Booktastic!

Adam Frost, author of such gems as Stop! There’s a Snake in your Suitcase! and Run! The Elephant Weighs a Ton! has done it again with Catch that Bat! – another fact-packed zoo caper featuring the Nightingale family.

Tom and Sophie Nightingale live on a barge with their zookeeper dad and vet mum and grandad.  They spend so much time at London Zoo that they have forgotten about the creatures that live all around them on Regent’s Canal.  However, a powercut leads to a moonlit adventure and a whole of lot learning about nocturnal creatures.

As with the previous books, the facts are cleverly interwoven into the story so you don’t feel you are reading an ‘educational’ book – just a fast-paced story about some really cool people.

We loved this book!  If you haven’t already read a Zoo Story, I would urge you to give them a try.  They are so much fun and not like anything else you’ve ever read!

As well as writing these books, Adam Frost has devised and scripted the Animal Adventure game on the London Zoo website.

The game involves matching animals to their habitats and is designed to support the new Animal Adventure installation at London Zoo, for which Adam wrote all of the onsite poems.

Play the game

Animal Adventure

http://www.zsl.org

Adam

This picture book is about Geoffrey, a young giraffe who stumbles and falls when he tries to bend down to speak to the other creatures.  It is a tale of friendship, differences and resilence.

This is a lovely book to read to younger children or to help early readers gain confidence.

There is a pleasing amount of repetition (“he’s very, very tall with a very, very long neck…and sometimes he’s very, very clumsy“) and alliteration (“his legs are wibbly-wobbly…and his knees are bendy-buckly“) with just the right amount of words on a page to engage with the reader.

It is a sweet little story but what really makes  Oh Dear, Geoffrey special is the illustrations -  Gemma O’Neill has hand rendered traditionally using watercolour, gouache, colouring pencils and collage. It really is a treat to look at each page.

We particularly liked the beautiful bright blue birds which appear on almost every page…which brings me to my only (slight) criticism of the book: we would have liked to know what kind of birds (and tree) were shown.

This is Gemma O’Neill’s first picture book – we look forward to her next one.

Read more here.

I liked this book because it was kind how why helpeds  each other and I think it was  funny when the cat helps the girl eat her dinner.

I liked the pictures and I like the girl I like her because she is  kind to the cat when the dog comes I like the picture of the bike and I like Ekatrina trukhan I rate it 9/10 because I like  chapter books by Georgie age 7

In the introduction, Carol Ann Duff says she “tried to put together a poetry book that a child can live with for a long time”.  She has certainly succeeded in that aim.  It is such a special book that anyone who reads it will almost certainly wish to buy extra copies to give away as gifts to very lucky children.

Lucky stars is about a girl called Cassie who gets a letter from Stella Starkeeper and she turns into a lucky star by getting little charms.  There are seven different charms and she gets them by being nice and helping people.

At the back of the book there are word searches and instructions for making friendship bracelets and it came with a free charm bracelet.

I liked it because I like adventures. The illustrations were good. I think I would like to read more in the series.
Lucy (8)

What we liked about this book:
The format: map at the beginning, prologue, ten short (10-12 pages) chapters and a ‘ships log’.
The illustrations: lovely black and white drawings liberally spread throughout the book
Pirate Lexicon: ‘Limpets!’ is now our favourite expression
Activity pages: Make your own pirate patch and a mermaid drawing to copy and decorate

What we didn’t like so much:
The story moves along  v-e-r-y  slowly because of the amount of distracting detail.
We are told more than once that the floorboards are wooden and every item of clothing is described in minute detail, as is the book (turtle leather bound book with a brass starfish clasp) which Marina holds (in her milky white hands).  For example:

“Marina lifted her eyepatch up on to her forehead and read aloud the golden letters on the spine: “Very, Very, Very Deep Sea Beasties.“  [at this point I was reminded of the Little Britain character, Dame Sally Markham, who tries to pad out her romantic fiction with superfluous adjectives and other publications].  “Aqua’s bracelets and bangles jangled as she jumped down on to the deck next to Marina and leant in close to her friend.
“There is very little known about the creatures that live in deep waters, you see.  Nobody has every been able to dive down that far.  Well…”  Aqua paused, “there have been a few research expeditions, but the problem being…” “

We think this book would be best read out aloud and in a pirate accent.  Girls who like mermaids and underwater castles will love it!

(due to be published March 2013)

We absolutely adored Stop! There’s a Snake in Your Suitcase! by Adam Frost so couldn’t wait to read another adventure with the barge-living, animal-loving Nightingale family.

In this book, Tom and Sophie have to use their skills to help a baby elephant at Whipsnade Zoo where their vet mum is working over the summer.  The story moves along at a great pace and is packed with realistic dialogue, information about the canal trip they make and of course, lots of information about elephants.

All too often, ‘educational’ books are, frankly, dull but Adam Frost’s stories from the zoo are a very rare thing: a really, really good book backed up with lots of amazing behind-the-scenes information from London Zoo.  How many fun books can you think of that mention colostrum, caesarians and MP3 players!

You don’t have to have read Stop! There’s a Snake in Your Suitcase! to enjoy this stand alone story but you will undoubtedly want to.  After reading the first trip I really wanted to go on a barge trip and visit London Zoo.  After reading the second book, I’ve booked our train tickets!

If you haven’t heard of the Spell Sisters yet, you probably will do quite soon.  The exciting new series following a young Guinevere of Camelot in her quest to save the magical island of Avalon from evil Morgana Le Fay has proved a real hit with girls in the 7-9 age group.

The format of the series is simple: The evil Morgana Le Fay has imprisoned the eight Spell Sisters throughout Avalon and stolen their magical powers.  One sister gets rescued in each of the books.  Prepare yourself to be buying all eight!

Grace the Sea Sister is the fifth adventure of the Spell Sisters in which Guinevere (or Gwen as she prefers), her best friend Flora and a very special horse named Moonlight face stormy seas and dangerous cliff-climbs to save Grace from Morgana’s spell.

You can read each book as a stand alone but the stories are linked and you would get the most out of the series by reading them in order.

At the beginning of each book is a map of Avalon and the surrounding area.  The story begins with a brief recap, then the story gallops along for 130 pages or so.  As seems to be the trend, there is a sneak preview of the next adventure in the series.   There were a couple of pages of craft ideas, related to the story (in this case how to make a sailing boat out of old plastic tubs) and advert for the dedicated website and a page of stickers (“which readers can use to decorate downloadable scenes only available at www.spellsisters.co.uk. When scenes are collected from all the books, a beautiful illustration of the whole Spell Sisters kingdom will be complete!“).

The writing is good.  It is about girls and for girls but isn’t girly. There are good, positive messages about teamwork, bravery and  self-belief.  All of which begs the question…why the cynical marketing?  And why is it “written by a very successful children’s author (Linda “My Secret Unicorn” Chapman) under the pseudonym Amber Castle“.

There really isn’t any need to charm young readers with free stickers or downloads, the Spell Sisters series is quite magical.

The Nightingale family live on a barge on the canal near London Zoo, and Mum is a vet. When Tom and Sophie find a bag of snakes dumped at the gates of the zoo, a great and exciting adventure begins. Soon they are finding out about the trade in illegal animals and learning how to care for these wonderful creatures. The snakes are carefully housed in the zoo and, just as they are about to be introduced to the many visitors to the reptile house, a desperate race begins to collect some precious antivenin. The first book in a new series of pacy adventure stories with two courageous children and lots and lots of fascinating animal facts.

We loved this book!  We know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but this one looked exciting and fun – and it really was!

There was lots of realistic (familiar!) dialogue between the squabbling siblings interspersed with cool skateboard adventures.  We really liked the Nightingale family, especially knowledgeable and courageous Tom and Sophie.  And how cool would it be to live on a houseboat?!

This book really whetted our appetite for a) a barge trip b) a zoo trip and c) more books by Adam Frost!

If you live in, or are familiar with London, you will enjoy the book even more.

We suspect this book will be a big hit with even reluctant readers – especially those who like skateboards and reptiles!