Nosy Crow's Blog, page 123

We have a last-minute work experience placement to fill

We currently have a last-minute work experience placement to fill at Nosy Crow, starting next week (Monday August 22nd). This placement will be based at our office in London (10a Lant Street, SE1 1QR), and will last for two weeks (two – three days per week). The successful applicant will work across the company, and report to our Head of Operations and our Business Development Manager.

If you’re interested in applying, please send a CV to Tom Bonnick (tom@nosycrow.com).

 

Take a look inside The Colouring Book of Beautiful Gift Boxes: Christmas

This Christmas we’re publishing the beautiful first book in a fantastically clever and innovative new activity format – The Colouring Book of Beautiful Gift Boxes: Christmas, illustrated by Sarah Walsh. And today you can watch our animated trailer for the book!

Each page of this brilliant book is actually a box! Simply tear along the dotted lines and fold along the scored lines to create a gift box perfect for storing all kinds of Christmas treats.

The 24 boxes are ornately decorated with black and white festive designs, which can be customised with pens or pencils. This fantastic book of boxes is a fuss-free and effective way to make truly special Christmas gifts.

You can watch our trailer for The Colouring Book of Beautiful Gift Boxes at the top of this post – and you can find out more about the book here.

It’ll be in shops from October – 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.

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10 Things I Have Learned Since I Began Writing at Home – a guest post by Pamela Butchart

Today’s blog post is by Pamela Butchart, award-winning author of the Baby Aliens series, the Wigglesbottom Primary series, the Pugly series, and Petunia Perry and the Curse of the Ugly Pigeon, on the things she’s learned since she began writing at home…

For three and a half years I was a full-time teacher who wrote books in the library on evenings and weekends. Since deciding to become a part-time teacher last year, I’ve been trying to write from home. Here is what I have learned about myself, others (and cats) in that time.

Cereal is delicious at any time of day.
The delivery man will become accustomed to your ‘Writing Clothes’.
When a book isn’t going well suddenly EVERYTHING needs done around the house (when was the last time that plant we NEVER dust was dusted??). I think the worst example of this was when I found myself on my hands and knees unscrewing the shower drain.
TV is not your friend. Google is not your friend. Twitter is not your friend.
Part-time work colleagues (formally your full-time work colleagues) will consistently tell you how much they wish THEY worked part-time, too. And you will feel the need to remind them that, actually, you DON’T work part-time (and they will look at you like they don’t believe you).
Friends and family think it’s funny to say, “So, what time did you get up today then?”
You will feel judged by the window cleaner for wearing pug pyjamas and eating cereal at 3pm.
You will gain a detailed, comprehensive knowledge of solar panelling and feel bad for not giving to every single charity in the world.
Cats are jealous of laptops.
It is totally possible to write the last 1,000 words of a book while a cat stands on your neck.

 

It might be time to get back to the library…

Thank you, Pamela! The latest book in the hilarious Pugly series, Pugly Solves a Crime, illustrated by Gemma Correll, is out this month – you can take a look inside the book below, or order it online here.

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.

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I Saw Anaconda

Next month we’re publishing an absolutely BRILLIANT new novelty picture book: I Saw Anaconda, written by Jane Clarke and illustrated by Emma Dodd – a very funny, very silly lift-the-flap story in a great big format that’s PERFECT for 2+ year olds!

Full of odd animals and ingenious flap reveals, this is the story of one little boy who watches as ALL SORTS of animals are swallowed up by a very hungry anaconda. With a flap on every spread,you can watch as every character gets gobbled up.. and thrown back up again in a final pop-up reveal. It’s funny and a little bit icky!

The book will be out in shops in September – and today we’re giving you the chance to win a copy! If you’d like to win a copy of I Saw Anaconda, just sign up to our books newsletter, either at this page or with the form below, and then send an email to tom at nosycrow dot com with I Saw Anaconda in the subject heading. To be eligible to enter this competition, you must have a UK or Ireland postal address.

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Good luck!

Two job openings at Nosy Crow are ending this weekend

We’re currently looking for two people to join Nosy Crow in our Operations team, and the closing date for both jobs is this Sunday – so if you’re interested in applying for either position, hurry!

We’re looking for an Operations Co-ordinator

You’ll be responsible for the logistics of our titles – from factory floor to final warehouse and customer delivery – and work closely with our Sales team to ensure any special fulfilment requirements are met.

You’ll be the first point of contact for our Australian distributor, supplying material, communicating schedules, and processing all incoming orders.

You’ll also be responsible for a whole range of other tasks – the role is varied!

You’ll be calm, can-do and above all organised with excellent Excel and strong numeracy. Ideally we’d like you to have some experience of providing administrative support, it doesn’t necessarily have to be in children’s publishing, but it is important to us that you have a strong interest in what we do. You’ll have the right to live and work in the UK.

You can find out more about the role here.

We’re looking for a Production Assistant

You’ll assist the Production team in the production of our full-colour and black and white books and assist them in the processing, circulation and approval of material and in communicating with our suppliers.

Over time we’ll expect you to take on more responsibility for production of the mono list and reprints of some full-colour titles.

You’ll work closely with the Rights team and their customers to ensure that co-editions run smoothly and schedules are met.

As a member of the wider Nosy Crow assistant team you’ll also provide general office support – including but not limited to answering the phone, processing post, arranging couriers etc.

You should have excellent organisation skills, strong numeracy skills and a keen eye for detail. You’ll be enthusiastic, thorough and hard-working and keen to work in publishing and on children’s books. We don’t expect you to have previous experience, but some knowledge of the book production process would be advantageous. You’ll have the right to live and work in the UK.

You can find out more about the role here.

Both of these roles are full-time and based in our crowded, but lively office in Borough.

To apply for either position, please send your CV and a covering letter to Imogen Blundell (imogen [at] nosycrow [dot] com). The closing date for applications is midnight on Sunday 14th August, and first interviews will take place on 23rd and 25th August.

Just a few places remaining for the next Nosy Crow Illustrator Salon, with Sam Usher

We’re still a couple of months away from the next Nosy Crow Illustrator Salon – and there are just a few places remaining!

This will be the fourth instalment in our new series of evening events, dedicated to celebrating the importance of illustration, and featuring  the incredible Sam Usher, the highly-acclaimed illustrator of Refuge, written by Anne Booth.

The Illustrator Salon will be taking place on Monday 17th October, at The Book Club in Shoreditch. Doors will open at 6.30pm for drinks and conversation, and the main event will begin at 7.00pm. After an interview with Sam, there’ll be a Q&A with the audience, followed by a book signing and drinks.

Booking in advance is essential – you can book your place with the form below, or at this page. And you can save money on a signed copy of Refuge by buying one now with your ticket! General admission costs just £5. £9 will include entry to the salon, PLUS a signed paperback copy of Refuge.

You’ll also be able to buy copies of Refuge on the night itself.

If you don’t want to miss out on any of our future salon events, sign up to our mailing list below. We hope to see you there!



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There’s still time to win copies of our Cinderella and The Three Little Pigs apps!

Last week we announced a special app giveaway for the new trilingual editions of our first two apps, The Three Little Pigs and Cinderella – and there are just a few more days to enter the competition!

For the very first time, you can experience these incredible stories in three different languages, with our new Spanish and Chinese-language versions of each story. You can find out more about our trilingual editions here.

To win The Three Little Pigs or Cinderella, all you need to do is sign up to our apps newsletter, at this page or with the form below, and send an email to apps [at] nosycrow [dot] com with App Competition in the subject heading, along with the name of the app you’d like to win.

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If you’re new to the apps, here’s a quick look at each (in English):

And here’s a look at The Three Little Pigs and Cinderella in Spanish and Chinese!

As well as being great stories for Chinese and Spanish speakers, the trilingual element of these updates means the apps are also fantastic resources for children learning another language, for dual language-speaking homes, for school language lessons, and more.

The closing date for entries is this Friday (August 12th), and winners of our app giveaway competition will be notified at the end of next week – good luck!

Brand new Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam fiction – take a look inside The Spooky School!

Next month we are INCREDIBLY pleased to be launching a brand-new two-colour illustrated fiction series, featuring everyone’s favourite robber dogs-turned-bakers, Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam – stars of the wonderful picture book series written by Tracey Corderoy and Steven Lenton. The brand new fiction series begins with Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Spooky School – and you can take a look inside the book for the first time today!

Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam don’t just make amazing cakes – these two brave bakers solve wacky mysteries too!

Halloween at St Spectre’s school brings out the cheekiest of ghosts! And who is to blame when the weather goes CRAZY? A power-grabbing red panda maybe? Certainly not the racoon gang fixing the museum’s toilets – they’ve got dastardly plans of their OWN!

With three hilarious read-aloud stories, and beautiful two-colour illustrations, this is a fantastic book for 6+ year olds – it’s perfect for young children ready for the next milestone after picture books, and great for both independent reading and sharing.

And here’s a look inside the book!

Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Spooky School will be in shops in September – 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 with the form below.

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Brand new Bizzy Bear – introducing Spooky House!

Next month we’ll be publishing a brand new board book in the brilliant Bizzy Bear series illustrated by Benji Davies – Bizzy Bear: Spooky House. Finished copies have just arrived in the Crow’s Nest – and they look INCREDIBLE!

The ever-intrepid Bizzy Bear has come for a visit to a super-spooky Halloween house. As he climbs the rickety stairs and walks the cobwebby corridors, all sorts of creepy characters appear from doors and hidey holes. But where could he be going and what will he find there?

Here’s a very quick look inside the book:

The Bizzy Bear books are PERFECT for toddlers: Benji’s illustrations are bright, colourful and friendly, there’s lots of visual humour, a very gentle rhyme, and plenty for toddlers to get involved with in every book -and the sturdy mechanisms and chunky sliders will withstand the roughest treatment!

Bizzy Bear: Spooky House will be in shops in September – you can pre-order it here. If you’re new to Bizzy Bear, you can find out about all of the existing books in the series here – and you can sign up for our monthly books newsletter and stay up-to-date with all of our new titles here, or with the form below.

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There’s just over a week remaining to apply for two jobs at Nosy Crow

Last week we announced that we are looking for two people to join our Operations team – and there’s just over a week left to apply for the two positions: the closing date for both roles is Sunday, August 14th.

We’re looking for an Operations Co-ordinator

You’ll be responsible for the logistics of our titles – from factory floor to final warehouse and customer delivery – and work closely with our Sales team to ensure any special fulfilment requirements are met.

You’ll be the first point of contact for our Australian distributor, supplying material, communicating schedules, and processing all incoming orders.

You’ll also be responsible for a whole range of other tasks – the role is varied!

You’ll be calm, can-do and above all organised with excellent Excel and strong numeracy. Ideally we’d like you to have some experience of providing administrative support, it doesn’t necessarily have to be in children’s publishing, but it is important to us that you have a strong interest in what we do. You’ll have the right to live and work in the UK.

You can find out more about the role here.

We’re looking for a Production Assistant

You’ll assist the Production team in the production of our full-colour and black and white books and assist them in the processing, circulation and approval of material and in communicating with our suppliers.

Over time we’ll expect you to take on more responsibility for production of the mono list and reprints of some full-colour titles.

You’ll work closely with the Rights team and their customers to ensure that co-editions run smoothly and schedules are met.

As a member of the wider Nosy Crow assistant team you’ll also provide general office support – including but not limited to answering the phone, processing post, arranging couriers etc.

You should have excellent organisation skills, strong numeracy skills and a keen eye for detail. You’ll be enthusiastic, thorough and hard-working and keen to work in publishing and on children’s books. We don’t expect you to have previous experience, but some knowledge of the book production process would be advantageous. You’ll have the right to live and work in the UK.

You can find out more about the role here.

Both of these roles are full-time and based in our crowded, but lively office in Borough.

To apply for either position, please send your CV and a covering letter to Imogen Blundell (imogen [at] nosycrow [dot] com). The closing date for applications is midnight on Sunday 14th August, and first interviews will take place on 23rd and 25th August.