” Grandma says. As if e ..read more

Jack Splash Tom Daley (with Simon James Green), illustrated by Luna Valentine Scholastic Jack, whose parents have separated, lives with his dad and does his best to live up to the sporting expectations he thinks his father, a diving coach, has. To that end he joins the AquaDucks, a diving squad, despite having a fear of drowning and hating heights. he’d much rather be spending his time on his hobby – knitting. Unsurprisingly Jack (the story’s narrator) is the worst member of the diving team but then to his surprise he performs well in an event. Fortunately for him, a rather unusual boy named ..read more

The Hoys Kes Gray and Mark Chambers Happy Yak ARRR! Me hearties! How many of you have ever wondered what a hoy is? No? Well, you are about to find out in this zany piratical tale. When his friends call out ‘Ahoy There’ Pirate Jake is confused – what are these hoys and where can he find them? His hoy hunt around the harbour proves unsuccessful so Pirate Jake goes on a very long and very miserable walk along the beach during which he argues with his parrot and having run out of beach, ends up at the bottom of a tall cliff. There, in the sand, he discovers a trail of strange- shaped footprints ..read more

A Midsummer Night’s Drama Louie Stowell and Isobel Lundie Little Tiger The whole story is presented in three acts and includes a performance of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream unlike anything you’ve experienced before. It’s penned, so we’re led to believe by a clever bear, Bill, residing in a treehouse with his friends Sir Bun Bun, Foxy and Lady Bushytail. The friends love to act plays at their theatre, The Glade and these attract large audiences from all over the kingdom. There’s great excitement as Bill and his pals are performing a brand new play. Its entire cast comprises a fairy ..read more

The Time Machine Next Door: Rule Breakers and Kiwi Keepers The Time Machine Next Door: Rebellions and Super Boots Iszi Lawrence, illustrated by Rebecca Bagley Bloomsbury Education In the first story, having failed at the first fraction in his maths test at school, Sunil runs into the toilets crying. His pretence at being ill results in his being sent home sick from school. Sunil is fed up: no cricket practice for him, insists Dad who asks Aunt Alex – she with the ‘Boring Machine’ – to babysit for the evening. Perhaps things won’t be so bad after all. However Alex refuses to let Sunil dabble w ..read more

Bun on the Run Smriti Halls and Chris Jevons Scholastic Starring Bernard the Bun, this is a delectably funny take on the traditional tale The Gingerbread Man. As the tale opens Bernard sits atop a display in the baker’s shop, a perfect confection of its kind. The thing is that Bernard has a yen to see life beyond the bakery and so down he jumps and off he sets only to be confronted with a drooling dog. Our quick thinking Bernard turns down the dog’s offer to tarry awhile with “You can chase, chase, chase, / you can run, run, run. / But you can’t catch me. / I’m Bernard the bun!” and dashes aw ..read more

Champ Payam Ebrahimi and Reza Dalvand Greystone Kids Abtin Moleski was born into a family of champion athletes but no good at sports and without the slightest urge to win, he doesn’t feel he really belongs. Despite everything his family has done to help him become a champion, he has no interest in being a sporting hero. Abtin’s passion is for art and upset at being a huge disappointment to others in the family, he resolves to do whatever it takes to make his father, indeed the entire family, proud. To this end he works and works until at last he has what he thinks is a solution. What he doe ..read more

When the Wild Calls Nicola Penfold Little Tiger In this powerful sequel to Nicola Penfold’s Where the World Turns Wild we join Juniper and her brother Bear in a raw and incredibly thought-provoking dystopian adventure that sees them (against their father’s wishes), returning from their new home in Ennerdale where they live with their Dad, his new partner, Willow, and their baby, Fern, to the city. They feel driven by the thought that their beloved grandmother, Annie-Rose, and friend, Etienne, are still in the city where disease is fast spreading. Juniper is determined to rescue them and bring ..read more

How Many Dinosaurs Is Too Many? Lou Peacock and Nicola Slater Nosy Crow One day a child, (our narrator) gets a dinosaur and what fun the two have. However another dinosaur would surely mean more fun and so right on cue, a second one appears. And so it goes on until the blissfully happy child has amassed ten different dinosaurs, a veritable soccer team. Of course, there is a price to pay for all these new, very energetic and hungry companions that do pretty much whatever they want, causing chaos at mealtimes, bath times and bedtimes too. Enough is enough, indeed way too many and out goes th ..read more