Nosy Crow's Blog, page 150

Perfect Summer reading from Nosy Crow

It’s our August publication day, and we have some FANTASTIC new books out day – perfect Summer reading for every age! Here’s what you can find in shops now:

It’s publication day for two new books in the fantastic Sing Along With Me nursery rhyme board book series illustrated by Yu-Hsuan Huang. Each book comes with five slider mechanisms, and both an instrumental and vocal version of the nursery rhyme – simply scan the QR code on the first page for little ones to listen and sing along! Here’s a look at the two new Sing Along With Me books, The Wheels on the Bus and Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star:

Buy the book online.

Buy the book online.

Axel Scheffler’s Flip Flap Jungle is out today – the third book in the fantastic Flip Flap series, illustrated by Axel Scheffler. With its sturdy, split pages and spiral binding, 121 possible combinations, silly names and animal noises to make you giggle, this hilarious rhyming flip-flap book in a fun format is perfect for pre-schoolers. Little readers will adore flipping Axel’s animals again and again to see what crazy creatures they can create – and to find out what strange noises they make too!

Buy the book online.

And if you like the book, you’ll love the app! We’ve released an app version of Flip Flap Jungle, too – swipe any part of the screen to create new animals and hear the poem read aloud, with original sound effects, jungle music, and text highlighting. It’s available for the UNBEATABLE price of just 99¢/ 79p from the App Store – you can download it here.

Who Woke the Baby?, a BEAUTIFUL new picture book written by Jane Clarke and illustrated by Charles Fuge, is in shops today – irresistible illustrations, coupled with an incredibly satisfying cyclical text and repeated refrains, make this an unforgettable, read-along romp of a book, by the creators of the Gilbert the Great series. Here’s a look inside the book:



Buy the book online.

We’re publishing the first paperback edition of Pip and Posy: Look and Say by Axel Scheffler today – an engaging picture book with richly-detailed scenes, a conversational, friendly text and Axel’s characteristic touches of humour. Here’s a look inside:



Buy the book online.

There’s also a new paperback edition of Alison Murray’s fantastic picture book Princess Penelope and the Runaway Kitten out today – a tactile treat of a book with glitter on every page! Follow Princess Penelope as she runs through the palace and the palace grounds, including a maze, garden and the royal stables, chasing her naughty runaway kitten – the kitten is all tangled up with wool, which makes a crazy pink glitter trail of shapes behind her as she leaps and jumps through the book. Here’s a look inside:



Buy the book online.

And finally, it’s publication day for My Great Success and other Failures, the fourth hilarious book in Catherine Wilkins’ brilliant series. Jess’s cartoons are actually beginning to take off. A local comic store wants to use them in a campaign and she is in danger of becoming really rather famous (at school). This leads to some tensions with her friends. Why can’t people be happy for her? It’s not as if success is going to her head, or anything. Or actually that it’s anything like success at all… Here’s a look inside the book:



Buy the book online.

Congratulations to all of today’s authors and illustrators!

Choosing picture books: a guest post by Stacy Redmond

Today’s guest post is by Stacy Redmond, a mother who recently got in touch to tell us how much her daughter had enjoyed some of our pictures books.

For Katharine, booklover, precocious four year old, choosing a book is all about the cover. And more often than not that cover has glitter, a dog wearing a hat, or a fairy tale Princess doing something ‘super fantastic’. Whenever we enter a bookshop we are looking for stories, books with enough words to read but not enough to get tiresome.

When we entered the bookshop on our latest trip we made a bee line for a table set up with books that Katharine declared were ‘just the right size’ and by this she means big enough that the illustrations inside are large, colourful and enticing enough to keep her reading them over and over.

We pondered over several with Pirates but no. We saw others with more childish pictures but still no. There were underwater themes… all no. Then one of us said the title Cinderella’s Sister and the Big Bad Wolf and that got an ‘ooh’ in response. ‘Ooh’ from Katharine always means ‘that one!’. The cover had a girl in a pink dress with the danger of a lurking wolf, sold! We flicked through a couple of pages to spot a wolf in a frock, sold!

As the book shop was doing a promotional offer we decided to pick another book and beside Cinderella’s Sister was The Princess and The Giant. It was the wonderful illustration of the beanstalk that won Katharine over, she loves the tale of Jack and was interested to read a new variation of it. There is no Jack, but a Princess!? Peeping inside this book we spotted a tiny mouse in a tux, sold!

Ready for bed we decided to read The Princess and the Giant first. The flow of the words kept the story fun and easy for the adults to read out loud. Every tiny corner of each page had something to look at. For Katharine, her favourite thing was the Giant in his cloud pyjamas and the story time that put even the soldiers to sleep. Some fun repetition meant that she could laugh and join in reciting the book out loud.

Cinderella’s Sister and the Big Bad Wolf had her chuckling for hours. The very idea of a wolf in a dress was enough to set her off. The pages were beautifully presented and she loved being able to recognise the classic characters as they appeared. Pink dresses, a ball and a wolfish grin sucking on a bone were the things her smiling face declared to be her favourite parts.

When Katharine has enjoyed a book she asks for it over and over; within twelve hours we had already read these two several times. And when she memorises the words and repeats them we know we have a winner. We have been asked ‘So, you wanna be ugly, huh? You wanna be bad?” constantly before she roars in a big bad wolfish laugh.

An addition to the books is a free Stories Aloud smartphone audio book. Once Katharine is rolling her eyes at the adults attempts at the ‘FEE FI FO – oh, it’s you again’ voice we will give it a try.

Two beautifully illustrated and entertainingly written books; “Definitely keepers.” says Katharine.

Thank you so much, Stacy and Katharine, for sharing your review of Cinderella’s Sister and The Princess and the Giant! You can take a look inside both books below.

Buy the book online.

Buy the book online.

Come to the next Nosy Crow Reading Group for an evening at Sinclair’s!

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

After a Summer hiatus, our book club will be back in September, and we’ll be discussing a fantastic recent debut: 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.”

We’ll be meeting on Wednesday, September 23 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 book online from Waterstones here.

If you can’t make it here, we’d love you to join in online, either on Twitter with the #NCGKids hashtag, or in the comments section of our blog for the evening.

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

Are you coming to the first Nosy Crow illustrator salon?

We recently announced the launch of a brand new programme of events: the Nosy Crow Illustrator Salon. Every month, starting from September, we’ll feature a new artist, with a live interview, audience Q&A, book signing, and, of course, drinks. We’ve been overwhelmed by the response to the Salon – and our first event is nearly sold out!

In their coverage, The Bookseller mention Sarah McIntyre’s excellent #PicturesMeanBusiness campaign. We wanted to make this programme very specifically about illustrators – to give illustrators the opportunity to talk seriously about their work to an audience of peers, and to celebrate the amazing, exciting, inspirational contribution that illustrators make to books.

Our first Salon will be taking place – very appropriately – in the intimate surroundings of The Book Club in Shoreditch, on the evening of Monday September 14, and we’re enormously pleased that our guest will be Steven Lenton, illustrator of the fantastic Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam picture books, written by Tracey Corderoy, and author-illustrator of the amazing Princess Daisy and the Dragon (and the Nincompoop Knights).

After an interview with Kate there’ll be a Q&A with the audience, followed by a book signing and drinks.

And you can save money on a signed copy of any of Steven’s books by buying one now with your ticket. £10 will include entry to the salon, PLUS a signed paperback copy of any one of Steven’s picture books (Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam, Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Cat Burglar, or Princess Daisy). For £15 you can get TWO signed paperbacks, OR a signed hardback of your choice. You’ll also be able to buy copies of any of Steven’s books on the night itself.

Doors will open at 6.30pm for drinks, and the salon will start at approximately 7.00pm.

*Booking is essential – and tickets are almost gone. If you’d like to attend, you can book your place with form below, or with this link.

We hope to see you there!

There's just over a week left to apply for a Junior Designer position at Nosy Crow

We recently advertised for a Junior Designer, and there’s just over a week to apply: the closing date for applications is Sunday August 9.

This is a fantastic opportunity for a highly creative, talented, hardworking and bright individual to join our design team at Nosy Crow. It’s a full-time role and the successful applicant will be based in the London office of Nosy Crow in Borough.

Candidates will have the right to live and work in the UK and will have a minimum of between 18 months’ experience in graphic design, mostly if not exclusively in children’s publishing, and will have worked on picture books, and, ideally, on novelty books too. Proficiency in Indesign, Photoshop and Illustrator programmes, excellent proven book design and typographic skills, and an understanding and love of children’s books and children’s book illustration are essential. We’re also looking for good written and spoken communication skills, and the ability to work efficiently to a deadline.

The successful candidate will work on illustrated book projects (currently picture books and novelty books, but who knows what we might do in future?) from initial layouts all the way through to production, supporting the illustrator or the author/illustrator throughout the creative process. The junior designer will report to the Head of Design but will work closely with other members of the Nosy Crow team, particularly the editorial staff, to produce child-focused, parent-friendly, high-quality books.

We are a small, close team here at The Crow’s Nest working in a friendly, highly creative and professional environment and we need a team player who is willing to muck in, particularly during busy times.

If you would like to apply for the role, please send a CV and application letter, along with digital samples of your design work, to Stephanie Amster via email (stephanie [at] nosycrow [dot] com).

The most important thing is that we find the right person, so if you feel that you are, or will soon be, at designer level, then please contact us too: it may be that we can adapt the role to fit your level of experience.

The closing date for applications is Sunday August 9 at midnight (UK time).

The line-up for the November How to Write Picture Books Nosy Crow Masterclass

The How to Write Picture Books Nosy Crow Masterclass will be back for TWO new dates this Autumn, and today we are very pleased to reveal the line-up of speakers for our November event!

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 2015.

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 all of our attendees to receive one-on-one manuscript feedback.

Shifty McGifty and Slipper Sam author Tracey Corderoy will talk about writing picture books in both rhyme and prose.

Award-winning author-illustrator Benji Davies will talk about where he finds his inspiration, how he writes, and will share his perspective on making picture books as both an author and illustrator.

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!

The masterclass is taking place here at the Crow’s Nest – 10a Lant St, London, SE1 1QR – on Saturday November 7th.

It’s now completely sold out, and there is a very long waiting list for places, but if you’d like to add your name to it, either with the form below, or with this link, we can email you about future masterclass events.

And there are still a very small number of tickets remaining for our How to Write Children’s Fiction masterclass taking place in October! This event will focus more on writing older fiction (as opposed to picture books) – if you’re interested in attending, you can find out more here, and book a place with the form below:

Selling fiction abroad

Just a few editions of My Brother is a Superhero: from left to right, the UK, German, US, and Dutch versions of the book.

We’ve recently published a fantastic new book, My Brother is a Superhero, by David Solomons, which is climbing the charts of children’s books in the UK. This is brilliant news, of course, but I’m particularly chuffed about something else, and that’s the book’s foreign appeal: we’ve now sold it in ten foreign territories!

This is no mean feat: fiction for older children is hard to sell.

Kate’s written in the past about the specifics of book fairs, and how fast and to the point the appointments need to be.

Now, imagine you have half an hour with a publisher, and over 100 books in the catalogue that you might, potentially, want to talk to them about. With picture books and novelty books, the editor of a foreign publishing house can often judge on the first glance whether a book might fit their publishing programme. If they think the illustration style will suit their list, they can, too, read the whole book in a minute or two to see if they also like the story.

But when it comes to fiction, all the editors have to go on is the cover and the rights seller’s pitch: to really know whether the book is for them or not, they will need to read it (or ask their colleague to read it… or send it to a “reader”: someone who reads the submissions and then prepares a report for the publishing house, telling them what they liked and disliked about a particular title). And that, of course, takes time.

There’s a host of other reasons why selling fiction is tricky: the language and humour need to really speak to the children – there aren’t usually many illustrations to carry it through. And the realities of life described in the books need to be universal enough as not to be confusing when read by a child from another culture.

All this means that it’s always a great pleasure, and a great sense of achievement, to sell fiction to a broad range of territories. In the case of My Brother is a Superhero, we sold it to countries ranging from the US, through Hungary and Sweden, to China.

Here’s to many more foreign sales!

The best trains (and train journeys) in children's books

Last night I very excitedly started reading First Class Murder by Robin Stevens, the third book in the truly excellent Wells and Wong series for 9+ readers.

I think I must be going through a bit of a nostalgia kick, because last week I happened to re-read Emil and the Detectives, written by Erich Kästner and illustrated by Walter Trier, and I’ve just this week dug out my old copy of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken.

I’m ALSO in the middle of a re-read of Little Bits of Sky by S.E. Durrant, the incredible debut that we recently acquired.

And I have very hesitantly (yes, I have far too many books on the go at any one time) begun reading Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee, the early draft of To Kill A Mockingbird about which I have Many Reservations.

It occurred to me yesterday that, of course, the unifying theme in these five books is scenes set on trains. They all feature – with varying degrees of prominence – train journeys: First Class Murder is set on the Orient Express; Emil is the victim of a theft on the train to Berlin, setting the events of the rest of the novel in motion; The Wolves of Willoughby Chase opens with a terrific night-time train scene; the siblings at the heart of Little Bits of Sky take several train journeys throughout the course of the novel, carrying them gradually towards a new life; and Go Set A Watchman begins with an adult Jean Louise Finch – Scout – returning home by train to visit her elderly father, Atticus.

I’m not entirely sure of what makes train journeys such excellent plot vehicles (ba-dum tsch…) in children’s or adult books, but I’m not one to ignore my subconscious, and five – five! – books in a row with trains is NO COINCIDENCE if you ask me: evidently there is something uniquely appealing about trains as literary devices. Is it something about the enclosed space? The fixed destination? The enforced encounters with strangers?

Inevitably (I say “inevitably” because having to produce material for this blog every day means that the slightest sign of a trend in children’s books will leave me looking to turn it into 500 words) this had me thinking about other children’s books with train journeys.

The most famous train in children’s literature must be The Hogwarts Express, I suppose – and deservedly: it is the scene of some of the Harry Potter series’ most important and dramatic moments, from the first meeting of Ron, Harry and Hermione (I think…), to their first encounter with a Dementor (again, I’m going from memory here).

I’m not sure if it counts as a children’s book (I guess I read it when I was about 11 or 12, after watching the film), but my FAVOURITE train book is, without a doubt, Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, which left me desperately wanting to make the same journey from Istanbul, and provides inspiration for the setting of First Class Murder.

I suppose it’s also sort of cheating to list A Bear Called Paddington here, but I can’t help it: even if train journeys do not themselves play an integral part in the story, one particular train station certainly does.

And there are absolutely no shortage of trains in picture books, although my heart belongs to the incredibly dramatic Dinosaur Rescue! by Penny Dale, which features a speeding steam train in a truly pivotal role:

If you have a favourite train book that I’ve left out, please do share your favourites below or on Twitter – I would love to hear your suggestions.

Tune in to Down the Rabbit Hole tomorrow!

I have written MANY times about Down the Rabbit Hole on this blog before (here, here, and here). It is one of my great loves: a radio programme dedicated entirely to children’s books, led by unparalleled experts, and brimming with passion and enthusiasm. If I could I would give its hosts, Katherine Woodfine of Booktrust, Melissa Cox of Waterstones, and Louise Lamont of LBA, damehoods on the spot for their services to broadcasting.

The next episodes airs tomorrow, with excellent guests Anna James and Phil Earle – and I was very pleased to see from the Down the Rabbit Hole Twitter feed that one of the featured books will be Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Cat Burglar, written by Tracey Corderoy and illustrated by Steven Lenton!

The programme will be broadcast live at 5pm, and you can listen on the Resonance FM website here – it’ll be available on catch-up from the Resonance FM Mixcloud channel.

Here’s a look inside The Cat Burglar – the second FANTASTIC Shifty and Sam picture book:



Buy the book online.

If you’re a fan of Shifty and Sam, you may be interested in the inaugural Nosy Crow Illustrator Salon, featuring Steven Lenton. You can read more about the launch of the Salon here, and book tickets here, or with the form below:

Don’t forget to tune in to Resonance FM tomorrow – and if you’ve read Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Cat Burglar yourself, we’d love to hear what you made of it!

Join us for the very first Nosy Crow Illustrator Salon!

Today we are enormously pleased to be launching the Nosy Crow Illustrator Salon – a new series of evening events (for adults), dedicated to celebrating the importance of illustration.

Every month we’ll interview a new illustrator, discussing their work and the art of illustration. Our host and salonnière for the evening will be Nosy Crow’s founder and managing director, Kate Wilson.

And we’re incredilbly happy that our first guest will be Steven Lenton, illustrator of the fantastic Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam picture books, written by Tracey Corderoy, and author-illustrator of the amazing Princess Daisy and the Dragon (and the Nincompoop Knights).

Our first Salon will be taking place – very appropriately – in the intimate surroundings of The Book Club in Shoreditch, on the evening of Monday September 14.

After an interview with Kate there’ll be a Q&A with the audience, followed by a book signing and drinks.

And you can save money on a signed copy of any of Steven’s books by buying one now with your ticket.

£10 will include entry to the salon, PLUS a signed paperback copy of any one of Steven’s picture books (Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam, Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Cat Burglar, or Princess Daisy). For £15 you can get TWO signed paperbacks, OR a signed hardback of your choice.

You’ll also be able to buy copies of any of Steven’s books on the night itself.

Doors will open at 6.30pm for drinks, and the salon will start at approximately 7.00pm.

Booking is essential – get your ticket today!

You can book a ticket with form below, or by following this link.

We hope to see you there!