Nosy Crow's Blog, page 114

Take a first look inside A Duckling Called Button – the new book from Helen Peters

Next March we’re incredibly pleased to be publishing the second book in the WONDERFUL Jasmine Green series, written by Helen Peters and illustrated by Ellie Snowdon: A Duckling Called Button. And today, for the first time, you can read an early preview of the book!

Jasmine’s dad is a farmer, and her mum is a large-animal vet, so Jasmine spends a lot of time caring for animals and trying to keep them out of trouble. Unfortunately, this often means getting herself out of difficulty, too!

In A Duckling Called Button, a nesting duck is killed in a terrible accident, and Jasmine and her best friend Tom rescue the eggs and try to hatch them in an incubator. It’s a risky business but soon Button is running around, getting into scrapes. Until the day he gets into a scrape with no escape…

Here’s a first look inside the book:

If you’re new to the Jasmine Green series, you can take a look inside the first book in the series, A Piglet Called Truffle, below.

Buy the book.

Brilliant story-telling that will make you laugh and cry, and beautifully illustrated by Ellie Snowdon, this is James Herriot for a new generation. And the series is already attracting lots of admirers – here’s what The Guardian’s Imogen Russell Williams said about A Piglet Called Truffle:

“For readers aged five to eight, Helen Peters’ A Piglet Called Truffle is sensitively illustrated by Ellie Snowdon, and reminiscent of Dick King-Smith at his best … This involving, unsentimental little book is the first in a new series that should appeal strongly to animal lovers.”

A Duckling Called Button will be in shops in March – you can find out more about the book here. And if you’d like to stay up to date with all of our book news, you can sign up to our books newsletter at this page, or with the form below, and you’ll never miss a thing.

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Win prizes with our new Fairytale Play Theatre app!

Last week we released a major update for our latest app, The Complete Fairytale Play Theatre – AND a brand new, free-to-download version of the app: Fairytale Play Theatre. In both our complete and standard versions of the app, you can now export your stories as movies and share them with friends and family!

And today we’re launching a special Fairytale Play Theatre competition – we want to see the stories that you make! Share your stories on Twitter to @NosyCrowApps with the #PlayTheatre hashtag, and we’ll award prizes to the best ones! We have apps, books and other Nosy Crow prizes (maybe even a mug or two…) to give away – and the competition is open worldwide!

Send us your stories by the end of the year to enter, and we’ll announce the winners in January.

To enter our competition and share the stories that you’ve created in the Fairytale Play Theatre App app, export your story as a movie, and then share it via the Photos app to Twitter (make sure you use the #PlayTheatre hashtag).

If you’re new to Fairytale Play Theatre, here’s our trailer for the app:

With beautiful artwork from our award-winning series of fairytale apps – The Three Little Pigs, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Snow White, and Goldilocks and Little Bear – Fairytale Play Theatre features over 60 characters to choose from, along with dozens of scene backgrounds and props to bring your story alive. You can soundtrack your story with stunning music from our fairytales, along with your own voices and sound effects.

The app boasts a hugely intuitive, user-friendly interface that’s perfect for young children – you can create individual scenes from scratch, save them, and build multiple scenes into a complete story. Multi-touch screens allow multiple users to create stories together – it’s a fantastic way of creating stories, encouraging imaginative play, and sharing a screen between adults and children – it’s great for storytelling activities in classrooms and at home.

Set the stage, choose your characters, and create and record your own story!

The new, standard edition of Fairytale Play Theatre is FREE to download, and you can choose one fairytale “bundle” when you download the app – all of the characters, artwork and music from any one of our fairytale stories. You can then download other fairytale bundles with in-app purchases (carefully protected behind a parental gate) for an additional 99¢/ 79p each. Here’s what to look for on the App Store:

And if you’d prefer not to have any in-app purchases available in your app, you can download The Complete Fairytale Play Theatre edition of the app for $4.99/ £3.99, and you’ll get EVERYTHING unlocked – all of the content from all of our fairytales – with no in-app purchase on offer. Here’s what to look for on the App Store:

We hope you enjoy the app! Have fun creating your own stories, and if you do enter our competition, good luck!

A Down the Rabbit Hole Christmas special!

Down the Rabbit Hole – the only radio programme dedicated entirely to children’s books – will be returning to the airwaves this Christmas, with none other than Kate Wilson, Nosy Crow’s founder and managing director, and Steven Lenton, illustrator of the Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam series, as two of the show’s special guests!

The special Christmas episode of Down the Rabbit Hole will be hosted by the incomparable trio of Katherine Woodfine, Melissa Cox, and Louise Lamont, and the third guest will be author Melinda Salisbury.

The programmes airs on Christmas Day ITSELF, from 4pm-5pm – a perfect post-turkey treat!

Down the Rabbit Hole airs monthly on Resonance FM, 104.4FM, and online here – you can find an archive of previous shows here, and you can find out more about the show at the Down the Rabbit Hole website and Twitter account.

Here’s a look inside the latest fantastic Shifty and Sam picture book, Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Diamond Chase – out now:

And here’s our animated trailer for the book:

Buy the book online.

Don’t forget to tune in on Christmas day!

A brand new book in the Zoe’s Rescue Zoo series – take a look inside The Scruffy Sea Otter

Next February we’re publishing Zoe’s Rescue Zoo: The Scruffy Sea Otter, the latest brilliant story in the phenomenally successful Zoe’s Rescue Zoo series written by Amelia Cobb and illustrated by Sophy Williams – and today you can take a look inside the new book for the first time!

These are a great introduction to chapter books for 5-7 year olds – brilliantly-written series fiction with a fantastic premise.

Zoe is SO excited when Great Uncle Horace brings THREE gorgeous sea otter pups to live at the Rescue Zoo! The orphaned pups are very fluffy and cheeky – and the youngest pup, Sasha, is the cheekiest and fluffiest of all. Zoe uses her special skills to talk to the otters and gets to know them all very well.

But Sasha feels sad when her older, more confident, siblings are chosen to take part in a special otter display. Can Zoe and Meep persuade Sasha the scruffy sea otter not to give up and to bring her own special skills to the show?

Here’s a first look inside the book:

If you’re new to the Zoe’s Rescue Zoo series, we’re offering a special bundle available exclusively from the Nosy Crow shop, featuring the first ten books in the series with a 40% discount – saving £24! You can find out more here.

The Scruffy Sea Otter will be in shops in February – you can find out more about the book here. And if you’d like to stay up to date with all of our book news, you can sign up to our books newsletter at this page, or with form below.

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The Best Books of 2016

Booktrust have asked some of their favourite authors and illustrators to pick their best children’s books of 2016, and we’re thrilled to see three Nosy Crow titles on the lists!

Pamela Butchart named Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Diamond Chase, written by Tracey Corderoy and illustrated by Steven Lenton, as her favourite picture book of the year – here’s what she said about the book:

“I LOVE this book. I mean, dogs who have given up a life of crime to bake cakes… what’s not to love?!  Shifty and Sam may have swapped their SWAG bags for cupcakes, yet somehow trouble always seems to find them.  A dogtasticly awesome story with stunning illustrations!”

And here’s a look inside The Diamond Chase:

Buy the book online.

Holly Smale, author of the Geek Girl series, named The Many Worlds of Albie Bright by Christopher Edge as her favourite middle grade book of 2016 – here’s what she said about it:

“My favourite children’s book of 2016 was out in January, yet it’s somehow managed to stay with me all year. The Many Worlds of Albie Bright, by Christopher Edge, is a book I adore as an adult but would have devoured as a child. A little bit science, a little bit magic, it manages to strike a beautiful balance between being heartbreaking, hilarious and uplifting. I have never wanted to travel the universe in a box with a banana more.”

And here’s a look inside the book:

Buy the book online.

And Julia Green, author of The Wilderness War, chose Sweet Pizza by G. R. Gemin as her favourite teen book of the year (interestingly, this is a book that I would call a middle grade read – which just goes to show the breadth of its appeal…!). Here’s what she said about the book:

“I love the warmth in the storytelling, the lovely clear prose, and the funny, original mix of food, opera and family history. At its heart is Joe, his Italian-Welsh family and their cafe, in a multi-cultural community in Wales. Giancarlo Gemin’s novel celebrates friendship, family and bringing people together. An important and pertinent story for our troubled times.”

And here’s a look inside Sweet Pizza:

Buy the book online.

You can read Booktrust’s complete list of favourite picture books of the year here, favourite middle grade books of the year here, and favourite teen books of the year here. Thank you, Pamela, Holly, and Julia, and congratulations, Tracey, Steven, Christopher, and Giancarlo!

Pip and Posy cuddly toys are now back in stock!

We’ve heard from lots of you recently, asking when our Pip and Posy cuddly toys will be back in stock. And I’m very pleased to report that we’ve had more toys produced, and you can now buy the Pip and Posy toys from the Nosy Crow shop!

These beautifully made soft plush toys are inspired by Axel Scheffler’s best-selling Pip and Posy characters. Each toy measures approximately 20cm in height – and the toys are machine-washable and suitable for all ages.

Pip and Posy can be bought individually, for £7.99 each, or together for £14.99.

Here’s the Pip toy on the Nosy Crow shop:

Buy the Pip toy.

Here’s the Posy toy on the Nosy Crow shop:

Buy the Posy toy.

And here they are together:

Buy Pip and Posy.

If you’d like to stay up to date with all of our news, and find out about new products, competitions, and special deals, you can sign up to our newsletter at this page, or with the form below.

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A brand new edition of Fairytale Play Theatre!

A little over a month ago, we released The Complete Fairytale Play Theatre – a brand new kind of app for Nosy Crow. Unlike our previous story apps, this one doesn’t have any text, or any voice audio – it’s up to you to create the story.

And today, we’re incredibly excited to announce a major update for the original edition of the app – and the launch of a second, free-to-download version of Fairytale Play Theatre, too!

With beautiful artwork from our award-winning series of fairytale apps – The Three Little Pigs, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Snow White, and Goldilocks and Little Bear – Fairytale Play Theatre features over 60 characters to choose from, along with dozens of scene backgrounds and props to bring your story alive. You can soundtrack your story with stunning music from our fairytales, along with your own voices and sound effects.

And now, with our new update, you can also save your stories as movies to share with family and friends, too!

The new, standard edition of Fairytale Play Theatre is FREE to download, and you can choose one fairytale “bundle” when you download the app – all of the characters, artwork and music from any one of our fairytale stories. You can then download other fairytale bundles with in-app purchases (carefully protected behind a parental gate) for an additional 99¢/ 79p each. Here’s what to look for on the App Store:

And if you’d prefer not to have any in-app purchases available in your app, you can download The Complete Fairytale Play Theatre edition of the app for $4.99/ £3.99, and you’ll get EVERYTHING unlocked – all of the content from all of our fairytales – with no in-app purchase on offer. Here’s what to look for on the App Store:

Create your own brand new stories, or re-tell our fairytales in your own words and voices!

The app boasts a hugely intuitive, user-friendly interface that’s perfect for young children – you can create individual scenes from scratch, save them, and build multiple scenes into a complete story. Multi-touch screens allow multiple users to create stories together – it’s a fantastic way of creating stories, encouraging imaginative play, and sharing a screen between adults and children – it’s great for storytelling activities in classrooms and at home.

Set the stage, choose your characters, and create and record your own story!

You can download Fairytale Play Theatre from the App Store here, and The Complete Fairytale Play Theatre from the App Store here. You can watch our trailer for the app at the top of this post – and here’s a quick preview of the app:

If you do download the app, we’d love to hear what you think! Please do leave a review on the App Store – or get in touch on Facebook, Twitter, or by email, to apps [at] nosycrow [dot] com.

And we’d love to see the movies that you create, too! We’ll be launching a special competition next week with prizes for the best stories – keep an eye on our blog for more details.

Kate Wilson wins the Women in Publishing Pandora Award

Kate with Justine and Alison

Yesterday, I wrote a blog post about being shortlisted for Women in Publishing’s Pandora Award. Last night, I won it. Justine Solomons of innovative networking organisation, Byte The Book, was runner up and Alison Jones, who runs a successful publishing consultancy after a career in academic publishing, was highly commended.

30 years ago, as someone who very much wanted to get into publishing, I went to my first publishing event: an evening q&a session with Virago’s Lennie Goodings at Blackwell’s in Oxford, and, though I have entirely failed to be a proper supporter of the organisation since my 20s (for which my apologies to the awards judging panel), it was good to be back.

Thanks to my cheery and talented co-shortlistees, and thanks to Women in Publishing and the judging panel in particular. I look forward to the January handover of the wooden box – an antique writing slope, I think –  that the award holder gets to keep for a year, which is currently in the hands of Ursula Mackenzie.

Pandora Award

Yesterday I found out that I have been shortlisted for the Pandora Award (together with Justine Solomons of Byte the Book and Alison Jones who, after many years in academic publishing, has a publishing consultancy).

The prize is awarded tomorrow. Wish me luck!

The award is made by Women in Publishing, and has been presented both to individuals and to organisations since 1981. Previous winners have included Ursula Mackenzie (2015), Gail Rebuck (2014), Carole Blake (2013), Marjorie Scardino (2012), Suzanne Collier (2011), WILDE Network (2010), Mslexia (2009), Zed Books (2008), Judy Piatkus (2005), Persephone Books (2002), Honno (2001), Fay Weldon (1997), the Feminist Library(1995), Margaret Busby (1993), Ros de Lanerolle (1992) and the late lamented Silver Moon Bookshop (1989).

At a long-awaited point in the industry’s evolution when we are all concerned with diversity in our workplaces and in the books that we are publishing, it is important, I think, not to lose sight of gender diversity and equality in the industry too. This has been debated for all the years I’ve been in publishing, and Women in Publishing is a long-standing example of an organisation that champions the women who make and sell books.

I don’t want to bang a dreary drum about this, but I believe that there isn’t enough recognition of the value of women in publishing and in bookselling. Ursula, Gail and Marjorie were all succeeded by men, and none of the big corporate publishers is run by a woman. I am saddened by the exodus of women from publishing during their child-bearing years. There have been articles about the failure of the industry to accommodate women’s frequent (though not by any means universal) preference for more flexible working conditions. And I wrote this blog post over a year earlier, several years ago, quoting Victoria Barnsley, a big hitter who has also left the industry.

As the managing director of an independent publisher, I feel truly liberated from any limitations anyone else might impose on me because of my gender.  I can’t help but notice that, this year, the three women up for the Pandora Award are all women who have, at this stage in their career, made themselves independent, and now work only for themselves. Maybe that’s just a co-incidence. Maybe it’s a wake-up call for the employers in the industry.

Sweet Pizza is one of The Guardian’s best children’s books of 2016

The Guardian have published their choice of the best children’s books of 2016, and we’re absolutely thrilled that Sweet Pizza by G.R. Gemin has made the list!

A great story that has immigration at its core, Sweet Pizza is perfect for fans of Jacqueline Wilson and Michael Morpurgo – it’s got fantastic dramatic writing, strong characters, and big-hearted social realism.

Julia Eccleshare writes: “Joe’s Italian family have run the cafe in Bryn Mawr for generations but now his mother, sick of the struggle to keep it going, wants to sell up. Joe loves the cafe and believes its Italian flavour has a role to play in keeping the community together. Drawing on his sick grandfather’s memories of arriving in Wales as a young man, and with some help from his Italian cousin, Mimi, who turns up just in time, Joe turns the cafe into an irresistible centre of food, family and opera. Rich in both Welsh and Italian culture, Sweet Pizza is a delightfully heartwarming and imaginative story which also reflects the true story of Welsh-Italian integration.”

You can read The Guardian’s full list of their best children’s books of 2016 here – and if you haven’t read Sweet Pizza yet, you can take a look inside the book below:

Buy the book online.

Sweet Pizza has been nominated for the Carnegie Medal and longlisted for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize judge Kate Saunders said of the book: “The warmth and charm of ‘Sweet Pizza’ are quite extraordinary; though there are some very moving moments, it is mainly a joyous and eccentric comedy.”

If you’d like to stay up to date with all of our book news, you can sign up to our newsletter at this page, or with the form below.

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