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Having lots of different books written by a wide range of authors helps your children to get excited about the books they've chosen, and enables them to pick up books that they can relate to.  Access to diverse books also means that children can learn about people in different situations to themselves, promoting empathy and kindness, and helps to create a wider reading diet. 

A short review of one of bookseller Helene's favourite children's books.

Within this blog, I would like to share some high-quality texts that can be used in the classroom with a range of ages to ensure that no children, young people or adult feel invisible, like monsters, stereotyped or ‘the single story.’

Mr Bunny owns a chocolate factory where chickens lay eggs so that he can sell Easter Eggs. However, his greed gets the better of him and he loses more than he can believe. Mr Bunny learns a real lesson as all is back to normal at his factory.

Why not create a BUZZ about reading and use ‘Bee & Me,’ by Alison Jay as a whole-school book? 'Bee & Me’ is a wordless picture book, yet every page is a stimulus for a wealth of discussion. A bee flies in the window and a little girl is frightened. She traps the bee and then wonders what to do…

Love Monster cannot believe it when he finds a box of chocolate. Should he keep them? Should he return them? What should he do? A hilarious tale where the motto is to follow your heart!

In this blog, I aim to explore the many ways that Shirley Hughes can be remembered in the modern-day classroom. My biggest challenge was choosing which books to present to you… so I have settled for the following few.

Over the years, teachers have always asked me why I didn’t create my own picture book as I was so passionate about them and was married to an artist. It made perfect sense! Mick and I wanted to create a book that would be loved by children but also used by teachers to show their pupils how to bring their reading and writing to life.

Where did chocolate come from? Who invented chocolate? What have the rainforests got to do with chocolate? How long have people been making chocolate for? Let’s find out what happened…