Emma Dunn and Sara Mallon round up the best books for kids as the nights draw in

>>> https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/books/the-best-children-s-books-for-autumn-1-4818538

Imogen Russell Williams’ August roundup led with two historical novels:

There’s a rich harvest of historical adventure for readers of eight-plus this month. Set in the late 18th century, Catherine Johnson’s Freedom (Scholastic) is the powerful story of Nathaniel, brought from Jamaica to England solely to tend pineapple plants aboard the ship by masters who have sold off his mother and sister. Believing that all slaves are free on English soil, Nat looks forward to making his fortune and buying back his family; swiftly disillusioned, he begins to plan his escape. At times harrowing (especially during its description of the Zong court case in 1783, dealing with the murder of 133 slaves at sea), the story is also filled with humour, compassion and hope – humanity’s worst and best, shown side by side.

Candy Gourlay’s Bone Talk (David Fickling) is set in the Philippines at the end of the 19th century. Ten-year-old Samkad, of the Bontok tribe, is desperate to prove himself against the enemy Mangili. Seismic change is coming, however, in the form of other invaders, offering contempt and treachery along with gifts of sweets and guns. Can the Bontok survive the Americans, as well as the Mangili? Gourlay’s evocative writing grips from the outset.

>>>https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/aug/25/childrens-and-teens-roundup-the-best-new-picture-books-and-novels

A multiple prize-winning hit in Wegelius’s native Sweden, this extraordinary book acquires a passport full of stamps – Portugal, Egypt, India, Greece – as it masterfully juggles skulduggery and malaria, accordion-making and aeronautics, fado and pastries, police corruption and at least two love stories. To say anything more would spoil what is a rare treat: a book you want to thrust into the hands of children and adults alike.

said Ktty Empire of The Murderer’s Ape (Pushkin £16.99) by Jakob Wegelius in her roundup of older children’s fiction in Sunday’s Observer….

>> https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/10/fiction-older-readers-harry-hill-mira-bartok-jakob-wegelius-reviews-kitty-empire

Picture Books

> https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/10/picture-books-roundup-review-a-christmas-carol-quentin-blake-judith-katinkas-tail 

Teenagers

>> https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/10/teenage-books-reviews-roundup-lydia-ruffles-linni-ingemundsen-sally-gardner-sarah-crossan

Katherine Rundell is a cracking children’s author. The Explorer, about a group of children stranded in the Amazon who meet an explorer, is a kind of cross between Indiana Jones and the film Up and is one of the most captivating books of the year. Rundell’s book for younger children, One Christmas Wish (Bloomsbury, £14.99), charmingly illustrated by Emily Sutton, about a lonely little boy who wishes on a falling star, is engaging and poignant: the Christmas spirit in 64 pages.

full set of recommendations from Melanie McDonagh >>> https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/12/a-survey-of-this-years-childrens-books-sets-the-cat-among-the-pigeons/