The B on Your Thumb: 60 Poems to Boost Reading and Spelling by Colette Hillier (writer) Tor Freeman (illustrator)

2020

As the title suggests this book contains sixty poems. They are spread over eighty pages.  The text is highly illustrated. The illustrations entertain as does the text which is also informative and designed to aid with spelling and reading.

Many of the poems are about how letters and combinations of letters produce sounds.  

So we have:

·         S and H as in SHOUT

·         EE as inn SEES and TEETH

·         OU as in OUT

·         OI as in POINT

·         QU as in QUEUE and QUESTION

·         AI as in PAIR and RAIN

·         CH as in CHOCOLATE

·         A as in HEAD

·         OA as in GOAT

·         OO as in MOON

·         OW as in BROWN

·         AR as in CAR

·         IOUS as in FURIOUS

·         OUGH as in COUGH (Ah – do we need a little care with that one?)

·         ION as in STATION

·         ING as in THING

·         EAR as in WEAR (but also in EAR)

·         OUL as in SHOULD

·         Ea as in EAT

·         AY as in WAY

It also contains several pages about silent letters. It makes a secret number of “TEN” (OFTEN) and finds several secret animals e.g. HEN as in WHEN. It discusses the magic “e”. It also tackles some words that are often difficult to spell such as NECESSARY. There is a demonstration of to the “I before E except after C” rule.  There are some pages about homophones.

At the end of the book are details of further activities that could reinforce the knowledge and understanding of our quite demand English spelling system. There are suggestions at the beginning of how to use the book. Both sets of ideas are presented in a child-friendly way but may be actually dressed to a supportive adult.

Is this an educational book or a book to entertain children? It manages to be both in fact.   

Fantastically Great Women Who Made History by Kate Pankhurst

Fantastically Great Women Who Made History by Kate Pankhurst

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2018

This book introduces the young reader to fourteen women who have made their mark on the world: Boudicca, Harriet Tubman, Flora Drummond, Qui Jin, Noor Inayat Khan, Dr Elizabeth Blackwell, Valentina Tereshkova, Josephine Baker,  Pocahonta, Hatshepsut, Mary Wollstonecraft,  Mart Shelley,  Sayyid al Hurra and Ada Lovelace. Each woman has a double spread to herself though mother and daughter Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley share a spread.  A final double spread displays a series of book spines, one for each woman featured.  The sub-title to each book is a reminder of that woman’s main characteristics.   

Each double spread is filled with snippets of factual material.  The text is enlightened with quirky two-dimensional drawings and some extra extraordinary facts.  Each page is very busy and the reader may not wish to read in a linear fashion.

There are a variety of fonts – mainly serif and with difficult ‘a’s and ‘g’s. Some chunks of text are boxed off. This make it easier to distinguish the different sections.  
  

There is also a glossary at the end of the book of some of the more demanding expressions.

This is a good book for dipping into and it’s likely that it will be read over and over again.

It seeks to motivate girls.    

Skeleton Key by Anthony Horowitz

2015, first published 2002  

This is the third of the Alex Rider books.   Alex makes an enemy of a triad that he is investigating undercover by being a ball-boy at Wimbledon.  To hide him he is sent away on a mission to work with the CIA.  This actually puts him in more danger than he was from the triad and the two CIA agents with whom he is working are killed.    

        

There is pace a plenty in this novel, possibly even more than in the first two books.  On the cover the novel is again described as “Action, Adrenaline, Adventure.”  Alex remains a likeable and believable character, however.  We get to know him better in each book.  In this one there is almost a love interest.  Alex is maturing with his readers. 

This is almost James Bond for children and in fact Anthony Horowitz has been involved in creating further James Bond stories.  Alex is given various “toys” to help him with his mission. 

The book is 327 pages long, - so longer than the first two books - with blocked text and an adult but simple font. The chapters are a little longer than in the first book.  There are no illustrations.

Secrets of the Fearless by Elizabeth Laird

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There is a little romance and there is a marriage near the end of this story but this is very understated. This is mainly an adventure on the high seas and includes espionage, danger and risk-taking. It contains much of the drama that we would expect to see in works by Dickens or Shakespeare.   We even have a girl dressed up as a man.   

There is plenty of pace in this novel. The chapters are relatively short and each contains several exciting plot points.    

This is a slight departure for Elizabeth Laird. Much of her work is set in different cultures in the modern world. This story however takes place in a past that is just as exotic in another way, and we have details about press gangs, battles with the French and the Empress Josephine.  Laird demonstrates here that she is an excellent story-teller. 

It is a long read – 351 pages of a point 12 point serif font with difficult ‘a’s and ‘g’s.  The text is blocked.  The book has a robust spine.       

Dear Nobody by Berlie Doherty

2001, first published 1991  

   

Helen writes letters to her unborn baby – hence the “Dear Nobody” of the title.  The novel begins  on the day Chris is about to start university when he receives a parcel.  It contains all of the letters that 

Helen has written to the baby.  Chris reads through them and realises that their child has been born. He rushes to visit mother and child.   The story ends as Chris write s from his student room to his daughter Amy.

This is a story of an unplanned teen pregnancy.  We have little detail of how Chris and Helen become parents but there is a hint of a romantic scene and unplanned love-making.  We do get a few reality checks as Helen faces some of the physical realities about pregnancy. There is no happy ending.  We do not find out what happens to Helen and Amy after the birth. Chris decides he is not yet ready for fatherhood.

The story is told through the letters to the unborn baby and the flash backs they cause for Chris.  Thus the voice alternates between the two main characters.

It is a little dated: they use landlines and talk about cassette tapes. The chapters are quite long compared with a 21^st century book.    

The book is 234 pages long, in blocked text and in an adult font.   

 

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Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls (1 & 2) by Francesca Cavallo and Elena Favilli

2016, 2017, 

These are gorgeous books. They are hardback and have smooth, pleasing to the touch covers.  Each one contains 100 double spreads, featuring a page about a woman who has made a difference and a full page portrait of her. A variety of artists have been commissioned to produce the portraits.  On almost every portrait there is a quote from the woman featured.   The range is wide and includes Margaret Thatcher, J K Rowling and Billie Jean King. In both books the women are listed in alphabetical order by first name.      

How should one read these books? 

I admit to reading both in just a few sittings but perhaps the titles suggest that one story at a time should be digested just before the reader goes to bed.  Are these books just for the girls? Maybe. They are indeed aspirational. But maybe the boys should read them too so that they can appreciate what women can do. Ideally as well each woman should be scrutinised carefully and each entry should be discussed in detail – between mother and daughter, maybe, but also between class teacher and the whole class?   

The concept started as a crowd-funded project and each book lists all of the backers.  It has now been taken over by Particular Books, an imprint of Penguin.       

Anne of the Island L M Montgomery

2017, first published 1915

Anne goes to Redmond and studies there for her B A. Readers get a taste of university life.  This must have been quite innovative at the time it was written and isn’t too old-fashioned even for a 21^st century reader.  Anne and three of her friends enjoy an interesting house share.   

We meet several old friends from Avonlea – Gilbert Blyhte, Diana Barry, Marilla and Mrs Rachel Lynde.  

Anne has to face death. One of her best friends from school, Ruby Willis, dies of TB.

There is romance as well. Anne meets handsome Roy Garner, the romantic hero of her dreams. He woos Anne but in the end she tunes him down; she does not love him. At the end of the novel Anne and Gilbert become engaged.     

Childhood friend Diana marries her Fred.  Housemate Phil, who can never make up her mind and waivers for a long time between two suitors until she finds a third in her dear Jo, soon to become a minister. Anne attends this wedding and several others. Anne herself receives three proposals before she accepts Gilbert’s second attempt.  

Typically for this age group, Anne only realises she loves Gilbert after Roy’s proposal but Gilbert seems to be seeing a lot of another girl, Christine.  In the end Anne finds out that Christine was already engaged to someone else, and that Gilbert was just looking out for her; she was the sister of a good friend of his.  

L M Montgomery is a skilled writer. Her characters come alive.  They are rounded and believable. Her smooth prose carries us along. We are given a real sense of time and place.

She portrays a life that will be somewhat alien to the modern teenager.

The book is 306 pages long.  The chapters are of a reasonable length and each has a self-contained story though some longer stories run through the book