Best of All the Magical Mix That's You by Smriti Halls and Chaaya Prabhat

 

2025      

           

This book shows how we are all made up from what comes to us at birth and what we experience later.  In particular it show what happens to children from mixed-race parents.

It is particularly upbeat.  The topic may be a little complex for the early reader.  

As with picture books for younger readers, the pictures tell more of the story. In fact, much more of the story is told in the pictures than in the text. The pictures are very colourful.

The story is told in rhyming couplets that work well. The text is integrated into the pictures.

The text uses a simple font and has simple 'a's and 'g's.

Most of the text is in single lines though in the few places where there is more it tends to be centred.   

There is a short note form the author at the end of the book.  

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Our Wartime Street by Fiz Osbonre and Katie Kear

2025      

This book provides information about:

·         How World War II started

·         Evacuation

·         The Blitz

·         The RAF around the world

·         War in London and Liverpool

·         Air raid shelters – four sorts

·         Wartime food

·         Schooling during the war

·         Getting by

·         Children helping out

·         Wartime clothing

·         Women during the war,

·         Families during the war

·         The ending of the war

·         Remembering the war

 Note, the Holocaust is only mentioned in passing and in the context of liberation.

As with picture books for younger readers, the pictures tell more of the story.

The text uses a smile font but has difficult 'a's and 'g's.

The text is ragged right.  

There is a very short glossary at the end of the book 

Find your copy here  

Note, this is an affiliate link and a small portion of what you pay, at no extra cost to you,  may go to Bridge House Publishing 

Hatch by Jill Atkin and Emma Latham

 

2019 

This tells the story of a family of blackbirds. The parents build a nest.  There are three eggs. The mother and father take it in turns sitting on the eggs and fetching food for the other one.  The eggs hatch. The young birds soon leave the nest and learn to fly.   

The text is aimed at the very early reader and is part of Badger Learning’s Reading Scheme. This is in Blue Band 4. It is published by Franklin Watts.  The books are quite expensive for parents or even schools to buy but I obtained mine form the local library. It may be worth looking there for texts like this one.

Although a parent or teacher may monitor the choice of the child, according to what they know about that child’s reading ability, if the book is picked up from the library or chosen from a book box in the classroom the new reader will have the feeling of making their own choice about what they read.

The story is just nineteen pages long with only a little text on each page. Some pictures are integrated, others are blocked.  The pictures both illustrate and supplement the text.

The text is ragged right. Significant chunks of language are grouped together with extra line breaks separating them.

The font is clear with simple ‘a’s and ‘g’s.   

The end papers include a section on advising the caring adult how to work with the child.   

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Note, this is an affiliate link and a small portion of what you pay, at no extra cost to you,  may go to Bridge House Publishing 

Aunt Amelia by Rebecca Cobb

 

2014

Aunt Amelia comes to look after the children.   She looks formidable – not least of all because she looks like an alligator. Yet she proves to be a lot of fun.  Mum and Dad give her a list of what the children should and shouldn’t do.  Aunt Amelia completely ignores this.  They all have a lot of fun but order is restored before Mum and Dad return.  

The pictures are full of extra activity which provides more story and talking points for the adult and child reading the book together.  In spades. No wonder Rebecca Cobb has been a Waterstones Children’s Picture Book Prize Winner.

The text is verges on being an emergent reader text.   The subject matter is quite high level and the pictures and text are integrated in a quite sophisticated way. The font is plain and so would be easy for an emergent reader to decipher.   

It’s certainly a text that a child and adult can read together.   There are some very rich extra stories in the pictures.

The end papers reflect Aunt Amelia’s dress.  

Find your copy here  

Note, this is an affiliate link and a small portion of what you pay, at no extra cost to you,  may go to Bridge House Publishing.