Claude: Lights! Camera! Action! by Alex T. Smith – A Review

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Alex T Smith, book reviews, Claude, Claude: Lights! Camera! Action!

We love Claude in our house. Love him. In fact, I am convinced that Claude is not actually written by Alex T. Smith, but my daughter. It may be that they are one and the same person,  because the Claude stories seem to fit entirely with what falls out of her mind and head, including the reintroduction of the word ‘snazzy’ into common parlance.

Claude: Lights! Camera! Action! Is one in a long series of picture books about Claude, and the latest one I found in my library.

Claude is a lovable dog who looks slightly Snoopyish in a more pointy way. He lives with Mr. and Mrs. Shinyshoes and his best friend in the whole world, Sir. Bobblysock. Sir Bobblysock is indeed, a bobbly sock, but he is a bobbly sock with strong opinions and a vivid personality.

Every day when Mr. and Mrs. Shinyshoes go to work, Claude and Sir. Bobblysock set out on adventures together. This one, as you might guess from the title, involves Claude being introduced to the exciting world of film making.

The story is funny and lively and full of charm. It is an absolute delight to read, either to yourself or to share with others. I read this to myself first, and then had to read it to everyone else I came into contact with, so desperate was I to share this wonderful book.

I love the way Smith writes. I adore his turn of phrase. When Claude is trampolining in the garden he exhorts Sir. Bobblysock to have a go:

‘Sir Bobblysock said that he’d love to, but he’d just had a cream horn and didn’t want it coming back up again with all the bobbling about.’

It’s so naturally funny and sums Sir Bobblysock’s personality up perfectly.

The illustrations are fantastic too, in a limited monochrome and red palette they are cartoonish without being simple, and full of life. There are lots of little jokes in the pictures. I particularly enjoyed the double page spread of Claude’s high street, the names of the shops are perfection. There’s lots to discover in the pages of a Claude story and it makes them great to explore with children.

Although not split into chapters, this has all the qualities of an excellent chapter book and would be perfect for transitional readers. I’d recommend it for children aged six to 10 as independent readers, and for younger readers to share with a parent/carer or teacher.

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Clare and her Captain by Michael Morpurgo and Catherine Rayner – A Review

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Barrington Stoke, Catherine Rayner, Clare and Her Captain, dyslexia friendly books, Michael Morpurgo

A few posts back I reviewed Eoin’ Colfer’s, The Seal’s Fate, which was sent to me by dyslexia friendly publisher Barrington Stoke. It is one of their new series, called Conkers, an imprint of delectably high quality stories for eight to ten year olds.

Conkers have Barrington Stoke’s trademark beautiful attention to detail as far as finish goes. They also have their short, achievable chapters, well designed font for those with reading difficulties, and plenty of space on the page for the eye to orient properly. They also have fabulous, full colour illustrations, and as with their Little Gem series, we are treated to wonderfully well thought out pairings between author and illustrator.

These stories are more complex than the Little Gem series. They ask difficult questions they don’t always answer, they pose moral problems, they put the reader and the characters in situations where they are asked to think. They have real meat on their bones. They should not be dismissed just because they have lovely pictures in them. These books can pose challenges and are entirely appropriate for the age range they have been designed for. There is no way anyone could dismiss them as babyish.

The second book I was sent is Clare and her Captain by Michael Morpurgo. In it, he embellishes on a real story his wife told him about a time she went on holiday to Devon as a teenager. In the story, the character of Clare spends a lot of time away from her warring parents, exploring the countryside. One day she meets a solitary old man and his elderly horse. The man is friendly and accepting of her, and she falls in love with the old horse, Captain.

When Clare’s dad finds out where she has gone, he is very angry and forbids her from visiting Thatcher Jones. Clare’s mum is not so sure this is the right thing to do, and Clare manipulates the difficulties between her parents to go and visit Captain again.

Captain dies, and Clare tries to help Thatcher Jones, by finding him a new horse to look after. It doesn’t work out quite as planned.

I admit that I was slightly perturbed by this story. I find Michael Morpurgo’s brutal realism when it comes to writing about animals a bit hard to handle, but I have to say that this is not quite as terrifyingly morbid as some of his other offerings, which was a nice change.

The other thing I found problematic, but which I think would be good material to talk about with young readers, is the whole issue of the messed up dynamic between Clare and her parents, and her friendship with Thatcher Jones. Morpurgo makes it clear in the afterword that this is a story from the past, where things were slightly different, but it can be difficult for readers to make this distinction. There isn’t a great deal in the text to indicate that this is more how things were a long time ago, and it is absolutely not alright to wander off alone with strangers, even if your mum and dad are arguing.

What I really enjoyed were the absolutely beautiful illustrations by Catherine Rayner. She has been a favourite of mine for a while. I used to take Harris Finds His Feet to school regularly when I was reading to younger children. Her illustrations are exquisite and really bring the book to life for me.

You can read a sample from Clare and the Captain here.

The Twenty Elephant Restaurant by Russell Hoban – A Review

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Quentin Blake, Russell Hoban, The Twenty Elephant Restaurant

The Twenty Elephant Restaurant by Russell Hoban is an absolute delight. It is made even more delightful by stellar illustrations by Quentin Blake, and was altogether a joy to read.

I sometimes think I have come to the end of Hoban’s output, and then every now and again I discover some new treasure, and it makes me very happy. I know there will come a day when this no longer happens, but I’m hoping it won’t be for years and years yet.

You can never be entirely sure what you’re going to get when you read him. He can be whimsical and charming, but at other times he can be very profound and magical. This story, is my favourite sort. It’s downright bonkers with absolutely silly ideas that just make you laugh and laugh.

The story starts with a man and a woman sitting down to dinner. They are old, they have been married for a very long time. The man sighs. The woman asks him what the matter is, and he tells her that the table they are eating their dinner at is wearing him out. It is wearing him out because it is wonky.

His wife decides that it is indeed wearing him out. She entreats him to make a new table. She reminds him that when they first bought the table together they were young. Now they are not. He says that it is not unusual to expect that they wouldn’t be. They bought the table fifty years ago. She says that this is nonsense. She says that if they had a new table, he would be fifty years younger.

He sets out to build a new table. It takes years, and in those years they expand on the theme, building an entire restaurant, and staffing it with twenty, agile, dancing elephants. The joy of the story is how one slightly off beat idea spawns another until their logic seems irrefutable, even though the evidence is that they are all mad.

The madness is beautifully brought to life by Blake’s energetic, humour filled illustrations.

A glorious book to share with a class or your family. It would also make a great transitional or chapter book for the aspiring reader. I recommend it to girls and boys aged 7-10 to read alone, and anyone you fancy to read with.

The Seal’s Fate by Eoin Colfer – A Review

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Barrington Stoke, Conkers, dyslexia friendly books, Eoin Colfer, The Seal's Fate, Victor Ambrus

Barrington Stoke, the dyslexia friendly publisher have been very busy in recent months. Not only have they launched a new series for younger children called, Picture Squirrels, but they have also introduced a new range of colour illustrated readers for older children called Conkers. You can read their blog post about the aims behind the Conkers range here.

The books are aimed to children aged eight to ten, and have all the quality and attention to detail you come to expect from Barrington Stoke. Like the Little Gems, they are somewhat different in their physical appearance to regular children’s books. In this case, they are slightly wider than the average novel, which gives more space on the page for the dyslexia friendly text layout and really generous design and glorious illustrations.

Like Little Gems, the stories have chapters, readable, achievable chapters for children who might well be put off by great, swathes of text and chapters that go on for days. The paperback Conkers do not have a bookmark ribbon like their hardback counterparts, but you still get the generous flaps at the front and back covers which make it easy to save your place.

I was sent two books to review, the first of which is The Seal’s Fate by Eoin Colfer. Colfer is probably best known for his Artemis Fowl series, which I have read and thoroughly enjoyed. He has also ventured into shorter stories for transitional readers such as The Legend Of Spud Murphy, which is a favourite with my children.

This is quite different in style to his usual fare.

This tells the story of Bobby Parrish, a young boy who is spending his school summer holidays on his dad’s fishing boat. Fishing is the life blood of the village, and the villagers are threatened by a proliferation of seals along the shore, who are ruining their nets and eating the fish they need. Bobby’s dad sets a price on the heads of the seals, offering to pay Bobby and the other boys for every seal flipper they bring him.

Bobby wants desperately to be accepted by his friends and rewarded and respected by his father, but he really struggles with the idea of killing a seal.

One day all his resolution is put to the test when he comes across a seal pup on the beach. What will Bobby do?

This is an old fashioned story about an old fashioned way of life. It is based on stories his father told him about a summer he spent with his father when he was a boy himself.

It asks lots of difficult questions, not all of which it answers. It is one of the things I really liked about the book. It is a demanding read. It may seem simplistic at first, but just because there aren’t screeds of text and complex language doesn’t mean that it isn’t a powerful story that really makes you think. It would make an excellent topic for discussion in an upper Key Stage Two classroom in my opinion, and as a reading book it would definitely give food for thought.

The illustrations by Victor Ambrus, probably best know for his work on Channel Four’s Time Team, are perfect for this story. They are detailed, subtle and intricate. They show an old way of life beautifully, and he has a real feel for depicting the natural world. A beautifully presented, well thought out book ideal for the recommended age range, and although of interest to both boys and girls, this would be a fantastic book for the reluctant boy reader to get his teeth into.

You can read a chapter of the book here.

Tales Of A One Way Street by Joan Aiken – A Review

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Jan Pienkowski, Joan Aiken, Tale of a One Way Street

I am, as you can see, working through some of the books of my childhood at the moment, revisiting them and seeing if they live up to fresh scrutiny in the light of modern advances in the children’s literature genre. Some things date very badly, others surprisingly well. Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott always seems so modern to me, no matter when I read it. Other books fade in comparison.

I loved Joan Aiken’s books as a child. Her series about Arabel and Mortimer the dementedly naughty raven, are firm favourites in this house and I have read them to all my children who love them as much as I do.  They are dated in their language, but the humour never fails to make me, or my readers howl. Another favourite of mine is The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, although I’ve never been able to get any of my lot to read it.

Aiken’s range was wide and varied, and I particularly liked her short stories, which is unusual for me, because I am not generally a fan of the short story genre. I had a copy of her books The Necklace of Raindrops and The Kingdom Under The Sea and read them until the covers fell off. Tale of a One Way Street is less familiar, although I must have read it at one point. Like A Necklace of Raindrops and Kingdom Under the Sea it has accompanying, and frankly brilliant illustrations by Jan Pienkowski, which are almost as wonderful as the stories themselves, and having re-read it yesterday I can’t imagine why I didn’t read it as much as the other volumes. It really stands the test of time, and the stories are a treasure trove.

Tale of a One Way Street is a slim volume of eight stories. Each is whimsical and strange, and all are sufficiently different to make each one like dipping into a box of chocolates. I enjoyed them all, although I felt that the ending of The Lions was rather unsatisfactory and I wanted it to continue where instead it left you dangling rather. it wasn’t that it was bad, in fact, had it ended differently it may well have ended up as my favourite story. In the end though, my favourites are the title story and The Alarm Cock. I also rather loved Clean Sheets, although its ending was rather prosaic. Of them all, The Goodbye Song is the most traditional in form, and reminded me very much of the story of the old woman who wants to get her pig to jump over the stile and has to enlist the help of all the creatures to do it.  The Queen of the Moon is a wistful little creation and has an element of melancholy that stays with you after reading. Bridget’s Hat is pure magic in both tone and content, and has brilliant twitches of humour that render it beautifully ridiculous, and The Tractor, The Duck and The Drum is a rollickingly funny read to end what is a tight collection of quality stories.

The stories are beautifully crafted, the characters are interesting and engaging and there is a good blend of humour and magic that make for beguiling reading.

I recommend this for older readers aged 8-12, both boys and girls. The language is reasonably complex but the stories are short enough that you can guide a child through them in a teaching session, so I would also recommend this as a transitional or chapter book.

McSorely’s Evil Tea by Helen Ryan – A Book Review

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adventure books, funny books, Helen Ryan, McSorely's Evil Tea

The author, Helen Ryan contacted me and asked if I would review her book, McSorely’s Evil Tea in exchange for a copy of the book. This is just to be absolutely transparent about where books reviewed on Making Them Readers are sourced from. I will always divulge if I have been gifted a copy of something. Otherwise all copies reviewed are my own. I agreed to take the book, and here is my honest opinion of it.

McSorely’s Evil Tea has two main narratives. Firstly it tells the story of Sky Swift and her mother River, who are being hunted down by the McSorely’s Evil Tea company. It also tells the story of the fortunes of the Birdwhistle Tea dynasty, starting with the story of Byron Birdwhistle, a famous explorer, botanist and heir to the Birdwhistle Tea fortune. Eventually the two strands of story collide in the present time with very interesting results.

McSorely’s Evil Tea are a company bent on growth. In order to do that they need to infect as many people as possible with their evil tea bags. They use small, gifted children to make the tea, trying to bump off their parents so they can get clean away with the children. Sky is one of those children, and the story starts with a representative of McSorely’s, Mr. Snickering, trying to snatch Sky and kill her mother. Sky manages to use her resourcefulness and a special skill that McSorely’s had not reckoned on to get away from Mr. Snickering’s clutches, but can she save her mother and thwart McSorely’s plans?

The book has all sorts of adventures within it from piracy on the high seas to flesh eating gorillas and cyber-technology. If you’re a fan of a fast paced adventure story with lots of new adventures at every turn, this is the book for you. There is no time to get bored with the relentless pace this book sets.

What I really warmed to in the book were the elements of playful silliness that stop the book from being too dark, and I would warn that for younger readers there are a couple of quite grisly moments which, could be quite upsetting and do need a bit of lightening with humour in other places to give balance to the book. The more bonkers, surreal elements of the story reminded me rather of a cross between Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and I think children will really enjoy these parts.

The language is, in parts, quite sophisticated, and despite the chapter book format, and relatively short length, this really needs a fairly confident reader if it is being read without any guidance at all. I’d recommend it for readers aged 7-12 as long as they were confident with new vocabulary. It would make a great transitional book or guided reader in schools too. It has a great selection of characters of both gender, none of which are typecast and all of whom have interesting things to bring to the story.

Although this is a standalone adventure in which everything is resolved at the end of the book, the epilogue suggests there may be more to come.

Helen Ryan is an author who is new to me, but I hope she will pick up more fans with this book and become wider known. If you want to find out more about her, you can check out her website, here.

My Friend’s a Gris-Kwok by Malorie Blackman – A Review

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Barrington Stoke, dyslexia friendly books, Little Gems, malorie blackman, My Friend's A Gris-Kwok

The second book by dyslexia friendly publisher, Barrington Stoke that I picked up at my local library was another Little Gem reader called; My Friend’s A Gris-Kwok by Malorie Blackman.

Malorie Blackman was Children’s Laureate for two years and campaigned tirelessly for more diversity in children’s books. She is also an exceptionally gifted and highly lauded author, best known for her work for older readers. Pig Heart Boy is a book I’ve reviewed here on Making Them Readers, and is often used in Key Stage Two primary schools as a group reader. It works particularly well as a reader for Year Six children who teachers may want to talk to about things like bullying and respecting people’s privacy, as well as seeing other people’s point of view. Her Noughts and Crosses series is often taught in high school and is equally powerful.

My Friend’s a Gris-Kwok shows a different side to Blackman, and gives younger readers a chance to be introduced to her talents. Barrington Stoke recommend it for readers aged six and up, and give it an interest range from five to eight years. I would recommend it for younger readers as a great bed time story. It’s funny, silly and perfect for sharing.

Mike goes round to his friend Alex’s house to see if he’s ready to come out to play. Alex can’t come because he’s at home baby sitting his younger sister Polly while his mum is out. Polly is proving a handful in more ways than one, and Mike is roped into keeping Polly in check, only it is a little trickier than he anticipated, due to the fact that Polly and Alex are Gris-Kwoks.

A Gris-Kwok, it transpires, is someone who can change into whatever animal they want until someone else touches them. Alex and Polly can only change three times a day because although their mum is a full Gris-Kwok, their dad is just a human. Three times is more than enough for Mike who is dragged into a harum scarum adventure all over the house.

The illustrations by Andy Rowland are bold, black and white sketches that give a real sense of fun and urgency to the predicaments that Alex and Mike find themselves in. The work is full of energy and humming with life that transmits from the words to the art and back again. I particularly loved the rendition of Polly as an elephant, which perfectly captures her mischievous side. You can’t help smiling at it.

The book is beautifully laid out, as you would expect from Barrington Stoke. Short, pithy chapters which give children manageable goals if they’re reading it themselves; clear font with good spacing and layout making it easy to read, and dyslexia friendly cream pages. There are spot the difference, and joke pages on the inside front and back covers. The front and back flaps of the book make excellent bookmarks which help a child keep their place and don’t fall out and get lost, which is a bigger problem than you might think, particularly with a class of children.  The end papers have rather splendid fly illustrations on. I would quite like it as wallpaper.

The book works equally well for girls and boys. Although the two protagonists are boys, Polly is a brilliant character who is full of mischief and really fun to read about.

You can sample the first chapter of the book here.

Squishy McFluff The Invisible Cat meets Mad Nana Dot by Pip Jones – A book review

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book review, Ella Okstad, Pip Jones, Squishy McFluff, Squishy McFluff The Invisible Cat Meets Mad Nana Dot

Squishy McFluff The Invisible Cat Meets Mad Nana Dot is one of a series of books about Squishy McFluff, published by Faber & Faber.

Oscar and I picked it because its format is reminiscent of the Barrington Stoke, Little Gem books we love so much. We like smaller sized picture books a child can manage on their own without wrestling with them like a businessman struggling to read the Financial Times on a crowded tube train.  We also liked the illustrations by Ella Okstad which have kind of a Scandinavian meets Eloise vibe going on, in a fabulous palette of greens and reds that really makes the book stand out.

Squishy McFluff, is as the title suggests, Ava’s invisible cat. He is also a rather naughty, mischief prone, invisible cat.  He and Ava spend a lot of time doing things like filling the garden shed with water from the garden hose, just to pass the time.

Ava is sent to stay with her Nana Dot, so called because her entire house is polka dot, when her mum has to go to hospital to have a new baby.  Ava’s dad warns Ava and Squishy to behave themselves for Nana, but as you might expect, this proves almost impossible and Nana is dragged from one bonkers situation to another until it is time for Ava to go home and meet her new sister.

The main problem we had with this book is that it rhymes, and the constraints of the story means that it does that terrible sort of rhyming where the author has to force sentences to end in certain words so that other sentences can rhyme, and this jars terribly on the ear, because nobody really speaks like that, and the reader ends up sounding a bit medieval, but in a bad way.

For large parts of the text this is not a problem and I was pretty impressed with the dexterity of the author in making the rhyme scheme as unobtrusive as possible, but there are times, terrible times when it all goes wrong.

Times like this:

‘Nan said: ‘Good kitty,

‘have you worked up a hunger?

‘We’ll make a quick stop

at my local fishmonger.’

This drove me slightly insane.

There is also really poor continuity in the story. Like the Little Gem books, this one is broken into chapter style segments. These seem rather arbitrary, it has to be said and the narrative breaks are all over the place and bear no relation to the chapter markings.

The fishmonger episode, for example, comes directly after Squishy’s encounter with a postman. On the previous page, Squishy is supposedly clambering on the postman when Nana Dot hits the postman with her walking stick.  This state of affairs is left hanging as we go off to the fishmongers, and is never referred to again.  There are a few times like this, when one narrative thread ends rather unsatisfactorily and we, the readers, are left dangling. This was also infuriating.

All in all, a bit of a poor relation in both style and quality if you’re used to the Little Gem series.

We quite liked the story. We loved the illustrations, but neither of us are passionate about reading the books we have missed to be honest. The book was quite amusing but the mischief quota never really got high enough for us, and the cuteness was a bit overpowering at times.

A transitional/chapter book suitable for children aged 6-8. We thought it would appeal mostly to girls, although the more mischievous elements might appeal to boys if you can get them past the cuteness of the illustrations and cover.

Creature Teacher Goes Wild by Sam Watkins – A Book Review

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book review, Creature Teacher Goes Wild, David O'Connell, Sam Watkins

Creature Teacher Goes Wild by Sam Watkins is the second in a series of books about Creature Teacher, the first of which is simply titled Creature Teacher, and which I have yet to read. This second book was sent to me by Amazon Vine in exchange for my unbiased review.  That’s what follows:

Firstly, you do not have to have read Creature Teacher to make sense of this second book. The premise is simple. Jake Jones and his friends have the best teacher in the world, Mr. Hyde.  He is fun, interesting and protects them from the horrible head teacher Mrs. Blunt, who is only really interested in herself and erecting giant statues of herself. Anything that doesn’t fit in with Mrs. Blunt’s plans is punishable by work on the school rockery. School can be more like prison, except for those who are lucky enough to be in Jake’s class.

The only problem with Mr. Hyde is that he can turn into a creature when he gets over excited, or frightened. The creature that he turns into emits noxious farts and delights in creating absolute mayhem wherever he goes. Jake and his friends work together to try and contain some of Creature’s worst excesses, and hide the problem from Mrs. Blunt, who is just looking for an excuse to sack Mr. Hyde.

In this second book, the whole school are off to Wilf’s Wild Adventure Theme Park for the day. They have been invited there by the reclusive billionaire, Wilf, to test the park out. Mrs. Blunt’s aims are twofold, to find an excuse to get rid of Mr. Hyde and to persuade the elusive Wilf that he would like to donate to her statue scheme. The children have other ideas.

Unfortunately it doesn’t take too long at the park before Mr. Hyde turns into Creature, and the children dash from adventure to adventure in the different zones of the park trying to keep him under control and turn him back into Mr. Hyde again before Mrs. Blunt finds out.

The story is very funny, and the idea of setting it in the different zones of the theme park gives the author huge scope to get lots of different mini adventures going within the one narrative, which I thought was very clever, and will appeal to readers who love fast paced, ever evolving narratives.

The illustrations by David O’Connell are great. Black and white cartoon style drawings work well with the feel of the book, and I enjoyed the double page spread illustrations particularly. There were certain elements that reminded me of Nick Sharratt’s work, in a positive way. I loved the humour and energy of the artwork.

This is a great transitional book, lots of illustrations, lots of humour and short chapters make it perfect for readers aged 7-11. Jake’s gang are made up of a good mix of boy and girl characters, all of whom get their moment in the limelight, so it would work well for both boy and girl readers. It would also make a great, fun book to read to younger children either in class or as a bed time story over a few weeks.

My son will love this book, when he’s worked through his own massive to read pile, and I predict that we will be scouting out the first book in the series when he’s finished this. There is a third book already trailed in the end papers of this book, so it looks set to be an ongoing series if you find yourself hooked by the adventures of Creature.

Cell Wars II: Virus Invasion by A. Miles – A Review

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A Miles, book reviews, Cell Wars, Cell Wars II Virus Invasion

Cell Wars II: Virus Invasion, is, amazingly enough, the sequel to Cell Wars: In The Beginning by A. Miles, a book which I have previously reviewed here on Making Them Readers.

I was sent this book by a friend of mine, who is a friend of the author. She asked me if it was possible for me to review this for her, as I did the first book in the series. I am disclosing this information so that you know that I have been gifted the book in exchange for my review. I am also reiterating what I make clear with all my review material, that this will not affect my appraisal of the book.  What follows is my honest opinion.

In terms of physical quality of the book I found this somewhat unsatisfactory. There are several typos throughout the text which I found a little annoying.  The layout of the chapters, illustrations and paragraphs is also rather weak, which could lead to some confusion in younger readers, as things do tend to merge rather. Clear layout is crucial for young readers, particularly with tricky text.

The chapters are nice and short however, and the font is clear and large enough to make the text easy to decipher. I also thought that the glossary at the back of the book was excellent, and gives children a thorough but simple description of some of the trickier words and terms in the text. I quite like the cartoon style illustrations by A. Miles, but I would have liked to see more detailed pictures depicting some of the trickier things the book describes happening in the body. I think this would definitely help a child grasp what is going on better.

The story continues where the first book left off, charting the job of the White Blood Cells or WBCs, as they are called in the book, as they work to fight off diseases.  The introductory chapters remind us of the key factors in terms of distinguishing between bacteria and viruses and what the blood cells do, then the story of Bands, the WBC from the first book continues with his further training and his learning to fight the influenza virus.

I really like the idea of the book. It certainly seems to have hit the spot in terms of awards, being awarded the Silver Medal at the Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards in 2014, and being short listed for the Rubery Book Award in the same year.

I have to say that for me the story is not engaging enough in terms of giving the blood cells distinct personalities. I really liked the red blood cells Haemo and Globin, because they had something about them, and when they die off at the end of the book I was disappointed that they had gone, and also at the matter of fact way the author disposed of them.  I appreciate that the book primarily exists to explain in simple, interesting terms, what is a factual, biological process, but as a reader I am always interested in the narrative thrust, and the more narrative there is, the happier I am. I think that if the author expanded the character profiles of the cells and gave them a bit more back story this would make a brilliant series out of what, so far is just a good one.

Having said that I think children who enjoy factual books will love this mix of fact and fiction and it would make a great transitional book for an independent reader who wants something to get their teeth into. I recommend it for boys and girls aged 7-12. I would suggest a little support with how to pronounce the biological terms might be a good thing just to get them going, as some of these terms are pretty tricky even for adult readers. It would be an excellent support text for primary aged readers who are doing a project on the human body and a brilliant way to introduce biology to children of primary age.