The best Children’s books out this month: Space adventures, a Cafe in an enchanted wood a
- Sally Morris reviews the best Children’s Books out now
WHERE TO HIDE A STAR by Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins £14.99, 48pp)
TWENTY years after the boy and the star first appeared in Jeffers’ bestselling How To Catch A Star, they’re back in a new adventure twinkling with deadpan wit, warmth and stunning illustrations.
Boy, star and best friend penguin play their favourite (very funny) game of hide and seek but, when penguin needs help, they fail to notice star drifting off in a rowboat.
Desperate to find it, boy enlists the help of another familiar face, Martian, who tracks the boat to the North Pole, where someone else has befriended star . . .
A simply glorious evocation of friendship, loyalty and home with unforgettable characters for a new generation to fall in love with.
3+
THE CAFE AT THE EDGE OF THE WOODS by Mikey Please (Harper Collins £7.99, 48pp)
The Café at the Edge of the Woods is available now from the Mail Bookshop
‘RENE dreamed of fine cuisine, and so she saved up every bean, then built a building beam by beam . . . the café at the edge of the woods.’
But only one waiter applies for the advertised job – the odd-looking Glumfoot – and despite the fabulous food, no customers turn up.
When an ogre walks in and demands pickled bats, slugs and mice, Rene is horrified but wily Glumfoot knows that changing the dishes’ names on the menu and tweaking the presentation can satisfy monster appetites and the café becomes the hottest ticket in town.
Exasperated parents of picky eaters will love this gorgeously illustrated, gothic gourmet giggle. Another helping please!
3+
BIRDIE by J.P. Rose (Andersen Press £7.99, 256pp)
THE author’s experience of being a child of colour placed in care before being adopted underpins this moving story of Birdie, the mixed-race daughter of an English girl and black American GI, brought up in a 1950s ‘brown babies’ children’s home.
After a great-aunt unexpectedly adopts her, she moves to a small Yorkshire mining village where she encounters racism and hostility for the first time.
When she finds Mr Duke, an old pit pony facing the knacker’s yard, Birdie hatches a plan to save him – and herself.
Birdie is an endearing heroine in this tender story set against a backdrop of social change.
9+