Wolf-loving adventurers of eight and up will lose themselves in Rosanne Parry’s A Wolf Called Wander (Andersen), illustrated with dense-furred, shadowy realism by Mónica Armiño. When rival wolves invade Swift’s mountain, his pack is broken up and he faces a stark choice: eke out a precarious living as a lone wolf, or make a long, treacherous journey to find a new home. Evocative, moving and based on a true story, this modern-day White Fang also includes plenty of wolf facts at the back.
Closer to home is the warm, appealingly bonkers fun of Granny Magic (Chicken House) by Elka Evalds, illustrated by Teemu Juhani. When his beloved Gran dies, Will chooses a jumper with a curious sparkly stripe to remember her by – and is amazed to discover its secret powers. After unscrupulous Jasper Fitchet restarts the old factory, churning out knitwear that makes its wearers miserable, Will and Gran’s old knitting buddies must gather all the magic they can to stop him. This joyous celebration of spinning and spells features motorbike stunts and gold-fleeced sheep.
First published in 2006, Edith Pattou’s North Child (Usborne) is a longer, more complex magical fantasy, a retelling of the fairytale “East of the Sun and West of the Moon”. In the land of Njord, superstitious Eugenia is determined not to have a north-born child, for the old stories say northern children are doomed to live unquiet lives and make dangerous journeys. Spirited Rose, however, defies her mother’s wishes from the outset, and after leaving home on the back of a great white bear, she enters a mysterious castle filled with strange people and skeins of thread-like moonlight bristling with enchantments. Told in several voices, this richly imagined story is perfect for whiling away wintry afternoons.
There is fun and fascination for readers of five and up in Incredible Jobs You’ve (Probably) Never Heard Of by Natalie Labarre (Nosy Crow), a catalogue of brilliantly bizarre professions from snake milker to tortoise walker, cheese sculptor to nail-polish namer. Blocky, brightly coloured pictures and intriguing snippets of text help emphasise the message that there really is an ideal job for everyone, however eccentric.
In Koshka’s Tales (Graffeg), James Mayhew retells favourite Russian stories – “Sadko the Minstrel”, “Ivan and the Firebird”, “Vassilisa the Fair” – connected by the narrative of a banished tsarina and Koshka, a magical storytelling cat. Mayhew’s illustrations, filled with fiery reds and golds and icy swirls of white and blue, perfectly match his “kaleidoscope of folktales”.
Still more ethereal is Shirley Hughes’s Angel on the Roof (Walker), a soaring story in which an angel resting atop No 32 Paradise Street befriends Lewis Brown, the boy who lives in the basement flat. When Lewis, who is slightly disabled, asks his celestial pal to fix his foot, the angel finds an imaginative solution rather than a miracle cure. Hughes’s navy blue line drawings, with shiny gold accents, impart a sense of everyday wonder to the pages.
In picture books, actor Lupita Nyong’o teams up with illustrator Vashti Harrison to tackle the issue of colourism in Sulwe (Puffin). Darkest in her family, Sulwe believes that her skin makes her unattractive and prays to be lighter, but when a shooting star tells her the story of the sisters Night and Day, she finally understands that she doesn’t need to change. Harrison’s star-flecked, glimmering illustrations evoke Night’s mysterious beauty.
Kwame Alexander’s The Undefeated (Andersen), illustrated by Kadir Nelson, is a more sophisticated picture book, rich in meaning for all ages. A paean to “the underdogs / and the uncertain, / the Unspoken / but no longer untitled”, it celebrates the titans of black history and mourns “the unspeakable”, from the transatlantic slave trade to the deaths of Tamir Rice and Trayvon Martin. Hard-hitting words combine with powerful, absorbing images.
Finally, in Two for Me, One for You (Gecko) by Jörg Mühle, author of the bestselling Tickle My Ears, Bear finds three delicious mushrooms on her way home, but it’s Weasel who wipes, sears, seasons and simmers them with parsley. So who should have the third mushroom? A wry, comic look at fairness and sharing and sharing, with a sly sting in the tail.
Teenagers roundup
The Queen of Nothing
by Holly Black, Hot Key, £12.99
In the eagerly anticipated final book of the Folk of the Air trilogy, Jude, the mortal Queen of Faerie, has been banished by King Cardan back to the human world. Heartbroken and enraged, she bides her time until her estranged twin, Taryn, offers her the chance to return. Can fierce, cunning Jude defend her realm from a curse and save it from the depredations of war – and can she and Cardan ever be reconciled without bloodshed? Fast-paced, beautifully written, viscerally enjoyable fantasy from the bestselling author of The Spiderwick Chronicles series.
Full Disclosure
by Camryn Garrett, Penguin, £7.99
Seventeen-year-old Simone has a lot on her plate. She is directing her high school’s production of Rent – and good-looking, charming Miles has been taking up her attention. But Simone is HIV positive, and in the past disclosing her status has meant losing friends and moving schools. Can she summon up the courage to tell Miles, especially when someone is sending her anonymous notes demanding that she leave him alone? Warm, funny and thoughtfully sex-positive, this is an impressive debut from a writer still in her teens.
Somebody Give This Heart a Pen
by Sophia Thakur, Walker, £7.99
The first published collection from acclaimed performance poet and YouTuber Sophia Thakur is full of intricate, hard-hitting poems about the experience of being a young black woman, divided into sections entitled Grow, Wait, Break and Grow Again. The rhythms, emphases and internal rhymes of performance poetry interweave elegantly with the quieter, more meditative shapes of verse on the page; it’s an inviting collection, filled with strength, contemplative power and hope. “Always reseed. / Always restart. This is the natural process of a heart.”
