FOR READERS AGED 6-8

IF YOU WANT TO GIVE THE KIDS A TECH BREAK, AND HAVE SOME GREAT SUMMER READS FOR ALL AGES

INDIGO WILDE AND THE CREATURES AT JELLYBEAN CRESCENT

By Pippa Curnick,

Hachette, £9.99

THIS is creative, colourful and full of beans. Indigo’s explorer parents have filled the house with weird and wonderful creatures, from goblins to dragons and yetis. Then they send the children a creature that eats its way out of its box before they can open it, disappears and wreaks havoc around the house.

What is the creature? Can Indigo catch it before the neighbours learn how wild the

Wildes are?

PANDA AT

THE DOOR

By Sarah Horne, Chicken Shed, £6.99

Callum is crestfallen to receive a birthday present of an “adopted” zoo panda – until Pudding the Panda escapes and appears on his doorstep. Pudding channels her inner Mary Poppins to turn Callum’s collapsing life around.

An upbeat read full of lively illustrations.

A MONSTER ATE MY PACKED LUNCH

By Pamela Butchart,

Nosy Crow, £6.99

Izzy and pals take an overnight school trip and learn about terrifying local legends. They decide to investigate – but are soon out of their depth in this lively comic caper.

AN ESCAPE IN TIME By Sally Nicholls, Nosy Crow, £6.99

Ruby and Alex’s time-travelling mirror transports them to 1795 to help a survivor of the

French Revolution

– but their mission is not at all what it first seems.

THE WORRIES

By Jion Sheibani,

Puffin, £6.99

The Worries is an amusing but wholly empathetic read about Sohal who deals with anxiety by drawing his worries as cartoon characters.

But when they come to life will he be able to control them?

TAKE OFF YOUR BRAVE

By Nadim (aged 4), illustrated by Yasmeen

Ismail, Walker, £12.99

Nadim offers a moving and eloquent child’s-eye view of the world in an enchanting, evocative and gloriously illustrated collection of poems on subjects close to the hearts of very young children.

CHARLOTTE HEATHCOTE EMMY HEAD