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Here’s our pick of 6 children’s books for September reading




@newburytoday children’s book reviewer CAROLINE FRANKLIN’s pick for September.

Various days are celebrated during this month of falling leaves including Emma Nutt Day which fell on the first of September. Emma was the first American female phone operator and not, I dare say, a very familiar name to many of us. However, there are more well-known names who have a special day this month including Roald Dahl Day on the 13th, a day which encourages children to read and Hobbit Day. Not sure how to celebrate the latter – perhaps it’s something to do with large feet.

More special September ‘days’ include International Rabbit Day and, in America, the slightly strange ‘Talk Like A Pirate Day’ when once you get beyond “Ah, me hearties,”and “Shiver me timbers” the conversation must surely be a bit limited. Moving on, Matthew Fox, originally from Ramsbury, who achieved what every new author dreams of and won the Bath Children’s Novel Award with his first novel now has a second book out – see below. His success must surely encourage all those would-be authors who dream of seeing their words in print. Keep going - and meanwhile encourage your children to keep reading, whatever day it is.

Saving H'Non
Saving H'Non

Saving H’Non – Chang and the Elephant is an extraordinary book containing not only a mass of information about elephants and the world they inhabit, but the moving story of H’Non.. Based on a true story, H’Non, a four month old elephant is stolen from her mother and made to work so hard and cruelly that she ends up with a damaged spine, a broken leg and a broken tail.

She is rescued by AAF (Animals Asia Foundation) , nursed back to health and taught how to fend for herself in the wild. H’Non died of old age in 2021 having spent the last years of her life ‘as a wild elephant should’.

Full of colour illustrations, a mix of the cartoon and wonderful pictures of the jungle and the animals who live there, this very special book is one which children of any age from five upwards will find fascinating.

Published by Macmillan at £14.99 (HB).

Victor the wolf with worries
Victor the wolf with worries

A new dog has joined our family. Occy is young, boisterous, hairy, rascally and entirely lovable. When the book called Victor, the Wolf With Worries arrived on my desk the picture on the cover was a dead ringer for young Occy. It was a little disconcerting.

Victor is definitely a wolf with worries – he’s not wolfish enough, he’s not brave enough, big enough, fierce enough – in fact he is worried about everything. As so often in life, it is his best friend, Pablo who shows Victor how to feel brave and big and fierce – inside.

Victor by Catherine Rayner is an entirely enchanting, superbly illustrated picture book which the smaller members – and the rest of the family will love. (And by the way, no, Occy is NOT a wolf.)

Published by Macmillan at £12.99 (PB).

I Want a Dog
I Want a Dog

While we’re on the subject of dogs, Jon Agee’s I Want A Dog is another book to smile – or laugh out loud – over with children aged 3 plus. The reader never knows the name of the small girl who is determined – and I mean DETERMINED – to have a dog. She goes to the Animal Shelter plus a small cart (to carry the dog in) and informs the manager she wants a dog. A series of wonderfully cartoony pictures illustrate the variety of animals which she is offered but our girl is determined and hangs out for a dog.

Eventually the manager confesses he does not have a dog, but our girl doesn’t come away empty-handed. No, no. At least one laugh on every page, I Want A Dog is a cracker of a book for the very young.

Published by Scallywag Press at £7.99 (PB).

Help! Children Have Taken Over the World
Help! Children Have Taken Over the World

Help! Children Have Taken Over The World is a mad zany book about what happens when crazy scientist Max Splatter invents a new breakfast cereal.

Fred, Patch and Romany all lead miserable lives until the wonderful day when they munch down various flavours of O-So-Wonderful cereal for breakfast and very strange things start to happen which make their lives much, MUCH better. The news spreads, children are in charge, there’s chocolate and crisps all over the school and the mean old grown-ups are having to do what they’re told.

Soon news spreads, the adults start fighting back, the Prime Minister is involved, as well as the army and then……….the cereal runs out and the very last bowl is eaten by a little girl in Japan. So what now?

Cliff Martin’s book with great colour illustrations by Seamus Jennings is a read which all those of 8 plus hoping that such a breakfast cereal will soon be invented will relish.

Published by The Book Guild at £8.99 (PB).

The Lovely Dark
The Lovely Dark

Matthew Fox’s second book, The Lovely Dark again has his central character being transported to a different world. This time it is Ellie who goes with her friend, Justin, to see an old mosaic and ends up being transported across the Styx by boatman Charon, into the world of the dead.

When Ellie and Justin lose touch, Ellie finds herself in Eventide House, a strange kind of other world boarding school for children who have died. She tries continually and unsuccessfully to make contact with Justin and leaves messages which he never answers, although in the end it is Justin who helps her find the way back from the underworld to the real world and her family.

Readers of Storm Over Rebecca will enjoy this imaginative story which takes place in an unusual setting for a children’s book, but is nonetheless immensely readable for the 9 plus.

Published by Hachette at £7.99. (PB).

Clarice Bean
Clarice Bean

Clarice is back and with a vengeance in Clarice Bean Scram! It’s the start of the summer holidays and Clarice is bored, bored, BORED. Her best friend, Betty, is away, she’s saving like mad for her sister’s rainbow roller skates, but every time she nearly has enough she spends some of it on things like an emergency packet of crisps and then – along comes the Dog.

Uninvited, but always there, the dog soon becomes Clarice’s problem. How to keep him from her family – who will undoubtedly say he has to go. It’s tricky – and expensive – having a dog, but with the help of Marcie who discovers Clarice’s secret, they just about manage – until he strays into next door’s garden. How the dog ends up being part of the family makes a smile a minute Clarice Bean story to enjoy for her many fans. She’s always a star.

Published by Harper Collins at £7.99 (PB).



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