Bookstagram Choice Awards - First Quarter

If you follow us on Instagram you will likely know that I took part in choosing some of the best books for the Bookstagram Choice Awards at the end of the year last year and one of the developments for that was collaborating with a team of wonderful bookstagram accounts to choose the best books throughout the year this year. At the end of each quarter, we all choose our favourite book released in that part of the year and share with you all.

And you won't be surprised that my favourite (BookBairn's favourite) was written by one of our favourite author-illustrators Sophy Henn!

This book was on our radar even before it's release date and already featured in our Most Anticipated Books of 2018 blog post. But when we actually met George I fell a little bit in love with him.

In 'Almost Anything', George feels like he can't do anything at all. George thinks he can’t paint, bowl, dance or skate like his friends and he’s too afraid to try. Bear makes him a magic hat to give him the courage to try and when he does it turns out he can skate, and dance and read and a whole host of other things! But then George loses his hat, and his confidence with it. How will he be able to join in with his friends? If he can't do all the new things he has learned how will he have fun? So Bear tells him the truth: the magic didn’t come from the hat, it came from inside. 

Now doesn’t that sound like a magic picture book? When you feel like everyone else can do something but you can’t it can leave you feeling lonely and left out. And in this book little ones will see that all they need is a little bit of confidence to try, resillience if they fail, and friends to help them find their own magic to succeed. And if all else fails - a paper hat might do the trick!

Sophy Henn has created magic again! The illustrations are in her delightful cheerful style and the story and characters will melt your heart. We simply adore George - and The Wee Page Turner has a framed print of him ready to go up on his wall. The other creatures of the wood are lovely and BookBairn really enjoys spotting them all and giving them names. 

This book is a wonderful story! And quite simply, that's why I chose it for the Bookstagram Choice Awards. It is the best book we read in the months January-March! And so it's a winner for us!

To check out the other choices for the awards, chosen from all genres of picture books, middle grade, YA and grown-up fiction, check out the Bookstagram Choice Awards over on Instagram.