Best Test by Pippa Goodhart illustrated by Anna Doherty

Bird finds a delicious huge strawberry. Frog would like to eat it and so would shrew so they decide to hold a competition and the winner will win the strawberry.  The competition is constructed around the talents of each competitor. Frog can jump and make silly faces; rat is a great runner; bird can reach high; mouse is skilled with colouring in and squirrel enjoys guessing the contents of bags (especially if they contain acorns). Shew decides to be the referee and she designs the race course. Are you ready? Are you steady? Go! It is wonderful to see how the animal friends actually help each other through the race. Squirrel helps bird guess what's in the bag by offering a hint; rat helps squirrel with the colouring test.

"I declare you to ALL be the best!' laughed Shrew." Now they can all enjoy that strawberry - or can they? The final twist will give you and your young reading companion a huge smile. I highly recommend this book as a perfect addition to a Primary school or Preschool library. The end papers are terrific showing all the animal friends making funny faces. You will see they are filled with photo selfies.

You can find some activities and a poster on the Tiny Owl web page. The trailer is fun too.

Of course this book will remind you of The Little Mouse, the Ripe red Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear.

This is the second book in a series by Pippa Goodhart and Anna Doherty on the theme of celebrating our talents.

The Life and Time of Lonny Quicke by Kirsty Applebaum illustrated by Matt Saunders

Back cover blurb: What if you could save lives? What if, with just the touch of your hand, you could stop an animal, or even a person, dying? You'd do it, wouldn't you? But what if it meant you got older each time? Older and older ... until you had not time left yourself. Would you do it then?

Lonny lives with his father, grandfather and younger brother, Midge, in a remote part of the forest. Very early in the story you will get the sense that this family are hiding. As the story opens Lonny comes upon a rabbit that has been attacked by a fox. The rabbit is only minutes away from death. There is a strong buzzing in Lonny's head. Lonny has a special power. He reaches out and gently touches the rabbit. As Lonny watches the wounds are healed and the rabbit jumps up and hops away. But as you read in the blurb above there is a price for this healing. Lonny has aged a little more. He is twelve but he looks and sounds much older. This is not the first time he has touched a dying creature.

The family are only just surviving in their remote hide away. Mr Quicke repairs old pocket watches but there as not too much demand for these. When a fox kills all but one of their precious chickens Lonny decides to head into the nearest town called Farstoke for work. The lady who buys the repaired watches offers to take him and Midge also tags along. When they arrive in the city everyone is preparing for a festival - the festival that celebrates Lifelings. People in Farstoke have created stories about Lifelings. Many people probably don't even believe they are real but Lonny is a Lifeling and Alison, mother of his new friends Erin and Katy is gravely ill. Click these review quotes for more plot details.

Sometimes middle grade literature can pose the biggest questions with such grace, and this is one of those titles. Did you Ever stop to Think

As with all of Applebaum’s works, friendship runs strongly as a theme throughout with the constant pull of opposing forces drawing the reader into the action of the story – safety and freedom, life and death, friendship and isolation.  Just Imagine

Have you read Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt?  This book poses similar questions about power over life and death. 

The Life and Time of Lonny Quick is one of those books that became my reading obsession last week. I kept trying to snatch reading minutes so I could find out what would happen to Lonny. I want to give this book five stars but, while the ending was very, very dramatic, the final pages were a little too perfect (and devastating) but having said that please please don't let that stop you reading this wonderful and thought provoking book. I also had a few unanswered questions about Lonny's grandfather - but again this is not meant to be a criticism. 

Nosy Crow blurb: Lonny is a lifeling. He has the power to heal any living creature and bring it back from the dead. But he pays a price for this gift – by lengthening the creature’s life, he shortens his own. So Lonny has to be careful, has to stay hidden in the forest. Because if people knew what he could do, Lonny would be left with no life at all…

You can read the first few pages on the Nosy Crow web site. This book was published only two days ago (as I pen this post). The paperback edition is fairly expensive but I do highly recommend this book for readers aged 10+.  With just 270 illustrated pages and a very fast paced plot this is a book you will want to devour in one or two sessions. Huge thanks to Beachside Bookshop for my advance copy of The Life and Time of Lonny Quicke.

One more thing.  Have a think about the title.  The Life - Lonny's life - and time - time is precious, time is short, we all live one life - of Lonny Quicke.  If you think about the bible words "the quick and the dead" quick in this context means alive and quicken (verb) means revive or make alive. 

I loved a previous book by Kirsty Applebaum - Troofriend. And I have just ordered her first book The Middler. 

Matt Saunders (illustrator of The Life and Time of Lonny Quicke) also designed the cover for The Threads of Magic.

Hush, Little Baby illustrated by Shari Halpern

I mentioned Shari Halpern yesterday. Now I have her collage illustrated version of the nursery rhyme lullaby:

Hush, little baby, don't say a word,

Mama's going to buy you a mockingbird.

And if that mockingbird won't sing,

Mama's going to buy you ...

A diamond ring; a looking glass; a billy goat; a cart and bull; a dog named Rover; and a horse and cart.

This book was first published in 1997 but it has been reissued as a board book and even though in this format it is expensive here in Australia I think this book would make a beautiful present for a new baby.

The end papers of this book contain a quilt of tiny collages. These are then featured as a border on each page. You can see the carrots and horse shoes above. If I had a new baby I would buy two copies of this book and (I know this sounds slightly wrong or illegal but) I would cut up one copy and frame the illustrations to decorate a nursery. 

Collage artist Shari Halpern

 

Little Robin Redbreast sat upon a tree, up went the Pussy-Cat, and down went he, down came the Pussy-Cat, away Robin ran; says little Robin Redbreast: 'Catch me if you can!'. 

Little Robin Redbreast sat upon a spade, Pussy-Cat jumped after him and then he was afraid. Little Robin chirped and sang' and what did Pussy say? Pussy-Cat said: 'Mew, mew, mew,' and Robin flew away.

I was reading some Mother Goose nursery rhyme books recently (Mother Goose Day is May 1st) and I found this beautiful edition of Little Robin Redbreast. The illustrations in this book are glorious. They are very similar to the work of the famous Eric Carle. I do love collage. 

Finding this book made me curious to see more books with collage by Shari Halper.

Here are some I have found - sadly nearly all are now out of print but you might be lucky and find one or two in a library - my former school library had this one The Apple Pie Tree.

Seeker of the Crown by Ruth Lauren

This book is about power. Princess Anastasia wants power and so does her cousin Inessa and they will stop at nothing to rule the two kingdoms. Younger sister Valor, daughter of the adviser to the Queen, saved her sister Sacha in the first instalment and she restored the valuable music box to Lady Olegevna which means peace should be restored between Demidova and Magadansky.  Then Valor overhears a conversation. Prince Anatol, who helped Valor and Sasha escape from the prison called Tyur'ma, is to be banished. Valor knows this is a terrible injustice and she knows who is orchestrating this - it is the evil Princess Anastasia. Queen Ana asks Valor to help. Sasha know she has to rescue Anatol and she will need help from her two best friends - Katia and Feliks. Then Queen Ana is kidnapped and the race is on to rescue the Queen and to save Demidova from certain war. 

Here is the bookseller blurb: One month has passed since Valor broke her twin sister Sasha out of the notorious prison Tyur'ma, but the girl who put her there to begin with--Princess Anastasia--has gone missing. The queen, desperate to find her daughter, asks Valor to track Anastasia down and bring her home. But just as Valor reunites with her loyal band of friends from Tyur'ma to begin the mission, the queen also disappears. If Valor can't restore order to the kingdom, it could mean that her new friends will be sent back to Tyur'ma . . . and her family torn apart. Once again, she will need to rely on people she can't quite trust, as well as her own instincts, to protect the people she holds dear. This thrilling sequel to the buzzy Prisoner of Ice and Snow is just as unputdownable as its predecessor, sweeping readers back into the vivid world of unforgettable protagonist Valor and her home of Demidova.

I loved Prisoner of Ice and Snow by Ruth Lauren - the first instalment in this series so I was excited to return to the world of Valor and her sister Sasha and the icy land of Demidova. Ruth Lauren does take care to recap events from the first book but I think you will enjoy this second instalment more if you take the time to read The Prisoner of Ice and Snow first. I think this series of two books will be thoroughly enjoyed by mature readers aged 10+. I enjoyed the first book more than the second but the world building, political intrigue, heroism, intelligence of Valor and 'girl power' in this kingdom made this a very enjoyable sequel.  Kirkus gave this second book a star review. 

Where are you going Manyoni? by Catherine Stock

Little Manyoni wakes up early, gets dressed, eats breakfast with her parents and then she sets off alone across the wilds of Zimbabwe to reach a very special place (spoiler alert) her school.

"This story is set on the Limpopo River in Zimbabwe. Children who live in this dry, sparsely settled area, as in many other parts of rural Africa, often walk as many as two hours to school every day."

The animals Manyoni sees are listed in the back of the book - a civet cat; babons; an African spookbill; elephants; a jackal; and zebras.  There are also animals you may not know such as kudus; elands; a gemsbok, an eland; and a dassie. This book would have been perfect to use with the 2020 CBCA Book Week slogan Curious Creatures, Wild Minds. 

This book also contains delicious words which are explained in the glossary: 

Manyoni crosses the fever tree pan (a temporary shallow lake)

(She) enters the shady kloof (a ravine) where the shy impala feed

Manyoni skips past the red sandstone koppies (small hills)

(She) scrambles over the krantz (a rocky cliff) above the Tobwani Dam.

This book was first published in 1993 but I am happy to report it is still available. The copy I read was purchased by the school library in 2017. 

The exceptional illustrations treat the vast African landscape with awe and love. Catherine Stock Time Magazine

Catherine Stock is the illustrator of other books set in Africa which I highly recommend as worth considering for your school library:

The Warden's Daughter by Jerry Spinelli

Cammie lives inside the Hancock County Prison. She is not a criminal - she is the daughter of the boss - the warden. The year is 1959. Cammie is eleven. Her mother's grave says Anne Victoria O'Reilly April 16, 1921 February 3, 1947. If you do the maths you can see Cammie's mother died when Cammie was a baby. It was a incident involving a milk truck.

"How do you be a child to a mother you never knew?"

Cammie is sad. Cammie is mad. Cammie makes a plan to find herself a mother. 

In the prison one of the inmates, called trustees, is assigned to work in the apartment of the warden. To cook, clean and take care of Cammie. There have been many women who have filled this role but none have been like Eloda Pupko. Eloda Pupko is now Cammie's project. She is determined that this women will act like a mother, offer love, kindness, wisdom and even reprimand Cammie.  Clearly Cammie is desperate for that love but her anger is raging white hot. Cammie does have friends at school but their lives are so very different from hers and at times it feels their friendship is motivated by curiosity about the prison and one notorious inmate accused of murder. Cammie also has friends among the prison inmates especially Boo Boo.

"The loudest and largest inmate of all was Boo Boo. Boo Boo was one of a half a dozen black women. Boo Boo was a shoplifter, but I always found this hard to figure, as she was anything but quiet and sneaky."

Over this amazing Summer Cammie will make important discoveries about herself and about her friends - inside and outside of the jail. Boo Boo for example may not be exactly the person you expect and her hope and dreams may surprise or perhaps even shock you. Click the review quotes below if you need more plot details.

When you read this book (and please do read it) you may be curious about scraple which is served in the prison - I found this definition: it  is traditionally a mush of pork scraps and trimmings combined with cornmeal and wheat flour, often buckwheat flour, and spices. The mush is formed into a semi-solid congealed loaf, and slices of the scrapple are then pan-fried before serving. Scraps of meat left over from butchering, not used or sold elsewhere, were made into scrapple to avoid waste.

Listen to an audio sample from chapter one. I think readers aged 10+ will really enjoy this book which is set in a place and time sure to be very unlike their own reality. Cammie is not an easy girl to like but she does need a friend - perhaps you could be her friend - her true friend. 

Moving and memorable. Kirkus Star review

A buoyant yet powerfully emotional coming-of-age novel that reflects its prickly young protagonist's sense of entrapment in her own inarticulable sadness. Shelf Awareness

Take a look at my review of another book by master storyteller Jerry Spinelli - Loser. Here is an alternate cover for The Warden's daughter and other covers of Jerry Spinelli titles: