Book reviews - New books for young readers from Gecko press

Today I'm sharing three new lovely chapter books from Gecko press, aimed at both new and more confident readers.

Yours Sincerely, Giraffe (affiliate link) by Megumi Iwasa is an absurd and endearing story about an African giraffe and his penguin pen pal. Giraffe is bored and wants a friend to share things with. One day he finds a sign from a bored pelican offering to deliver anything, anywhere. So he writes a letter and sends it as far as possible across the other side of the horizon. There he finds a pen pal - Penguin.

The book is written from the point of view of both Giraffe and Penguin and also contains the letters that the two unlikely friends write to each other. It's a very sweet book and instantly appealed to Harry as his comfort object is a giraffe, so he liked it very much!

Life According to Dani (affiliate link) by Rose Lagercrantz tells the story of Dani, who is spending the summer holidays on an island with her best friend Ella and they are having a fantastic time. But one day an unwelcome visitor comes and Dani isn't sure that her life is that happy any more now that her widowed father has a new girlfriend. But thanks to her best friend Ella is there to help get things back to how they should be. With lovely illustrations from Eva Eriksson, it's a story that children will enjoy, as well as dealing with a serious issue that many children have to face.

Bicycling to the Moon (affiliate link) by Timo Parvela is a beautifully illustrated chapter book suitable for more confident readers. It's all about Purdy the cat and Barker the dog, who are friends that live in a sky blue house on top of a hill and are quite different to each other. Barker likes to potter in the garden, but Purdy has big dreams - he wants to fly south with the birds, win the singing competition, be a Supercat...

It's a quirky and funny selection of stories all about friendship, and because each chapter can be read as a separate little story, it's great for reading aloud to younger children at bedtime or for older children to read to themselves, with a different story each night.

I received these books in exchange for a review.