The North recommends: Rhyme and Reason
Rhyme & Reason is Sheffield’s only independent bookshop, which people often describe as an Aladdin’s cave when they see the vast range of children’s books, for babies right up to young adults. We also stock the best of adult fiction, poetry and non-fiction. Our staff offer advice and recommendations and we have a swift ordering service for any book in print.


There are a growing number of issue-led books for younger readers. Whereas humour and adventure were the main staples for 9-12 year-olds, it’s now more common for topics such as war, first love, unconventional families and bereavement to be tackled.
Steve Tasane’s Child I follows the perspective of a 10-year-old boy in a refugee camp piecing his life together. Muhammad Khan’s I Am Thunder is a first novel about ordinary young girls questioning their culture and the radicalisation of Muslim classmates.
David Almond’s Colour of the Sun, published in May, pulls no punches, exploring the lives of people in a northern community in the wake of a boy’s murder.
Leeds based Kate Pankhurst has followed up her first book about Fantastically Great Women with an equally good Fantastically Great Women Who Made History.
Sue Hendra’s latest picture book Cake (illustrated by Paul Linnet), tells the story of Cake who has been invited to a birthday party without knowing his part in it!
Find out more about Rhyme & Reason here, or follow them on Twitter.