Flying Eye books Archives - Reading Pebbles

Awe-inspiring non-fiction – discover and explore the wonders of our planet.

Posted on March 20, 2019March 20, 2019 by melissacreate

For almost 15 years of my adult life I read mainly non-fiction. Then three years ago I discovered middle grade fiction and have read mainly fiction since. However, a Reading Rocks ( Twitter: @_Reading_Rocks) chat for non-fiction November got me thinking about the way’s we engage with non-fiction texts and that non-fiction is often not talked about as much as fiction. Looking into a selection of recent non-fiction books I am discovered that many are expanding the boundaries of ‘more traditional’ non-fiction, creating some truly awesome books that you will want to return to time and time again . For someone that also loves picture books, modern day fiction with its blurring of curious facts and information with awe-inspiring illustrations and photographs is a real treat. I kick-start my non-fiction discovery with 3 fabulous books that explore planet earth and some of the creatures we share it with.

Natural Wonders of the World – Molly Oldfield and Federi Bordoni

Get set to travel to some of the most awe-inspiring places on earth.

Molly Oldfield introduces her book:

“I love to travel and explore I wanted to create a book that is like a passport to the world, filled with pages that take you to the most incredible natural wonders on Earth. Get ready for adventures”

This is a coffee table style non-fiction book, with huge pictures, of animals, plants and trees and double page spreads featuring some of the most amazing landscapes in the world. It also has an annotated map, to show you where in the world you can find them and an index. Making this a really versatile book that will appeal to many sorts of readers.

There are facts about some intriguing creatures, including the Christmas Island crabs, Tenrecs of Madagascar, birds of paradise in Papua New Guinea. But, it is the landscapes this book takes you to that really excited me. For each landscape featured in the book you get information about the physical features, how they look and some information about how they are formed. There are also some great size comparison so you can get an idea of the size of some of these natural wonders, such as the Crystals are: ‘so big that people can walk along them!’ or a spring that is ‘deeper than a ten-storey building’. You also get snippets of stories about people discovering the landscapes and some examples of helping wildlife too. Here are two examples:

Molly Oldfield describes the moment when two brothers, who were working in a mine, discovered some giant crystals in Mexico:

“Imagine how the brother must have felt when hard at work, they suddenly broke through a wall into a magical space filled with enormous, ancient crystals!” p21

Crabs on Christmas Island, in the South Pacific:

“The people of Christmas Island are careful during the migration. The crabs are ushered towards tunnels called crab grids that go underneath the roads so they don’t get squashed. A crab sized bridge has even been built on one road” p24

There is so much to explore in this book. To help you to begin to do that I have made a list of 6 things to find.

NaturalWonderminiQuiz.

Fanatical About Frogs – by Own Davey

I have to confess this is the first of Owen Davey’s fabulous non-fiction books, published by Flying Eye Books that I have seen. I will be definitely be looking up the others after seeing this! What I love about this particular book is that it chooses a creature that most children and adults know little about. Which means it will both introduce animal lovers to a new creature and potentially appeal to children that would not normally pick up a book about animals. It takes a classic non-fiction topic of exploring the characteristics and behaviour of a particular animal, in this case frogs and toads and through a unique layout and truly amazing illustrations transforms it into something truly special. That you are going to want to dip into time and time again.

In what is mainly bite-sized information I learnt so much about frogs, with those eye-catching illustrations drawing you in to look closer every time. This includes: how they catch their prey, regulate their body temperatures, the different croaks and calls they make. There is lots of variety in the presentation of the information, from almost full-page pictures, labelled diagram of the features of a frog, and a page of the life cycle of a frog. With detailed, accurate and precise information, and truly amazing artwork, Owen Davey’s books set the gold standard for a new generation of non-fiction books. There is a contents page and index, making it easy to explore this great book.

We Build Our Homes – by Laura Knowles and Chris Madden

A little different to the other two non-fiction books. This is written more like narrative fiction, with a different bird, insect or animal on each two-page spread telling it’s storey of how it builds it’s nest or home. The soft coloured and textured illustrations give a warm feel to the book, and bring the animal homes to life, leaving you in awe about what creatures on our planet can create. It includes: some unique bird’s nests, each using different materials and techniques, a peep into the world of bees, ants, wasps and spiders and animals such as: Gopher tortoises, moles, polar bears and beavers. A timely reminder that we are not the only creatures on Earth to create amazing things, and that we may even have things to learn from them.

At the end there is a simple map of the World and a mini fact files on the bird, insect and mammal builders, which adds another dimension to this book. The book gives three different ways to explore the way creatures build their homes: first person narrative, detailed illustrations and the fact files. Giving different children the opportunity to engage with this intriguing topic in a way that suits them, and plenty of scope to explore different ways of presenting non-fiction information.

Thank you to Flying Eye Books for a review copy of Fanatical About Frogs, the other two books I bought my own copies.

The Journey by Francesca Sanna (published by Flying Eye books)

Posted on June 30, 2016May 19, 2017 by melissacreate

The Journey is an amazing and important picture book by author and illustrator Francesca Sanna. It tells from a refugee story from a chid’s perspective. A girl and her family are forced to flee their homes by war. The story tells of their difficult journey to safety. The honesty with which it portrays the darkness of their experience and emotions such as: loss, despair, fear is breathtaking. It deals with a theme which is all around us, and has such a huge significance today.

It makes clever use of colour and illustrations to reflect changing emotions and circumstances. Orange hues are used for hope, and they are the colour of the car at the start of their journey and the train towards the end. Blackness represents the darkest of moments. And there is none darker than:

And one day the war took my father

The blackness conveys what words alone could not, and the orange of hope on subsequent pages propels you forward.

I had an interesting discussion with a friend about The Journey. We were in agreement that it is a book that should be in every school library. But, we could not quite decide if there was a little too much darkness. The darkness in the first part of this story is what makes it so powerful and I would not have it any other way. Then they arrive at the sea and colour comes back into the pictures and there is hope. Then on their boat journey fear comes back again. It was the picture below that got us thinking.

Some questions we asked were:
What is the effect on the reader from going from a place of darkness to hope and then to be plunged back into darkness again? Would this be too much for some children? What would have been the effect on the reader if instead this page was mainly light and warm hopeful colours with a smaller amount of black? Would the story be the same?

These are questions worth thinking about when sharing this book with children. The recent events of the EU referendum vote in Britain have sharpened my focus. Having thought about the picture I realised it would have been odd if Francesca Sanna had represented this part of the journey in any other way. The sad reality is that refugee journeys on boats are dangerous and they must have many fears both real and imagined of what they may face at the other end. Furthermore some children will have heard in the news about these difficult boat crossings and children dying. I think the breathtaking honesty of this story will resonate with many children, and especially older children who are beginning to take note of the world we live in. Aside from its key theme of refugees: a families flight from war to safety, there are also many powerful life messages. The journey from an awful place to somewhere that has the potential to be good can be difficult and up and down (get better then worse again) but ultimately hopeful.

There is also a second and beautiful story in this book. Where in the later stages of the story the girl and her family are joined by migratory birds flying alongside them. Then there is a beautiful scene at the end of them flying with these birds, into a new and more hopeful future. This last page opens up so many other topics that could be explored.

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Children’s books which could help build global empathy and understanding

Posted on June 28, 2016May 12, 2017 by melissacreate

How we interact with the world around us has always been something which has interested me. Political events in Britain in 2016 and their aftermath have made me realise not everyone understands the migrant or immigrant experience and that children’s books can have an important role in building global empathy and understanding. Featured below are 5 books that can help children and adults explore these issues. Each is written from a child’s perspective. The stories deal with complex issues, and are not afraid to deal with traumatic and difficult situation’s, but in a sensitive way that the very best of children’s authors know how to do. Despite the sometimes difficulties circumstances the children and their families face they provide hope of the ability for children to survive, and the capacity for humans to adapt and change, such a vital message.

This selection of children’s books to help build global empathy and understanding about refugees experiences and other ways we are all connected include: a picture book, a story written in prose and chapter books at different reading levels. They are all shorter stories, proving that stories that really make you think don’t have to be long ones!

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