Book review: Firefly Home by Jane Clarke and illustrated by Britta Teckentrup.

Firefly Home is a newly published picture book written by Jane Clarke, who also wrote Gilbert the Great (and many others) and illustrated by Britta Teckentrup.

Fireflies are just so intriguing. I vividly remember seeing lots of them while at a football match when I was younger and found them fascinating. (An NUFC match if you were wondering).

 My girls and I love the front cover of this book. It shows such an adorably illustrated firefly and look at her glow! Her name is Florence and since the book has arrived my girls really want to be Florence’s friend. (If I could do a heart emoji here I would).

Jane Clarke has written a book that is fun and interactive and it really gets children involved. Poor Florence is lost and the little readers of the book need to try and help her find home again.

In an attempt to find home Florence is teased by many bright lights around her. The beaming rays of the lighthouse, the twinkling of peoples house lights and the moving lights of the train. You see the book not only follows the story of Florence getting lost but it also gets young readers to help.

Through questions, gesturing and following patterns on the page Jane Clarke cleverly makes this book an engaging, exciting read.

Britta Teckentrup has beautifully illustrated this book and the glow of different light sources on each page is such a happy bright yellow, instantly drawing your eyes to it. My youngest daughter in particular approves of this feature of the book and finds it a delight to tap all the yellow she sees (as you can see from this tad blurry photo below).

The text is suited to its young readers and the bold text in places emphasises emotions and the various lights that Florence finds. It is a such a fun read aloud and I can imagine reading to a group of children would be an absolute hoot.

I thought my eldest may ask more about fireflies while reading this book so I did a little research and tried to remember some facts. Here are a some of  the things I shared with her:

-Fireflies are actually beetles.

-Not all of this family of beetles can fly and those that cannot are called glow worms.

-The light fireflies produce is cold light.

-Yellow is the most common colour of light produced by some fireflies glow pale red, orange or green!

Firefly home is a brilliant, bright-tastic read. You feel for Florence when she becomes lost but as sad as she gets, she doesn’t give up in finding her home. The night time setting and the prompting of whispering “Night, night Florence!” at the end of the book makes it a lovely bedtime read but my girls are happy to share it any time of the day.

Thank you so much to publishers Nosy Crow for sending us a glowing picture book.