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Find out moreAre you fascinated to read about people and places? We have a collection of books about famous people, the jobs we do, the cities we live in and the world around us.
If Salah is your favourite football player then this is the book for you! Discover how he grew up in Gharbia, Egypt playing football for the youth team El Mokawloons to being named the African Footballer of the Year in 2019 by the BBC and CAF. Learn how he spearheaded Liverpool FC to the Champions League title in 2019.
If Neymar is your favourite football superstar, then this is the book for you! Discover how he went from playing street football and futsal in Sao Paulo to becoming one of the best players on the global scene playing for clubs like Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain. Learn how Neymar scored over 300 career goals, competed in the Olympics twice, and became one of the most popular football players worldwide.
Following the success of her debut book How to be Extraordinary, which focused on inspiring children to be the very best that they can be, this important companion title shows the impact of people working together and what results they can thereby achieve. Once again this demonstrates that the author has a real gift for narrative nonfiction making these true stories really come to life with the selection of salient facts and lucid explanations setting the scene and explaining the issues so very clearly. The fifteen stories range from the origins of democracy in Ancient Greece and the mystery of just how the skilled workers of Ancient Egypt built The Great Pyramid to famous and not so famous campaigns for change. So alongside Greenpeace and Save the Whale we have the lesser known Tree Planters of Pipilantre and as well as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, we have the Singing Revolution in Estonia and as well as the Anti- Slavery Campaign we have the 1965 Freedom Ride campaigning for justice for indigenous people in Australia. There is also an obvious care taken to ensure the examples are as international as possible so the campaign for voting equality for women is not solely focused on the UK. The lively layout and illustrations make this an irresistible text for library browsers with appeal across many ages and the quality of the writing makes it one that would read aloud very well. Highly recommended.
Serena Williams: tennis player, sports icon, champion. Get your head in the game with one of the greatest athletes of all time, Serena Williams. A Life Story: This gripping series throws the reader directly into the lives of modern society's most influential figures. With striking black-and-white illustration along with timelines and fun facts. Also in the series: Katherine Johnson: A Life Story Stephen Hawking: A Life Story Alan Turing: A Life Story Rosalind Franklin: A Life Story David Attenborough: A Life Story
What a special person Marcus Rashford is, on and off the pitch. With a focus on his football, this excellent little biography also gives readers a good idea of his life and how he’s got to where he is today. The stats of course speak for themselves, he’s a brilliant footballer and the book provides some analysis of why he scores so many goals. It also tells us about his early football games, playing in his tiny back garden with brothers Dwaine and Dane, before joining the youth academy at Manchester United (born in Wythenshawe, he’s always been a fan). No matter how successful he’s been, he’s never forgotten the community he grew up in as the book explains, and its final stat, after all those goals, penalties and assists, is the money he’s raised for charity FareShare: £20 million. Author and illustrator write with all the enthusiasm of real football fans, peppering the pages with jokes and extra football facts, making this very appealing and super-readable. There’s a quiz at the end to test the reader’s memory and a useful glossary too.
This novel, by Birmingham born poet Zephaniah, is the fifth book in the Scholastic Voices series – highlighting the situation and stories behind the myriad of people who have arrived from all over the world to the UK. Leonard’s father is one of the many Jamaican born men who came to Britain at the request of the UK government to help rebuild the country after the second World War. So, when Leonard and his mother arrive in Southampton the 10-year-old had to get to know a father he barely remembers and learn to live in a climate, both physical and social, that was alien to him. This is a carefully written account which does not shirk from exploring the society and the racism that Leonard encounters in his school and in being a part of 50’s and 60’s society in Manchester – where Leonard’s father was a bus driver. It’s aimed at KS2 children and the language, plus seeing everything through Leonard’s often confused eyes makes it a valuable lesson for children to read. The book takes Leonard’s story to the present day where he is one of the Windrush generation who now struggle to prove his right to be in the UK – making this a strong story on which to base vital lessons on the morality of government policies. Highly recommended.
Use Your Future to Change the World | Companion to We Are All Greta, Green Nation Revolution sets out impactful steps young citizens of the new Green Nation can take “in the immediate future to shape their destiny and help make the Earth a safer place for everyone”. Rich in data, case studies and strategies for bringing about lasting positive social, economic and environmental change, this is a punch-packing must-read for teen readers who are keen to get more involved with youth-led green movements. After opening with the positive context of how much the impetus for change has grown in the past two years, with an almost ten-fold increase in Climate Strike participants, the authors define the Green Nation as “a state with no entry or exit barriers, in which people are united by a deep sense of responsibility towards the planet”. And the citizens of the Green Nation are the millions of schoolchildren who “think beyond geographical borders and do not see themselves as belonging to a specific country in the world, but to something new and highly responsive”. Whether discussing the circular economy, regenerative agriculture, renewable energy, smart cities, sustainable tourism, or Green Nation jobs (“We do not need superheroes to save the planet; we need engineers, economists, scientists, biologists, environmentalists, architects and designers"), the authors are always upfront with - and respectful of - their young readers. Accompanied by crisp, contemporary illustrations, this accessible, inspiring toolkit for creating true long-term change is smart in style and content.
What does it take to be an investigative journalist and discover the truth against all the odds? Daphne Caruana Galizia had a happy childhood with her family on the small island of Malta, loving books, stories and writing. When she succeeded in her ambition to become a journalist, she discovered that there was much to write about in her home country. She found that greedy and corrupt politicians were making themselves rich rather than working for the good of their people. Fearlessly, Daphne exposed criminal and dishonest activities. Her enemies responded with threats and insults to discourage her from revealing more. But nothing could dissuade Daphne from fighting for what she believed in.
A Julia Eccleshare Pick of the Month November 2020 | Nature is full of record-breaking adventures which are brought to life in the detailed and dramatic illustrations that fill every inch of the large scale book. Global in its reach, it is a gold mine of information as it takes readers on a world tour of astonishing achievements. There’s the fastest land animal – the cheetah from Botswana, the hottest place on Earth – Ethiopia, The Longest-erupting Volcano – Italy and many more. Across thirty gloriously bold spreads readers will discover wonderful and surprising facts about all kinds of aspects of the planet.
Nothing is higher profile or more topical currently than concern for the planet, making this subject an excellent choice for the next topic to get the highly successful Kate Pankhurst treatment. Continuing her quest to pay tribute to the often-overlooked female pioneers in any field of human endeavour with her mission to provide accessible and engaging non- fiction, Fantastically Great Women Who Saved the Planet does all that and more. Once again, I was struck by the fascinating and diverse choices of the featured women and girls. Some are relatively well-known: such as Anita Roddick who founded the Body Shop and Jane Goodall and her pioneering research and protection work with chimpanzees. But I had never heard of Edith Farkas who discovered the ozone hole in the Antarctic or Mária Telkes and her pioneering work on solar power. Even more inspiring is the evidence that everyone, however humble, can make a difference. Such as Isatou Geesay in the Gambia and her fight against plastic pollution or the Chipko movement in India, village women literally hugging trees to prevent the deforestation of their land and the floods and landslides which would follow. Each double-page spread has accessible paragraphs of text and lively cartoon illustrations and speech bubbles to tell the story concisely and clearly. This visual style is very engaging to young readers and has great shelf appeal. A useful glossary of terms and a page of inspiring calls to action complete the book. Another triumph of information presentation. Highly recommended.
Longlisted for the UKLA Book Awards 2022 Information Books 3-14 | If ever there was a book to inspire curiosity and the joy of learning, it is this sparkling new edition of that old stalwart, the Encyclopedia Britannica. Thoroughly updated for the 21st century and making a welcome return to print, it has been edited by Christopher Lloyd of What On Earth Wallbooks fame and his delight in discovery and knowledge infuses every one of its 400+ pages. It is divided into eight sections covering life on earth, from the formation of the universe to the development of man through to peeks into our future, and each of these sections includes hundreds of different topics, the information carefully and thoughtfully presented through clear text panels supported by colour images, photos and diagrams. All of the information comes from named experts, who are not above confessing when they’re not sure of something or acknowledging ‘known unknowns’, and in another clever touch, there are Q&A features with some of these at the end of each section, where they explain how their passion for their subjects began. The book is fabulous to look at and, whether you are dipping in to follow a particular thread or reading through it from beginning to end, it will answer thousands of questions while sparking thousands more, just as the very best sources of information always do. Highly recommended.
In this inspiring and confidence-boosting guide, the cyclist Sir Chris Hoy, six-time Olympic Champion, shows kids that with the right mindset, they have the power to do something extraordinary. As a boy, Chris Hoy never would have believed that he could have achieved his dream of becoming an Olympic Champion. In his first motivational book for children, he shares everything he has learned on his journey to help inspire kids to fulfil their potential and be the best they can be. The book brings together his incredible personal story with practical ideas for building confidence, resilience and self-belief, as well as dealing with failure. An essential read for any young person with a big dream, this guide shows that anything is possible with a positive attitude!
