CLPE’s June 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 June's below:

EYFS 

Aqua Boy (Otter-Barry Books) continues Ken Wilson-Max's empowering picturebook series, following ‘Astro Girl’ and ‘Eco Girl’. With illustrations brightly evocative of coastal living, it follows Aaron, who loves the sea and whose parents are ocean guardians, but he remains apprehensive about swimming underwater. A book about bravery, with the narrative and backmatter centring on marine wildlife and protecting the oceans. 

Up High (Nosy Crow) is Matt Hunt’s first title as author-illustrator, and beautifully explores perspectives through the eyes of a child riding on his father’s shoulders. The poetic text perfectly captures all the sensory details of life in the city, with plenty of small and subtle moments to linger over, and the use of composition and perspective in the illustrations has to be seen to be believed. 

Another incredibly sensory title is A Gift for Amma: Market Day in India (Meera Sriram and Mariona Cabassa, Barefoot Books), in which a little girl explores the street markets of Chennai to find the perfect gift for her Amma (mother). This vibrant book uses this shopping trip to introduce the reader to a wide range of colours – jasmine white, vermillion red – and the meaning of descriptive words like ‘saffron’ and ‘terracotta’ is explored in a glossary. The book closes with facts about other markets from around the world.  

Pet owners everywhere will find Smelly Peggy (Helen Stephens, Walker Books) strikingly relatable, a slice-of-life story narrated by a little girl about her sweet – but very smelly – dog. Young readers will delight in Peggy’s mischievous antics, which the narrative voice revels in regaling, and joining in with the chorus of “PEGGGGY!”. 

KS1 

In The Suitcase (Daniela Sosa, Simon & Schuster), a little boy bored to be spending the holidays at his grandparents’ house finds a mysterious suitcase in their attic, packed with photographs, newspaper cuttings and other ephemera revealing the very interesting lives of two people – but who could they be? An interesting angle on the topic of empathy, supporting children to view the adults in their lives as people with their own histories and personalities. 

An unexpected adventure befalls a tiny intergalactic traveller in The Spaceman (Randy Cecil, Walker Books), who lands on, and immediately gets stranded upon a seemingly ordinary planet which slowly but surely reveals its charms. A witty picturebook with some excellent moments of silent comedy, and a quiet love letter to our own planet Earth. 

Also from Walker Books is a double-bill of narrative non-fiction, all about (very aptly!) bears. Protecting the Planet: Ice Journey of the Polar Bear (Martin Jenkins and Lou Baker-Smith) and Brown Bears (Dr Nick Crumpton and Colleen Larmour) each give an insight into the lives and habits of these animals, with ‘Ice Journey’ in particular drawing attention to the effects of climate change on bears and their habitats. 

Wings, Waves & Webs: Patterns in Nature (Robin Mitchell Cranfield) is a beautifully produced information title from indie publisher Greystone Kids combining STEM and the arts, with double-page spreads showcasing the various patterns that occur in the natural world, from the familiar – spots and stripes – to the unusual – honeycomb and meanders. Ideal for an early KS1 audience, and encourages observation and appreciation of the natural world. 

Lower KS2 

Also from Greystone Kids, the picturebook This Table (Alex Killian and Brooke Smart) is a ‘life cycle’ story with a difference: it follows a seed which grows into a tree, which is transformed into a table, which becomes the centrepiece of a family home. Perfect for inspiring conversations about materials and the role of objects in our lives.  

Spider in the Well (HarperCollins) from debut picturebook-maker Jess Hannigan is an offbeat fable told in three chapters, about a mysteriously malfunctioning wishing well and a helpful newsboy who sets out to fix the problem. A surreal colour palette and deadpan illustrations accompany this hilarious tale of justice, lies and blackmail. 

My Mother’s Tongues: A Weaving of Languages (Uma Menon and Rahele Jomepour Bell, Walker Books) is a visually stunning and validating exploration of language and accent, in which a young girl reflects on the variety of ‘tongues’ that she and her family speak, and how these tongues speak to a wider family history. A very special picturebook that would be particularly resonant for readers with English as an additional language. 

Agent Harrier: This Book Will Self-Destruct (Ben Sanders, Little Tiger) launches a new spy-spoof graphic novel series, starring an intrepid – if hapless – secret agent dog. The book not only plays with the conventions of the spy genre, with jokes and twists galore, but uses the graphic novel form and even the typesetting to create meaning and humour. 

Upper KS2 

The latest novel from award-winning author-illustrator Tom Percival, The Wrong Shoes (Simon & Schuster, with publication supported by the National Literacy Trust) is a heavily illustrated, hard-hitting, yet hopeful story about child poverty, the power of art, and the relationship between a child’s circumstances and their life choices. Beautifully and sensitively written, with immersive illustrations by Percival.  

The River Spirit (illustrated by Júlia Moscardó) is the third in Lucy Strange’s ongoing series for Barrington Stoke which combines historical instances of child labour with elements of mythology, folklore, and the supernatural. Preceded by ‘The Mermaid in the Millpond’ and ‘The Storm and the Minotaur’, this atmospheric and moving book sees young chimneysweep Tom befriend a mysterious girl who emerges from the river.  

Rune: The Tale of a Thousand Faces (Carlos Sánchez) begins a new graphic novel series from Flying Eye, a fantasy adventure about mysterious realms, wizards and alchemy, with a striking colour palette and fantasy worldbuilding echoing the films of Studio Ghibli. Notably, one of the protagonists speaks in sign language. 

To mark the 400th anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare’s first folio of plays, Walker Books have collaborated with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust to produce Shakespeare’s First Folio: All the Plays: A Children’s Edition. Abridged by Anjna Chouhan, with artwork evocative of the era by Emily Sutton, this stunning tome renders each play performable by a small group of children by reducing the runtime and the size of the cast, with some slight alterations to vocabulary and content. An ambitious and beautifully produced project.