Engaging reads for children, from Books go Walkabout

Month: May 2020

The Explorer by Katherine Rundell

A tale full of adventure, exploration and excitement as four children find their way home from the deepest part of the Amazon jungle.

A pacy and exciting book, nearly impossible to put down and with an ending that does more than just conclude the story; as life is at risk and new skills have to be learnt so fast. 

A tale full of adventure, exploration and excitement

Four children, who had never met before, are flying  across the Amazon jungle, when the pilot loses consciousness and the plane crashes into the trees. Fred, Lila, her little brother Max and a girl called Con have to help each other to; find food, survive the creepy crawlies and to escape. On their way they find a map, make a raft and discover a ruined city, where they meet The Explorer, who is not exactly friendly but helpful in an eccentric way. But in a terrifying situation they are forced to leave as quickly as they could. 

 Katherine Rundell, author of The Rooftoppers is an award winning author who  lives in Oxford, UK and The Explorer was; Winner of the Children’s Book Prize 2017, winner of the Costa Children’s Book Award 2017 and winner of the London Book Fair Children’s Travel Book of the Year for 2017. She has an amazing talent for creating adventure and in this book she brings her love of places and adventure to children’s minds. 

Publishers are Bloomsbury who have created The Explorer in paperback filled with black and white chapter headed illustrations and beautiful sketches throughout the book. 

Wonderful storytelling, delightfully delivered…

It’s a truly great book and children of all ages will love the adventure, the sense of place, the maps, the ruined city and see themselves as one of the characters, in an adventure of a lifetime. 

In the video clip Katherine introduces  The Explorer and you can just feel her own love of adventure which creeps in every corner of the book. 

A must read for lockdown 2020 and for anytime at all, home, school and library. 

Sue Martin 


 

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy

A story of friendship, love, care and challenge.

I  discovered this book whilst browsing in my favourite bookshop in London. I was on a training course at the time and was delighted to have found this inspirational, beautiful and emotive book I showed it to my colleagues. 

To my surprise, most of the people in the room had already bought the book and were overwhelmed with it. And so, as I journeyed home that evening I slowly went through all the pages, the drawings, the meaning in the text said so much, and the inspiration on life was wonderful. 

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse is a story of friendship, love, care and challenge. The characters are brought together gradually, with the boy first, who is lonely until he meets the mole, who loves cake. They meet the fox, not easy if you are a mole, but fox has been hurt by life and is mainly silent. The horse is the largest and the gentlest of characters and carries them through a lot. 

The format of the book is water-colour illustrations with hand written text on creamy tactile paper  and feels such a precious book. The author, Charlie Mackesy, hopes that the book will be well used and I’m sure he is right, although I am not sure I could also make notes on it as he suggests. It is still sitting by my chair looking new, although well read. It is a book for quiet moments and for sharing with others too. 

Charlie Mackesy is an artist, a thinker and a creator of inspirational ‘stuff’ about life.  

Penguin Publishers are a huge publishers, and full of creative and new authors, and The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse is in a beautiful format which highlights the inspirational text and illustration.

What a joy!

Sue Martin

Books from around the world

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén