April Focus Title

The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish

By Chloe Savage

A moving tale of grit, endurance and self-belief to inspire young explorers and dreamers from a stunningly talented debut. Dr Morley is about to embark on a quest to the northernmost tip of the world, to discover a creature that everyone talks about but nobody has ever seen: The Giant Arctic Jellyfish.

After years of research and hard graft, she gathers together a highly trained crew and a boat full of specialist equipment, and sets sail for the vast icy scapes of the Arctic. Will she find what she is searching for? Or will it find her?

From debut author-illustrator Chloe Savage comes a beautifully detailed adventure into the unknown, sure to captivate the imagination of young explorers.

*Description and image taken from waterstones.com - no copyright intended*

April couldn't be anything other than Waterstones' Children's Book Prize picture book category winner! The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish is a beautifully illustrated tale of determination and passion that I couldn't not share with Bear. 

We started off the month with this epic handmade arctic jellyfish from my sister, Bear's Aunty! You can check out her work on her Instagram, @sjay_makes and we read the book together with The Cub.

This is the first book that I've introduced that Bear has clearly not loved the way he does most stories that we read. Over the course of the month, we only read the book a small handful of times, and they were all instigated by me. Not once has he picked this up and asked to read it the way he does with others, including every other focus title I've chosen so far.

When it came around to writing the book review this time, Bear was only going to give the book two stars, but decided on a third as he was colouring them in. His summary was pretty good this time around, we are definitely improving from basically retelling the entire story back to me. 

I have chosen a little differently this time around, as I have picked something with a theme that I can include The Cub in for our April focus title. Colours, Colours Everywhere by Julia Donaldson is our focus title this month, and alongside using the theme of colour to encourage some art from Bear this month, I plan to use the theme to start some colour identification with The Cub.

Have you read The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish? I'd love to hear what you and your children thought of the story!

Mama Bear x