The best of this year’s children’s books

Among many delights, the Greco-Persian wars are brought to thrilling new life and a truly bizarre Alaskan folk tale is retold

From magazine issue: 11 November 2023

They walked into the hall. ‘It is a nice house,’ said Otilla. ‘Yes’ said the skull. ‘I have always liked it here.’ ‘Have you lived here for a long time?’ said Otilla. ‘Yes,’ said the skull. From The Skull, written and illustrated by Jon Klassen

issue 11 November 2023

Text size

Small

Medium

Large
Line Spacing

Compact

Normal

Spacious
Comments
Share
Share

Melanie McDonagh

The best of this year’s children’s books
Linkedin

Messenger

Email

In some children’s books, nothing much happens. In Roberto Piumini’s Glowrushes (Pushkin Press, £9.99), it’s like this: a father, a great Turkish lord, hires an artist to paint his sick son’s rooms for his 11th birthday, and together the boy and the painter create walls of wondrous imaginary landscapes. It turns out that you don’t have to travel outside your own room to inhabit new worlds.