Engaging reads for children, from Books go Walkabout

Author: The Book Monitor team Page 17 of 39

Peter Pan and Wendy by JM Barrie and illustrated by Robert Ingpen

Peter Pan and Wendy - Palazzo Editions - cover image

Get your copy here…

All children except one grow up! Maybe there are  a few more, for those who read this book will inevitably not want to grow up”

In a most beautiful new edition of Peter Pan and Wendy, from Palazzo, the story is enhanced with deeply imaginative illustrations from Robert Ingpen. 

Peter Pan flies into Wendy’s bedroom window in a house in London and with John and Michael, they fly away to Never Land.

Peter is the leader of the Lost Boys and meets his nemesis Captain Hook. From there along with Fairy Tinkerbell, the story and adventure begin.

J.M. Barrie left his royalties in perpetuity to Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital and this magnificent edition was published to commemorate the centenary of first publication and to continue as a fundraiser.

Robert Ingpen, is from Australia and first attempted illustrating Peter Pan at 7 years old. In 1986 he was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for his contribution to children’s literature and he has been honoured with membership of the Order of Australia.

A world-renowned artist and author, Ingpen has designed, illustrated and written more than one hundred books, including his highly acclaimed series of illustrated Children’s Classics, which have now been published in many editions around the world.

This book is part of a wonderful series of Classic Children’s Literature from Palazzo and will provide hours of pleasure.

Sue Martin

Books go Walkabout, stories across the world

 

Arthur, High King of Britain

Arthur, High King of Britain, Michael MOrpurgo & illustrated by MIchael Foreman

Buy this beautiful book here…

Arthur, High King of Britain by Michael Morpurgo, illustrated by Michael Foreman is in a new hardback edition recently published by Palazzo.

With the best of Morpurgo’s adventure style and with the captivating illustrations from Michael Foreman, bound together in this beautiful hardback book, it is a joy to read and provides a real sense of the  man in the story.

Palazzo, are a young and  independent, UK publishers creating  beautifully designed and illustrated books for the UK and international markets. Their books are amazing and stylish, bringing back a huge amount of joy to reading, especially for children.

The adventure starts with a young boy setting out for  the day, walking between tides, from Bryher to Samson, in the Scilly Isles. He knew he could do it, but when the fog circled round he was lost and not in time to make the return journey before the high tide would trap him. There he met Arthur Pendragon, High King of Britain.

They talked as the boy recovers by the fire and Arthur tells him that he also was once a wanderer and a dreamer and as he retells the stories he talks about his first meeting with Merlin.

The chapters include Excalibur, Lancelot and Guinevere and then to the Last Days of Camelot. The whole story of Arthur unfolds with heroes, knights, chivalry, magic, evil and betrayal. 

A great read and a book for keeps, text full of intrigue and description, illustrations in water-colour washes and fine detail. Good for a present, for sharing in a classroom on history and PSHE topics, and for libraries and homes.

Dip in to a chapter at a time or start at the beginning, you will feel the magic of the book drawing you in.

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

Books Go Walkabout

A Child’s Garden of Verses

Get this lovely hardback book here…

A beautifully presented hard back book of A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson and illustrated by Michael Foreman in this magical new edition from Otter-Barry Books.

The verses were first published in 1885, so reflect quite a different era. In 1985, Michael Foreman created the wonderful water-colour illustrations which bring a soft and ephemeral magic to the poems.

This latest edition published in 2017, from Otter-Barry has a foreword from Alexander McCall Smith, who begins by saying about Stevenson,” He not only knows what children like, but he likes it along with them”

McCall Smith tells of Stevenson’s childhood in a family of lighthouse engineers, but he suffered from ill-health and spent much time in his sickbed. May be that it was here that he dreamed and thought of the world beyond. It was also in the Victorian times, when travel to far away places was possible for those with money to spend.

The poems are a delight and can conjure up images of gentle childhoods, as in The Swing,

Till I look down on the garden green,

Down on the roof so brown

Up in the air I go flying again

Up in the air and down.

One of my favourite illustrations is from My Shadow, a poem that will stay with you once read.

My Shadow from Robert Louis Stevenson

This book will make a wonderful present  and will add to any school, library and home collection. I am off to read some of the poems now, by the fireside and ready to dream!

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

Books Go Walkabout

 

Mr Badger and the Magic Mirror by Leigh Hobbs

Mr Badger and the Magic Mirror

Get this great book here…

Mr Badger is a portly badger who gets into scrapes and adventures in Boubles Grand Hotel, where he works very hard.

 Mr Badger and the Magic Mirror, is the fourth in the Mr Badger series from Australian Children’s Laureate, Leigh Hobbs.

One day a mirror is moved from the room of Sir Cecil Smothers-Carruthers to a place above the stairs.

But something is not quite right, Mr Badger inspects the mirror, and ends up falling straight through it, a magic mirror! The adventure has started and Mr Badger finds much more than he had bargained for!

A brilliant books with characters emerging from every page, illustrated with line drawings and bringing the book and Mr Badger to life.

Really good for children from 6 – 8 years,Mr Badger and for sharing with adults, who may just end up reading the book to themselves!

Leigh visits the UK regularly and we are pleased to work with Leigh for any events in the UK.

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

Imagine – words by John Lennon, illustrated Jean Jullien

Imagine Amnesty International cover image

Buy this book from BgW here

‘Imagine all the people living life in peace’ John Lennon

Imagine is a new book published by Frances Lincoln Children’s Books in association with Amnesty International UK.

It brings the original words from the song, Imagine, by John Lennon, into a beautiful hard back book with the simplicity of the message of ‘peace’ into 2017 and our world of unrest and conflict.

The illustrations by Jean Jullien show a pigeon with a small brown case as he wanders across the globe sharing a message of peace and friendship. Each page is wonderfully simple in design, which matches John Lennon’s thoughts on living in peace and harmony. They echo a simple truth across different countries and borders.

This is a book that needs to be bought and shared in the home, in school, in faith groups and just to read on your own, when you have been getting depressed listening to the world news.

There is a wealth of material available to support the book; Amnesty International UK, shows many reviews and there is a message board where artists across the world have written their own message of peace.

‘Peace isn’t just the absence of noise, peace is also the absence of hatred and that starts right here, inside of you and of me. So come on, look inside and imagine! ‘ …Laurence Anholt

There are also downloadable activity packs and a fun craft kit to create ‘peace bunting’ from the birds in the book.

Imagine from Amnesty International image

Imagine from Amnesty International

To watch an amazing animated video with the song from John Lennon visit The Creative Cooperation, brilliant!

Final words must go to Yoko Lennon 

Everybody wants to feel happy and to feel safe. And we can all help make the world a better place in our own way. We should always share what we have, and we should stand up for people who are not being treated fairly.’  …Yoko Lennon

Make this a Christmas present for someone you know, or even yourself!

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

 

Into The White, Scott’s Antarctic Odyssey by Joanna Grochowicz and illustrated by Sarah Lippett

Into the White

Buy this book on-line here…

A first children’s book for Joanna Grochowicz and an amazing start to a career in writing.

The book is full of adventure from beginning to end. This is a journey into the unknown, into a world full of extremes and hardship. It is an amazing story of a team bound together with courage and endeavour.

If you’re into happy endings, best look some place else. This story does not end well. This is a story where men die and their dreams of greatness with them. But it is a fine story and one that is worth telling, from heroic beginning to tragic end.

This is the story of Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova expedition and the memorable characters, who with a band of shaggy ponies and savage dogs, followed a man they trusted into the unknown. Battling storms at sea, impenetrable pack ice, man-eating whales, crevasses, blizzards, bad food, extreme temperatures, and equal measures of hunger, agony and snow blindness, the team pushes on against all odds.

Buy this thrilling book here…

A thrilling story about leadership, resilience and facing adversity with courage, Into the White will leave you on the edge of your seat, hoping against hope that Scott and his men just might survive their Antarctic ordeal and live to tell the tale.

Joanna Grochowicz was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1972.  Following a career as a business writer, Joanna decided to take the plunge and did a Masters in Creative Writing.  Into the White is her first book.

“People fascinate me. I love oddballs and misfits, saints and creeps, the selfish, the needy, the dreary, the nerdy and the enormous tangle of real life characters you come across in life.  History offers a boundless source of fascinating characters to reanimate. It can be a wonderful thing to rehabilitate a great story – like restoring a dilapidated castle and making it magnificent again.”

Sarah Lippett, the illustrator has created some classic drawings of the characters and the teams of ponies and dogs on the journey. For a book for 9-14 year olds, the sketches add hugely to the feel of the time period and of the difference in equipment between 1912 and 2017. The maps are wonderful and are a great help to plot the journey as you read through the book.

Into the White, is published by Allen and Unwin, Australia, who have created a wonderful paperback book of this epic journey.

It has just been released in the UK, on November 2nd 2017 and is available to purchase in most good stores and on-line. (Link below…).

At Books Go Walkabout, we are delighted to be working with Joanna on her first visit to the UK from November 3rd 2017.

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

 

 

The Family with Two Doors by Anna Ciddor

Buy this great book here…

The Rabinovitch family lived in Lublin, Poland. There were so many of them in the family that they had two apartments with two front doors. There were nine children and they grew up in the 1920’s as a devout Jewish family, with their father as the Rabbi.

The book is an engaging read about life in the 1920’s, written by Anna Ciddor and published by Allen and Unwin. 

The Rabinovitches include: mischievous Yakov, bubbly Nomi, rebellious Miriam, solemn Shlomo, and seven more! Papa is a rabbi and their days are full of intriguing rituals and adventures. But the biggest adventure of all is when big sister Adina is told she is to be married at the age of fifteen – to someone she has never met.

Although I expected the book to be about problems and issues, it wasn’t! It dealt very easily with a proposed and arranged marriage and was empathetic to a good family life. It is written carefully and with lots of fondness around the authors experience and  makes an excellent read.

It is based on the author’s real family. The Rabinovitches dance, laugh and cook their way through an extraordinary life in the 1920’s. The biggest adventure is the preparation for the wedding of Adina to Mordechai, which was arranged, but nevertheless a happy affair.

 

At Books Go Walkabout, we are now selling books directly on-line, so just click on the link, and buy through our secure portal and we will send you a copy of The Family with Two Doors.

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

Little People, Big Dreams from Frances Lincoln Children’s Books

Frances Lincoln Children's BooksA brilliant series of books about the lives of women who have made a difference. Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, part of Quarto Knows, have produced eight books in this series, published in hardback, with stunning illustrations and aimed at children from around 6-9 years.

At Books Go Walkabout we know they also make excellent books  for older children in schools around the world who are translating from their own language into English.

The three latest books, released in August 2017 are Rosa Parkes, Emmeline Pankhurst and Audrey Hepburn. If you would like to purchase them, we have an online purchasing system or you can contact us direct for larger quantities.

Little People Big Dreams Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks, an inspiring read…

Rosa Parks is written by Lisbeth Kaiser and illustrated by Marta Antelo.

Rosa was the ‘Mother of the Freedom Movement’ and an inspiring activist for civil rights in Alabama in the days of segregation on public transport.

Rosa refused to give her seat to a white person…read more here…

She knew that many of the rules just weren’t right and one day when travelling on a bus she refused to allow someone else to take her seat just because she was a black woman.

As a result she was taken from the bus and jailed.  The rest is history! Rosa made such a difference to people’s lives. She remained a activist for the rest of her life and was an inspiration to many people.

 

 

Emmeline Pankhurst is written by Lisbeth Kaiser and illustrated by Ana Sanfelippo.

Emmeline was one of the famous suffragettes in the early 20th Century protesting against the government for the vote for women, as up until 1918, women had no rights to vote.

Emmeline and her daughters became the leaders of a new group of women, a group that would stop following the rules and would fight for their rights. People called them suffragettes.’

Emmeline Pankhurst spoke to many people.

The text is appealingly written and gives a good idea of how life was in the early 20th Century. The illustrations are delightful and add hugely to the impact of the book in portraying life at that time.

 

 

Audrey Hepburn

Little People Big Dreas Audrey HepburnIsabel Sanchez Vegara (Author) and Amaia Arrazola (Illustrator)…

Audrey is an iconic figure from the 1950’s but her life started in Holland during the World War 2, she experienced hunger and became very ill. When her mother finally was able to come to England Audrey pursued her dream of acting and dancing starring in Gigi and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Later, when she had retired she became a Goodwill Ambassador with UNICEF and travelled the world raising awareness of children needing food and medicine, something which she had experienced first-hand.

Audrey Hepburn and UNICEF Ambassador

Audrey Hepburn UNICEF Ambassador

The text is good to read and accessible for children from around the ages of 6, and the illustrations are beautiful, bold and full of character.

 

 

Little People, Big Dreams… an apt title for this series of books which will bring to young children the lives of people who have made a huge difference. Alongside the story there is a time-line and further historical context. Great little books in the classroom and library.

Sue Martin

Books go Walkabout, stories across the world

Chris Riddell The Age of the Beautiful Book

 

The Philippa Pearce Memorial Lecture 2017 was presented by Chris Riddell, award winning author, illustrator, political cartoonist and Children’s Laureate 2015-2017.

Not many lectures start with a cartoon of the anticipating audience and the back of the presenter’s head on the large screen! An intriguing way of getting the messages across, and amazing to see book characters come to life before your very eyes! Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse, the first in the Goth Girl series, evolved in the screen in front of the audience at Homerton College, Cambridge

Discover Chris’s work on his web site here.

An exploration into the development of the book itself was a joy to listen to, so often we hear of the ideas behind the book but Chris was keen to portray the business of getting the book into print. A meeting with the book development side of the publishers meant that Goth Girl books have plenty of book bling, deep blue, silver foil, varnish effect and above all sprayed edges. At the back of the books is a tiny book in an envelope attached to the back cover; further information about Ishmael the mouse. Brilliant idea! 

The book then travels to the ends of the earth (that may mean China, I suspect!) and back to our country for sale.

The Age of the Beautiful Book was much more than a lecture about illustration in children’s books, but about how that precious book does become beautiful, something to keep and treasure.

Chris talked a little about his own childhood, as the son of a vicar, and how important  books are in exploring new worlds; he talked about finding worlds in wardrobes or indeed down rabbit holes. He has a warm and reassuring tone and when he mentioned that he had, ‘ a vague and reassuring feeling that God doesn’t mind that he doesn’t believe in him’, there were many quiet nods and mmm’s.

This empathy with people is shown throughout his illustrations and he has some ingenious ways of bringing books to life. Now, as he is thoroughly into social media, he has a good way of illustrating characters in all sorts of books and then sending photos to gain many, ‘ little blue thumb likes’! ‘Pictures turbo post words’ he said.

Chris is also an advocate for the real book, the attraction to the senses, tactile, the smell, the sound of turning the pages and being a feast for the eyes. Reading is a pleasurable thing to do and should not be turned into a grammatical exercise only. He  wants children to draw for fun and for expression and we had some amazing cartoons on what would happen if education ever created assessments for drawing; ‘analyse the makeup of the graphite, the ergonomics of pencil sharpening… it would suck the life joy out of it!’

An enthralling lecture, this Philippa Pearce Memorial Lecture on  Friday evening September 8th with Chris Riddell will be remembered for its engagement, fun and how to bring the best in children’s books alive through beautiful books.

Sue Martin

Books go Walkabout, stories across the world

 

 

The Philippa Pearce Lecture, September 8th, Homerton College, Cambridge

Read more: Philippa Pearce Lecture

The Age of the Beautiful Book is the title of the 2017 Lecture which will be given by Chris Riddell, a multi award winning illustrator and political cartoonist, who was the Children’s Laureate from June 2015 – June 2017.

The series of lectures was established in 2008, as a living memorial to celebrate the achievement of author, Philippa Pearce, who lived close to Cambridge. Philippa’s most famous book was Tom’s Midnight Garden, which won the Carnegie Medal in 1958. There were many more books, including The Minnow on the Say. You can find lots of resources and information on The Philippa Pearce website.

Chris is going to talk about words and pictures working together for a reader both on the traditional page, and  in a digital age. He will explore how books are ever more covetable as objects in their own right, as well as valued for the words and illustrations inside, plus how libraries remain vital as repositories for these beautiful productions.

Chris has now published his Laureate’s Log as a book with PanMacmillan and is a beautiful journey of his time as Laureate.

This will be an excellent opportunity to explore the interests and ideas of an esteemed author working in illustration and the value of books in their own right for children.

In today’s world, we are surrounded by media, in digital and paper and formats. Often the value is only seen in what we can instantly gain and attain from reading and looking at the books. There is much more to be developed in the ongoing level of cognitive interaction and illustrations in books.

At Books Go Walkabout we work with illustrators and authors across the world, including Leigh Hobbs, the Australian Children’s Laureate, who was recently in conversation with Chris at The Children’s Bookfair in Bologna.

Looking forward to the lecture, exploring the Laureate’s Log and listening to further tales.

Sue Martin

 

Books go Walkabout, stories across the world

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