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Vivaldi by Helge Torvund

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Vivaldi

A tender tale for hesitant back-to-schoolers

Vivaldi by Helge Torvund is the perfect book for back-to-schoolers with ‘dread in their little knees’. It tells the story of Tyra, a little girl whose classroom experience has left her sad and silent. Her interior life is gloriously vivid, but at school she feels unseen. She’s in need of a friend, and as all true cat lovers know, friendship often arrives in feline form, in this case with the bluest eyes Tyra has ever seen. With her new pet, supportive family, and the inspiring music of Vivaldi, maybe life can be different. If only it were that simple.

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The Skull by Jon Klassen

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The Skull

Deliciously strange tale of friendship and courage

One snowy night, a little girl named Otilla runs away from home, into the deep dark woods. She runs all through the night, escaping we know not what, but in the best tradition of spooky tales, she comes upon an old and neglected house. Here lives a lonely skull, separated from his body and in need of a friend. We join this odd couple in The Skull by Jon Klassen. Adapted from an obscure Tyrolean folktale, it’s a strange and charming story of facing fear and finding friendship in unlikely places.

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Murder on a School Night by Kate Weston

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Murder on a School Night

Hilarious girl-powered whodunnit

Miss Marple once reflected that ‘One does see so much evil in a village’. But even the famously unflappable sleuth would surely have raised an eyebrow at the goings on in the usually somnolent village of Barbourough. Here, teenage friends and Agatha Christie fans, Kerry and Annie, are called upon to investigate a diabolical murder, after their frankly unpleasant classmate, Selena, becomes possibly the only person in history to have been suffocated with a menstrual cup. A laugh-out-loud girl-powered whodunnit awaits in Murder on a School Night by Kate Weston.

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The Thames and the Tide Club by Katya Balen

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The Thames and Tide Club

A gleefully imaginative mudlarking adventure

For the unitiated, mudlarking is the practice of combing river banks for interesting artefacts that may have washed ashore. For Clem and her friends, it’s treasure-hunting and story-finding, and in The Thames and Tide Club by Katya Balen, we join them at a time of chaos and calamity on London’s famous river. Only the young mudlarkers can save the day, in an aquatic adventure that will see them encountering pirates, a ballgowned porpoise named Barbara, and an underwater branch of the famous department store, Shellfridges.

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Alte Zachen by Ziggy Hanaor

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Alte Zachen

A place for old things

Dedicated to Jewish grandmas everywhere, Alte Zachen by Ziggy Hanaor kicks off with a Yiddish proverb, which declares that ‘A person’s heart is like a sausage. No one knows exactly what’s inside.’ In this wonderful Carnegie-shortlisted graphic novel, we attempt a peek into the heart of Benji’s grandmother, Bubbe Rosa. The story charts their walk through Brooklyn and Manhattan as they buy ingredients for a Friday night dinner, an expedition that will uncover aspects of Bubbe’s chequered past and her struggle to accept the inevitability of change.

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The Blue Book of Nebo

Survival and renewal in post-apocalyptic Wales

Shortlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Medal 2023 and an award winner in its original Welsh, The Blue Book of Nebo by Manon Steffan Ros tells the tale of 14-year-old Dylan, his mother, Rowenna, and baby sister Mona, seemingly the sole survivors in a post-apocalyptic landscape. In their isolated house on a Welsh hilltop, with the power grid down and no means of communication, they must learn to live on their wits. Agreeing to keep a journal for posterity, Dylan and Rowenna record their thoughts and memories in this remarkable story of survival and renewal.

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Kids Fight Extinction by Martin Dorey

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Kids Fight Extinction

Give nature a hand

Kids Fight Extinction by Martin Dorey is the third instalment in his excellent #2minutesuperhero eco-series for primary school children. Aimed at empowering  young readers in the current environmental crisis, Dorey is here to tell us that we don’t need a caped crusader in a Batmobile to save the world. Everyday people making changes can be the heroes of this story. Jam-packed with cheerful illustrations and information, the book sets us an array of points-earning missions. Tot points up at the end and achieve Everyday Superhero stardom.

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The Song Walker by Zillah Bethall

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The Song Walker

Song, sisterhood and spirituality

A young girl stands alone in a vast, dusty red landscape. No sound apart from her quiet breath, no people, no roads, just emptiness beneath an azure sky. She is wearing only one shoe, and carrying a locked metallic box that she cannot open. Three questions nag at her exhausted brain, ‘Where am I? What am I doing here?,’ and most worryingly, ‘Who am I?’. We find out in The Song Walker by Zillah Bethell, a twisty and evocative tale of song, sisterhood and spirituality set in the Australian outback.

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John Agard's Windrush Child by John Agard

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John Agard’s Windrush Child

A wide-eyed tale of hope and new beginnings

From cricket on a Caribbean beach to building a snowman in an English park, John Agard’s Windrush Child by John Agard tells the tale of one family’s journey across the Atlantic, and  their new life as part of the legendary Windrush generation. A poem set to some of the most joyous and vibrant illustrations you’ll ever see, this splendid picture book gives us a unique perspective; told through the eyes of a little boy who is cheerfully unaware of his place in history.

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Friend edited by Kate Clanchy

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Friend

An inspiration for the budding poets in your life

A breath of fresh verse-laden air, Friend edited by Kate Clanchy is a collection of poetry by schoolchildren from a multicultural secondary school in Oxford. At once everyday and exceptional, the poems run the gamut of childhood experience, and as Clanchy notes, gives our families ‘a long cool stare’. Incredibly, the youngest poet is only 11 years old, tentatively dipping a toe into secondary school life, the eldest is of university age. Already so wise, their accumulated stories and love of language will bring a lump to your throat.

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