Even the Trunchbull

More of a rambly discussion-based episode today. Is there such a thing as a girl book or a boy book? Are boys represented enough in the kidlit space? Let us know your thoughts too! We were very inspired and provoked by this excellent article by Reading Middle Grade. We touch on our own reading experiences as kids, and what we think our favourites would be if we were children today. Are you a boy reading good books? Do you have a boy who's reading good books? Hit us up and help us address the imbalance in our own reading! We mention a lot of books we've previously reviewed: Young Werewolf, Alanna, The Worst Witch, The Amazing Maurice, Michael Morpurgo's Pinocchio retelling, Private Peaceful. If you'd like to support us and get access to bonus content, you can join our patreon here. Another way to support us is to shop our picks on our bookshop here What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

It's October, it's monsters and ghouls time, and this week we're reading books that feature cyclopes. Our picture book is Sleep Tight, Disgusting Blob by Huw Aaron, a delightful parade of all creatures grim and evil putting on their pyjamas, having their baths, cleaning their teeth and going to bed. Super simple conceit, outstanding execution. Eagle-eyed readers will spot the ship of Odysseus just barely picked out through the cave mouth of the sleeping cyclops baby. So fun and so dark! The juxtaposition of cosy bedtime lullaby with the repeated use of the word "disgusting" to describe a child - priceless. Then we're revisiting Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson in book two: The Sea of Monsters. Percy is still new to the world of gods and legends, green enough to think that when a pack of cannibal giants invade his school, the police will do something about it. He's also inexperienced enough not to notice that his enormous friend Tyson is in fact a cyclops. Percy, Annabeth and Tyson set off together on an illicit quest to find the Golden Fleece, rescue their friend Grover, and save Camp Half-Blood. Lots of hijinks and set pieces along the way. Our favourite scene was the bit with the sirens. Huw Aaron's blod about Not Now, Bernard can be read here The book Matt compared it to (which we cannot name in our squeaky clean feed) can be seen here Our episode covering the first Percy Jackson is here If you'd like to support us and get access to bonus content, you can join our patreon here. Another way to support us is to shop our picks on our bookshop here What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com    

This week, the ultimate showdown: cats vs dogs. Our guest Annie Cross brings us a picture book for each side of the dyad: Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy and Slinky Malinki, both by the legendary Lynley Dodd.  We talk about what sets Dodd's books apart from so many other samey animal books with rhyming words. It's the quality of the writing, the sense of fun. Annie reminisces about her own babyhood with these books, Matt tells the story about the one time they were conned by a tiny little kitten called Lightning, and we all agree that black cats in kids' books are especially iconic. Our chapter book is Varjak Paw by SF Said, with pictures by Dave McKean. This one is a new favourite. Simply put, it is the story of a domestic cat who gets outside for the first time and is set a quest: find a dog, talk to it, save his family from an evil invader. Easy! To help keep him alive, Varjak is visited in his dreams by his long-dead ancestor Jalal, who teaches him the feline martial arts skillset known as The Way. Varjak gets stronger, wiser, scrappier. Will all these new tricks be enough to allow him to save his thoroughbred cat family back home? When push comes to shove, who will he choose? His proud and vain family of domestic cats, or his new outdoor friends? We reference a lot of previous episodes in this one: Winnie the Witch,  I Love My Bike and A First Book of Dinosaurs,  Warrior Cats: Into the Wild, and The Gammage Cup. We chatted about this interview that SF Said gave for the Guardian, and this blog post about the writing process for the British Library. Nina shouted out Afoma Umesi's Reading Middle Grade blog. The Kid Cover Test can be read here. If you'd like to support us and get access to bonus content, you can join our patreon here. Another way to support us is to shop our picks on our bookshop here What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

Avast, me hearties, it's a pirate episode! We kick off with the lovely Billy and the Pirates, written and illustrated by Nadia Shireen. Billy and Fatcat were sailing around in the Jolly Badger when they found a message in a bottle. There's a key, and a map, and a note that says "please return to Kevin". Our brave heroes are just about to take on this quest when they're captured by Captain Howl and his pirate crew. There are mermaids and sharks, a kraken and a mutiny. Everything you could want from a pirate story, up to and including being marooned on a desert island. In this case, the island is just a kind of cosmic naughty step for thinking about what you've done. Our chapter book is the fourth in MG Leonard's Time Keys series: Attack of the Sea Dogs. Sim, Jeopardy and Nelson are off on an adventure to Tudor London! Or at least, that's where they think they're going. Uncle Emmett has different ideas and takes them to Plymouth and onto Francis Drake's ship instead, to get a look at the sacking of Cadiz. Tall ships! A suspected Dutch assassin! A cameo from a young Will Shakespeare! It's a story about family and loyalty, pirates and renegade keys. This is the biggest, broadest adventure of the series so far, the world is opening up, the team is growing, and the mysteries are getting deeper. Hop on board, and don't forget your doublet. You can hear our previous episodes about the Time Keys series here and here. We also mentioned Claire Linney's The Time Tub Travellers and the Silk Thief. The episode about that book is here. If you'd like to support us and get access to bonus content, you can join our patreon here. Another way to support us is to shop our picks on our bookshop here What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

We're taking a slightly different tack this September, with an episode about the jittery feelings of two non-human characters starting school! Lulu Whifferton-Rear was minding her little badgery business when she received a very special letter summoning her to Major Rumpington's Academy of Badgering in Badgers Are Go!, our chapter book by Susannah Lloyd and Nici Gregory. Lulu is soon let in on a huge secret: not all humans are human. Some of them are Badger Operated Persons, or BOPs for short. After all, how else would those humans get anything done? The arc of human history bends toward progress, and it is the badgers who are doing the bending. Full of heart and a laugh a minute, this is a brilliant Wallace and Gromit esque early chapter book. Our picture book is a much gentler, quieter book. School's First Day of School, by Adam Rex and Christian Robinson does exactly what it says on the tin. We follow the life of Frederick Douglass Elementary School, from the pouring of its concrete foundations, to the first time the children stream in, climbing all over its jungle gym, learning about shapes and making pictures to pin to the walls. The experience of this anxious young building is lovingly mediated by Janitor, who spent all summer preparing the school for its purpose, and comes and picks it up at 3.30 in the afternoon, after the children have come home. We love a Christian Robinson. We love a personified building. Get it for the nervous school starter in your life. The schools book conference Matt talks about is called Inspire Reads. It isn't open to members of the public but if your kid goes to school in or around Derby, perhaps they'll take part! Nina mentions another favourite illustration in a chapter book - she's talking about the missing tomato in Bicycling to the Moon by Timo Parvela, as reviewed in episode 26. We refer to a different Christian Robinson book, Another, as reviewed in episode 63. If you'd like to support us and get access to bonus content, you can join our patreon here. Another way to support us is to shop our picks on our bookshop here What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

It's been a while since we did a fairytale retelling, so this week we have two for you! First up, a sumptuous and modern (if faithful) retelling of Rumpelstiltskin by Mac Barnett and Carson Ellis. We've been fans of Carson Ellis' work for ages, but this book is another level of gorgeous. Mac Barnett's words are colloquial and accessible. This book is a balancing act between the terrifying and the funny, and a collaboration between friends who love Tudor portraiture. When was the last time you read a story named after the villain? And what do you think Rumpelstiltskin wanted with that baby? Then we're closing up a story we started back in 2022. This is the second and final Rumaysa book by Radiya Hafiza, illustrated once more by Rhaida El Touny. Rumaysa has broken out of the tower and taken her power back. She's on her way to find her long lost parents!... Well, she will be when she gets done with solving other people's problems. It's a story about a legendary girl choosing (sometimes wisely, sometimes not) who to share her gifts with, and finding her way home. Set in a pseudo-medieval fairytale time, it also manages to feel thoroughly modern. Get it for your Shrek fans and your lovers of Disney princesses. You can catch up with the first part of Rumaysa's story here: episode 30. Our other episodes about Carson Ellis' books: episode 64 and episode 3 (please forgive how messy this first season was - we got better!). And our episode about Pattan's Pumpkin is here: episode 14 SHELF, the picture book magazine Nina mentioned, can be ordered here If you'd like to support us and get access to bonus content, you can join our patreon here. Another way to support us is to shop our picks on our bookshop here What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

This week, our books are linked by instruments from the strings section of the orchestra, and the way their music makes us feel. Special guest Ria suggested our chapter book. It's Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell! Sophie was found floating in a cello case as a one year old baby after a terrible shipwreck. For the next decade of her life, she was cared for by the strange and kindly man who found her: Charles Maxim. After the Victorian social services decide he isn't a suitable guardian for her after all, Sophie and Charles flee to Paris, there to seek out the mysterious owner of Sophie's cello case, her mother. The French police are less than helpful, but Sophie falls in with Matteo, a boy who lives on the rooftops of Paris, who helps her to continue her search from above. Our picture book is the one that started the whole podcast off, the story that Nina told Matt in the pub on the last day of 2019. It's The Sad Story of Veronica, Who Played the Violin, by the inimitable David McKee. Veronica was an ordinary girl who played the violin. At first she was very bad. But she practiced loads? She was determined like that. Gradually, she became very good. So good that she was signed by a music man who made her music into records that sold and were played all around the world.  Veronica becomes a superstar, touring the world. But she grows bored of all that. Really, she wants to go and see the animals in the jungle. What happens when a talent like Veronica walks into a clearing to encounter a lion, a leopard and a tiger? Listen in to find out! You can find our more about Ria and her show here And the BBC bitesize study guide to Rooftoppers is here If you'd like to support us and get access to bonus content, you can join our patreon here. Another way to support us is to shop our picks on our bookshop here What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com  

This week, we're reading books in which people steal (and do other reprehensible, dangerous or immoral things)! First up, our chapter book is The Whiz Mob and the Grenadine Kid, written by Colin Meloy and illustrated by Carson Ellis. Charlie is the lonely, slightly maladjusted son of an American diplomat in 1961 Marseille. He's been advised to look upon this posting as a holiday, but he's not having it. While he's out alone and writing, Charlie's very nice pen is stolen by a boy about his own age. The theft is so thrilling and beautiful that instead of getting upset about it, Charlie makes a deal with the pickpocket. He can keep the pen, if only he'll teach Charlie to steal like that. Before he knows it, Charlie is getting a crash course in pickpocketing, and in the particular moral codes that govern the art. Charlie falls in with a proper gang, a real group of friends, and for the first time in years, he's happy. But how long can such an idyll last? Can Charlie keep his life as a diplomat's son along side his new identity as a child pickpocket? The Three Robbers, written and illustrated by Tomi Ungerer, feels like it's set in the same world as the Whiz Mob. It's a strange fable about a set of robot-like highwaymen in cloaks and hats who terrorise the countryside, holding up coaches and stripping travelers of all their worldly goods. They keep all the loot in a cave until they accidentally steal a child. The child asks them what all the money is for, and the question is so profound that it fundamentally alters the course of their life. Whether or not it changes for the better? Only you can tell. You can read the bad review of The Whiz Mob and the Grenadine Kid here in full (I abridged it for our purposes) If you'd like to support us and get access to bonus content, you can join our patreon here. Another way to support us is to shop our picks on our bookshop here What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com  

This week we're reading portal fantasies! Our picture book is Another by Christian Robinson. This is a gorgeous mixed media wordless adventure about a girl and her cat travelling through a mysterious hole in the wall and confronting different perspectives, gravitational forces and body doubles. It's beautiful, open ended, and slightly, slightly trippy. We really enjoy this art style and we love how much wordless picture books make us pay attention to the art. Our chapter book is The Barren Grounds by David A Robertson, the opener of the Misewa Saga. Narnia meets Swampy Cree sky stories. The Barren Grounds is about Morgan and Eli, two Cree children, living in the same foster family.  Together, they discover another world by pinning up a drawing by Eli. The drawing becomes a window to the village of Misewa, trapped in an endless winter and peopled by human-sized, clothed, talking animals. Eli disappears through the portal, and Morgan follows. What ensues is a quest to bring the green time back to Misewa, before everyone starves, and before anyone notices that the children are missing. This week we referred to quite a few books we've reviewed previously. You can find those episodes here: Is it red? Is it yellow? Is it blue? The Boy Who Climbed into the Moon , Not Now Bernard and Charmed Life. If you'd like to support us and get access to bonus content, you can join our patreon here. Another way to support us is to shop our picks on our bookshop here What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

To kick off this new season we're reading books about tiny people - small folk. Our picture book is Chirri and Chirra, Underground, by Kaya Doi (translated from the Japanese by David Boyd). An absurd, gentle, surreal journey for two tiny girls on their bikes. Dring dring! We're having peanut soft serve with the mole people. Dring dring! We're having dinner and card games with a family of badgers. And now the badger dad is digging a hole through the side of his own house. Lovely soft colour pencil drawings, low danger, high whimsy. Get this for your Brambly Hedge fan. Our chapter book is The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall. This gem from 1959 starts very safe and cosy, in a lovely Minnipin village called Slipper-On-The-Water... and then swerves suddenly and completely believably into the rise of totalitarianism within a small, idyllic community. It's a book about government, about how we live with each other, about what taxes are for (!). What a surprising and radical book in cute, Hobbit-like clothing. There are also glowing swords. We discussed the cover art by the brothers Hildebrandt, whose Tolkien art you can see here. They also illustrated the sequel to the Gammage Cup, the Whisper of Glocken. Matt mentions Brisingamen a couple of times in relation to this week's chapter book - you can find our episode about Alan Garner's classic The Weirdstone of Brisingamen here. If you'd like to support us and get access to bonus content, you can join our patreon here. Another way to support us is to shop our picks on our bookshop here What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com