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You are here: Home / Archives for relationships

The Light in Everything by Katya Balen ill. Sydney Smith

April 12, 2022 By achuka Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 12 Apr 2022
Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week 17 Apr 2022

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Amazon
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“Why did you decide to focus on a blended family in this story?
I think because it’s such a common family structure, and there are so many difficulties and joys that can come with it. How do you throw together two different groups of people in a house and how do you make that work? Lots of children up and down the country and around the world will have experienced it, and some of them will hopefully recognise something of their lives in the book.”
ReadingZone Q&A

Tom is still quiet and timid, even though his dad has been gone for nearly two years now. Zofia is the opposite. Inside her there’s a raging storm that makes her want to fight the whole world until she gets what she wants. And what she wants is for scaredy-cat Tom to get out of her life.

Tom hates loud, unpredictable Zofia just as much, but he’s moving into Zofia’s house. Because his mum and Zofia’s dad are in love… and they’re having a baby. Tom and Zofia both wish the stupid baby had never happened. But then Tom’s mum gets ill, and it begins to look horribly like their wish might come true…

A story of learning to trust, trying to let go and diving into the unknown with hope in your heart. The cover illustration is by Kate Greenaway Medal winner Sydney Smith.

The author  has worked in a variety of special needs schools as a teaching assistant, and more recently co-founded Mainspring Arts – a not-for-profit that provides mentoring and creative opportunities for neurodivergent adults. A previous novel — October, October — was an ACHUKA Book of the Day in September 2020. This video was made by ReadingZone at the time of that books’ publication and in it Katya talks about the kind of characters she likes to write about.

Filed Under: BookOfTheDay, Fiction Tagged With: blended family, drama, family, relationships

New Year by Mei Zihan ill. Qin Leng tr. Yan Yan

December 16, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 17 Dec 2021

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“Details the deep emotions and ambivalence of a father who is at once proud of his daughter’s achievements and independence, yet wistful over how quickly she has grown up and lives too far away to celebrate Spring Festival with him.” KIRKUS
“Leng’s distinct, delicate ink-and-watercolor illustrations offer scenes from both China and France, with intricate details conjuring each location.” Publishers Weekly
“The book’s cultural themes make it a good addition for any library collection that wishes to enhance its representation of cultural diversity.” Canadian Review of Materials

A moving picture book to read for those missing family far away.

It’s Lunar New Year, a time when families come together for a wonderful feast, and a father longs to be with his daughter — but she lives in another country. As he imagines how his daughter is spending the festivities, he recalls fond memories of time spent with her, feeling a sense of loss and dislocation. While he misses her deeply, he also recognizes her need to move away, grow up, and become herself.

New Year is a compelling portrait of leaving home, finding independence, and loving those who are many miles away. At a time when so many families are unable to gather together, readers will relate to the universal message of missing our loved ones and dreaming of being together again.

Mei Zihan is an author and a professor at Shanghai Normal University.

Qin Leng was born in Shanghai and now lives in Toronto where she works as a designer and illustrator. Her numerous picture books have been nominated for several prizes, including a Governor General’s Literary Award.
Over The Shop was an ACHUKA Book of the Day on 20 Jan 2021.

Follow the illustrator on Instagram:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Qin Leng (@qinillustrations)

Filed Under: BookOfTheDay, Illustrated Tagged With: childhood, family, immigration, memory, missing, relationships

Moo by Sharon Creech ill. Sarah Horn

April 28, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 29 Apr 2021
Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week 11 Apr 2021

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Amazon

“Creech has a magic touch. She writes simply and directly (in this novel, largely in blank verse), yet her unshowy language is transporting and charged with emotion… It’s delightful, and infused with understanding of young and old might behave and feel.” Nicolette Jones, Sunday Times
“Not only does Creech seamlessly intersperse prose and poetry, but the design manipulates typeface, font, setting, and spacing to paint word-pictures, in some instances creating concrete poetry while in others emphasizing a few words on the page—an accentuation that makes the story come alive and deftly communicates the range of emotions, from humor to sorrow, that the story conveys.” KIRKUS
“Reena’s narrative uses a comfortable combination of prose, poems, and prose poems, while changing fonts, type sizes, and type placement help express emotion, drama, action, and mood. The story zips along yet somehow conveys the slow growth of trust and friendship between young and old, human and bovine. It’s Reena who first suggests they move to Maine, because she’s read three books that made her 
feel “I was there already / in my mind”; Creech’s novel memorably does the same.” Horn Book
“A summer setting, vividly developed characters and liberal use of white space make this book a breezy companion…” Washington Post

[f.p. in US in 2016]
Following a family move to Maine, twelve-year-old Reena has no idea what to expect.  She hopes it’s going to be beaches, blueberries and all the lobster she can eat. She certainly doesn’t expect to suddenly be put in charge of a menagerie of animals, belonging to the irascible Mrs Falala, who not only has a fast-wheeling pig, a secretive snake, but the most ornery cow she ever thought to meet.

A wonderfully funny, moving story of one family’s move to the country, and the challenges they face.

Filed Under: Blog, BookOfTheDay, Books, Fiction Tagged With: cow, dream, expectations, family, reality, relationships

Love is for Losers by Wibke Brueggemann

January 6, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

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“This debut has a terrific voice: very funny and spirited with a sex-positive message.” The Bookseller 
“Exactly the book everyone needs right now. Witty, light, clever and absolutely absorbing.” The School Librarian 

Love is for Losers by Wibke Brueggemann is a hilarious, life-affirming debut novel about all the big stuff: love, sex, death, family, heartbreak, kittens . . . and kisses that turn the whole world upside down.

As far as Phoebe Davis is concerned, love is to be avoided at all costs. Why would you spend your life worrying about something that turns you into a complete moron? If her best friend Polly is anything to go by, the first sniff of a relationship makes you forget about your friends (like, hello?), get completely obsessed with sex (yawn) and bang on constantly about a person who definitely isn’t as great as you think they are.

So Phoebe isn’t going to fall in love, ever.  But then she meets Emma . . .


 

Filed Under: Humour, YA Tagged With: funny, humour, love, relationships, sex

Children’s laureate calls for more sex scenes in books for teenagers to stop them turning to ‘brutalising’ online porn to learn

June 19, 2013 By achuka Leave a Comment

This Mail Online piece refers to an interview in the Daily Telegraph – I am trying to find a link to the original piece… Meanwhile, here is the Mail’s summary:

Children’s laureate calls for more sex scenes in books for teenagers to stop them turning to ‘brutalising’ online porn to learn more
Malorie Blackman said that fictional sex allows children to learn safely
She called for books that deal with relationships and first-time sex
The Pig Heart Boy author was made children’s laureate earlier this month
Her calls were echoed by fellow author Melvin Burgess

via Children’s laureate calls for more sex scenes in books for teenagers to stop them turning to ‘brutalising’ online porn to learn | Mail Online.

Filed Under: Blog, Books Tagged With: Blackman, Burgess, fiction, porn, relationships, sex, teenage, YA

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