Monochrome magic with Mary Poppins, a swooning YA romance and Winnie-the-Pooh returns
This bleak November, curl up with a story – whether about monkeys, Mary Poppins, sentient trains, revolutionary France or romance across borders.
For picture book lovers there is Pandora (Frances Lincoln), by the award-winning Victoria Turnbull, the tale of an inventive vixen who lives alone, “in a world of broken things”, until a wounded bird falls from the sky. Compelling detail, tender, subtle colouring, economical text and pure emotion – loneliness, grief, hope and eventual joy – add up to a book of quiet but considerable power.
There are more birds in Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick’s wordless Owl Bat Bat Owl(Walker), in which a family of owls squabble with the bats on their branch until a common peril unites them. Intensely expressive, humorous and touching, it invites the reader to turn the book upside down and see things from a bat perspective too
Picture book royalty Quentin Blake and Emma Chichester Clark collaborate, meanwhile, on Three Little Monkeys (HarperCollins), the hilarious saga of Hilda Snibbs and her three beloved simians, who trash a different room whenever she leaves them unsupervised. Despite her growing wrath and desperation, Hilda is distraught when she thinks the monkeys have left home … Look out for rich textures, hidden objects and the creative use of loo paper.
There’s more unstoppable anarchic fun in Danny McGee Drinks the Sea (Hodder), from Andy “Mr Gum” Stanton, and boasting Neal Layton’s splendid wild-haired illustrations. After Danny makes a successful attempt to drink the whole sea, can anyone stop him swallowing things? Full of playful, boomeranging, sometimes unnerving rhymes and a brilliantly disconcerting twist, it’s ideal reading for anyone who doesn’t know when to stop….
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