Coventry Inspiration Book Awards: The Runners Up, Week 2

This is our final week celebrating this year’s Coventry Inspiration Book Award shortlist, looking at the final runners up in each category.

Our final What’s The Story Book is Story Soup by Abbie Longstaff, illustrated by Nila Aye

Ollie and Susie are mixing a story soup in their kitchen. They think it will be easy to brew a story, but every time they throw an item into the soup the story takes an unexpected turn. Ollie wants a skateboarding story; Susie wants one about a princess – so they end up with a twisting turning tale about a skateboarding princess and a pirate who is a reluctant bad guy. But what happens when the story soup gets out of control? Will Ollie and Susie be able to work together to save the day?

If you loved this book, try Once Upon A Fairy Tale by Natalia and Lauren O’Hara

Did you ever wish to feast with fairies, live in a tree, or ride a unicorn across the sun-lit sky? Here, in this magical world, you can. You can choose to be a clever princess, or a curious gingerbread man, or perhaps a gentle knight. Maybe you’ll live in a tree, or a tower on a hill. You can eat fresh-buttered sunbeams with fairies, or newt pie and pigtail pudding with ogres. Everywhere you look, you will find a new adventure. Just pick the one you like best.

A captivating book where the child chooses the story they want to tell – empowering children to become storytellers and weave their very own fairytale.

Our last book in the Telling Tales category is Leonora Bolt: Secret Inventor by Lucy Brandt
Leonora Bolt spends her days creating incredible inventions in her TOP SECRET laboratory, under the watchful eye of her terrifying uncle. Everything changes one day when a strange boy washes up on an inflatable lobster and reveals that Uncle Luther has been stealing her inventions and selling them on the mainland. Leonora, armed with her most important inventions, must leave Crabby Island for the first time EVER to embark on an unforgettable journey that will test her brainpower to its limits. With the help of an otter with a special skill, a questionable cook, and a singing sea captain, can Leonora dream up an invention that will defeat her evil uncle once and for all?
If you loved this book, try Ollie Spark And The Exploding Popcorn Mystery by Gillian Cross and Alan Snow. Machines, mysteries and mayhem – this must be a case for Ollie Spark!

Ollie Spark loves mending machines and solving mysteries. But he gets more than he bargained for when fixing Aunt Caz’s van throws him into a real-life spy adventure!Ollie is whisked away to a mysterious city with strange plants, an unknown language and suspicious people round every corner. With the help of Gasket, his new dog best friend, he sets off on a mission to save the city – and Aunt Caz – from disaster.

Can Ollie fix things before it’s too late?!

Our fnial book for Hooked On Books is a firm Year 6 favourite – Grandpa Frank’s Great Big Bucket List by Jenny Pearson
Young Frank John Davenport is hit with two massive surprises. First, he learns that he’s been left £462,000 by a step-grandma he didn’t know he had, then that he has a grandpa. However, there is a condition to his grandma’s bequest and the money must be used for the care and well-being of his grandpa. With his parents arguing about the money and his dad’s dodgy dealings, Frank is only too happy to team up with Grandpa Frank and embark on delivering the best bucket list ever (whether that’s what his grandpa wants or not). This leads to hilarious adventures such as balloon rides, monster-truck lessons, and synchronised swimming lessons!

If this was your favourite, try Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce Heart-achingly funny, touching and brilliantly clever, Millions is a fantastic adventure about two boys, one miracle and a million choices.

Brothers Damian and Anthony didn’t mean to get caught up in a botched train robbery. But what would you do if a massive bag of cash dropped from the sky and you had only a few days to spend it before it became worthless? Buy a million pizzas? End world poverty? Not such an easy decision, is it? The boys soon find out that being rich is a mug’s game. Not only is the clock ticking, the bank robbers want their money back . . .

Happy Reading!