James the Jumble ¦ Henry's Hallowe'en ¦ The Umbrella Tree ¦ One of our Marrows is Missing
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Cover Story
Our cover illustration this month is by Alan Lee from The Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkien. The first-ever colour illustrated edition is now available from HarperCollins (0 261 102230 3) at £30.00. We thank them for their help in reproducing the cover of the book.
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Send to friendJames the Jumble
Illustrated by George Buchanan
Henry's Hallowe'en
The Umbrella Tree
Illustrated by Thelma Lambert
One of our Marrows is Missing
Illustrated by Alicia Garcia De Lynam
The Young Knight format - a single story with text broken up by full-colour illustrations on every page - is designed to bridge the gap between picture books and first novels. Of the four titles here, the two favourites with my new solo readers both feature horticultural activities. In The Umbrella Tree a brother and sister are given their own garden plots, but when young Elly tries to grow a new kind of tree her next door neighbour is far from amused.
Fund-raising for the school swimming pool is the starting point for One of our Marrows is Missing in which Class 8's sponsored marrow growing efforts are inadvertently sabotaged by the caretaker's wife's sponsored slim. These inviting-looking books are a useful rather than memorable read for that crucial in-between stage.
