Nosy Crow's Blog, page 129

Foyles wish Nosy Crow a happy birthday!

If you happen to be passing a Foyles branch in the next couple of weeks follow the crow’s footprints to some very special windows bedecked with balloons celebrating Nosy Crow’s 5th anniversary!

We are excited to say that we’ve got a little birthday bash going on in all six of the Foyles branches – from London, Birmingham and Bristol! Showcasing some of our titles that we’re most excited about, these celebratory windows will be front and centre until 4th June so tweet us a picture if you spot one!

Royal Festival Hall:

Stratford:

Waterloo:

Birmingham:

My Headteacher is a Vampire Rat by Pamela Butchart and Thomas Flintham wins the Children’s Book Award!

This past Saturday, the winners of the Children’s Book Awards were announced – and we were absolutely thrilled and delighted that My Headteacher is a Vampire Rat, written by Pamela Butchart and illustrated by Thomas Flintham, won not only its Books for Younger Readers category, but also the overall Children’s Book Award!

The Children’s Book Award (formerly known as the Red House children’s book award) was founded in 1980 by the FCBG to celebrate the books that children themselves love reading, and is the only national prize for children’s books that is voted for entirely by children themselves. It’s a huge honour, and we are so happy for  Pamela and Thomas, and the FANTASTIC My Headteacher is a Vampire Rat – a laugh-out-loud funny book that perfectly captures the craziness of primary school for 7+ year olds.

The third zippy tale in this truly zany series sees Izzy and her friends plunged into more primary school pandemonium when they notice that their slightly scary new headteacher has the blinds drawn in his office during the day, and has banned garlic bread at lunchtimes. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? There can only be one explanation: he is DEFINITELY a vampire rat. Now they just have to come up with a plan to vanquish him…

Here’s a look inside My Headteacher is a Vampire Rat:

Buy the book.

Congratulations, Pamela and Thomas!

Onwards and upwards

Today is a sad day for us in the Crow’s Nest.

Our much-loved (by illustrators as well as us) head of design, Stephanie Amster, is leaving us to join Bloomsbury Children’s Books as Creative Director.

Steph was the seventh member of the Nosy Crow team, joining us way back in the autumn of 2010. Since then, she’s managed the design of all of our full-colour publishing while sprinkling her extraordinary design magic on the picture books she’s worked on. We couldn’t be more grateful to her, and we know that, commercially and creatively, we will feel the impact of Steph’s work for years to come: one of the great things about publishing is that, pace Shakespeare, the good that editors and designers do lives after them in the books they’ve helped authors and illustrators to make.

She leaves us on 22 July, and we will, of course, say a proper goodbye to her, but, for now, while we wish her the best of luck in her glamorous new role, we are allowed, I think, to be sad.

The cheery thing is that she leaves behind her a really excellent design team – the strongest that I’ve ever worked with in the business, actually. And I’ve had such lovely and reassuring responses to the emails I’ve been sending out to the many illustrators and authors and agents that we’ve had to break the news to this morning, with many commenting on the strength not just of the design team, but of the way that, as a publisher, we support the creative people we have the privilege of working with. My favourite so far is, “Rest assured… Nosy Crow is a high-five and a hug all wrapped up in one!”

Onwards and, as they say, upwards.

Teachers! There’s still time to vote for Petunia Perry at the Laugh Out Loud Book Awards

Earlier this year we learned that Petunia Perry and the Curse of the Ugly Pigeon, the HILARIOUS novel written by Blue Peter Best Book Award-winning author Pamela Butchart and illustrated by Gemma Correll, had been shortlisted for the inaugural Laugh Out Loud Book Awards (Lollies) in the 9-13 category.

The Lollies winners will be decided by school vote, and there are now just over a couple of weeks left to help decide the winner – voting closes on Friday June 10th.

If you’re a school teacher, you can vote for your class favourite book online at the Lollies website here – if you’re a fan of Petunia Perry, we’d be hugely grateful for your support!

The awards were established last year to celebrate funny books for children – and we are so pleased for Pamela, Gemma, and the brilliant Petunia Perry.

This is an hysterically funny book about how to fit in when you don’t want to conform – it’s perfect for fans of Louise Rennison. You can take a look inside Petunia Perry and the Curse of the Ugly Pigeon below:

Vote for Petunia Perry for the Lollies Awards.

Good luck, Pamela and Gemma!

Take a look inside Copy Cat by Ali Pye!

Next month we are INCREDIBLY pleased to be publishing Copy Cat – the first picture book to be written and illustrated by Ali Pye, illustrator of the fantastic, Scottish Children’s Book Award-winning Moonlight School picture books. And today, you can take a look inside the book for the first time.

Bella loves Anna. In fact, Bella loves Anna SO MUCH that she wants to be just like her. Bella copies every single thing Anna does, but like all little copy cat kittens, Bella and Anna get into a bit of a tangle…

With hilarious kitten antics and vibrant illustrations, this author-illustrator debut is a perfectly-observed portrait of playground behaviour. Comic capers and cute-as-a-button characters deliver a gentle message about joining in and finding your own way.

Here’s a look inside the book:

Copy Cat will be available in shops next week – 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:

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Come to the next Nosy Crow Reading Group – we’re discussing The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Would you like to come along to the next Nosy Crow Reading Group?

In June we’ll be discussing The Girl of Ink and Stars, the debut novel by Kiran Millwood Hargrave.

We’ll be meeting on Tuesday, June 21 at 6.30pm, here at the Nosy Crow offices – 10a Lant Street, London, SE1 1QR – for a discussion of the book (along with wine and crisps). If you’d like to come along, just register for a place with the form below, or at this page.

 You can order The Girl of Ink and Stars online from Waterstones here. You can read a preview of the book here – and here’s a video of Millwood Hargrave introducing the book:

We’ll post some discussion points for the book a little closer to the date – we hope you can join us!

Take a look inside Crimson Poison – an exciting debut from Susan Moore

Next month we’re incredibly excited to launch a fantastic new fiction debut: Crimson Poison by Susan Moore, the gripping first instalment in the Nat Walker Trilogy – and today, you can take a look inside the book for the very first time.

Nat Walker is the orphan heiress to her parents’ games empire. While the mystery behind their deaths remains unsolved, Nat must fend off the unwelcome and avaricious attentions of her aunt, who is keen to ‘adopt’ her and her millions. When her guardian, Jamuka, is called back to Mongolia by a clan emergency, Nat discovers viral information about the poison that is killing his people. She decides to follow him and, in doing so, becomes drawn into the deadly game of revenge, corruption and world domination that is played out against the snowy white Steppes.

Cinematic and fast paced, this action-packed story is full of high-tech gadgetry and fun – perfect for 9+ fans of exciting, futuristic adventure.

Here’s a look inside the book:

Crimson Poison will be available in shops next week – 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:

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Publishing Little Bits of Sky

I’ve been in the publishing industry for a long time (this is, in fact, my 50th year), but it’s been rare to read a manuscript I really felt I had to publish, not for commercial reasons (or not solely for commercial reasons), but because, quite simply, I loved them.

Actually, there are only four manuscripts that I can immediately call to mind.

As a novice in the publishing industry while working at Macmillan, I read a book called Watership Down which had been published in hardcover by Rex Collings, a tiny publisher, and I took it to Marnie Hodgkin, then head of Macmillan’s Children’s Books, to beg her to buy the paperback rights. She wouldn’t!

The next, a long time later, was Arundhati Roy’s God of Small Things – my second failure! I had just moved from academic and educational publishing to run Pan Macmillan, and I didn’t quite have the credibility or courage of my convictions to bid another £100,000 in the fierce auction for the book, so it went to Harper Collins.

The one after that was Last Orders by Graham Swift, which I DID buy, and which went on to win the Booker prize: finally, a result!

And now, at Nosy Crow, we are publishing Little Bits of Sky by S E Durrant. We first read it seventeen months ago, and in the office there were more tears than cups of tea (and we really like our cups of tea). We were determined to publish the book, and worked hard to persuade the author and her agent that we were the right publishers for her.

It didn’t need heavy editing, but Kirsty and S E Durrant polished it beautifully. But then we met a problem – we couldn’t think of the right image for the cover. It’s a quiet book, with an abundance of both sadness and joy. The cover couldn’t shout, but it needed to make people want to pick the book up. That took six months of trial and error, until at last we arrived at a cover and a physical book that, we believe, looks and feels the way it reads.

And now, finally, it’s published, and the Sunday Times review yesterday goes a long way to justifying all that effort.

In the review, Nicolette Jones says:

“This remarkable debut novel reads as if written by an experienced children’s author at the height of her powers. The story of looked-after siblings of 9 and 11, it is reminiscent of Jacqueline Wilson in its subject, and Sharon Creech in its style and generosity of spirit … this is an uplifting and convincing evocation of time and place, of two vivid young lives and of the hope that kindness can offer. It is a gentle story, though sad things happen (expect tears) and it tells us clearly how the feelings of adults and children can be complicated.”

And, so far, we have sold translation rights to France, Germany, Japan, Israel, Holland, Poland and China. We hope it reaches its audiences not just here in the UK, but throughout the world.

If you haven’t discovered Little Bits of Sky, you can read the book’s opening below:

Buy the book online.

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

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Announcing our speakers for the next Nosy Crow Masterclass: How to Write Picture Books

Last week we announced the return of our Nosy Crow Masterclasses, with another edition of our How to Write Picture Books event, taking place on Saturday June 11.

The masterclass sold-out in record time: if you’re still interested in attending, you can add your name to our waiting list here, and if a place opens up, we’ll notify you.

And today, we’re very pleased to reveal the full line-up of speakers for the masterclass!

The day will begin with an overview of the children’s book market from Nosy Crow’s Managing Director, Kate Wilson, setting a context for picture books in 2016.

Our Head of Picture Books, Louise Bolongaro, will deliver a crash course on the editorial essentials for writing picture books – a distilled masterclass all in itself.

Helen Mackenzie Smith, literary agent at Bell Lomax Moreton, will talk about her role as an agent – what she looks for in a submission, do’s and don’ts for authors, and more.

Over lunch, there’ll be the opportunity for our attendees to receive one-on-one manuscript feedback.

Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam author Tracey Corderoy will begin our afternoon sessions with a talk on how she writes, covering topics including the differences (and challenges) of writing in rhyme and prose, where she finds her inspiration, and more.

And finally, Kate Wilson will close the masterclass with a session on the importance of thinking internationally, and writing picture books for a global audience – followed by a glass of wine at the end of the day!

If you’d like to register your interest in future masterclass events, sign up to our books newsletter here, and be the first to find out when we announce new dates.

Dinosaur Pirates!

Next month we’re publishing a VERY exciting new picture book – Dinosaur Pirates!, the fifth Dinosaur story by Penny Dale. And today you can take a look inside the book for the first time, with an exclusive early preview.

Our brave team of dinosaurs are back, but this time they are pirates in search of buried treasure! Having navigated their way to a desert island and dug up their booty, they are just sailing away when they are ambushed by a fearsome band of marauding baddy-pirates! Will our goody-pirates save their gold, their ship and their honour, or will the baddies win out?

Just like the other books in this amazing series, Dinosaur Pirates boasts a brilliant mash-up of subjects, an incredibly exciting story, and fantastically-detailed, immensely satisfying illustrations by Penny. It’s guaranteed to appeal to young fans of dinosaurs AND pirates – another perfect combination.

Here’s a look inside Dinosaur Pirates:

Dinosaur Pirates will be available in shops next month – 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:

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