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Engaging reads for children, from Books go Walkabout

Category: New titles Page 2 of 14

Angel: Through My Eyes Series – Natural Disaster Zones

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On June 15, 2019

In 9 to 10 years, All Ages, Allen and Unwin, Books go Walkabout, Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators, New titles, Dolphinbooksellers

Angel, Through My Eyes Natural disaster ZOnes cover image and web link

Buy this great book here…

Angel’s family have seen many typhoons. For generations the violent storms have passed across the central Philippines around November. But Typhoon Haiyan is a super-typhoon and came across the Philippines in 2013, destroying everything in its path.

Angel lives in Tacloban with her family and when the news of the typhoon is announced the family take extra measures to keep safe.

But Typhoon Haiyan is stronger than anyone has ever seen before. Angel stays near the coast with her father whilst her mother, brothers and sisters go into the hills to their grandparents, but only just in time.

‘There’s an ear splitting crash as the first wave hurls itself at the little house, forcing open the door and gushing through the window. Angel screams. The ladder is torn away just as she jumps onto the roof beam. Water is up to her chin and she is fighting to keep her head above its churning mass. ‘ Papa! Papa!’ She searches desperately for any sign of her father as the water sweeps her away, but he’s vanished.’

An amazing book, written by Zoe Daniels, it is harrowing and full of anguish as Angel searches through the debris and disaster areas. Several days elapse before any help arrives by plane.

Buy this book icon and web link Buy this book here

Through My Eyes  is a stunning series, and highly recommended. They are published by Allen and Unwin, Australia and the series editor is Lyn White. As the reader you are immersed into a disaster zone of epic proportions.

We really love these books and Angel is a brilliantly depicted story of life when the super typhoon Haiyan, the most powerful ever to be recorded, hit the Central Philippines.

Recommended for ages 8- 15 and adults too!

Sue Martin

The Phoenix of Persia

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On May 4, 2019

In 4 -5 Years, 6+ Years, All Ages, Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators, New titles, Tiny Owl

The Phoenix of Persia - cover image and web link

Buy this wonderful book here…

The Phoenix of Persia

By Sally Pomme Clayton,  illustrated by Amin Hassanzadeh Sharif, published by Tiny Owl.

An incredible and innovative book!   It is produced as a collaboration between many organisations, including Arts Council England and City of London University.

The Phoenix of Persia is an ancient story from Iran and often stories would be set to music as part of the story telling, bringing the story to life.  It is about a mythical bird, the Simorgh, who takes care of a tiny baby, who grows up to become Prince Zal, the hero of many stories in an epic story from Iran called the Shahnameh.

For thousands of years, in many cultures around the world, stories have been accompanied by music and poems, with illustrations bringing the story to life.

This new book, brings all of those aspects together, a story from times long gone, illustrations which are exceptionally colourful and imaginative. Music is brought to you via a QR code onto any smart device. The story comes alive and is read to you with accompanying music, such a good idea!

The Teachers Resource Pack is full of brilliant information and ideas of how to use the book in the classroom. A terrific resource, for literacy, arts, music and PSE.

The Phoenix of Persia is about a baby who is much longed for by the King and Queen, but he is rejected by the King as he has white hair. He is taken away to the mountains and left. The Simorgh bird, who is flying overhead, hears the cries and takes the baby to bring up as her own.

This is a story with a happy ending, but I will leave that for you to read and find out.

Book image and web linkBuy this book here, with free delivery!

The author, Sally Pomme Clayton, is  a story teller and a dream weaver, captivating all with her words on folk tales and forgotten myths, among many other things too.

The illustrator, Amin Hassanzadeh Sharif is from Tehran and in the Teachers Resources you can find out just how some of the techniques can be created.

Tiny Owl Publishers have created a beautiful book and an amazing resource which will bring diversity directly into children’s lives both at home and at school.

We thoroughly  recommend for ages from 3 – 11 years and for parents too.

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout logo - image and web link

Books and authors, around the world…

 

 

White Horse by Yan Ge

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On March 29, 2019

In China, BookMonitor, Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators, New titles

White Horse by Yan Ge - cover image and weblink

Get your copy here – free delivery

Yun Yun lives in a small West China town, and is closely involved with her older cousin, aunt and uncle. But tensions arise as Shan Qing, her cousin, heads into adolescence at a pace and her parents are far from happy. Tensions and clashes arise as her repressive parents are forced to look at their own family situation.

This is a powerful coming of age tale, with piercing insights into contemporary Chinese culture. It shows some of the conflicts in a fast-moving society  for families and different generations in a very modern Chinese world.

Yan Ge is the author and has already been proclaimed as a writer to watch. She is passionate about spreading Chinese literature to English readers. Yan was born in Sichuan in the People’s Republic of China and is the chair of China Young Writers Association. She was picked as Best New Writer by the Chinese Literature Media Prize.

…with free delivery!

James Nunn, the illustrator, is a brilliant artist working with books and has an amazing collections of illustrations and books. Watch the video to see James at work.

Nicky Harman has also translated many renowned Chinese authors into English, an immensely specialist skill and she is also the Chair of the Translators Association.

Hope Road is an independent publisher vigorously supporting neglected voices and their YA titles focus on issues challenging young people in our world of 2019.

We recommend White Horse as a good read for young people from 9 – 13 years and as an opportunity to see how tensions of growing up and family values can be a challenge.

Sue Martin

 

A Tudor Turk

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On February 15, 2019

In 9 to 10 years, All Ages, Featured children's book, New titles

Chronicles of Will Ryde...cover image and web link

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Book 1 in The Chronicles of Will Ryde and Awa Maryam Al-Jameel, A Tudor Turk, written by Rehan Khan, is set in Istanbul in 1591 and is a daring mission by Will and Awa. 

Along with a band of warriors, they follow their quest to retrieve the staff of Moses which has been stolen from the mighty Sultan Murad the Third. The very same staff that was used by Moses to part the Red Sea.

An elite band of warriors is assembled, including Awa, the daughter of a noble family from West Africa and Will who was kidnapped from a London slum at the age of five. For Will being released as a slave meant that he was willing to travel anywhere.

The journey means that Awa and Will travel from Istanbul to Venice and then to London and the court of Elizabeth  the First herself.

This is a stunning tale in Tudor times and being set in Istanbul is really exciting  with a very different perspective than many books set around this time.

Buy this great book here…

Author Rehan Khan is an avid historian, based in Dubai, he is intrigued by just how ideas travel through place and time and how legends and chronicles can unite cultures rather than shattering them.

Publishers are HopeRoad Publishing, who promote inclusive literature with a focus on Africa, Asia and the Caribbean and have a really interesting portfolio of books for young adults. A Tudor Turk is published on 21st February 2019.

A story that will keep you gripped into the book and take you on a journey across continents in the Tudor times, much to learn and much to enjoy. We have really enjoyed this book and recommend A Tudor Turk for young people from ages 11- 15 years.

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

Raise the Flag

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On November 28, 2018

In 7+ years, 9 to 10 years, Featured authors, Featured illustrators, New titles, Non Fiction, Quarto Kids

Rasie the Flag - cover image and web link

Buy this book with free delivery…

Raise the Flag is written by Clive Gifford and illustrated by Tim Bradford.

Terrific flag facts, stories and trivia in this engaging book all about flags.

It is packed full of amazing facts and information about flags. There are pages of different types of flags, great moments in history when flags were raised and lowered, and ways we can communicate with flags.

Raise the Flag is an ideal book for anyone, child or adult who loves to store facts and gain in knowledge about our world.

Buy this book here with free delivery…

Included in the book are sections  where you can design your own flag, complete with a good set of instructions, you can learn how to communicate using semaphore signals, a fabulous flag quiz to test your knowledge and you can learn about the different parts of the flag, its history and what it symbolises.

Clive Gifford the author lives in Manchester and has travelled all over the world, having visited over 70 countries. He has climbed on rocket launcher towers, ridden on robots and flown gliders. He has over 200 books published and has received nominations for or won awards for Royal Society, Library Association, Blue Peter, Smithsonian and TES.

Living right next to a nature reserve in Nottingham, Tim Bradford, the illustrator is inspired by nature and loves drawing people from all over the world.

Raise the Flag is published by QED, part of the Quarto Group and this book joins a collection of outstanding non-fiction books for children.

We recommend this book for children from 7 years – 11 years.

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story & Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

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On May 23, 2018

In 7+ years, 9 to 10 years, All Ages, New titles, Palazzo Editions

The Jungle Book - cover image and web link

The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story here

Palazzo Editions are delighted to publish new and sensitively abridged and adapted gift editions of The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story and Alice in Wonderland, bringing Robert Ingpen’s stunning illustrations and these timeless storied to a younger audience.

Juliet Stanley has created an amazing style of text in abridging the original story, with losing none of the magic and depth and bringing a beautiful way of engaging for younger readers.

In Jungle Book:Mowgli’s Story, by Rudyard Kipling the story speaks volumes of a child being lost and found by the wolf pack, who runs wild in the jungle, yet brings talents of human hands to support the other animals. All the animal characters are there and include, Bagheera the black panther, Baloo the bear and of course Shere Khan the tiger who was out to kill Mowgli, as soon as he had the chance.

A quote from Michael Morpurgo, “ I still marvel at the inventiveness of Rudyard Kipling… the characters come to life at the hand of Ingpen- just as my mother’s voice brought them to life when she read them to me.”

In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, the story of Alice, a child who was at the edge of growing up who fell down a rabbit hole and found a world turned inside out with characters like The Mad Hatter, The White Rabbit and the Queen of Hearts.

The book is great to read and in many ways enables the story to be understood by younger readers in this edition.

 

A quote from Philip Pullman, ” Lewis Carroll, we could say, created the whole of children’s literature with these wonderful stories. Placing a child at the centre of a narrative that was entirely free of instruction, entirely devoted to delight, was a stroke of genius. The Alice’s are the greatest nonsense ever written, and far greater, in my view than most sense.”

Alice - cover image and web link

Buy this book on-line here…

Award winning artist Robert Ingpen’s wonderful illustrations have illuminated this classic children’s titles and other books include Peter Pan and Wind in the Willows and read a recent interview with Robert Ingpen 

 

We love these books and find it hard to put them down, either for the beautiful illustrations or for the chance to read again about the adventures of characters with stories beyond our wildest dreams.

Sue Martin

 

The Man Who Loved Libraries- The Story of Andrew Carnegie

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On May 4, 2018

In 9 to 10 years, All Ages, New titles

The Man who Loved Libraries, The story of Andrew Carnegie

Buy this great book here…

Scottish born Andrew Carnegie’s gift of over 650 public libraries to the UK and Ireland was an astonishing and long-lasting legacy. It has changed many cities and towns for the better.

It has given opportunities for anyone to read a wealth of books without having a wealth of money.

‘The Man Who Loved Libraries, The Story of Andrew Carnegie’,written by Andrew Larsen and illustrated by Katty Maurey is published by Pikku Publishing on 1st May 2018.

‘When you open the door to a library, a world of opportunity awaits…’

When Andrew was young, life was hard and economics meant that many families, including the Carnegie family, living in Scotland, moved to America. Andrew grew up working for his living in Pittsburgh, as a bobbin boy, and a telegram messenger. But he was always quick to learn and found many ways to create business.

Andrew believed that learning was the key to his future, and a Colonel Anderson opened the doors to his private library on Saturday afternoons. This left a lasting impression on Andrew. As well as soaking up the knowledge which enabled him to create his fortune in the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and other investments, he was determined to leave a legacy of libraries to support others.

This is a fascinating book, the style and layout create a chance to read sections of information in ‘bite size chunks’ as provided by the Canadian  author Andrew Larsen.

The iluustrations, from Canadian, Katty Maurey,,are engaging and give an excellent feel to the period in history.

The publishers, Pikku Publishing, have produced a wonderful book, not only for the text and the illustrations, but in the way it will lead the reader into further discovery.  For instance the pages at the end of the book provide  information and ideas about Andrew Carnegie and provide all the research material used in creating the book.

We thoroughly recommend this is both as an excellent  book and  a great resource in schools and at home for children from 6 – 12 years.

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

 

 

The Ghosts and Jamal

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On May 4, 2018

In Books go Walkabout, Featured authors, Featured children's book, New titles

Buy this book here…

Jamal lives away from a village in West Africa, he is different, people are afraid that his twitching and strange behaviour may be linked to black magic. His Mum has died and his grandfather disappeared with the remains of the palm wine.

The villagers believe Jamal is marked by spirits, which meant that when the village is attacked by terrorists he is left alone and saved. But he is totally alone. Along with his kit bag and copy of The Koran, which was given to him by the Imam who is friendly to him, Jamal sets off away from the village.

Although Jamal finds his grandfather, he sends him away and throws stones at him as he scrambles down the mountain. He is taken in by humanitarian workers who do their best to help and provide him with pills for his epilepsy, but their solution is to send him to an orphanage.

Jamal’s journey goes on, with each place being hard to live in, children knowing Jamal is not quite the same as them. Slowly it appears that Jamal is also autistic. Children and adults in the places where Jamal finds himself, usually end up trying to trick or abuse Jamal, who always has a sense of this but unable to defend himself properly, that is until the end of the story.

This is a great book, quite challenging at times, and brings you directly to life in West Africa and the challenging time for anyone with autism or epilepsy. The concept of bad spirits is pretty frightening and an awareness grows that a sudden epileptic attack could leave Jamal in a very bad place.

But it doesn’t and the surprise at the end of the book is terrific!

The Ghosts and Jamal is written by Bridget Blankley, who spent most of her early life in Nigeria and has an autism spectrum disorder. It is published by HopeRoad Publishing, who work with a focus on West Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, supporting neglected voices.

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

Is it a Mermaid? by Candy Gourlay, illustrated by Francesca Chessa

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On April 5, 2018

In Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators, New titles, Otter-Barry

 

Is it a Mermaid?

Buy this book here…

When Benji and Bel find a strange creature on a tropical beach they know it is a dugong. But the dugong insists she is a beautiful mermaid.

After many attempts to convince the children that she really is a mermaid the dugong swims away with her tail splashing into the warm ocean.

Bel believes her but Benji is very practical and just can’t make the connection. But they all play together with the turtles, and the fishes.

At the end of the day as the sun is disappearing, and the illustrations become gradually softer, the dugong says goodbye to Bel and Benji.

“I have to go,” she said. “Mermaids never stay out after dark!”

The last page is a beautiful purple colour and Ben and Benji walk home in the sunset along the beach to the little wooden cabin.

“I love mermaids!” said Bel.  “Me too,” said Benji.

The first picture book from Candy Gourlay, whose acclaimed novels for young readers, Tall Story and Shine have been listed for the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian’s Children’s Book Prize and both won the Crystal Prize for Europe.

Candy Gourlay is from the Philippines and grew up in Manila. As a child she often wondered why the books that she loved reading were all about pink skinned children and snow covered mountains, it was not like that in the Philippines. So she was determined to become an author and make some changes to the stereotypes.

At Books Go Walkabout, we work in many countries and these aims reflect our own, for books and stories to be meaningful to all children. There are always stories to be told wherever you are.

Francesca Chessa has illustrated over 40 books, including Elliot’s Arctic Surprise and Library Lily. She lives in Turin and holds art workshops for children and adults.

Otter-Barry Books in London, is an exciting children’s imprint making a difference and pushing boundaries of the standard book publishers.

We strongly recommend, Is it a Mermaid? The text and the beautiful illustrations will make it a favourite in schools, libraries nurseries and at home.

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

 

10 Reasons To Love A Whale and 10 Reasons To Love A Bear

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On March 2, 2018

In 4 -5 Years, 6+ Years, All Ages, Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators, Lincoln Children's Books, New titles

10 Reasons to love a whale cover image

Buy this book here…

The whale and the bear are the latest books to join the ’10 Reasons to Love’ series. Beautiful books, in hardback with an endearing whale or bear shaped hole in the cover, just waiting to be opened.

The combination of text and illustrations works really well, providing facts and interesting features, things that you will remember.

Did you know that whales are the original globetrotters? They travel from the polar regions to the equator and on their way, eat 40 million krill every day!

10 Reasons to Love a bear cover image

Buy this book here…

Bears wiggle and dance scratching their backs against a tree and pandas even do hand stands to leave the right mark!

The books deal with environmental issues and conservation and enable the reader to understand and love more about the animal. They are a perfect match for school work or just for reading at home.

Catherine Barr is the author, and has a long running interest in environmental campaigns, working with Greenpeace and as an editor at The Natural History Museum.

 

Hanako Clulow, the illustrator, left Japan for Ireland in 1997 and studied visual arts and English. her art work draws on her huge interest in nature and animal kingdoms.

Lincoln Children’s Books, in conjunction with the Natural History Museum, are the publishers. The first edition came out on March 1st 2018 and we are sure it will have a huge success.

Sue Martin

 

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