Month: June 2024

Really excited by this book! It spans time. Is it really true that we are not the only ones alive in this universe?

Shelby and Davy’s lives are limited to seven hundred hectares, waiting (along with the 348 other people assigned to their seven hundred) for the earth to heal. But a hole in the perimeter fence leads Shelby and
Davy out into the wilds, where they come across an abandoned city, and a lonely old man leaving desperate messages to try to save his friends.
Decades earlier, Phoenix, Walter, and their sisters, are free to explore the wilds and the bog near their home. Phoenix, like his mother and his brother, has the gift of sight. When his younger brother Walter, brings home 12 raven feathers – the same day that Phoenix sees a raven standing at the foot of his bed. Phoenix knows that something bad is going to happen. But nobody could have predicted the pandemic that is about to it, or the way it will send all of their lives out of control.

Zana Fraillon and Bren MacDibble live in Australia and have co written this novel, which brings a really exciting way of engaging with the characters.

Old Barn Books, based in the UK work with Allen and Unwin Publishers from Australia. There are packs of teacher notes linked to curriculum areas for use in schools and a huge number of leads into research and exploration. It’s so much more than just a book.

Sue Martin Children’s Literacy Specialist

The most complete guide to AI for youngsters, covering everything from Ancient Greece to ChatGPT. A book filled with info about AI that starts to make sense as how it can benefit us all without taking over, or will it?

In this fun, simple and vibrant non-fiction book, technoscience expert Matthieu Dugal, creator of documentary AI: To be or not to be, shares the epic history of artificial intelligence and gives answers to the biggest head-scratchers: Illustrator Owen Davey brings the complex world to life through his illustrations.

• How does AI already help us, at home and at school?
• Which robots from your favourite movies may soon be in the real world?
• What are avatars?
• Which inventors are creating new technologies?
• How do algorithms work?
• …and why can’t AI cook pasta and drain it at the right time?

We can’t see it and yet this technology is everywhere: it’s in computers, cars and virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa. And it’s already making decisions for us, for better and sometimes for worse…

This fascinating guide delves deep into how these decisions are made behind the scenes, putting tricky ideas into easy-to-understand terms. Keep kids’ attention with colourful illustrations and easy-to-understand, well-researched facts to prepare them for an exciting AI-centric future.

A brilliant and timely book from Wide Eyed Books, imprint of Quarto group, definitely one to have as a way in to understand or just know the terminology!

Sue Martin Children’s Literacy Specialist