Little earthlings may be fascinated by space, but spacelings find us to be equally curious creatures. In Mary Murphy’s playful picture book, Let’s Be Earthlings (Otter-Barry, £12.99, 2+), one fearless explorer arrives with a transformer to discover just how curious humans are first-hand. Who knew? On earth food grows from the land, there are countless ways of creating a home, not to mention an incredible phenomenon called gravity! The only thing missing is the space traveller’s friend Batu, so our alien guide sends a message and convinces Batu to make the voyage too. Featuring Murphy’s trademark vivid primary colours, Let’s Be Earthlings is a memorable reminder to appreciate the everyday wonders of our planet.
In An Áit a nEitlíonn na Madaí Crainn by Aileen Crossley (eabhloid, €14, 5+), the natural wonders of the world provide comfort to Molaí when the noise of meanies on her mobile phone gets too much for her. Her loyal canine companion takes her on a tour through the trees and the seaside reeds, where creatures like Boin De, and Beainin Uasil and Muc Mara restore her calm and confidence. This is a beautifully produced book with a distinctive visual style that originated as lithographic prints. The limited colour palette and surreal nature-creatures call to mind Tove Jansson’s Toffel, the minor Moomin mate who went on to inspire stand-alone titles: high praise indeed.
Raymond Briggs was best known for his laconic graphic stories, like the perennially popular The Snowman, which featured no words at all. His first standalone titles, however, were two short adventure novels, which have been beautifully reprinted in a single volume by Manderley Press. The Strange House, collected with Midnight Adventure (Manderley, £18.99, 6+), evokes the freedom of postwar childhood in the suburbs of London, where intrepid explorers Tim and Gerry get into various scrapes: enraging golfers as they seek out nature, breaking into a boarded up mansion, and intercepting a gang of burglars mid-crime. The plots have a wholesome thrust that will appeal to fans of Enid Blyton’s adventure books, but it is the accompanying ink sketches, emotionally expressive even in their simplicity, which will draw the attention of Briggs’ aficionados to these forgotten classics.
Speaking of classics, Oscar Wilde’s Stories for Children gets another opportunity to bewitch a new generation, in a luxurious new edition illustrated by Lauren O’Hara (Little Island, €25, 5+). O’Hara’s soft watercolours perfectly set the serene garden scene for The Selfish Giant, and the bucolic riverside setting of The Nightingale and the Rose, as well as the unmoving face of The Happy Prince as he watches over his city charges. Each page of text is lined with a paper-cut-out border that recalls Hans Christian Andersen’s scissor-craft, while the text itself is typeset using an old typeface discovered at the National Print Museum. Apart from its own reading pleasure, this would make a gorgeous addition to the library of any fairytale collector.
All the tropes of the classic fantasy genre are present in Bravepaw and the Heartstone of Alluria: A Tail of Adventure from LM Wilkinson (Allen and Unwin, £7.99, 6+) and its sequel, Bravepaw and the Clawstone of Rotwood Mire. The novelty is the books’ appeal to early readers. Titch is a tiny mouse with a great appetite for adventure. Her family are understandably protective and encourage her to stay close to home: “There are lots of ways to be brave,” her mother reassures her. “It’s not all about swords and battles.” However, when danger arrives in her community, courtesy of a cluster of destructive curseworms, Titch discovers that she is a Bravepaw, one in a long line of murine heroes.
[ August’s Young Adult fiction: raising the stakes in sequelsOpens in new window ]
With a generous and playful layout, an urgent plot, large text and engaging artwork from Lavabya Naidu, Bravepaw is a welcome addition to the canon of chapter books for newly independent readers. The draw of a series cannot be underestimated either: with two books already published, there are hopefully more episodes to come.
The Brightest Star by Meg Grehan (Little Island, €10.99, 10+) is a follow-up to the award-winning The Deepest Breath, a verse novel about a young girl’s evolving sexuality. In The Brightest Star, Stevie and her friends Chloe and Andrew are about to start secondary school, and the new environment brings new challenges for the tight trio. As Andrew pulls away, Stevie tries to figure out what has happened to her brilliant pal. Grehan brings us inside Andrew’s head too, where he is struggling to negotiate his identity in a classroom where everyone seems to know exactly who they are.
As crisis looms, the trio are thrown back together by a failed batch of biscuits, and Stevie reassures her friend “You don’t need to know anything/ We’re thirteen/ We don’t need to be sure of anything/ We just need to feel.” A lesson that will be a balm to young readers moving towards adolescence.