Momo celebrating time to read
Saturday, June 13, 2026
Bank Street Books - The Best of 2025
The High Street by Alice Melvin
Sally's in the High Street and this is what she needs ...
As you turn each page we see Sally enter each shop to make her purchases. Number one is a sweet shop; number two is a bakery; the china shop is number three; and there are antiques in number four. You can probably guess where she finds cockatoo, roller skates, grapes, and a hose but how will she find a yellow rose?
Each shop has a short rhyming text description and a fold out so readers can head inside each store.
In 2007 you could even buy a little flat pack to go with The High Street:
From the author web page: A little girl called Sally travels down the titular High Street with a very eclectic shopping list. As she visits each shop the reader can open up the throw-out pages to reveal the life behind the shop front. I have always loved doll’s houses, and I think this book grew out of fond memories of opening up a tiny house to peep at the hidden world inside. I wanted to fill the book with details of the life both in and above the shops: the bustling cafĂ© above the bakery; the band practicing in the music shop and the pigeon loft in the pet-shop roof. Now translated into nine different languages it's lovely to know that this book has been enjoyed around the world.
On social media I saw a post with a list of books that could be perfect for budding architects and this book The High Street caught my eye. Luckily for me I found it in a library this week.
The post listed six titles - here are the other five: Georgian House Picture Book (Usborne); The House with the Little Red Door (Thames and Hudson); At Home in a Book (Penguin); Our House by Trudie Trewin (Scholastic); and Need a House call Ms Mouse.
Here are some other books I'd add to this list.:
Boy oh boy I do wish I had discovered this book The High Street when it was published in 2011. I would most certainly have added it to my school library and possibly even gifted it to a friend or two AND I would have loved to put this book into the hands of a Kindergarten teacher to read alongside the Squeak Street series by Emily Rodda. This book would also be a fabulous read aloud to a preschool group. AND I now discover Alice Melvin is the illustrator of this book which I own and love:
Friday, June 12, 2026
Jane Yolen (1939-2026)
A number of sad things happened to me today but the one that made me cry was reading that the world has lost the enormous talent of Jane Yolen. Of course we do have her books - books! Her final book was number 450. I would love to go to a library in the US and find all 450 that would be so fabulous. Here are just a handful that I have shared on this blog beginning with one of my most favourite picture books to read aloud - Owl Moon.
Here is a brief biography and a partial list of her amazing books. And here is an interview from 2014 with Kidlit.
Here is the Facebook post from her daughter: It is with profound sadness that I, along with my brothers Adam Stemple and Jason Stemple, share the news of our mother, Jane Yolen's passing. As you all probably know, she had one of the most brilliant creative minds of our time. This year, her 450th book published. She has been awarded 6 honorary doctorates and too many awards to mention here. She has mentored, inspired, and nurtured so many authors and illustrators through her words both on the page and off. But, beyond that, she was our mother and grandmother. ... But friends and fans alike, please know that she passed gently with no pain or stress, with my brother Adam’s music filling the room and me reading Owl Moon to her one last time.
The Last Word by AL Tait
I wonder which character in this story matches the author's own life experience. Her descriptions of the way Hayley flicks her hair resonated with me - I went to a High School where I was bullied by girls just like Hayley and her 'gang'. I now call girls (adult women) like this 'ponytail girls'. I laughed and cringed when I read:
"Hayley pouted her hair swinging like a pendulum. She used her hair a lot, Matilda noted, ... If Hayley wasn't pulling the end of her ponytail pensively, she was cocking her head just so in a move guaranteed to make it swish. Did she practice at home? ... surely no-one would actively spend time perfecting something like that? Surely?"
"flicking her hair over her shoulder." AND "her sleek ponytail bouncing as she walked."
I do have one tiny quibble with this book - the publisher Scholastic say this series, called Two Hearts, is "a collection of standalone clean romance stories written by well-known Australian authors. Each title explores the excitement and challenges of first crushes and early relationships — with no sexual content and plenty of heart. The series’ bright, contemporary covers and strong branding signal to both readers and parents that this is romance for tweens done right." I wish this description did not use the work tweens. I think this romance story will better suit junior high school readers aged 12+. It feels to me that today we are in too much of a rush to have our Primary School aged kids 'grow up'. The characters in this story are in Grade 8 in High School - character ages can be an easy way to judge the audience for a book. The bullying that happens to Matilda is cruel and emotionally wounding.
"Hayley was clever in that mean, underhanded way that rats and cats were clever. She was also very pretty which meant people often didn't see ger teeth and claws until it was too late."
Will is also a complex character but we know only a little of his circumstances. Readers need to 'join the dots' to make sense of his changing moods and of course the whole story is told through Matilda's eyes. Finally, I know Primary students participate in debating competitions but again this is an aspect of the story, that yes I enjoyed but it is one that I do think more likely to appeal to a junior high school reader. And to my eye the cover is also designed to appeal to readers aged 12+.
Here is another text quote that deeply affected me:
"the betrayal was more painful than anything she'd ever felt. This was worse than Gemma ghosting her. It was worse than the nauseating numbness of being eight and having to pretend everything was okay as she'd sat in an empty room full of streamers and party hats. ... How did you argue with a bully who went straight to insults? You didn't, you just put your head down and walked away, trying not to make things worse ..."
Joy Lawn, a very respected Australian children's book reviewer, disagrees with me. In her view this book is perfect for 'tweens' - take a look at her review here.
I was pleased to see the Kids' Book reviewer use the words 'early adolescence' when talking about The Last Word but then this reviewer labels the book 10+ which I think is too young.
Here is the Reading Time review with lots of plot details.
I read The Last Word almost in one sitting so in spite of my criticisms this is a book that will appeal to young adolescents - especially girls who might relate to the peer group dilemmas faced by Matilda and they will also enjoy her slowly unfolding of her relationship with Will. I also enjoyed 'meeting' Will who approaches school and their debating competitions in a different and quite refreshing way.
You can hear AL Tait reading the first 20 pages of her book here.
These are the books from the Two Hearts series by Kate Forster, Laura Sieveking, AL Tait and Yvette Poshoglian. As I said previously in this post to my eye the covers seem aimed at a Young Adult reader. I do like the way each book has decorated page edges.


































