Unzip your lips offers a great collection of books for sharing and reading together, chosen by London's librarians. Take the
opportunity to discover and explore related London landmarks, some obvious, others more quirky and surprising
Unzip Your Lips > All
The following is a list of all the publications in this promotion
Books indicated with
are available in accessible formats; check with
Revealweb
for further details.
Grace loves to act out different parts: Hiawatha, Helen of Troy, Peter Pan- when her classmates tell her she can't play Peter Pan because she's a girl and black, her grandmother shows Grace that she can be anyone she wants to be.
The Big Friendly Giant doesn't seem all that friendly as he creeps down the High Street, snatches little Sophie out of her bed and bounds away to Giant Country. But Sophie has nothing to fear from him (the other giants are another matter!) and the two finally make their way to Buckingham Palace to have breakfast with the Queen.
Billy was a champion soccer star who played for Chelsea in the 1930s, but that was before the war broke out. At the age of eighty, Billy looks back at his memories of childhood, football and the war.
Simon, the hero of THE WOLVES OF WILLOUGHBY CHASE, is back! In London, studying art, he discovers his old friend Dr Field has disappeared without trace. An exciting adventure ends with a daring balloon ride.
The townspeople of Glockenheim gather in a tavern ready for the unveiling of a new figure for their great town clock. But Karl, the clockmaker's apprentice, has not been able to construct the figure.
Follow the fortunes of Clown, an exuberant little character who starts life in a dustbin but ends up in a family. A wordless and inventive picture book.
Born in Trinidad, Floella Benjamin moved to England with her family in the 1960s. This is an account of her early childhood in the West Indies and her determination to adjust to a new life in England.
Jamie, Ten Tons and Davies are mudlarks. They survive by scavenging in the cold, foul mud of the River Thames. When a valuable piece of copper falls off a ship, Ten Tons dreams up a daring plan to reclaim it.
The robbers of London Town make a desperate plan to steal all the toys they can lay their hands on, but they meet their match in brave Officer Pugh. He arrests all the villains, except for Grandma Swagg, who slips away
This story is set in the eighteenth century. You can almost smell the streets of urban London. Toby and Aaron come from different backgrounds, but both find themselves living at Captain Thomas Coram's Hospital for parentless children.
Heading for an exciting new life in London, Tom Falconer is ambushed by the murderous Ratsey. Helpless and alone, the orphan gallops towards the great city, where an assortment of colourful rogues and a number of mortal dangers await him. He becomes involved in the world of Elizabethan theatre, but his first port of call in London is St. Paul's Cathedral - "a mountain of bricks and stone- Tom wouldn't have believed it was possible to build anything this big".
On one special night of the year, the dogs in the paintings in the National Gallery come to life. No one guesses their secret until, one night, four of the dogs have too much to eat and sleepily climb back into the wrong works of art!
The enormous crocodile boasts that he is going to eat a child for lunch. But his plots and disguises are foiled when the other jungle animals come to the rescue.
A lazy farmer spends all day in bed eating chocolates and reading the newspsaper, while his poor duck has to do all the work on the farm. The farm animals, outraged by the farmer's behaviour, hatch a plan to help their friend.
Willie Beech is evacuated to the countryside as Britain stands on the brink of World War II. A sad, deprived child, he slowly begins to flourish under the care of old Tom Oakley. His happiness is shattered, though, when he returns to war-torn London to see his mother.
Experience the panic of the Great Fire of London through the eyes of eight year old William Turner. The Great Fire broke out in 1666 at Farriner's, the King's bakery, in Pudding Lane. It destroyed 80% of London and raged for four days. To see an animation of how the fire spread, plus loads more interesting stuff, visit: www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/fire
Fred and Charlie, the ravens, spend many carefree hours playing in the fountain at Trafalgar Square before they meet Belvedere and set out on their Great London Adventure!
A quick-witted mouse invents tales of a fantastic creature called a Gruffalo to scare off a host of predators who seem to think he might be a tasty treat. Imagine his surprise when he meets a real Gruffalo!
Handa places seven delicious fruits in a basket to take to her friend Akeyo, but on route she passes a number of animals who find the fruit irresistible.
Kit takes his best friend Prince Henry on a night ride over London on his magic carpet. When Henry falls into a werewolf den and is bitten, Kit is forbidden to see his friend again. A HANDFUL OF MAGIC is the first in a superb series of books featuring Kit and Henry.
Harry is an ordinary boy who lives in a cupboard under the stairs at his aunt and uncle's house until the day he is transported into the magical world of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The first book in the phenomenally popular series. The web is absolutely riddled with sites about Harry Potter. The official book site is at: www.bloomsburymagazine.com/harrypotter
Pongo is overjoyed when Perdita gives birth to fifteen Dalmatian puppies, but then the evil Cruella de Vil arrives and kidnaps the puppies, holding them prisoner at Hell Hall, along with 86 others.
When Old Bob the Cobbler and his washerwoman wife Joan find a strange young boy on their doortsep, the search for his true parentage begins. Roger, the boy, insists that he was once a rat!
Nine year-old Roger is a miserable landlubber with a bad-tempered mum, so when he sees a poster advertising for a cabin boy, he jumps at the chance. The next thing he knows, he is on board the Golden Behind with a bunch of the smelliest, scariest pirates in the world.
Nat Field, a boy actor visiting London to perform at the Globe Theatre, falls ill and contracts bubonic plague, to the amazement of the doctors treating him. But as one young actor lies in isolation in Guy's Hospital, another wakes up in Elizabethan London and is drawn into rehearsals for A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, alongside William Shakespeare himself.
Max finds it's not easy being the son of flying superheroes. He is supposed to be able to hover, hurtle and swoop like a bird. But Max, it seems, is just an ordinary boy! Will he ever be ready to fly?
Bess Throckmorton meets an old man at a family reunion who tells her Sir Walter Raleigh was one of her ancestors. Curious to see where he was imprisoned, Bess visits the Bloody Tower and finds none other than the ghost of Sir Walter himself!
12 year old Sade and her brother Femi flee from Nigeria when their mother - an outspoken journalist - is killed. They are smuggled to London to escape General Abacha's gunmen, but the woman who paid to bring them to London abandons them. Sade and Femi are left alone in a new and often hostile environment.
Three adorable owl chicks sit on a branch in the woods and worry that their mum may never return. A charming and reassuring book, fabulously illustrated.
When Peter Pan arrives at the Darling home, he teaches Wendy, John and Michael to fly. They journey to Neverland and meet mermaids, Indians and pirates - the most evil of whom is Captain James Hook.
What the Queen would really like for her birthday is a new hat. The royal hatters conjure up three fantastic creations but the Queen prefers a plain straw hat that she sees on a donkey's head!
Sally Lockhart is left to fend for herself in the smoky fog of Victorian London. She is in terrible danger and at the heart of it lies the deadly secret of the Ruby in the Smoke.
Bailey has just arrived in the neighbourhood when he receives a mysterious invitation to join the Scribbleboy fan club. It has only one member - Ziggy Fuzz. Ziggy has a vital mission, to spread the word about Scribbleboy and his amazing graffiti
Under platform 13 at Kings Cross station is a gump, a door that leads through to another world. An ogre and wizard were sent through the door to rescue the young prince but he has become a horrible brat and will not co-operate. What else lurks under platform 13 of King's Cross? The Post Office solved the problem of moving mail around London quickly by building a new underground railway in 1927. Six miles of track link up all six London sorting offices between Paddington and Whitechapel. 50,000 bags of mail are carried each day.
Everyone in the family has his or her own way of showing the baby how much they love him. A lively and exuberant picture book which celebrates an extended family coming together to celebrate Dad's birthday.
Sophie is surprised to find that a tiger has come to tea. It is difficult to satisfy a hungry tiger and he has soon eaten Sophie and her mother out of house and home. But he is such an unusual guest that the inconvenience is more than worth it.
One of the best books to read and share with young children. A classic picture book following the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly. Children can't resist putting their fingers into the holes in the page created by the caterpillar as it eats its way through various delights.
Grandma, Jenny and Joanna liven up a tiresome wait for the bus with a rousing rendition of this rollicking preschool song. Next time you're waiting for a London bus, why not get the whole queue singing along? Well, perhaps best not!
are available in accessible formats; check with
Revealweb
for further details.
