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No Country by Joe Brady ill. Patrice Aggs

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A a family story—told in graphic novel format—that shines a light on the challenges faced by refugees and people desperate to escape war-torn countries and find a new home.

What would you do if your home wasn’t safe any more?

Bea and her family are trying to live as if everything is normal. She and her sister Hannah look out for one another, at home and in school. But their country is starting to fall apart. A civil war is raging, and it’s getting closer.

Read this interview with the book’s creators. Joe Brady is deputy editor of The Phoenix.

Shades Of Scarlet by Anne Fine

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 11 Mar 2021
Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week 7 Mar 2021

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‘After a lifetime of admiration as an editor, it is an especial thrill for me and David Fickling Books to be publishing the wonderful Anne Fine. She is one of our wisest, funniest, most loved writers. Shades of Scarlet is as readable and enlightening as ever, and I dare say readers young and old will crack a smile of deep recognition too. I did.’ David Fickling

“Fine is an old hand at describing different variations of family mayhem, and this novel is well up to her past high standards. The blackly comic mind-games played between Scarlet and her mother, each determined to have the last word, are truly something to behold. Sub-plots involving a best friend, a baby and a potential boyfriend offer temporary respite from their epic battles, but ultimately this is a story about mother and daughter fighting it out each in their own way as one climactic row follows hard on the next. Sometimes exhausting but more often exhilarating, this is a brilliant as well as a timely novel.” Nick Tucker 5-Star BfK review

“As an exploration of relationships—of children, parents and new partners, friends and siblings—this rite-of-passage story is compelling, entertaining, insightful and kind.” Nicolette Jones, Sunday Times

When Mum gives her the notebook, Scarlet should be happy. It’s beautiful, with its shiny scarlet cover and its blank pages full of promise. But Scarlet is absolutely not in the mood for a peace offering. Does Mum really think she can tear their family apart and expect Scarlet to be happy about it? And it’s Dad’s fault too. Why didn’t he fight to keep them all together? Now Scarlet has to start a new life, and none of it was her choice. Scarlet decides there’s only one thing she can write in the notebook. The truth, about everything…

The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 23 Feb 2021

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“Each conflict is resolved authentically and naturally, moving the story along at the perfect speed. The scenes between Flávia and Nishat simmer, and their mesmerizing relationship unfolds with just the right amount of complexity. Most satisfyingly, each character gets the ending she deserves. Impossible to put down.” KIRKUS

A heart-warming, queer YA love story.

Nishat and Flavia are rivals at school, but Nishat can’t help the secret crush burning in her heart – even though her parents disapprove of the fact she likes girls.  When Nishat comes out to her parents, they say she can be anyone she wants – as long as she isn’t herself. Because Muslim girls aren’t lesbians. Nishat doesn’t want to lose her family, but she also doesn’t want to hide who she is, which only gets harder once Flavia walks into her life. Beautiful and charismatic, Flavia takes Nishat’s breath away. But as their lives become tangled, they’re caught up in a rivalry that gets in the way of any feelings they might have for each other.

A new voice in young adult fiction, Adiba Jaigirdar was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and moved to Dublin, Ireland from the age of ten. She has a BA in English and History from University College Dublin, and an MA in Postcolonial Studies from the University of Kent.
The Henna Wars was f.p. hardback June 2020.
Follow the author on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dibs_j/

The author’s next book Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating is out in May (2021)

A Tangle Of Spells by Michelle Harrison

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 19 Feb 2021

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From the bestselling author of A Pinch of Magic and A Sprinkle of Sourcery (a BookOfTheDay last year) comes a thrilling story of sisters, spells and witches.

A dangerous spell cast over an unsuspecting village. An enchanted painting locked in a hidden room. A desperate race against time to break the spell before it’s too late… It should have been a fresh start for the Widdershins. Finally free from the misty gloom of Crowstone and beginning a new life. But all is not as it seems in their postcard-pretty village. Their neighbours are acting strangely, and why do they flinch at the mere mention of magic?

The Widdershins sisters have their own secret: a set of enchanted nesting dolls with the power to render their user invisible. The sisters must use their wits – and their magic – if they’re to break the dark hold over the village, and save one of their own .

The author writes of this title on her blog: “This book was a struggle to write during the lockdown! My son Jack was only at school for about eight weeks over the entire year, and my deadlines kept getting extended, and extended and I was missing them all. The book finally got finished and went to print in December, which is crazily late in the publishing world, but the fantastic team at Simon & Schuster somehow made it happen. As for the story itself, I think it’s possibly my favourite of the three and the witchiest one yet.”

Me, My Dad and the End of the Rainbow by Benjamin Dean ill. Sandhya Prabhat

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 18 Feb 2021
Waterstones Children’s Book of the Month February 2021

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‘One of the most joyful books you’ll read this year.’ – The Bookseller

Things aren’t going great for Archie Albright. His dad’s acting weird, his mum too, and he all he wants is for everything to go back to normal, to three months before when his parents were happy and still lived together. When Archie sees a colourful, crumpled flyer fall out of Dad’s pocket, he thinks he may have found the answer. Only problem? The answer might just lie at the end of the rainbow, an adventure away.

Together with his best friends, Bell and Seb, Archie sets off on a heartwarming and unforgettable journey to try and fix his family, even if he has to break a few rules to do it…

Follow the illustrator on Insta: https://www.instagram.com/sandhyaprabhat/ – also illustrator of I Am Brown

Proud Of Me by Sarah Hagger-Holt

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An accessible child-centred story about self-acceptance and the importance of opening up to those closest to you.

Becky and Josh are almost-twins, with two mums and the same anonymous donor dad. Josh can’t wait until he’s eighteen, the legal age when he can finally contact his donor, and he’ll do anything to find out more – even if it involves lying. Becky can’t stop thinking about her new friend, Carli. Could her feelings for Carli be a sign of something more? Becky and Josh both want their parents to be proud of them…but right now, they’re struggling to even accept themselves.

The Night Walk by Marie Dorléans

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 25 Jan 2021

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Translated from French; the original edition won the prestigious Prix Landerneau in the best children’s picture book category.

Mama opened our bedroom door. “Come on, you two,” she whispered. “We need to go now, to get there on time.” Excited, the sleepy family step outside into a beautiful summer evening. They’ve entered a night-time world, quiet and shadowy, filled with fresh smells and amazing sights. Is this what they miss when they’re asleep? Together, they walk out of their sleeping village. What will they find in the dark landscape? This beautiful and evocative book movingly recalls family trips and the excitement of unknown adventure, while celebrating the awe-inspiring power of the natural world.

Hear Marie read from a previous picture book, The Epic Race, in the original French:

Marie Dorléans studied Art and History of Art at the School of Decorative Arts in Strasbourg, France. She graduated in 2010 and has worked as a children’s book illustrator since then.

Heiress Apparently by Diana Ma

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“Ma successfully creates vivid settings in Los Angeles and China as she uncovers important issues facing Asian Americans, including family expectations, identity, sacrifice and honour.”
School Library Journal
“Soap-opera–worthy twists are grounded by ties to significant events in contemporary Chinese history in this meaningful debut.” KIRKUS

The first book in an epic and romantic YA series following the fictionalized descendants of the only officially recognized empress regent of China

Gemma Huang is a recent transplant to Los Angeles from Illinois, having abandoned plans for college to pursue a career in acting, much to the dismay of her parents. Now she’s living with three roommates in a two-bedroom hovel, auditioning for bit roles that hardly cover rent. Gemma’s big break comes when she’s asked to play a lead role in an update of M. Butterfly filming for the summer in Beijing. When she arrives, she’s stopped by paparazzi at the airport. She quickly realizes she may as well be the twin of one of the most notorious young socialites in Beijing. Thus kicks off a summer of revelations, in which Gemma uncovers a legacy her parents have spent their lives protecting her from-one her mother would conceal from her daughter at any cost.

Diana Ma is a debut Chinese-American author who holds a BA in creative writing from the University of Washington and an MA in English with a creative writing focus from the University of Illinois, Chicago. She lives in a suburb of Seattle.

The Silent Stars Go By by Sally Nicholls

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Seventeen-year-old Margot Allan was a respectable vicar’s daughter and madly in love with her fiance Harry. But when Harry was reported Missing in Action from the Western Front, and Margot realised she was expecting his child, there was only one solution she and her family could think of in order to keep that respectability. She gave up James, her baby son, to be adopted by her parents and brought up as her younger brother.

Now two years later the whole family is gathering at the vicarage for Christmas. It’s heartbreaking for Margot being so close to James but unable to tell him who he really is. But on top of that, Harry is also back in the village.

Released from captivity in Germany and recuperated from illness, he’s come home and wants answers. Why has Margot seemingly broken off their engagement and not replied to his letters? Margot knows she owes him an explanation. But can she really tell him the truth about James?

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Charles Keeping, Artist | Spitalfields Life

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Hugely recommended feature on Charles Keeping from The Gentle Author blog:

The illustrations of Charles Keeping (1924–1988) burned themselves into my consciousness as a child and I have loved his work ever since. A major figure in British publishing in the last century, Keeping illustrated over one hundred books (including the entire novels of Dickens) and won the Kate Greenaway and Carnegie Medals for his superlative talent.

In 1975, Keeping published ‘Cockney Ding Dong,’ in which he collected songs he remembered sung at home as a child. Illustrated with tender portraits of his extended family, the book is an unusual form of autobiography, recreating an entire cultural world through drawing and popular song.

Recently, I visited the Keeping Gallery at Shortlands in Kent to meet Vicky and Sean Keeping who talked to me about their father’s work, as we sat in the family home where they grew up and where much of his work is now preserved and displayed for visitors. You can read my interview at the end of this selection of illustrations from ‘Cockney Ding Dong.’

via Charles Keeping, Artist | Spitalfields Life.