Seldom has a picture book quite embraced how I feel right now as Mole in a Black and White Hole by Tereza Sediva. With a die-cut hole on the cover into the mole’s black and white house, it feels like the perfect lockdown book. Mole is first seen deep underground in his hole with a television and a book for comfort. He’s clearly been in lockdown for as long as I have. His consolation is a bright pink chandelier – represented here by a vivid neon orange blob – representative in fact of a root vegetable, plugging the gap between the outside world and Mole’s hole. During the course of the book, t ..read more

Granny is baking her own grandma’s secret recipe to win the Great Village Bake Off. It’s complicated by the fact that she has her three grandchildren staying: Tom, Pip, and our narrator, Joe Robinson. However, things get even messier when her recipe goes missing, and the children decide to solve the mystery of who has stolen it. In the annual fiercely competitive bake off, it seems natural that one of the Muddlemoor neighbours may want to stop Granny winning, and seeing as the children have little better to do during their holidays, they set off to find out the culprit. Unfortunately, though ..read more

I’ve been working with older children recently, outside of my normal primary school demographic. Of course the further into education you go, the more specialised it becomes. So, it came as something like relief to receive Explore the World by Anton Hallmann in the bookpost this week. This non-fiction title for primary school children neatly marries geography and history, and allows a peek into each era and place – discoveries that shaped the world – piquing children’s interest in the particular, but giving them a broad scope of the general. Starting with a colour-coded contents timeline span ..read more

I’m delighted to host author Sylvia Bishop (The Bookshop Girl, The Secret of the Night Train) on the blog today. Bishop has been hosting writing workshops, and her session on Saturday is about settings, why some are captivating and transporting in those crucial childhood years. Bishop certainly puts her teaching to practise. Her current junior fiction series, 44 Tiny, illustrated by Ashley King, focuses on the exquisitely quirky and captivating Betsy Bow-Linnet as she navigates life with her 44 tiny secrets. The second in the series, 44 Tiny Acrobats, published at the beginning of this month ..read more

Quite often, when I’m running through the benefits of reading with a group of children, the first answer they come up with is that reading gives you knowledge. And although primarily I don’t read to gain knowledge, so much as for pleasure and immersion in a good story, I do appreciate that much of the time, knowledge is being absorbed anyway. Catherine Barter’s last novel, Troublemakers, was a pleasure to read. The characterisation was strong and the plot compelling, and this second novel plays to both those strengths, whilst also giving an insight into a part of history of which I was unawar ..read more

How do you teach primary school children about the Holocaust? Many years ago, I edited a large non-fiction title about the Holocaust for children aged eight and over, and each page carried an angst-ridden decision. Which photograph captures the truth and yet is appropriate for learning at that age? Which statistics to include? Which real-life stories? How to describe something so evil to children so young? Recently, children’s authors have stepped up to this daunting task and produced some amazing titles that give context to the genocide, show truths without resorting to horror, and illuminate ..read more

Did you know that empathy can be learned? In fact, only 10 per cent of our empathic ability is genetic, so there is huge scope to improve, and one way that we can think more about ‘we’ rather than about ‘me’ is through reading. And the earlier in life we do it, the better. What is empathy? Well, quite simply, it’s the ability to see things from a different person’s point of view. This makes us kinder, more accepting, and helps us to advocate for a broader world view. All traits much needed in today’s times. And identifying with a character in a book and their emotions makes us more empathetic ..read more

For a very long time, I’ve struggled to find representations of Jewish children in children’s literature who aren’t, as one child I work with puts it “all bundled up with the Holocaust.” And of course, Holocaust literature is extremely important, and for Holocaust Memorial Day tomorrow I’ll highlight some recent examples. But I work with children in a Jewish school, and although we stock a breadth of titles and I want them to be able to read about any child anywhere, and empathise with their plight, I do, on the odd occasion want to show them that they too exist in children’s literature. A mo ..read more

There’s a wonderful wealth of activities and online resources opening up for children who are, once again, home-schooling and remote learning. I’m not going to list all of them here, as others have brilliantly done this already, including A Library Lady, whose blog handily lists almost everything you will need for encouraging reading at home. Click here. There’s also, of course, the national efforts from the BBC starting next week, and Joe Wicks, as well as normally subscription only services opening up for primary school pupils during lockdown, and Jane Considine who’s offering live writing l ..read more

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a much-loved and yet rather strange children’s book. Although it can be embraced as a paean to gardens and the healing power of nature, and although it remains a favourite of mine for its ability to feature prickly rather than immediately loveable children protagonists, when you come to it as an adult you have to ponder its darker side. After all, the novel starts with Mary’s family all dying quite horribly and the child being forgotten. Then when Mary arrives at Misselthwaite Manor, a father is projecting his grief onto his son and purposefully ..read more