Book Monitor - books from across the world

Engaging reads for children, from Books go Walkabout

Month: August 2020

The Island at the End of Everything by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

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On August 5, 2020

In Chicken House Books, Featured children's book

This book is a delight…compassionate, hopeful and ultimately redemptive

A remarkable book following a young girl through separation, disease and loss through remarkable courage and determination to make things right. It was shortlisted for the Costa Children’ s Book Award 2017

Ami lives with her sick mother on an island where the sea is as blue as the sky. It’s all she knows and loves, but the arrival of a cruel government official, Mr Zamora, changes her world for ever. Her island is to become a leprosy colony. Ami is banished to an orphanage across the water, where she meets a girl whose name means butterflies, and together they set out to find a way home to the island at the end of everything.

This is a book full of intriguing decisions , and cunning looks into the people who have made them, without little thought of the effect on others. It brings together the need for understanding and compassion. It shows how young people can so often break through rules that are plainly wrong.

I loved reading the book , recommended to me by the librarian at Shrewsbury International School, Hong Kong, and will now find further books by Kiran Millwood Hargrave.

Published by Chicken House Books, The Island at the End of Everything is part of a great collection of books in a huge range of genres. Their list for Summer Reading 2020 looks fantastic, about to start on the next exciting read.

Sue Martin

Belonging Street – Poems by Mandy Coe

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On August 7, 2020

In Featured children's book, Otter-Barry, Poetry

At a time when we definitely need poems to lighten our load, to find some of our hidden feelings and to express joy and laughter, Belonging Street brings a wonderful collection of poems from a popular poet, encompassing the natural world, city life and family belonging.

Much needed poetry….

Two of the poems especially appealed to me; My Name is Grey , with a verse

I am the owl’s wing and winter sky,

I leap in the mad March hare.

I hide in the hedgehog’s prickles,

And sleep in the wolf’s thick fur.

And My Name is Blue,

I am the kingfisher’s pride

and the boat’s wide sail.

Belonging Street includes poems to encourage empathy, a sense of belonging and care for our planet- an important collection for our time.

Mandy Coe, the poet, performs in schools and workshops in the UK and you can listen to Mandy read her poems on the BBC Teach School Radio.

Otter Barry have a great range of poetry books in their collection , which they publish four times a year. They are an exciting children’s imprint aiming to make a difference, push boundaries and publish books that children will love.

At Books Go walkabout we are passionate about empowering young voices and never has their been a time when this is more needed, so welcome and enjoy Belonging Street.

Sue Martin

Dear Ugly Sisters, poems by Laura Mucha and illustrated by Tania Rex

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On August 10, 2020

In 7+ years, Otter-Barry, Poetry

Great poetry!

An outstanding new voice in children’s poetry with her debut collection full of varied, effervescent and thought provoking poems.

Laura has already achieved much through literacy events, poetry workshops and blog writing and this brand new venture into a book of her poems is a great way for us all to find her poems at our finger tips.

Read the poem Dear Ugly Sisters below,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ0yRqyptVI

Laura Mucha is an award winning poet, author and speaker. She has won two international poetry prizes, the Caterpillar {poetry Prize, 2016 and the inaugural YorkMix Poems for Children 2019. She also writes for adults too with her debut book, Love Factually/We Need to Talk About Love published in 2019.

Tania Rex was born and raised in Bilnius, Lithuania, where she still lives and graduated from Vilnius Academy of Art.

Otter-Barry Books publishes four poetry collections a year and is an imprint which pushes the boundaries for publication in the world of children’s book publishing.

Sue Martin

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