The Best Children's Book Picks January 2023 - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books

 

Abi Elphinstone - Saving Neverland -  Puffin Children's Books (5 Jan. 2023) - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0241473320 - Hardback - Age: 8+ 

Number 14 Darlington Road, looks like a perfectly ordinary townhouse - at first glance, anyway, but magic is good at hiding . . . when it's waiting for the right person to discover it . . .

Martha Pennydrop is ten, and desperate to grow up. But growing up is a tricky business. It means turning your back on imagination, fun and magic, because those were the things that led to the Terrible Day when something awful nearly happened to Martha's younger brother, Scruff, which would have been All Her Fault.

But when Martha and Scruff discover a drawer full of mysterious gold dust in the bedroom of their new house - along with a window that's seemingly impossible to close - it's the start of an incredible adventure to a magical world: Neverland! The Pennydrop's new house used to belong to another family - the Darlings - who once visited this world themselves. Now Peter Panis back, and in need of their help. Neverland is in the icy grip of a terrible curse - cast long ago by Captain Hook. And only Martha and Scruff can save it . . .

A reluctant Martha and excited Scruff are swept off to Neverland and into the company of the Lost Kids. But when Scruff is kidnapped, Martha must rediscover all the imagination, magic and belief she has buried deep inside herself for so long, to save him - and Neverland itself.

Sarah Ann Juckes (Author), Sharon King-Chai - The Night Animals - Published by Simon & Schuster Children's UK (5 Jan. 2023) - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1398510920. - Paperback - Age: 8+ 

Uncover the ghost animals within in this moving and uplifting story about finding help where you need it, from the highly acclaimed author and illustrator of The Hunt for the Nightingale.  

Nora's mum has good days and bad days, but the bad days are getting worse.  It's been just the two of them for always, and they don't need anyone else.  When the rainbow-shimmering ghost animals Nora used to see when she was small start to reappear, she's convinced that they hold all the answers.  Along with new friend Kwame, Nora follows a glittering ghostly fox, hare, raven and otter on the adventure of a lifetime, helping her to find the strength she needs to help her family.

In a heartbreaking and hopeful narrative, Sarah Ann Juckes' stunning novel, illustrated by the award-winning Sharon King-Chai sees a brave young girl face down her ghosts.  For fans of The Last Bear and Julia and the Shark.

Nigel Baines - A Tricky Kind of Magic - Published by Hodder Children's Books (5 Jan. 2023) - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1444960266 - Paperback - Age: 8+ 

Cooper is brilliant at magic tricks. Card tricks, clever illusions - he can do them all. His dad, also known as the Great Eduardo, taught him the tricks of the magical trade before he passed away. But the one thing Cooper can't do is see his dad again. 

So when a talking rabbit appears from his dad's top hat, and reveals there is a place where Cooper might find him, he jumps at the chance. Magic is about believing the impossible, after all. And Cooper desperately wants to believe that he can see his dad once more.

But what - and who - is waiting for them in the land where magic goes wrong?

Filled with humour and emotion, this is an action-packed graphic novel about finding magic when you need it the most.

Peter Lantos - The Boy Who Didn't Want to Die - Published by Scholastic (5 Jan. 2023) - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0702323089 - Paperback - Age: 8+ 

A story of survival, of love between mother and son and of enduring hope in the face of unspeakable hardship. An important read. 

The Boy Who Didn't Want to Die describes an extraordinary journey, made by Peter, a boy of five, through war-torn Europe in 1944 and 1945. Peter and his parents set out from a small Hungarian town, travelling through Austria and then Germany together. Along the way, unforgettable images of adventure flash one after another: sleeping in a tent and then under the sky, discovering a disused brick factory, catching butterflies in the meadows – and as Peter realises that this adventure is really a nightmare – watching bombs falling from the blue sky outside Vienna, learning maths from his mother in Belsen. All this is drawn against a background of terror, starvation, infection and, inevitably, death, before Peter and his mother can return home.