Two outsiders unite to deal with the mistakes of World War II; "Ape Engineer" Sally Jones is back; can Ben Okri's young heroine save her mother?
Once the author gains a certain level of shelf space, it seems fair to direct the propaganda oxygen to lesser-known peers. But some popular writers deserve a second big fanfare. Onjali Q Rauf caused a sensation in 2018 with the timely and compassionate The Boy at the Back of the Class. After the three books is The Lion Above the Door (Orion, £7.99), in which brave fourth-year students solved the mystery behind the war memorial in Rochester Cathedral.
Becoming two children who look different in Kent Village is routine for Leo (whose family is from Singapore) and Sangeeta (India). But when Leo found a plaque for a pilot with the same name, his friends joined in with limited internet access, bullying and historical understatement of the role of people from all over the world in World War II. struggle. Rauf remained relaxed but in-depth, delving into Leo's feelings about how his own father seemed to comfort a tormentor.
"The Murderer's Ape" (2017) remains one of the most fascinating stories in contemporary children's stories. Its sequel has finally arrived. In Jakob Wegelius's The False Rose (translated by Peter Graves, Pushkin, £16.99), we joined Sally Jones, a human-like ape engineer introduced in The Murderer's Ape, and her leader, who was introduced in 1920 In the s Lisbon repaired the damaged ship.
However, when they found a dazzling pearl necklace, something strange happened quickly. In order to reunite this troublesome gem with its owner, the two friends fell into the underworld of Glasgow. Wegelius tends to be at the high end of the age range, and if it weren't for the gender transition, some roles—such as mafia bosses—would be stereotypes. But this is an orthodox old-fashioned yarn with bravery, sympathy and decency at its core.
As long as there is a climate crisis, children’s writers will respond: Dr. Seuss’s "Laurax" came out in 1971. With the end of Cop26, this season's famous books combine the familiar love of nature in children's stories with the gradually spreading environmental dystopia from a larger age range.
At the younger end, two fables put their arms around the tree trunk. In the award-winning Natasha Farrant's "The Girl Talking to the Tree" (Zephyr, £12.99, illustrated by Lydia Corry), the young and peculiar Olive begins to save her favorite oak tree, destined to be felled. What followed was a tandem story of magical realism, in which various species revealed their secrets to Oliver, so she became strong enough to protect them all.
In "Every Leaf is Hallelujah" (The head of Zeus, £14.99), Ben Okri uses all the authority of established folktales to make a similar exploration. This time with an African background, the young Mangoshi has a more urgent task: She must harvest a specific flower to save her mother's life. But the forest has been destroyed, and this task seems impossible until she also falls into a coma and encounters some talkative trees. Diana Ejaita's saturated illustrations echo Mangoshi's fear and the variegated personality of trees.
Richard Lambert's The Wolf Road won the YA award last year; Shadow Town (Everything with Words, £7.99) was his first work for young readers. There was a murder in the early days of this dystopia, and its ruthlessness lingered in the mind-but this is not something that Marvel fans should avoid.
Toby's parents had just parted ways. He chased a cat in the tunnel and wandered in this strange, burning kingdom. In this authoritarian system plagued by floods, earthquakes and fires, everything is disintegrating. But who was this ghost girl he met and how could he go home?
Zoologist Nicola Davies' latest work "Sing Our Song" ("Fireflies", £14.99) also takes place in a world that is no stranger to a corrupt regime trying to conquer nature. The three siblings are skiing in the mountains for their lives: they don't understand why Automators will come to them and their mother, but they know that young Xeno's ability to talk to animals will determine her destiny.
Gradually, in this epic environmental rebellion across the icy north and a showdown on a tropical island, the answer is gradually revealed, where the deadliest weapon of Automators will be released. If the plot of the rebels is familiar, Davis is fast-paced, lyrical, and fully believes in the electromagnetic unity that runs through all creatures.
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