Nosy Crow's Blog, page 147

Come to the next Nosy Crow Reading Group – we’re reading The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow

The next edition of the Nosy Crow Reading Group is coming up soon – and we’d love for you to join in!

We’ll be meeting to discuss the The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow by Katherine Woodfine, the first book in an Edwardian-era mystery-adventure series set in the glamorous department store of Sinclair’s. Rooftoppers author Katherine Rundell described it as “a wonderful book, with a glorious heroine and a true spirit of adventure.”

As usual, we’ve prepared a few questions in advance to get everyone thinking – here’s some of what we might be talking about:

1. Who do you think this book is “for”?

2. How important do you think plot is in The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow?

3. How much do you think the book relies on its period setting? How successfully do you think this is evoked?

The reading group will be taking place on Wednesday, September 23rd at 6.30pm, here at the Nosy Crow offices – 10a Lant Street, London, SE1 1QR. At the time of writing, there is exactly ONE place left, if you’d like to join us. You can register for a place with the form below, or at this page.

And if you can’t make it here, but would still like to take part, please do join in online, either on Twitter with the #NCGKids hashtag, or in the comments section of this post.

We hope you can join us!

A first look inside Christmas for Greta and Gracie – a brand new picture book from Yasmeen Ismail

Next month we’re incredibly happy to be publishing Christmas for Greta and Gracie: a brand new picture book from award-winning author-illustrator Yasmeen Ismail.

This is SUCH a wonderful book – and we beautiful finished copies recently arrived in the office.

Greta and Gracie are sisters – Greta is chatty while Gracie is quiet and it’s all fine until, one day, everything changes. It’s nearly Christmas and together the sisters decorate the tree, shop for presents and even try a spot of ice-skating! But Greta, of course, always knows best – poor Gracie can’t get a word in edgeways. Then on Christmas Eve, while Greta is quietly sleeping, Gracie hears a funny noise . . . whatever could it be? She creeps downstairs to investigate, and the next morning her very special revelation leaves chitty chatty Greta lost for words!

Here’s a very first look inside the book:

Christmas for Greta and Gracie will be published on October 1. If you’d like to hear about all of our upcoming books, and be in with a chance of winning copies, you can sign up to our books newsletter below:

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This year’s Booktime programme, featuring Open Very Carefully, has launched!

Earlier this Summer, we wrote about how happy and proud we were that every reception-aged child in England and Wales would be getting a copy of Open Very Carefully, through Booktrust’s incredible Booktime programme.

And today, this year’s Booktime programme has officially launched! This is the tenth anniversary of this fantastic project, and we could not be more delighted that Open Very Carefully has been chosen.

Here’s what Nicola has to say about her debut picture book being selected for Booktime:

“The books I read as a child have stayed with me my whole life and I’m so very excited that Open Very Carefully has been selected for Booktime. The thought that a book I had a part in creating will kickstart a generation of new readers makes me immeasurably proud. I’d like to thank Book Trust for this incredible opportunity; it is my hope that the children receiving this book will love reading and stories as much as I do.”

Here’s what Kate Wilson, Nosy Crow’s managing director, has to say:

“We are so proud that one of Nosy Crow’s picture books has been chosen for Booktime this year. To make it through the rigorous selection process is a real validation of what we’re always trying to do with our picture books: Open Very Carefully is fun and original and really invites the child – and the parent – in.”

And here’s what Diana Gerald, Book Trust Chief Executive, has to say:

“Open Very Carefully is a lovely book for families to share and discuss how words and pictures work and we are delighted to include it in this year’s Booktime pack.

The Booktime programme is a fantastic way to support reading in the home and encourages parents and carers to share books with their children. We know that books help open children’s eyes, minds and hearts to different people and situations, and research also proves that children who love reading do better at school in all subjects. Best of all, reading together helps to build a strong and loving relationship with your child.”

You can find out more about Booktime here – and here’s a look inside Open Very Carefully:

Congratulations, Nicola!

The first Nosy Crow Illustrator Salon is almost here

There’s less than a fortnight to go until the very first Nosy Crow Illustrator Salon – and there are just a few tickets remaining!

On Monday September 14, we’ll be joining Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam illustrator Steven Lenton at The Book Club in Shoreditch for a live interview and audience Q&A, discussing Steven’s work and the art of illustration, along with drinks and a book signing. Our host and salonnière for the evening will be Nosy Crow’s founder and managing director, Kate Wilson.

It promises to be a fantastic night – if you’re a fan of illustration, or you’re an illustrator yourself, don’t miss it!

You can book your ticket here, or with the form below – and you can save money on a signed copy of any of Steven’s books by buying one now with your ticket.

We hope to see you there!

Our new books are out today!

It’s our September publication day – and one of our biggest months for new books EVER! We’re publishing some brilliant new books today for every age: here’s what you can find in shops now.

It’s publication day for two new books in Sebastien Braun’s fantastic Can You Say It Too? lift-the-flap novelty series – Can You Say It Too? Twit! Twoo! and Can You Say It Too? Jingle! Jingle! Sturdy flaps and simple texts combine with friendly artwork to make these ideal first books that are great for sharing with children who are just starting to talk.

 

The very first board book edition of the incredible, Waterstones Children’s Book Prize-winning Open Very Carefully, illustrated by Nicola O’Byrne with words by Nick Bromley, is out today. A crocodile has ended up in totally the wrong story, and his attempts to escape – by eating his way through the pages – make this a fantastic book for sharing and discussing how words and pictures work. Here’s a look inside:

We’ve also published the first board book edition of Pip and Posy: The Scary Monster by Axel Scheffler today. When Pip comes to Posy’s house wearing a scary monster mask, he gives Posy a bit of a fright. But when she works out it’s only Pip, she feels much better, and they share the biscuits she’s made. Hooray! Here’s a look inside the book:

We’re ENORMOUSLY excited to be publishing The Mystery of the Haunted Farm, the third fantastic picture book by Weasels and Nuts in Space creator Elys Dolan, today. Strange and spooky things are happening down on the farm, and Farmer Greg knows exactly who to call – Ghost-hunters! The three little pigs are the best guys for the job, a specialist team of Ghosthunters equipped with the latest in ghost-hunting gadgets. But when the Phantom Finder 5000 fails to recognise any paranormal activity AT ALL, the pigs realise all is not quite as it seems. . . and there’s certainly something suspicious about the mysterious chicken coup up on the hill . . . could that be a were puppy? Here’s a look inside the book:

Emma Dodd’s Wish… and Happy… are both out today – with flurries of foil throughout, and featuring tenderly-told rhyming texts and heartwarming illustrations exploring the loving relationship between animal parents and their babies, these beautifully designed, padded picture books are sure to become firm bedtime favourites. Here’s a look inside each book:

As well as the board book of The Scary Monster, the first paperback edition of Pip and Posy: The Bedtime Frog is also out today. Posy goes to stay at Pip’s house, and they have lots of fun together before bedtime. But just as they switch out the light, disaster strikes: Posy realises that she has forgotten her favourite frog toy… Here’s a look inside:

Today we’re re-publishing a new edition of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize-shortlisted picture book The Baby that Roared, written by Simon Puttock and illustrated by Nadia Shireen, with a beautiful new cover. Mr and Mrs Deer would love to have a baby, and one day their wish comes true: they find a little antlered bundle on their doorstep. But the baby keeps roaring… Here’s a look inside the book:

Zoe’s Rescue Zoo: The Wild Wolf Pup, the latest brilliant story in the phenomenally successful Zoe’s Rescue Zoo series written by Amelia Cobb and illustrated by Sophy Williams, is out today. These are a great introduction to chapter books for 5-7 year olds – brilliantly-written series fiction with a fantastic premise. Zoe loves living at her uncle’s rescue zoo because there’s always something exciting going on. And Zoe also has an amazing secret… She actually TALK to the animals. These books have wonderfully broad appeal – here’s a look inside The Wild Wolf Pup:

The Grunts on the Run, the fourth book in the hilarious The Grunts series, written by Philip Ardagh and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, is out today. Over the years, the Grunts have upset a lot of people. Some of them are angry and want REVENGE, even if it means breaking out of jail to get it. So Mr and Mrs Grunt and Sunny must go into hiding, and that means leaving behind Fingers, Sunny’s rather-hard-to-hide elephant. But their enemies – including some familiar faces – are hot on their (rather grubby) heels… Here’s a look inside the book:

It’s publication day for Witchmyth, by Emma Fischel – the second book in a bewitching series that delivers an ingeniously imaginative twist on witch fiction. Witchmyth sees Flo, the hero of Witchworld, pitched into battle with a dire creature the inhabitants of her world have long thought to be extinct – the terrible Haggfiend! Armed only with Old Magic, can Flo stop the dreadful threat to Witchworld? There’s only one way to find out. Let battle against the scary, hairy hag commence… Here’s a look inside the book:

And finally, The Palomino Pony on Parade by Olivia Tuffin is out today – the fifth wonderful Palomino Pony book. It’s wintertime, and Georgia is looking forward to a very merry Christmas with Lily, her gorgeous palomino pony. But when Lily is offered a starring role in a film, things get a bit complicated… Here’s a look inside the book:

Happy publication day to all of our authors and illustrators!

Mouse’s First Night at Moonlight School is shortlisted for a Scottish Children’s Book Award

The shortlists for the Scottish Children’s Book Awards have been revealed today, and we’re thrilled that Mouse’s First Night at Moonlight School, written by Simon Puttock and illustrated by Ali Pye, is shortlisted in the Bookbug Readers Category! The awards, run by Scottish Book Trust, are Scotland’s largest children’s book awards, and are voted for entirely by pupils in schools across the country.

You can watch a video of Simon reading from Mouse’s First Night here – and Scottish Book Trust have produced some fantastic school resources for the book, which you can find here.

Here’s a look inside Mouse’s First Night at Moonlight School:

The winners of the awards will be announced in March next year – good luck, Simon and Ali!

 

Tracey Corderoy and Steven Lenton launch the Cheltenham Literature Festival Children’s programme

Today’s blogpost is by Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam creators Tracey Corderoy and Steven Lenton, on launching the Cheltenham Literature Festival Children’s programme. 

Steven writes:

A few weeks ago Tracey and I were invited to launch the Cheltenham Literature Festival Children’s programme.

Of course we leapt at the chance – what a great opportunity to help raise awareness of such a great festival. I knew straight away that I wanted to do a lovely Shifty McGifty window display that could somehow involve the children of Cheltenham who came along for our event.

I got my thinking ears on and looked through our book to see which spread might make a nice display and this one leapt out at me:

I thought it would be great to base the interactive window on this dramatic climax – it includes all the main characters from the book and has lots of elements that could hang in a window.

Best of all, I realised that the children could help us to make the jewels, crowns, rings and tiaras that are falling – perfect!

We ordered large prints of the characters, placed them onto foam board, cut them out carefully (always slightly stressful, one slip and Kitty’s tail could be a goner!) and then all the elements were ready to place into the window.

Here I am placing the main sections of the design into the window starting with the police dogs and skyline.

Then in went Kitty floating in the centre of the window and the bespoke Shifty 2 bunting.

All the staff at Waterstones Cheltenham really threw themselves into the day and did a great job at promoting both our event and the festival.

The freshly new attired Shifty and Sam toys took pride of place atop their pyramid of books!

Once all the main elements were in it was time for me to draw the Shifty and Sam lettering onto the window – I’d never used chalk pens or written backwards before so I was a tad apprehensive, but it wasn’t so bad!

By this time, lots of children had started to come into the shop and already started to make crowns and even some bouncy spiders (the necklaces are the authors own!)


Then the window was complete, ready to keep adding more and more of the children’s creations – this is when I joined Tracey who was busy storytelling in the children’s department…

Tracey writes:

It’s always exciting to do something different and so doing a live, interactive window display was something I was very much looking forward to. I’ve done lots of events at Cheltenham Waterstones before and have always had such a great time, so I was thrilled when we were invited to help publicise the Children’s Festival.

Steve and I met last month to talk through the day and decide exactly what we’d both do. Obviously he was going to be fantastic at creating something brilliant in the window, and I was more than happy to entertain children and parents with stories, craft, and buckets of gems and glitter! Then the children accompanied me to the window to proudly hand over their decorated creations for Steve to display them falling from Kitty’s swag bag. Numerous bouncy spiders walked up the walls too, or dangled down twinkling with glitter!

The wonderful children’s booksellers were on hand throughout the day, thoroughly ‘living’ the event – dressing up, providing refreshments for me and Steve (in stripy black and white mugs!!) and ‘jewel sweets’ for parents and children, (thanks, Barbara – even though I wasn’t a parent or a child – the orange ones, I have to say, were particualary yummy!) and generally sparkling with their enthusiasm all day long! It felt like a real team effort, which was fantastic.

Here I am above reading Shifty 2: it’s the moment in the story when Sam is overjoyed to have found such a little star in Ruby. Little does he know what she has in store!

There are times when you read to children when you know you’ve captured their imagination; that they’re actually there with Shifty and Sam, in the moment. This was one of these times. The children filled in the words when I stopped and that was such a magical moment because you know that they’re captivated, but also that the rhymes are pitched just right! As I read, the crafting went on and it was great to see parents and children not hurrying off but wanting to sit a while and talk (and do yet more bouncy spiders!). When life is typically so busy, sharing such relaxed times with a book is such a treat.

Here I am with Kitty by the fish. Kitty liked that they were ‘gold’ fish! She can just about see through her mask here – the mask went on and off several times during the day as little ones played with her and generally had fun. Thanks to all who came along to see us! 

We had a wonderful day at Waterstones Cheltenham and we can’t wait to come back for our festival event on Sunday 11th of October!

Thank you, Tracey and Steven! You can take a look inside Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Cat Burglar below.

 

Mugs, t-shirts, babygros – get your very own Nosy Crow gifts!

One of the features of the new Nosy Crow website that I’m most pleased about is our gift shop. We’ve created a range of fantastic gifts, available exclusively through this website, including some beautiful, limited edition, signed and numbered giclee art prints by illustrators including Axel Scheffler and Rosalind Beardshaw. And there are also some wonderful Nosy Crow-branded gifts on offer!

Here’s the Nosy Crow babygro:

And here’s the Nosy Crow t-shirt (available in adult and children’s sizes):

And here’s the Nosy Crow mug:

And we have a Nosy Crow mug to give away!

If you’d like to win one of these fantastic gifts, just sign up to our newsletter below – we’ll pick a winner at random at the end of the week.

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We’ll be adding all sorts of new gifts (and prints by new illustrators) to the Nosy Crow shop over the coming weeks – keep an eye on this blog, or sign up to the newsletter, for more information.

Today’s your last chance to get 10 Nosy Crow apps for half price

It’s the last day of our Nosy Crow Super Pack bundle sale!

Today’s your last chance to get this bundle at a very special price, and save more than 50% on ten fantastic Nosy Crow apps.

You can now get ALL of these fantastic, award-winning story apps for the unbeatable price of $18.99/ £13.99 – down from $39.90/ £31.50!

The Three Little Pigs


Cinderella


Little Red Riding Hood


Jack and the Beanstalk


Axel Scheffler’s Flip Flap Farm


Axel Scheffler’s Flip Flap Safari


Bizzy Bear on the Farm


Bizzy Bear Builds a House


Rounds: Franklin Frog


Rounds: Parker Penguin

You can find the Nosy Crow Super Pack on the App Store here – and here’s what to look for:

 

And don’t forget – if you already own some of these apps, you’ll be able to buy this collection at an even lower price, with the “Complete my Bundle” option.

If you do buy the bundle, or any of our apps individually, we’d be incredibly grateful if you would consider leaving a review on the App Store – it makes a huge difference!

 

A new look for Nosy Crow

The Nosy Crow website has had a makeover!

Today we’ve re-launched our website for the first time since Nosy Crow began. Kate blogged a week ago about the old website (and why – as much as we loved it – it was starting to become a little creaky).

Much of the new site will stay the same – this blog, for instance, is not changing radically. And we wanted – broadly speaking – to keep hold of much of the look and feel of the old site. 

But we’ve also introduced some great new features, too. Hopefully, it will now be much easier to navigate and read – particularly on mobile devices. There’s better search functionality, so you should be able to find whatever you’re looking for. And we’re making things like our expanding programme of events more visible, with their own dedicated section of the site.

And we’ve also created the Nosy Crow shop!

You can now buy any of our books directly from us – with special discounts and rewards, early access to new titles, signed editions, and more. If you’d like to find out about some of the great things we’ll be offering customers of our shop, sign up to our Books Newsletter here.

And that’s not all! We’re also selling beautiful, exclusive, signed limited edition prints featuring artwork from some of your favourite illustrators, including Pip and Posy illustrator Axel Scheffler, Books Always Everywhere illustrator Sarah Massini, and Just Right for Two illustrator Rosalind Beardshaw (with many more to come over the next few weeks) – available exclusively on the Nosy Crow website.

 

You can also buy some fantastic Nosy Crow gifts, too, including t-shirts, mugs and babygros. This is the first time we’ve ever made these available to buy – and they’re only on sale on our website!

 

We’d love to hear what you make of the new site. If you have any thoughts or feedback, please don’t hesitate to get in touch – send an email to support@nosycrow.com.