Books We Are Loving September 2020
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The Detective Nosegoode books by Marian Orlon
These old fashioned children’s detective books are full of great character names, and a talking dog. We thought they were funny and the children wanted to read all three books one after the other, which is always a good sign. (They are apparently classic Polish children’s novels, and have been translated and published in the UK by Pushkin Press.)
Coming to England by Baroness Floella Benjamin
We first talked about this book in our post about Windrush resources. We really loved this story about Floella’s early years in Trinidad, and her family’s move to the UK. The section where the older children are cared for by family friends, while their parents earn enough money in the UK to send for them, was an a part of emigration stories that we don’t often hear about. As was the struggle of trying to keep their Trinidadian culture while being lumped together as part of the Caribbean community. We had a number of really good conversations off the back of this book.
A Book of Feelings by Amanda McCardie and Salvatore Rubbino
This is a great picture book about emotions that tells the story of times when different emotions might to be expressed. It was really compassionate, and I wish we had had a copy when my children were tiny. As it was, it was still a really useful book to add to our morning time, as part of our work on emotions.
The Giant Days Series by John Allison, Lissa Treiman, and Whitney Cogar
Giant Days are not really children’s books*, but as a family we have been re-reading the whole series via our library in preparation for the final volume in November. They are a series of comic graphic novels about three girls who become friends as freshers while at Sheffield University. One of the three girls was home educated (and don’t under-estimate her arc), and to be honest, eleven books in I’m heavily invested in all these characters and want to see where they end up.
(*My seven year old reads them but then there are plenty of references that fly way over her head, as well as jokes she thinks are hilarious, your mileage may well vary.)