A Longer-than-average List – 25 July 2025

The summer holidays are here and, in case you find yourself with a greater-than-average number of hours in which to entertain smaller-than-average people, we are here to help. If you are reading this and packing to go away, I suspect you are going to need a heftier-than-average suitcase for all those books. If you are staying at home, don’t forget to carry a stronger-than-average tote bag crammed with reading material. (And a spare to fill with more.)

Those of you who know how much we loved Torla and Smorla and The Lower than Average Cloud may already have surmised that a new episode in the life of these giraffes has arrived: Torla and Smorla and The Deeper than Average Hole by Kes Gray and Chris Jevons. For a taller-than-average giraffe, Torla is looking rather short. She has in fact fallen into a deeper-than-average hole. Can little Smorla rescue her? Balloon fans (i.e. all Bristolians) will love this. But I’m not going to tell you how Torla gets out…

Herewith a herd of children’s books told by all sorts of creatures, not to mention some for the older generations too, though all ages will appreciate an insatiable mouse, a be-socked duck, some deceitful hens and the meanest goose who is really trying not to be.

Picture books

• Hippo’s Garden Day by Nicola Kent includes many excellent things to slide, pull and twist, all honing one’s horticultural skills. Doubtless this will translate to helping with actual gardening and tired parents/grandparents/hippos – whoever has been left in charge for the day – can put their feet up while the flowerbeds are tended.
• Since it is not possible to choose between his towering writing on giraffes or the mischief of his mice, Kes Gray merits a double mention. His book A Mouse Just Ate My House!, illustrated by Sebastien Braun features a really, really hungry mouse. Hungrier, if you can believe it, than that caterpillar we’ve all heard of.* In fact, the pages of the book itself are being consumed. I wonder why she’s so ravenous.
• Yet more metaphysical is Jenny Peckles Lays Eggs With Speckles by Rachel Emily and Paul Delaney, featuring Featherly Botts who lays eggs with spots, Wattling Sue who lays eggs that are blue and Combover Jo who lays eggs that glow. The hens take it too far when they claim that Sally McSquawk lays eggs which can talk. The narrator is looking rather credulous; the hens just wanted to be featured in a book.
• Some of us may want to spend the summer at home, eating breakfast in bed and thinking about socks. But there is a whole world out there and even a home bird like Duck must venture out. In Duck Delivers by Tom Tinn-Disbury, Duck gets a job which will surely take him places. No matter the obstacle and whether by scooter, by ski, by rocket or by hang-glider, Duck will deliver his parcel on time…  

Chapter books for ages five and upwards

• Herons may appear a little haughty but I think they can coexist quite happily with geese. (Subs, please check this claim for emotional and ornithological rectitude. Ed.) Unless those geese are really mean. Gordon, the meanest goose, is trying to be good. But when some of his old gang suggest that he organise a Grand Tournament, he gets carried away. Gordon Wins It All by Alex Latimer will delight those who have just enjoyed or suffered the indignities of sports day, not to mention anyone who loves an expressive eyebrow.
• Donut Feed the Squirrels by Mika Song is suffused with that scrumptious scent of bubbling batter. Turns out that appeals to squirrels, as much as to humans. Yes, I know that’s the American spelling of doughnut but it’s worth it for the jokes this allows in this yummy and utterly silly graphic novel, I promise.
• Less silly, indeed rather moving, is Letters to a Dog by Piers Torday, illustrated by Alice McKinley in which a young boy waiting in hospital for an operation writes letters to a dog he hopes will one day be his. This is a Barrington Stoke publication and so designed for readers with dyslexia, as well as being good for any children having a difficult time or who love a good epistolary tale.

Ages nine and upwards

• With apologies to the now well-fed squirrels of Mika Song’s books, I am afraid that they don’t come out of Into the Bewilderness by Gus Gordon that well. Some squirrels are very much on the menu. This is a work of absolute charm and wit. A guitar-playing bear and his best friend, a well-read, if short-sighted, mole, living in the wilderness receive an invitation to see a show in the Big City. Should they venture to this unknown land? Other big questions asked include, ‘What’s the difference between a light meal and a large snack?’ and, ‘If rabbit’s feet are so lucky, what happened to the rabbit?’ This one will run and run.
• Meanwhile a cat takes centre stage in The Last Journey by Stacy Gregg, illustrated by Suzie Mason, an epic tale of wrongful conviction and feline intelligence. It is totally unpredictable, like many cats. Do pop in and ask Harry to do all the voices. He won’t mind.
• We have lots of fascinating non-fiction books on animals too, a current favourite being Wildlives by Ben Lerwill, illustrated by Sarah Walsh telling fifty remarkable stories of animals in history, including a gorilla who saved a little boy, Zarafa, the first giraffe in France, Huberta the hippo who decided to go for a walk and did not stop and a cow with an unrelenting desire for freedom…

“Grown-up” books, as if you aren’t all too distracted by giraffes

• When conducting research for How Animals Heal Us, Jay Griffiths became so excited that she had to share her discoveries with whomever was nearby, friend or stranger. ‘Did you know that baby jumping spiders dream?’ she asked someone on a train. All I would have heard is the words ‘jumping spiders’…
  Her excitement suffuses the whole book which is about so much more than how nice it is to have a cat purring on your lap when you’re feeling a bit rubbish or to have a chat with a heron when you need moral guidance. It’s about dogs detecting diseases, laughter in rats and the politics of wolves. Look out for an announcement of an event in November with Jay Griffiths and Gareth Howell-Jones here in The Heronry.
• Quite the opposite of the healing power of animals, I have just read Blowfish by Kyung-Ran Jo, translated by Chi-Young Kim. A sculptor moves from Seoul to Tokyo and indulges her obsession with learning about, and possibly dying from, the poisonous blowfish. A man, an architect, who recognises the obsession for what it is tries to help her. Time is handled brilliantly – memory blending and changing with their experiences – while art and architecture shape the story and its characters with eerie beauty.
• Finally, Moya Cannon’s poetry collection Bunting’s Honey asks if we can heal, or even just stop to realise, the harms we’ve done to animals and our home. ‘You must change your life’ Rilke wrote. ‘And how we resist it…’ Cannon responds in ‘For the Birds.’ It’s a collection full of music too, from drumming rain to birdsong to Irish song to harps.

If you’ve made it this far, you have the greater-than-average stamina of Huberta. Or you too are stuck in a deeper-than-average hole and passing the time until someone rescues you.

May your weekend embrace more than the usual number of giraffes,
Lizzie

*For reference.