LJ's beautiful books

By Katie and Kevin Tsang Published by Simon & Schuster  Ages 8 and upwards  'He and his friends were the ones claiming that humans and dragons could live together peacefully, yet here was a dragon destroying Buckingham Palace in a rampage.'  Book five, the finale of this Dragon Realm series, is here - and the stakes are higher than ever! The Dragon Realm has fallen into the Human Realm, world leaders want to capture and exploit the dragons and a dangerous pack of dragons want to remove all humans. Billy and his friends just want peace and dragon friendships like theirs, but they learn this might not be possible: '... most humans see dragons as something they can tame or claim, not as creatures that they can live alongside.' Instead they search for a new home for the dragons, which involves invoking the ghost of the first dragon that ever existed, which leads to danger, frustration, adventure, superpowers and a twist that will change the world forever....  Although t

By Katherine Rundell and Sara Ogilvie Published by Bloomsbury  Ages 4 upwards  "... he took off at a gallop down the street. There were a few adults on the pavement, but they were all looking at their phones: adults rarely notice things." In this story, Gabriel the zebra is lost after his parents have been taken by the villain Mr Spit. Gabriel finds a brave little girl, Mink and through speaking to her in pictures, asks her for help. She comes up with a plan, with the help of Rainbow the dog, to find them. They learn that zebras aren't the only animals Mr Spit has taken. Can they rescue the zebras and the other animals all on their own?  This tale is funny, witty, has a brave heroine, animals talking AND a spectacular ending. I love the animals communicating with each other and with Mink, that different species help each other and the message that wild animals should be free. Rundell's adventure reminds me of Roald Dahl and my favourite illustration, apart from Ogilvi