Geraldine Brennan selects top titles for autumn from the UK publishers’ stands at the international children’s book fair at Bologna.
See Friday magazine, April 27, for more highlights
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Autumn 2001
REFERENCE
The Young Oxford Encyclopedia of Science
Oxford University Press
Consultant editor Richard Dawkins
Almost 300 articles, 1300 illustrations and an associated website.
INFORMATION BOOKS
Shakespeare: his work and his world
By Michael Rosen Illustrated by Robert Ingpen
Walker Books
Opens with a moonlight flit from Shakespeare’s first theatre north of the Thames to the site of the Globe. Builds enthusiasm for the Bard (“Watching Shakespeare’s plays is like being invited into a house full of amazing rooms”) before a closer look at A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Lear and The Tempest.
How Did They Do That? great building stories of the past
By Peter Kent
Oxford University Press
The engineering and technology achievements of the major civilisations, illustrated by the author. Includes the Great Pyramid, the Great Wall of China, Beauvais Cathedral and the Woolworth Building in New York.
Yikang’s Day (from China) by Sungwan So; Polina’s Day (from Russia) by Andrey Ilyin Campos; Cssio’s Day (from Brazil) by Maria de Fatima Campos; Wii Kwei’s Day (from Ghana) by Francis Provenal and Catherine McNamara Frances
Lincoln
New titles in the photographic series that opened with Geeta’s Day look at the lives of city and country children. Future books will visit Vietnam, South Africa, Lapland, Peru and Egypt.
PICTURE STORY BOOKS
My Sister Sharazad: tales from the Arabian Nights By Robert Leeson Illustrated by Christina Balit Frances Lincoln
The greatest hits of the 1001 (“Aladdin”, “Ali Baba” and lesser known tales) linked by the younger sister who watches the storyteller keep a step ahead of her executioner.
A Glass Heart: a tale of three princesses
By Sally Gardner
Orion Children’s Books
The persistent and devoted page, Valentino, spends three years training to be a glassblower so that he can woo the fragile youngest daughter in “the city built on water”. But what happens to the middle sister who already has a cracked heart?
Scritch Scratch
By Miriam Moss
Illustrated by Delphine Durand
Orchard Books
Miss Calypso’s class has nits, and it’s all her fault.
PICTURE BOOKS FOR OLDER READERS
In Search of a Homeland: the Story of the Aeneid
By Penelope Lively
Illustrated by Ian Andrew Frances
Lincoln
A companion to Rosemary Sutcliff’s Odyssey and Iliad .
Jim’s Lion
By Russell Hoban
Illustrated by Ian Andrew
A sick child resolves his fears (“they might send me somewhere I can’t get back from”) when a nurse teaches him that he has a “finder” who will reach him in his dreams.
