The St James Shadowers

The Endless Sea
The children liked the washed out colour palette and how the pale colours were used at the start and end of the book. The children noticed how the books colours got darker and darker towards the middle of the story and how this reflected the scariness of travelling across the endless sea. The children gave this an 8/10.

Katie

Freedom Braids
We loved the bright illustrations at the beginning of the book and at the end and how this reflected the hope towards the end of the story. We liked the darkening pages when it talked about the sadness around slavery. The children loved discussing the different braids and how this was a 'map' for the women to escape. The children gave it a 9/10.

Katie

Wildful
The children were big fans of this book too. They liked the graphic novel style of the book and could really focus on the images as there is not a lot of text. The children liked how the animals were illustrated too and we talked a lot about British wildlife.

Katie

The Paper Bridge
This was a solid 10/10 from the children. The children loved the inclusion of the kirigami and the different uses of light and colours to reflect the different villages in the book. The children liked how the two teams came together at the end for a common good and this is reflected in the bridge by the end of the book.

Katie

The Playdate
We were unsure on this one as a group. The children were not sure on the illustrations in this one compared to some of the other books we have reviewed as the colour palette was a lot more muted. The children did appreciate the use of watercolour in the illustrations as well as some of the fun images but they were concerned with the idea of different social classes with the two adults compared to the two children. They did enjoy spotting the nods to Swedish infrastructure in the book too!

Katie

The Sleeper Train
We collectively gave it approximately 8.5/10. We liked the selection of colours and the unusual patterns on each page. As a group, we tried to make Rangoli patterns using felt pens and pipe cleaners to emulate the patterns in the book. We also loved spotting the pink owl on each page and the different places the family went or the little girl slept. The flowers and plants along the bottom of some of the pages were interesting too!

Katie

Wiggling Words
The children loved the way the letters tumbled on the pages and how they could be stacked, turned, joined together etc. They questioned why there was a lot of red and we talked about the possibility of red being a conscious choice to be dyslexia aware or perhaps being the illustrator's favourite colour. The children also said they liked how creative the illustration was. The page that had the rocket and the elephant on was a particular favourite. The children also enjoyed the contrast of the blue used for the character in contrast with all the red.

Katie