Bhim, the trekking guide,and his family and niece, Kalpana are alive.
House destroyed and living outside in a makeshift tent with tremors still continuing. No help reached them yet!
Donations please via the main appeal charities.
Books Go Walkabout held a conversation with Australian author, Carole Wilkinson and students at Kellett International School, Hong Kong.
The Dragonkeeper Series, published by Walker Books, Australia is a great read for students for ages, 9 – 13yrs.
It is set in Ancient China, during the Han Dynasty and begins with a slave girl and her master,two dragons and a rat. One of the dragons dies and is made into pickle, the other dragon and the slave girl escape and their journey to the ocean begins.
The students had read the first 5 chapters and asked some insightful and searching questions such as;
‘ Why didn’t you give the slave girl a name at the beginning?’ student.
‘I didn’t want her to have anything, she had a hard life I wanted the reader to feel for her.’ Carole.
The questions kept coming for an hour and the students at Kellett School also shared their own dragon that they had made. Carole explained that dragons in China were good and didn’t always have wings. Maybe the Year 5 dragon will try and fly once his wings have been attached?
More reviews will follow this blog and photos and student comments will be added to Books Go Walkabout.
A great start to the Dragonkeeper series.
Sue Martin Books Go Walkabout at Kellett School
The best venue for those interested in Children’s Books is Bologna Children’s Bookfair, March 30th – April 2nd 2015.
The country focus this year at Bologna is Croatia and there are a wealth of countries from all over the globe with fascinating workshops and stands.
Books Go Walkabout is especially interested in the Digital Café,
Meeting with Dust or Magic
Speakers: Warren Buckleitner, Chris Meade, Louise Carleton-Gertz and Kristin Heitmann
Organized by: Children’s Tech Review
An impromptu coffee with Warren Buckleitner (Children’s Tech Review), to discuss the state of children’s tech.
Last year Walker Books, Australia, won the Bologna Prize for Best Children’s Publisher of the Year – Oceania Region.
A great achievement and we are pleased to be working closely with Walker Books Australia and their authors.
Stay on line, if you can’t make it to Bologna and listen to some amazing stories.
This blog will keep you in touch, or join us on Twitter @booksgowalk
Sue Martin at Books Go Walkabout 
The pages of these books are packed full of up to date information about the world of Romans, Vikings, Ancient Greeks and the Pharaohs. Brilliantly put together by Mick Manning and Brita Granstorm and published by Frances Lincoln.
They are a great resource for history in KS 1 and 2 to come alive and to keep young readers attention from beginning to end. Boys especially will love them.The layout and illustrations provide chunks of information that is appealing and easy to remember in a scrapbook style of layout.
Greek Hero– the page I loved was on Sparta and shows girls enjoying wrestling matches. Only boys were given an education and they learned philosophy, history and mathematics.
Roman Fort – children had toys like marbles and hoops and played games with balls and bats. Soldiers usually joined the army for 20 years but about half of all recruits didn’t survive long enough to retire.
Pharaoh’s Egypt – scribes were used to write and to read, as reading was only accessible by the rich, in fact, ordinary people who could read were thought to have the power of the gods!
Viking Longship- From invasion by a longship called the Sea Dragon to a deal with King Edmund, the book has amazing detail including a recipe for Birka Bread.
These are great books! Strongly recommended to schools we work with and also to parents.
Sue Martin – Dolphin Booksellers, the best in children’s books always on line
Adventures in looking at Art is a brilliant book by Quentin Blake and published by Frances Lincoln in association with the National Gallery Company, London.
Quentin describes the vision for this book as a way for children to talk about the pictures, and the story that is within them. On each page there are characters alongside the picture with captions from the characters.
Great to watch on Quentin Blake’s web page.
The book was originally published in 2001 and this new edition is in hard back and makes a truly beautiful book to have for home and for school.
On choosing the pictures, Quentin says,
‘All the pictures in this book are the ones I like, and if you like them too you may eventually want to know more about them and the artists who created them, so there are many notes about the artists…at the end of the book.‘
Tell Me a Picture is a book with real adventures in looking at art, and if you buy this book it will lead into further adventurers I’m sure.
Sue Martin – Children’s Books in Dolphin Booksellers and BooksGoWalkabout
March 5th 2015
The Biggest Book show on Earth…. is how World Book Day is described. With children all over the world dressing up and just getting down to reading, there are all sorts of things to do. Share a story competition, Dress Up and Donate, The Biggest Bookshop in Earth Online and a World Book Day, Lucky Dip… plus of course the £1 offer on loads of books.
BooksGoWalkabout is offering a free conversation with one of our authors from across the world. It can be to any school with internet connection that can skype out.
Check out the offer at World Book Day events
Have fun on World Book Day.
Sue Martin Books Go Walkabout-
‘You are invited to a Digging Party and there will be free cakes and even some hidden treasure.’
Daisy’s Big Dig is one of the new books from Francis Lincoln this Spring, through Janetta Otter-Barry Books. It is written and illustrated by Angie Morgan, and the pastels and watercolour mixes make for some brilliant illustrations throughout the book.
‘The people who live in Daisy’s street, never, ever talk to each other. But Daisy has a big plan to bring everyone together- a Digging Party!’
This must make a welcome change to all parents who try and find the latest in childrens themed parties.
A great book written and illustrated beautifully and published by such a successful childrens book publisher.
Sue Martin Dolphin Booksellers – Children’s Books on line
When Jonathan Toomey gruffly agrees to make a set of nativity figures the heart warming Christmas miracle begins.
Happy Christmas
Sue Martin
http://www.booksgowalkabout.com
http://www.dolphinbooksellers.co.uk
IbbY uk – 21st Annual IBBY UK/NCRCL
MA Conference, University of Roehampton, Saturday 8th November 2014
‘Belonging is…an exploration of the right to be included and the barriers that must be overcome’
Something that is deep inside us all is the need to belong, to belong to our family, to belong to a group of friends, to belong to the places that we are part of in our work and free time.
A good theme for the conference and met with enthusiasm by all present.
The topics ranged from inclusivity and diversity, against the need for publishers commercial concerns,.
It was really interesting to hear about The International Conference held in Mexico this year. Pam Dix, the chair of iBbY UK, and other members who attended the Congres International de IBBY gave a wonderful account of the global dimensions and international development in children’s books and the need to pursue an agenda of translation.
Alexandra Strick, from Inclusive Minds encouraged others to join their collective and share ways of enabling inclusivity and the creation of characters with needs being just part of the story rather than being a stereotype of special needs.
Julia Hope, who has carried out a great deal of research on refugees in the primary classroom, gave a brilliant account and gave examples of children’s books which are fundamental to the story and narrative of refugees. These included; The Silver Sword by Ian Serrailer, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr and Waiting for Anya by Michael Morpurgo.
Always a good day with time for reflection and thoughts about the role and immense importance of children’s literature.
Sue Martin – Books Go Walkabout and Dolphin Booksellers
Wide Eyed Editions is a new imprint of Quarto Publishing Group UK.
This is a very recent addition to the publishing group’s portfolio and includes some amazing publications, which will be available in March 2015. The site is excellent to look through and the Wide Eyed Blog has some of the best images ever.
Definitely one to include in your favourites or Pinterest, and to follow on Twitter.
Wide Eyed are creators of non-fiction for children and families and believe that books should encourage curiosity about the world, inspiring readers to set out on their own journey of discovery.
The illustrators and authors will bring a new sense of wonder to classic themes in simple, quality formats that look and feel like beautiful objects.
The first tranche of books includes the images below and if you click through you can access about 10 pages of the books from the Wide Eyed website.
Sue Martin Dolphin Booksellers – the best in children’s books always on-line…
Twitter @booksgowalk