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Five fantastic female villains 13/05/24
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Come Away from the Water, Shirley
Publisher: Red Fox
Shirley is visiting the beach with her mum and dad, but after they’re settled in their deckchairs (on what looks like a pebbly, perhaps slightly cold British beach somewhere), they aren’t that keen to play with Shirley.
Instead, Mum and Dad are full of tellings-off and warnings: don’t get any tar on your new shoes, don’t stroke the dog, don’t bring any of that smelly seaweed home. Yet Shirley is having a huge, colourful adventure, fighting pirates, finding buried treasure and crowning herself queen as the yellow moon rises over the black sea.
John Burningham’s simple yet sophisticated account of a trip to the seaside is both a masterly drawing of grumpy Mum and Dad paying the least attention possible to Shirley, and a vibrant – and wordless – depiction of Shirley’s inner world. Mum and Dad on the beach are drawn in simple pencil with sparse everyday detail; the facing pages showing Shirley’s adventures are rich, colourful and more painterly.
Shirley is literally “seen but not heard” – but that doesn’t stop her inhabiting her own magical, marvellous world. Fantastic.
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Great picture books for the summer holidays
The summer holidays are here, so we've put together a list of great summer books for young children.
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John Burningham: a lifetime in books
John Burningham won our Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018. John Burningham has written and illustrated over 30 utterly wonderful picture books, which have won countless awards and affectionate praise over the years.
