Category: The Wider World

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The Secret Sunshine Project by Benjamin Dean and Sandhya Prabhat

The Secret Sunshine Project by Benjamin Dean and Sandhya Prabhat is one of the amazing novels that my children got in their advent calendar from the superb Wonderland Books.

The story follows Bea, as her happy family of four become a sadder family of three. After the death of her dad, Bea’s family starts to struggle financially and it becomes necessary to move in with Bea’s grandmother – far away from London in the countryside.

The countryside – miles and miles from London Pride, where Bea’s family was last happy. Miles and miles from the one event that Bea and her sister Riley were looking forward to. So Bea decides to take matters into her own hands, and begins The Secret Sunshine Project. If she and Riley can’t go to Pride, she’s going to bring Pride to this village – whether her gran’s arch-nemesis and head of the village council likes it or not!

I really, really loved this book. Though it dealt with incredibly serious subjects – family death, financial instability, systemic racism, as well as trans- and homo-phobia – The Secret Sunshine Project never once felt hopeless. Whilst I loved Norah’s Ark, there were times when I needed to put the book down and take a moment because of the subject matter, but that didn’t once happen here. I read the whole thing in a single, joyful sitting, and came away from it feeling uplifted.

The book doesn’t end perfectly, and any resolution the characters enjoy is a temporary respite in the grand scheme of things, but it felt real, and honest, and hopeful nevertheless.

The ‘dead parent’ trope is one that’s used fairly commonly in children’s fiction – and I should know, I used it myself in my upcoming novel – but it’s sometimes feels like it isn’t properly dealt with. I thought The Secret Sunshine Project did an absolutely wonderful job of this though.

What are your favourite books for Pride month? I would especially love to hear about those by LGBT+ authors – especially trans authors at this time.

Fran ❤

I’ve set up a ‘bookshop‘ of sorts, over on Bookshop.org, so that I can point you to somewhere to buy that isn’t Amazon. I get a small commission for any sales made there. This helps to support me running this blog. If you’d like to get your copy of The Secret Sunshine Project this way, please just click here. Thank you for your support.

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The Girl Who Talked to Trees by by Natasha Farrant and Lydia Corry 

This is a gorgeous concept-album of a book. Following the story of Olive, The Girl Who Talked to Trees by by Natasha Farrant and Lydia Corry, is about the life of an oak across the ages, but also about the other trees close by.

When ‘her’ oak is threatened with removal, Olive sends out a wish, hoping to figure out how to save it. In her dreams, the trees begin to tell her tales of their lives across time – a series of self-contained, yet interconnected short stories which cover the mythology and facts about different types of trees. On waking, Olive uses these tales to advocate for her oak, and ultimately save it.

The connection between people and the natural world is beautifully explored in this book, not just in the present day, but also across history. The differences between how people treat some kinds of tree compared to others is also touched upon, as is the way we conceptualise the forest, verses individual trees.

I actually listened to this as an audiobook, so wasn’t aware how beautifully illustrated the physical copy is. Researching for this post, though, led me to some photos of amazing full colour illustrated spreads, and I think I might have to invest in my own copy. It was amazing to listen to this book, but I’d like to be able to enjoy the glorious artwork too.

This is a rare look at the very personal side of felling trees, and the way in which individuals interact and form relationships with single plants. It reminds me of a line from Oak and Ash and Thorn, by Peter Fiennes where he asserts that whilst Britain loves trees, we’re afraid of the woods. That really plays out here, across the series of short stories.

If you’d like more books on nature, the environment, plants, or the climate crisis, there’s a short list here. Hopefully I’ve included something for everyone:

– Terra Electrica (Middle Grade)
– Global (Graphic Novel)
– Feast of Ashes (Young Adult)
– This Book is Not Rubbish (Non-fiction)
– Ruby Nettleship and the Ice Lolly Adventure (Picture Book)
– Plant the Tiny Seed (Picture Book)
– We Travel So Far (Picture Book)
– A Swift Return (Picture Book)

What are your favourite nature books for children? Do you know of any others told in this short-story format? As always, I would love to hear your recommendations! ❤

Fran xx

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I’ve set up a ‘bookshop‘ of sorts, over on Bookshop.org, so that I can point you to somewhere to buy that isn’t Amazon. I get a small commission for any sales made there. This helps to support me running this blog. If you’d like to get your copy of The Girl Who Talked to Trees this way, please just click here. Thank you for your support.

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Tyger by SF Said and Dave McKean

Before I start reviewing this book, I’d like to tell you a short story about our local landscape.

In the 1800s, pushed from their homes by the Improvement practices that estates were bringing into force at this time, a group of crofters set up home on the Commonty (or common land) of Bennachie. This so-called ‘squatters settlement’ lasted for around 50 years before three lairds decided that the inhabitants had made this land fertile enough to be useful, at which point, said lairds made to claim it. In celebration of their success, they capped the hill with a carved stone – something that we know to this day as ‘the thieves’ mark’.

A photo I took of the “Thieves Mark”. This is carved into the bedrock on top of Bennachie’s peak, Mither Tap . The “B” stands for Balquhain, the “P” for Pittodrie, and the “LE” for Logie Elphinstone. The stone is dated 1858 although the Court of Session didn’t approve the sectioning of the land until 1859. Bit cocky.

You can read more about their story here.

So why am I telling you this?

Tyger by SF Said follows the story of Adam – a young immigrant boy living in a British Empire London. Adam discovers a mystical tyger, hiding in a rubbish dump and pledges to help said tyger face an encroaching danger which threatens its life. Using his talent for art, and through speaking to people across various echelons of this eerily familiar Empiric Britain, Adam and his friend Zadie aim to avert disaster.

Again – what’s with the story about the commons?

The theft of common land by the powerful is a large theme of Said’s book, and it stuck with me on account of my ties to the Bennachie colony. Not only do I live within drivable distance, I’ve also helped out on digs close to this site, and researched the history of the place for my archaeology degree. A combination of the local past and the empathy I felt for Said’s characters really stirred something deep inside me as I read this, and I found myself with a bubbling anger at what had been done to the Bennachie ‘squatters’. When I tried to express this rage at the theft of common land to friends, I was met with blank stares. So few people now understand that there used to be swathes of countryside set apart for people to use as they needed – whether for grazing livestock, or gathering stone, or in the case of Bennachie, for living on when rents became impossible. The violence of the abolition of common land could be seen in the archaeology of this settlement – crockery lay smashed, just beneath the surface from where residents had been dragged from their homes for refusing to pay rent. To quote from the link above;  it is believed that a sheriff’s officer, policeman, factor, and estate employees would pull down a course of masonry so that the wall [of residents’ houses] would collapse.

This isn’t something that took place within the distant past – these are events from our great-grandparents’ living memory. The theft of the commons is something that shapes our daily lives now. I love how Tyger brings this part of our history into focus, and can open discussions about land ownership, right-to-roam, and trespass. The need for connection between people and the earth matters now more than ever, and without space in which to foster that connection – space which is accessible to all and doesn’t depend on income – is absolutely vital.

And then there’s the elements of the book which tackle the concepts of national identity, the role of the outsider, the desire to conform…. honestly, there are dissertations-worth of things I could say about this book and how important it is that young people read it. Colonialism impacts all aspects of our lives, and it’s crucial that we understand that so we can take steps to counter it.

I’m going to be reviewing a book about the history of the British Empire soon – Story of Now – but as I think it goes hand-in-hand with Tyger, I thought I would mention it here. These books in combination would make for an incredible addition to anyone teaching the Victorians. Before, or while reading it, I highly recommend looking up where your local common land used to be, or just looking up the Cambridge Cows.

Can you think of any other books which deal with common land and the theft of it? Do you know of any other good books for children, about the harms of the British Empire? I would love to hear your thoughts.

— Fran xxx

I’ve set up a ‘bookshop‘ of sorts, over on Bookshop.org, so that I can point you to somewhere to buy that isn’t Amazon. I get a small commission for any sales made there. This helps to support me running this blog. If you’d like to get your copy of Tyger this way, please just click here. Thank you for your support.

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Global by Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin and Giovanni Rigano

Comics have had a lot of bad rep over the years, but hopefully as a society, we’re coming to recognise how important they are as a reading medium. Comics require reading skills, of course,* but they also require a visual literacy that translates wonderfully to the critical reading of advertisements. As someone who has always loved the medium, I’m really thrilled to see graphic storytelling being treated with increasing respect, and being employed for increasingly important topics.

This incredible graphic novel, Global, follows the lives of two children – one impacted by melting ice, the other by flooding land. Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin and Giovanni Rigano have done an absolutely amazing job of communicating the climate crisis in a personal, sympathetic, and beautiful way.

I found the afterword particularly affecting; throughout the book I felt as though I was reading about a point in the near-future, a time that was coming if we continue to do nothing. But the afterword made it clear that these were events were taking place in the present. The sheets explaining climate change following this were also fantastic, and really made the information accessible.

As someone who’s just coming out of a degree and so is used to citing everything, I also appreciated that this book had employed a research consultant (Vivien Francis). This is – sadly – not as common as you might think in non-fiction books, so to see it in a fictional work was particularly nice.

And for those, like my youngest, who might be concerned about the fate of the dog in this book, I’m happy to report that the dog is still alive at the end.

Overall, this is a fabulous book for humanising the climate crisis, and for engaging empathetically with the world around us. The two very different plots really help to bring home how multifaceted an issue this is, while still working within such a visual medium; comics don’t give you a lot of space for footnotes, or whole paragraphs dedicated to exposition, so this was such a clever way of exploring the interconnectedness of environments across the earth.

Of the various children’s books I’ve read which touch on climate change/the environment, this is by far the one I’ve liked best so far. If you’d like to investigate others, check out:
– Terra Electrica (Middle Grade)
– Feast of Ashes (Young Adult)
– This Book is Not Rubbish (Non-fiction)
– Plant the Tiny Seed (Picture Book)
– We Travel So Far (Picture Book)
– A Swift Return (Picture Book)

What are your favourite books about the environment and climate change for children? I would absolutely love some more recommendations!

Fran xxx

I’ve set up a ‘bookshop‘ of sorts, over on Bookshop.org, so that I can point you to somewhere to buy that isn’t Amazon. I get a small commission for any sales made there. This helps to support me running this blog. If you’d like to get your copy of Global this way, please just click here. Thank you for your support.

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* If you’re not familiar with reading comics, I’d recommend conceptualising them as reading a play with images instead of stage-directions. And if you’re unfamiliar with plays, do yourself a huge favour and go and read The Importance of Being Earnest – it’s free on Project Gutenburg! It’s Oscar Wilde’s greatest gift to theatre kids the world over.

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How to Be Disabled and Proud (or at least kinda sorta okay with it) – Cathy Reay

How to be Disabled and Proud by Cathy Reay was sent to us by the lovely Sally Oliphant for review and we have thoroughly enjoyed this.

It’s not something I tend to talk about often, but there’s a lot of neurodivergent people in my family – I’ve been diagnosed with autism and dyspraxia in recent years, and there are various other family members with their own things going on (though these aren’t my stories to tell).

That being the case, there were lots of excited, willing readers for this.

Let’s start with the intended demographic;

“I only read the part about puberty. It was really good. It was very inclusive and I liked the illustrations, they were eye catching and big, and had speech marks and stuff. And they finished the paragraph’s using a speech bubble.” – Youngest kiddo (10)

“It represented lots of different types of disabilities and it talked about intersectionality too, which was good. There were different sections for different types of disabilities like invisible and visible ones. It uses the author’s personal experience as well so it’s really authentic. I think it’s all explained in a really succinct way. I thought the illustrations were really cute and they’re so bright and lively that you can imagine them in colour, even though they’re black and white. They carried through the representation that was present in the text.” – Eldest kiddo (13)

For me, I wish I’d had this book growing up – which is something of a complicated statement, because I didn’t know about my own neurodivergence until much later. I think, though, that even if I’d found this book without knowing about my own disability, I’d have got so much from it. I knew I was different, even if I didn’t have words for why that was. I knew that I couldn’t do some of the things that the other children could, and the tone is such that even without possessing the vocabulary to describe my brain that I have now, I would have felt seen and valued.

For those interested, here’s the blurb:

“A warm, funny and empowering guide to what you can expect growing up disabled, written by disabled journalist and mum Cathy Reay.

Have you ever felt like you don’t fit in anywhere?

Or like no-one understands what it feels like to be you?

Maybe you feel like you’re the only person in the world who looks, moves or thinks like you do.

Well, I’m here to tell you that you are not alone, and you belong in the world exactly as you are.

In this honest, funny, empowering guide, Cathy Reay draws on her own experiences of growing up disabled to encourage young readers to embrace (or at least, feel kinda sorta OK with) their disabled identity.

This book will guide disabled readers through navigating the move from primary to secondary school, voicing their accessibility needs, finding disabled community and gaining the confidence to stand up for their rights, and for others too. Cathy examines the challenges faced by disabled children, touching gently on issues such as bullying and discrimination, and what to do when people just don’t get it, with comforting and practical advice to help readers through tough times.

How To Be Disabled and Proud empowers disabled readers to value and appreciate themselves for who they are, exactly as they are, and acts as a powerful call to action for both disabled and non-disabled children to advocate for a more accessible, more understanding world.

Featuring interviews from a wide range of disabled changemakers and friends, including Ellie Simmonds, Jameisha Prescod, Nina Tame, Dr Shani Dhanda, Ellie Middleton, Elle McNicoll, Simon Wheatcroft and even a couple of disabled kids.

This is the essential guide to growing up disabled, perfect for children aged 9+ to read together with their families.“

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I’ve set up a ‘bookshop‘ of sorts, over on Bookshop.org, so that I can point you to somewhere to buy that isn’t Amazon. I get a small commission for any sales made there. This helps to support me running this blog. If you’d like to get your copy of How to be Disabled and Proud this way, please just click here. Thank you for your support.