Book Monitor - books from across the world

Engaging reads for children, from Books go Walkabout

Tag: children’s book illustrations Page 1 of 5

I Love Books by Mariajo Ilustrajo

By

On March 5, 2024

In Frances Lincoln Children's Books, BookMonitor, Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators

*Winner of the Klaus Flugge Prize for Illustration 2023*

From the award-winning creator of Flooded and Lost comes a magical story about the joy of discovering a connection with books for the very first time.

This brightly illustrated adventure story is perfect for kids who claim to hate reading, as the enchanting narrative opens their eyes to a fantasy world created by words on a page.

In this spellbinding story, we meet a little girl excited for the end of term. No more school! However, she’s given the very unreasonable task of reading a whole book over the holidays. A whole book? but she HATES books. Luckily, her sister takes her to the library and says she has just the thing.

Slowly, the little girl is drawn into a world of adventure inside her own imagination, for the very first time. Even the greyscale world starts to fill with colour as she is carried away in the story. A little fennec fox leads her to meet fairytale witches and creatures as they find ingredients to cast a special spell at the end of her book. The little girl is dismayed to learn that this spell seemingly hasn’t changed a thing. However, the little fox points out that she is completely transformed: discovering the power of her imagination has changed her forever.

This charming and engaging picture book shows children how wonderful books can really be, leaving them with a lifelong affinity for reading. Discover adventure on every page and turn I Hate Books into I Love Books.

Mariajo Ilustrajo is an award-winning Spanish illustrator based in the UK. She completed her MA in Children’s Illustration from the prestigious Cambridge Anglia Ruskin course in April 2021. Her debut picture book, Flooded, won the Klaus Flugge Prize for Illustration 2023.

Super book from Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, a great way to help children find the magic of reading.

Sue Martin – Children’s Literacy Specialist

Kid Christmas of the Claus Brothers Toy Store by David Litchfield

By

On October 17, 2023

In Frances Lincoln Children's Books, The Book Monitor, Books go Walkabout, Featured children's book

This fascinating tale tells the story of little Nicky Claus, who wanted to make every child happy, if only just for one day.

Nicky Claus works with his three uncles in the Claus Brothers Toy Emporium. Uncle Hanz makes the toys, Uncle Louis checks them and Uncle Levi adds the… what’s the scientific term for it? Ah, yes. The magic! For each toy made at the Emporium has a special sparkle that means it will find the child it is perfect for. 


One day, Nicky notices a young girl with her face pressed up to the glass. When she disappears, he follows her and finds her living on the streets with lots of other children, none of whom can afford a toy. Nicky vows that for one night only, every child will have the toy of their dreams and—with the help of his uncles and some flying reindeer—the legend of Father Christmas is born.

This magical and heartwarming story from David Litchfield is centred on kindness, generosity and looking after each other. 

DAVID LITCHFIELD is a bestselling author–illustrator living in Bedfordshire,UK. He is the creator of the award-winning, best-selling ‘The Bear and the Piano’ trilogy.

Frances Lincoln Children’s Books have a wonderful collection of picture book titles and Kid Christmas is a beautiful addition.

Sue Martin – Children’s Literacy Specialist

It’s Her Story: Rosalind Franklin by Karen de Seve & illustrations by Samantha Chow

By

On October 10, 2022

In Sunbird Books, Featured children's book

A series of books about inspirational women from Sunbird Books

A remarkable story about a woman who led in many scientific discoveries and yet never received any acknowledgments in her lifetime.

Part of a series of books which feature inspirational women in a graphic novel format.

Rosalind Franklin was a British chemist during the 1940’s and 1950’a, when fee women worked in sciences. During WW2 she expanded our knowledge of the physics of coal and carbon, and later she studied viruses.

Her ‘photo 51’ was central to the double helix structure of DNA, ground-breaking work for which she never received any credit.

The true structure of DNA…

Written by Karen de Seve, based in the US and Illustrated by Samantha Feriolla Chow from Indonesia this book brings a wealth of interest, information and intrigue to young readers.

Published by Sunbird Books It’s Her Story: Rosalind Franklin is part of a series featuring inspirational women in a graphic novel format. This works very well for children who are keen to explore the subject, and the pictures give added information about the setting that words would take longer to express.

Its Her Story Josephine Baker by Lauren Gamble & illustrated by Markia Jenai

Left a segregated America in 1925…became the most famous entertainer in Paris

A graphic novel for children ages 7 to 10. Josephine Baker left a segregated America in 1925 and became the most famous entertainer in Paris, France. She went on to be the first Black woman to star in a movie, a volunteer spy during World War II, and the mother of twelve adopted children from around the world. Then, she returned to the States to dance for American audiences and bring her voice to the Civil Rights Movement.

This is her story and a fascinating glimpse of a world where as a black woman she had to force her way for the rights of so many.

I would thoroughly recommend these graphic novels from Sunbird Books for children from 7-10 years and beyond. Graphic novels which are fact based provide a huge resource bank for children, schools and libraries.

Sue Martin Children’s Literacy Specialist

Stories across the world…

Super Powers of Nature & Super Heroes of Nature by Georges Feterman – QED Publishers

By

On September 21, 2022

In The Book Monitor, 7+ years, Books go Walkabout, New titles, Non Fiction, Quarto KNows

Superpowers of Nature is a fascinating, quirky photographic book featuring the amazing superpowers in the animal kingdom.

Wild Wonders of the World


With incredible photos and fascinating text, this book is a celebration of biodiversity and nature. From the platypus to the peregrine falcon, find out all about these amazing animals and the extraordinary abilities that make them the superheroes of our planet. Did you know…

  • An octopus’s brain is distributed all over its body
  • The tropical frog causes potential predators to wretch violently
  • The plumed basilisk can run for its life on water!
Fearsome creatures…

For each animal discover their superpower, super stats and super facts about them, as well as information about how they used their super skills in the wild. With an important message about protecting the rich biodiversity of our planet, Superpowers of Nature is a stunning photographic book for kids fascinated by the animal kingdom and the weird wonders it has to offer.

Super Heroes of Nature has some incredible facts and photographs of creatures with superhero powers from the Leaf Cutter Ants to the Musk Ox.

Incredible Skills to Survive and Thrive…

Borneo ants to the flying dragon, find out all about these amazing animals and the extraordinary abilities that make them the superheroes of our planet. For example:

  • A hammerhead shark can see 180 degrees
  • The webbed gecko can glide across the desert sand
  • The springbok is super fast!
It can view 180 degrees…

These books published on 6th September are from the Animal Powers series, which celebrates the weird, extraordinary, and truly amazing powers of some of nature’s most incredible animals, while celebrating biodiversity and encouraging young readers to value the natural world around them.

Georges Feterman , the author is an associate professor of natural sciences. He is also the president of the association “A.R.B.R.E.S. “(Remarkable Trees, Assessment, Research, Studies and Safeguarding) campaigning for in-depth research on remarkable trees. For twenty years, he has been recording and photographing the most remarkable subjects of the French natural heritage because of their proportions, stories or rarity.

QED publishers are part of Quarto Knows and produce some of the best factual info books with appeal and a huge difference. At £7.99 these books in a Flexi Binding are incredibly good value and will provide hours of interest for children of all ages.

Sue Martin Children’s Literacy Specialist

Stories across the world…

A World Full of Journeys and Migrations, by Martin Howard and illustrated by Christopher Corr

By

On February 16, 2022

In Frances Lincoln Children's Books, Featured children's book

The Movement of People and Ideas

If you are a traveller at heart, like me, this is the perfect book! It features over 50 incredible stories of human migration and how different cultures and ideas have spread through the world because of migration. What a positive attitude to people travelling across continents, what an amazing story through time of how peoples have travelled and continue to travel for the benefit of all people. This book hits right at the point where migration is integral to a better word and a better society.

“About 70,000 years ago a small tribe of human beings walked out of Africa and into the country we now call Yemen in the Middle East. With them was them was the mother who would become the grandmother to all humans outside of Africa.” Martin Howard.

Just one of many amazing facts that will keep you enthralled as you read through the book.

A World Full of Journeys and Migrations is illustrated in a wonderfully engaging style, each page in this large hardback book is packed with illustrations and text which draw you in to each and every page.

Two of my favourite pages are Chinatown and America’s New People. As with all the pages there are facts and information which will promote thought and enable further research.

Follow the trails

The sections on Migration of Modern Humans shows how we are just continuing the same pattern of travel, where and how we can.

Martin Howard, the author, lives in France, and has written many titles for both children and adults, including the Bad Dog’s Diary series and the Wickedest Witch.

Christopher Corr is an established author/illustrator whose books are renowned internationally. He studied at the Royal College of Art and now lives and worked in London as an artist and tutor at Goldsmith’s University

Frances Lincoln Children’s Books are the publishers, and A World Full of Journeys & Migrations is part of the beautifully published series called A World Full of…. Stories, Dickens Stories, Celebrations and Festivals.

A perfect book for any school, library or home, my copy is definitely staying with me so I can discover more about people spreading ideas around our planet and creating a better world.

Sue Martin Children’s Literary Specialist

Stories Across the World…

The Story of Inventions by Catherine Barr & Steve Williams, illustrated by Amy Husband

By

On March 6, 2020

In All Ages, BookMonitor, Books go Walkabout, Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators, Lincoln Children's Books, New titles, Non Fiction

The Story of Inventions is just the book for anyone interested in  discoveries and uses today. From wheels and lodestones to vaccines and engines, this book is packed with information and illustrations which bring life to the words.

The page on flight, for instance, explains that for many years planes were only used for cargo. But now planes fill our skies carrying people all over the world, making the world a smaller place.

Surprisingly, the idea of computers was first invented in 1830’s with machines to do the maths. By the 1940’s computers were used to crack codes which helped to finish the second world war. Today we would be totally lost without them.

Catherine Barr is well know for her books for Frances Lincoln Publishers; especially The Story of Life and The Story of Space. She has worked for the Natural History Museum, among other places and is a keen author of non fiction titles with enormous appeal.  Steve Williams is a biologist, a teacher and beekeeper ,as well as an ardent writer of interesting books for children.

Amy Husband is a talented, award winning illustrator and her illustrations in this book are brilliantly supportive of the text.

A book for me to read this evening and I am sure I will find out and remember much about inventions that I never knew before.

Sue Martin

Wild in the Streets- 20 Poems of City Animals

By

On February 22, 2020

In BookMonitor, Books go Walkabout, Children's books, Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators, Poetry

This is a captivating book full of poems about different animals living in cities across the world. A book of adaptation; bats, boars, coyotes, huntsman spiders, honeybees and reticulated pythons. Poems which reflect the nature of the animal and its new habitat and at the back is a glossary with  different types of poems like cinquains to sonnets, and acrostics to reversos.

‘It may be hard to believe that wildlife can survive among the densely packed houses, huge skyscrapers, tarmac, pavements and sewers. Some animals were there before humans encroached on their territory and others have been introduced on purpose, like the Honeybees in Vancouver.’ Marilyn Singer

Reticulated pythons were in Singapore before the city existed and survive in the sewers and waterway, living on rats, cats and birds. Monarch butterflies have long migrations but at the end of the summer gather in Pacific Grove,California before travelling north again in the Spring.

Marilyn Singer is the author and Gordy Wright is the illustrator and they have combined their talents to produce this beautiful book published by Words and Pictures.

An exciting and inspiring way to think about animals in our cities.

Sue Martin

Poetry – Books of poems February 2020

By

On February 16, 2020

In All Ages, Books go Walkabout, Children's books, Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators, New titles, Otter-Barry, Poetry, WideEyed Editions

Poetry is one of the best ways to have fun with words, explore feelings and use rhyme and patterns together.

This month, February 2020, we have three new books of poems which we love and are great to open the book anywhere and delve straight in!

‘There’s a Crocodile in the House’, from Paul Cookson, has an enormously wide collection of poems with fun, danger, surprise and wonder. Some poems you need to SHOUT!! And some you need to whisper…

Watch out for the lurking crocodile on the armchair, whatever you don’t sit down!! Great illustrations from Liz Million.

‘The Magic of Mums’ is written by Justin Coe and illustrated by Steve Wells. Different Mums in all guises are celebrated here, sometimes comic, sometimes witty or tender and all will find a child with a Mum ‘just like that’!

Otter-Barry Books are the publishers for both There’s a Crocodile in the House’ and The Magic of Mums’. As publishers, making a difference in the landscape of good children’s’ books,  these books are a wonderful addition to their growing poetry genre.

Poems Aloud is our third poetry book this month. This is an anthology of poems from Joseph Coelho and illustrated by Daniel Gray-Barnett. This book shouts out to you from the engaging cover to all the poems inside. There are poems for reading aloud or for being quiet, poems which are good for performance playing and poems which are good for sharing at home time.

Joseph Coelho is an award-winning poet and performer from London with a huge collection of books to his name, along with being BBC’s Teach Poetry presenter (Oct 2018).

 

Daniel Gray-Barnett lives in Tasmania and is an award-winning illustrator, including Grandma Z. His illustrations have been commissioned  by Sydney Opera House, The Boston Globe and the Museum of Contemporary Art. Australia.

Wide Eyed Editions published  and presented this book in their inimitable style making it a work of art itself and a wonderful book to have.

PS My favourite poem is below , because I love bears, shush, it’s a secret!

Sue Martin

 

 

I Was Only Nineteen, words by John Schumann and pictures by Craig Smith

By

On February 9, 2020

In Allen and Unwin, BookMonitor, Books go Walkabout, Children's books, Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators, Non Fiction

 

A truly remarkable book about the Vietnam War and Australian soldiers. The book uses the lyrics of the song with poignant pictures illustrating the hardships and efforts the soldiers endured in the jungles of South Vietnam between 1962 – 1975.

A deeply moving story about young men conscripted into the war.

It was made even more real for me as, I on my most recent visit to Vietnam, I met a Vietnamese veteran who had flown helicopters for the Americans for 14 years. A reminder of this deadly war that was never winnable.

On each page in the book the illustrations are vivid and meaningful, from the passing out parade in Puckapunyal to the crawling through the tangled undergrowth trying to avoid being shot.

The illustrations from Craig Smith make the lyrics from John Schumann so real and follow the young recruit as he is called up with the sixth Battalion.

Published by Allen and Unwin of Australia, this amazing book is part of a wide portfolio of powerfully evocative books in Picture Book format for any age.

This is truly an excellent and remarkable book to have at home or a school library. It is full of moments of companionship and personal challenges. It is not only a reminder of the Vietnamese war but of any war that becomes futile resulting in a huge loss of life.

Sue Martin

Everybody Counts  by Kristin Roskifte

By

On February 5, 2020

In All Ages, BookMonitor, Books go Walkabout, Featured authors, Featured children's book, New titles, WideEyed Editions

An amazingly illustrated book, packed with illustrations to find your way into and beyond, through the story and the numbers. There are hosts of visual stories and things to spot on every page. Counting games from 0-7.5 billion! It celebrates difference throughout the book and it says it all in the title, Everybody Counts! It is the winner of the Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize 2019.

In the book, there are an amazing 2768 people! It has been sold already to 26 countries, a great success and crosses the barriers of language. It is also perfect for prompting stories and curiosity, with lots of questions to encourage interaction and thoughtfulness . Celebrating  differences is a keen theme in the book, where the illustrations show everyone is different and every one counts.

It is the winner of the Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize 2019 and Martin Salisbury, Professor of Illustration at Cambridge School of Art says, “ Everybody Counts is an extraordinary book for our times, which I’m sure will go on to win many more awards.”

Wide Eyed Editions are delighted to be publishing Everybody Counts in 2020 and release date is 4th February.

Kristin Roskifte is a Norwegian illustrator and author who studied illustration at Cambridge School of Art and Kingston University and she is inspired by differences and similarities between people.

Everybody Counts is a fantastic book to have in your home, at school and in libraries, it will be read, looked through, explored and much more.

Sue Martin

Page 1 of 5

Next

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén