Kids Book Club - July

0-4 years

Apple Pie ABC

Alison Murray

9781408308028

£5.99

 Some picture books are so appealing that you don't simply want to read them out. You actually want to live in them. That's definitely the case here. Murray's style of illustration is light, distinctive and delightful, and she pulls off a really nifty trick with this. It tells the story of little Grace, her dog Georgie, and the latter's concerted attempts to scoff the former's scrummy fruit pie. But it does so in twenty-six simple phrases, each beginning with a consecutive letter of the alphabet, so little ones are inadvertently learning as they read. Like the very best of its kind, this is simple but instantly memorable – and it fair skips along. It's written to be read, read and re-read, and the charm and ingenuity of this adorable book will be relished every time.

4-6 years

The Boy Who Hated Toothbrushes

Zehra Hicks

9780230748415

£5.99

 It's not every nipper who can be won over by by the merits of a daily dental hygiene routine. Billy, for one, just won't have it, and his poor mother tries him with toothbrushes of all shapes and sizes in an attempt to persuade him. Even the Tooth Fairy makes her disapproval clear. So before long, Billy makes the acquaintance of the Funtastic Toothsparkler... Endearingly daft, but just the right side of being zany, this is bursting with character and good humour. To its credit it always favours frothy mischief over hammering away at the innate message. Hicks' drawings are loose and free-wheeling, and contribute enormously to the sense of gentle lunacy. Wonderfully, the tooth-brushing motif seeps into the entire book – even the end papers and the publishing details.

6-8 years

A Roman Rescue

K A Gerrard / Emma Dodd

9781848771918

£6.99

 Losing your dog is one thing, but losing your dog having both been transported back to Ancient Rome through a mysterious hole in time – well, that's quite another. Poor young Charlie has to search the unfamiliar streets for his canine companion Bandit. He even helps to win a chariot race before they can get home. The is the first instalment in a new series of adventures through history featuring the pair. It's all told in comic-strip form, perfect for less confident readers. There's maybe a dash of Mr Benn to this, as the pair learn about other cultures first-hand, and there's much fun to be had in the clash between ancient and modern ways of life. It's certainly an engaging yarn, with oodles of historical detail tucked in along the way, so it has strong educational value too – with Charlie's 'notebook' included at the back, full of extra information about things he's spotted on his travels. Charlie and Bandit's next outing, An Egyptian Escape, is apparently in the pipeline already.

9-12 years

When You Reach Me

Rebecca Stead

9781849392129

£5.99

 Something of phenomenon since it was first published in the States two years ago, this has been heralded as The Time Traveller's Wife for juniors and has won major plaudits for debut author Stead. Set in late 70s New York, it's a dazzling tightly-plotted mystery, a puzzle box in book form – and to go into it in too much detail would be to spoil it. Suffice it to say the the central character, 12 year-old Miranda, finds her life-long best friend is distancing himself from her. She also starts receiving a series of impossible messages that hint at future events. Unravelling the full truth behind them will change everything for her. For all the mind-warping concepts and structural ingenuity on display, though, this remains a story anchored in real life and compelling characters, with the focus firmly on Miranda's interactions with her loved ones. Essentially it's a hugely engrossing tale of friendship and redemption. Proof positive that young readers can engage with substantial, cryptic, well-crafted fiction when bold authors are prepared to write it for them.

Chorlton Bookshop

506 Wilbraham Road

Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Manchester

M21 9AW

Tel: (0161) 881 6374

Email at chorltonbookshop@lineone.net