Social Misfits and resourceful children are featured in this week's selection. Get a 25% discount with the coupon in StarTwo.
In the wrong family
Tyrannosaurus Drip
Author: Julia Donaldson
Illustrator: David Roberts
Publisher: Macmillan Children’s Books, 32 pages
LIKE Julia Donaldson’s other picture books, Tyrannosaurus Drip is told in rhyme, with a rhythm that trips off the tongue and makes it a joy to read (especially at bedtime when parents’ energy is at an all-time low).
The egg of a duckbill dinosaur accidentally finds its way into the nest of a T. Rex. When it hatches, the baby dino is naturally a great disappointment to its family.
Poor T. Drip, as his sisters dub him, runs away and joins a herd of other duckbills.
But guess who becomes a hero when the herd gets attacked by T. Rexes?
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Author: Simon Puttock
Illustrator: Holly Swain
Publisher: Frances Lincoln Childrens Books, 32 pages
LILY Lamb seems to be the only student in Miss Felicity Fox’s class who doesn’t quite trust the popular schoolteacher.
Everyone else loves Miss Fox because she pampers them with donuts and cakes slathered in pink icing.
When Miss Fox organises a long and lonely nature walk for her class, Lily’s doubts about her teacher mount. Will her suspicions be confirmed?
Burn My Heart
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Publisher: Puffin Books, 208 pages
MATTHEW and Mugo are friends despite their very different circumstances and backgrounds. Both live on a farm in Kenya. It belongs to Matthew’s family who is white and British. Mugo is black and his family is employed by Matthew’s father.
It is a turbulent period in Kenyan history. A secret Society called the Mau Mau is determined to gain independence from the British ... at any cost.
As violence mounts in the land, prejudice and suspicion steal into the hearts of everyone and even the best of friendships are threatened, including Matthew and Mugo’s.
Over a Thousand Hills,
I Walk with You
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Publisher: Andersen Press, 352 pages
BASED on the genocide suffered by Rwanda in 1994, Over a Thousand Hills, I Walk With You tells the story of Jeanne, a young girl whose family is slaughtered. She is left to fend for herself and, like many children like her, learns to survive in a time of great suffering and cruelty.
This is a book that is destined to be as important as The Diary of Anne Frank. Although not an autobiography or a firsthand account, the events it describes are just as real, heartbreaking and horrific. And, like the Jewish holocaust, they should never have been allowed to take place.
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Trickster Tales
Editors: Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling
Publisher: Viking Children’s Books
AMONG the tricksters in this book are traditional favourites Brer Rabbit, Anansi and coyote.
The authors who have contributed to this anthology include Holly Black (The Spiderwick Chronicles), Ellen Klages (The Green Glass Sea) and Jane Yolen (The Devil’s Arithmetic).
This is the third collection of myth-based tales edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.
The other two, The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest and The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm, are also well worth a read.
Honk if You Hate Me
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Publisher: Delacorte Press, 256 pages
TEN years ago, Monalisa Kent burnt her town’s futon factory to the ground.
Even though she was just six at the time, she effectively destroyed the town’s source of employment and, as a result, has been hated by everyone since.
Sixteen now, Monalisa is a blue-haired misfit who lives in permanent retreat and denial.
But there’s only so far you can bury the past before it comes back to haunt you ...
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