CLPE's April New Books Round-Up - Hear from our Librarian!

Each month CLPE's Librarian, Phoebe Demeger, will reveal some of her favourite books she has recently added to our Literacy Library.

Discover April's below: 

EYFS:

“Drip drop, splish splosh, squish squash, squishhhh squashhhh…” – the exuberantly messy Mud! (Abrams, £11.99, 14/4/22) captures all the joy of playing in mud, and makes brilliant use of rhyming couplets, alliteration and onomatopoeia. By author and songwriter Annie Bailey, coupled with dynamic watercolour illustrations from Jen Corace.

Chirp! (Walker, £12.99, 3/2/22) is a charming picturebook featuring many different types of British birds singing together to greet the morning. Mary Murphy’s bold illustrations are the lovechild of Lucy Cousins and shadow puppetry, and the colour scheme brightens as the sun slowly rises throughout the pages.

One of my favourites from author-illustrator Morag Hood, Aalfred and Aalbert (Two Hoots, £6.99, 23/1/20) stars two aardvarks, one of whom sleeps through the night, while the other sleeps through the day. Their paths will never cross…until a little bird takes it upon themself to orchestrate a meet-cute. Very witty and very sweet.

Wise Before Five (Ladybird, £9.99, 20/8/20) – an illustrated Early Years primer covering both 'soft' and 'hard' skills and knowledge, subtitled “amazing things to know before you start school”. Includes a broad range of topics including: making friends, empathy, the alphabet, personal hygiene, staying safe, money, and more.

KS1:

In a creative allegory for the climate crisis, Flooded (Frances Lincoln, £12.99, 3/5/22) features a town populated by animals which is slowly flooding with water, where no-one – except a young taramin monkey – acknowledges what’s going on. The message is one of cooperation and collective action, with greyscale watercolour illustrations, apart from the ever-spreading blue water and the ‘emergency’ yellow of the tamarin’s tail.

In Off-Limits (Walker, £12.99, 4/11/21) by Helen Yoon, a little girl rifles through her father’s office supplies while he takes a break, causing more and more havoc as the book goes on. Relatable, and would make a great companion to Chris Haughton’s ‘Maybe…’ for the way it luxuriates in mischief.

Anita and the Dragons (Lantana, £11.99, 18/3/21) is a stunning picturebook from Hannah Carmona and Anna Cunha, about a young girl emigrating from the Dominican Republic. Evocative and imaginative language – she imagines herself as a brave princesa, preparing to board a dragon – with acknowledgement of the complex emotions that surround emigrating: the promise of a new life, the anxieties of leaving her home and her abuela behind, fear, and bravery.

Young Frank is helping his grandfather pack a suitcase for a trip to his homeland Mauritius in Just Like Grandpa Jazz (Owlet Press, £7.99, 7/6/22). Each item that goes into the suitcase brings with it a tale from Grandpa Jazz’s past – a piece of volcanic rock, an NHS nametag from the Windrush era, and so forth. A wonderful story of intergenerational friendship and family heritage. Hear from author Tarah L. Gear on our blog here: Q&A with Tarah L. Gear all about Just Like Grandpa Jazz | Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (clpe.org.uk)

Lower KS2:

Author-illustrator Mini Grey squeezes 4.6 billion years of history into The Greatest Show on Earth (Puffin, £14.99, 28/4/22) to incredibly imaginative effect. Narrated by Rod the Roach in a cardboard theatre, and taking the reader on a tour through the Big Bang, microscopic life, early insects and reptiles, dinosaurs, and finally the ‘blink-and-you’ll-miss-it’ dawn of humanity. Sheer perfection.

A wintery fable from author-illustrator sister duo Natalia and Lauren O’Hara, Frindleswylde (Walker, £14.99, 4/11/21) carries echoes of classic fairytales and Polish folklore, yet still feels entirely new. Cora finds herself on a quest to free her grandmother from the clutches of a mischievous winter spirit – features extensive lyrical prose and full-colour watercolour spreads.

Upper KS2:

The first in a new graphic novel series, The Extincts: Quest for the Unicorn Horn (Abrams, £10.99, 31/3/22), is a fantastic concept by Scott Magoon, a team of thought-to-be-extinct animals team up to save the world in an Alex Rider-style adventure. Comical and educational, and closes with an extensive fact file and glossary.

New in paperback, Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s Julia and the Shark (Orion, £7.99, 17/3/22) is claustrophobic, emotionally charged, and completely beautiful. Julia, her father and marine biologist mother (who we learn has bipolar) relocate to a remote Scottish lighthouse to look for Greenland sharks – the shark stands as a vessel for deeper, hidden things. With atmospheric greyscale-and-yellow illustrations from Tom de Freston.

From Catherine Doyle, author of the Storm Keeper trilogy, The Lost Girl King (Bloomsbury, £7.99, 1/9/22) takes inspiration from Irish folklore, specifically Tír na nÓg (the Land of Youth), and what happens when the world of mythology crashes into the real world. Publishes in September.

To find out more about the books featured in CLPE’s Literacy Library, discover CLPE's Corebooks List...

For more recommendations from our Librarian, discover CLPE booklists which are available to download for free from our website and act as a handy support guide to teachers looking to develop activities around key themes in the National Curriculum.