What to read after Hannah Gold
As anyone who's followed my blogs will know, I'm a massive fan of Hannah Gold and her books....I love them, my own kids love them, and my pupils love them - we were lucky recently to have her visit us in school as part of the Isle of Wight Literary Festival's school programme ( pic above).
Wins all round every time a new one is released! But Hannah can only write so fast, so what is a superfan to do while we wait for the new one....? ( incidentally, it's called Ghost Leopard, out January and available to preorder here: wonderlandbookshop.co.uk )
Well thankfully, another Hannah ( this one the co-founder of brilliant app LittleReads) has given me this guest piece to help while we wait!
Read it and use the code WHATIREAD30 for a free month of access!
Find out more at https://readingmate.co.uk/littlereads/ and the details in the guest piece below.
What to read after Hannah Gold
Written by Hannah Rix, co-founder of Little Reads.
Little Reads is a curated library of 3,000+ hand-picked children's books, ages 5 to 11, on iOS and Android.
It's for kids who already love reading (and the parents keeping them supplied), not a learn-to-read tool. More library than classroom.
Some readers find an author like Hannah Gold and feel like they've struck...well...gold.
Once you've stood on the beach with Silver in Turtle Moon, waiting for a leatherback to crawl ashore, every other book just feels a bit dull.
This is doubly true for kids who love nature as much as they love reading.
The tricky part? When a child loves one author that much, getting them to even glance at anything else feels close to impossible.
And I'm completely guilty of it too. As a kid I read nothing but Jacqueline Wilson for years. And if you saw my shelves now (the grown-up ones, not the kids' books I read for Little Reads), they're still mostly two or three authors (I'd argue there's nothing wrong with that at all).
But there are real treasures waiting just past that one favourite. Every bookworm I know has experienced it. The time they take a punt on something new, and it turns into their next big obsession.
So, for the child who's torn through every Hannah Gold and is ready to branch out, here are five I think will go down a treat.
1. Song of the Dolphin Boy, Elizabeth Laird
Finn has lived his whole life in Stromhead, a tiny fishing village. He's always been told to stay out of the water. Then one day he dives in. And he feels completely at home, swimming with the dolphins.
But the dolphins are in danger. There's rubbish washing out to sea. A supermarket is about to let off thousands of balloons. To save them, Finn needs the Lighthouse Crew. The same kids who've shut him out for years.
If it was the save-the-turtles part of Turtle Moon your reader loved, this is right up their street.
2. Pax, Sara Pennypacker
Have the tissues ready. It's a proper tear-jerker.
Peter rescued Pax as a fox cub. The two have been glued together ever since. Then his dad signs up for the military, and Peter has to set Pax free in the wild.
He's packed off to his grandad's, three hundred miles away. So he sneaks out the door to go and find his fox. The story follows them both, boy and fox, each one searching for the other.
There's a war going on in the background, but really it's just a boy and his fox trying to find each other.
3. The Explorer, Katherine Rundell
Fred, Con, Lila and Max are flying home from Manaus when their plane comes down in the Amazon. Suddenly four kids are on their own.
Then Fred finds a map. It leads to a ruined city. And to a secret someone meant to keep hidden.
Picture a jungle Goonies. Only better.
4. The Last Wild, Piers Torday
Kester lives in a sealed-off land where a virus has killed every animal except the pests. Then a flock of very excited pigeons turns up in his bedroom. And starts talking(!) to him.
They tell him the last wild creatures left believe he's the one who can save them.
It's a little bit strange but completely impossible to put down. Better still, it's the first of a trilogy (The Dark Wild comes straight after). So there's no long wait once they've finished.
For the child who's always dreamed of talking to animals, this one's perfect.
5. The Wild Robot, Peter Brown
My wild card.
Roz the robot wakes up for the very first time on a remote island. She has no idea how she got there, or what she's for.
She survives a storm. She escapes a bear. And slowly she works out that her best hope is learning from the island's animals. Who want absolutely nothing to do with her (at first).
It feels like a nature story that happens to have a robot in it. Expect your reader to fall for Roz just as hard as they fell for Luna.
Where to go next
Keeping a bookworm's pile of next-reads moving is a real job. It's a fine balance. You need enough to move on to, but the next one has to be good enough to keep them hooked.
That supply problem is the whole reason Little Reads exists. I kept trying to point parents of bookworm kids towards somewhere that could keep up. I couldn't find it. So I built it.
Little Reads has 3,000+ children's books for ages 5 to 11, every one chosen by me (these five included).
No ads. No quizzes. £7.99 a month after a 7-day free trial, and you can cancel anytime.
One thing to know before you download. It's made for children who already love reading. If a child is still finding their feet, a different app will serve them better.
(readers can get 30 days free with the code WHATIREAD30)
It's a great app with a fantastic selection of books....use the free month to check it out and see!
Thanks to Hannah for the guest piece, great recommendations and offer for whatiread.co.uk
Rich
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