Top Texts for July

Setting aside safeguarding concerns, if you discovered a rickety, abandoned house in the woods, wouldn’t you want to take a closer look? Would you find it hard to resist climbing through “a window that now has no window at all. A window that says climb inside”? In this picture book written by Julie Fogliano, two children give in to their curiosity and explore this “house that once was, but now isn’t, a home.” The lyrical text has fun with word order and asks to be read aloud. Illustrator Lane Smith effectively contrasts the ethereal exploration of the children (they are barely there - almost ghost-like) with the images of the former occupants, conjured up by the children as they gather clues. It’s a testament to the power of the childish imagination that these daydreams leap out in sharp relief and vivid colour.

The Errand is an exciting start to a graphic novel trilogy that will entrance your upper Key Stage 2 students, and that deserves a wider audience. Imagine Neil Gaiman’s ‘Instructions’ once the sun has gone down and all the candles have been snuffed out. Here our unnamed errand boy pushes on through a forest thick with threat and bound by magic. Why is he travelling in service of a suspected witch? What path led him to his current predicament? We only know that he was once desperate, and desperate times call for desperate measures. Leo LaFleur recounts the journey in second person imperatives, urging you on and pointing out the dangers that lurk in Adam Oehler’s beautifully rendered fantasy landscapes.