Rye Books recommended reads this month are below. If you fancy giving them a go, just go along to the shop and they’ll give you 10% discount on them (for this month only). Just take a copy of the school newsletter with you to get the discount.
Plenty of January recommendations to get the year started:
Ages 5-6
Superhero Mum by Joe Berger. All mums are brilliant, and the mum in this story is no exception. She doesn’t wear a cape or fly to earth from outer space, but she runs for the bus so fast it feels like flying, uses her super strength to carry her daughter’s boots, coat, bag AND scooter, and can make bumps and bruises better with just a kiss. This mum really does have superpowers!
Sticky History of the World by Caroline Selmes. Sticky History of the World includes a large-format, eight-page sticker booklet and an intricately illustrated, eight-panel fold-out card carousel.
Each of the panels of the carousel is based upon an era of the history of the world, from the Big Bang and the age of the dinosaurs, via the Romans and the Egyptians, right up to the modern age, and even into the future.
I Love You, Stick Insect by Chris Naylor-Ballesteros. There’s something not quite right about Stick Insect’s new sweetheart, and Butterfly seems to have spotted the problem …’IT’S A STICK!’ Oh dear, the course of true love never did run smooth and poor stick insect is about to find this out the hard way.
My Worst Book Ever! by Allan Ahlbergh. This is the story of a picture book doomed from the very start. Allan has a good idea for book about a crocodile, but every time he sits down to write he’s interrupted. The manuscript gets soaked in tea and nibbled by snails. And then when Bruce gets started on the pictures, he gets over-excited and draws a hippo not a crocodile. Pages in French and Chinese get muddled with the English, and somehow Bruce’s hippos and dinosaurs get mixed up with them too.
Ages 7-9
Impossible Inventions by Margozata Mycelska. When Leonardo da Vinci invented the tank, car, helicopter, glider, parachute, submarine, lift and telescope, over 500 years ago, he was considered a dreamer. Or even crazy. Today he is understood to be a genius, ahead of his time. This book collects ancient and modern inventions. Some are revolutionary, others comical, others were simply impossible.
Dog Man and Cat Kid by Fav Pilkey. Hot diggity dog! Dog Man, the newest hero from the creator of Captain Underpants, is back and this time he’s not alone. The heroic hound with a real nose for justice now has a sidekick in the form of a super-cute kitten, and together they have a mysterious caper to sniff out!
Wed Wabbit by Lissa Evans. You’re called Fidge and you’re nearly eleven. You’ve been hurled into a strange world. You have three companions: two are unbelievably weird and the third is your awful cousin Graham. You have to solve a series of nearly impossible clues. You need to deal with a cruel dictator and three thousand Wimbley Woos (yes, you read that sentence correctly). And the whole situation – the whole, entire thing – is your fault.
Cowgirl by Giancarlo Gemin. Growing up on the embattled Mawr Estate in South Wales, all Gemma sees are burglaries, muggings, sadness and boredom. With a dad in prison and a mum who has given up hope, she, like everyone around her, is holding on to memories of the times when happiness wasn’t so hard to find. When her search for the scene of a perfect childhood day takes her up into the surrounding hills, Gemma is forced into a meeting with the legendary Cowgirl.
Ages 9-11
Sky Song by Abi Alphinstone. In the snowy kingdom of Erkenwald, whales glide between icebergs, wolves hunt on the tundra and polar bears roam the glaciers. But the people of this land aren’t so easy to find – because Erkenwald is ruled by an evil Ice Queen and the tribes must stay hidden or risk becoming her prisoners at Winterfang Palace.
My Sweet Orange Tree by Jose Mauro de Vasconcelos. Meet Zezé – Brazil’s naughtiest and most loveable boy, his talent for mischief matched only by his great kindness. When he grows up he wants to be a ‘poet with a bow-tie’ but for now he entertains himself playing pranks on the other residents of his family’s poor Rio de Janiero neighbourhood and inventing friends to play with. That is, until he meets a real friend, and his life begins to change.
Letters from the Lighthouse by Emma Carroll. February 1941. After months of bombing raids in London, twelve-year-old Olive Bradshaw and her little brother Cliff are evacuated to the Devon coast. The only person with two spare beds is Mr Ephraim, the local lighthouse keeper. But he’s not used to company and he certainly doesn’t want any evacuees…
The Explorer by Katherine Rundell. From his seat in the tiny aeroplane, Fred watches as the mysteries of the Amazon jungle pass by below him. He has always dreamed of becoming an explorer. If only he could land and look about him. As the plane crashes into the canopy, Fred is suddenly left without a choice. He and the three other children may be alive, but the jungle is a vast, untamed place. With no hope of rescue, the chance of getting home feels impossibly small. Except, it seems, someone has been there before them.
