Readers Recommends - 17 April 2023

Reader's Recommends is our weekly live session, streamed live on Facebook, where we recommend the best, the popular and the latest Reads from all genres and WHY you should read them! 

Each week our representative, Thomas Bulpin, is joined by a few representatives from different publishing companies. In this week's edition we have a pre-recorded session with Thomas and Lara Cohen from Pan Macmillan, with children's book highlights. 

Lara’s Recommends:
Zandi’s Song by Zandile Ndhlovu

Zandi dreams of the big blue ocean and bright colourful fish even
though she lives far away from the sea and hasn’t learnt to swim. One
day the sea gives her a gift that changes everything. Zandi goes on an
adventure full of amazing discoveries but something is threatening this
magical world … is the key to protecting it buried in stories from the
past?

Wonderfully Made by Tshwanelo Serumola

Empowering and inspiring, Wonderfully made is a book of positive affirmations for brown girls of all shades, sizes and shapes. This book teaches girls to build confidence and resilience from a young age with easy-to-follow rhyming text and bright inclusive illustrations that reflect proudly South African children.

Remarkable Me by Tshwanelo Serumola

Remarkable me is an empowering book of positive affirmations for brown boys. This book teaches boys to embrace and celebrate their unique talents and interests, while encouraging them to dream big and to be creative.

Book of Names by Julia Donaldson 

Julia Donaldson celebrates her readers in this delightful and imaginative picture book, inspired by the children she has met at hundreds of book signings over the years.
Set in a magical transforming bookshop, A Book of Names is a love letter to the world of books and young bookworms - illustrated by the award-winning Nila Aye.
Readers will enjoy trying to find their own name, and even if it isn't included, there is a special dedicated space for them to add it, or even better, for Julia to sign!

Where’s Wally? A-Mazing Journeys by Martin Handford

Join Waldo on his most labyrinthine vacation ever, where every place he visits is a mind-boggling maze! Head to the airport, blast off to an awesome space centre, line up to explore a cave, elaborate gardens, a museum, a film studio, a candy factory and even a disco! 
More than fifty routes to tackle! And when you reach the end of the book, you’re not done yet—you’ll find checklists with over one hundred more things to search for throughout. 

The 13-Storey Treehouse: Colour Edition by Andy Griffiths

The 13-Storey Treehouse - in colour! 
Andy and Terry live in the WORLD'S BEST treehouse! It's got a giant catapult, a secret underground laboratory, a tank of man-eating sharks and a marshmallow machine that follows you around and shoots marshmallows into your mouth whenever you're hungry! Oh, and, whatever you do, don't get trapped in a burp-gas-filled bubble . . . !

The 169-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths

They've added thirteen new levels to their Treehouse, but they're currently under construction! Check back in again soon!

Greenwild: The World Behind The Door by Pari Thomson

Open the door to a spellbinding world where the wilderness is alive and a deep magic rises from the earth itself . . .
Eleven-year-old Daisy Thistledown is on the run. Her mother has been keeping big, glittering secrets, and now she has vanished. Daisy knows it’s up to her to find Ma—but someone is hunting her across London. Someone determined to stop her from discovering the truth.

The Investigators: All Tide Up by John Patrick Green

Crack the case with the InvestiGators! Join Mango and Brash in InvestiGators All Tide Up for the seventh adventure in the laugh-out-loud full colour, comic book series.
When the captain of a cruise ship is found drifting at sea, the search begins for his missing ship and passengers! Did it sink? Was it boat-napped? Are supernatural forces at play?!

Alex Rider: Nightshade Revenge by Anthony Horowitz

This much-awaited new book in the bestselling Alex Rider series continues Alex’s fight against the deadly assassins encountered in the last book, Nightshade. 
The adventure takes us deep into the life-changing world of augmented reality, where even Alex will struggle to succeed against the technology. 

The Deadlands Hunted: The Dinosaurs Are At War by Skye Melki-Wegner 

Battle rages between the dinosaur kingdoms of Cretacea.
When the Fallen Star struck, it brought death and despair, ash and toxic rain. But some dinosaurs survived . . . and were changed. Their minds grew alert. They learned to speak. To dream. To wage war.

Nic Blake And The Remarkables: The Manifestor Prophecy by Angie Thomas

All Nic Blake wants is to be a powerful Manifestor like her dad. But before she has a chance to convince him to teach her the gift, a series of shocking revelations and terrifying events launch Nic and two friends on a hunt for a powerful magic... to save her father from imprisonment for a crime she refuses to believe he committed.

The Season of Giraffes by Nicola Davies 

An ultimately inspiring story of how giraffes have dealt with modern climate change, beautifully told and illustrated – and marking the launch of an exciting new series.

Lets Learn & Play: Construction by Priddy Books

Press-out the pieces and explore the construction site! There are prompts on the page, as well as word labels to help children work out where to put the pieces which is a great way of encouraging hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills and problem solving.
Each spread also includes simple fun facts about construction sites to inspire learning and different types of vehicles to find out about and encourage further discovery.

Lets Learn & Play: On The Farm by Priddy Books

Press-out the pieces and explore the farm! Each of the illustrated pages is full of things for children to spot and look for as they learn about farm life from feeding the animals to shearing sheep, milking the cows and more.