Nosy Crow's Blog, page 162
February 23, 2015
Win copies of our March books!
It’s time for our monthly book giveaway! If you’re a resident of the UK or Ireland, you can win any of our March titles simply by subscribing to our Books Newsletter and sending us an email with the book you’d like to win. Here’s what’s out next month – and what you can win:
We’re launching a fantastic new nursery rhyme board book series – Sing Along With Me, 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 our first two Sing Along With Me books, Old MacDonald Had A Farm and Row, Row, Row Your Boat:
We’ll be publishing the first two of Axel Scheffler’s wonderful Pip and Posy books, The Super Scooter and The Little Puddle, in a lovely new cased board book format – perfect for very young children. These gorgeous books have real heart (and real-life stories): The Little Puddle is the ideal aid to potty training, while The Super Scooter is a gentle introduction to the concepts of sharing, falling out and making up – all beautifully illustrated by Axel. Here’s a look inside each book:
You could win The Princess and the Giant, written by Caryl Hart and illustrated by Sarah Warburton – a gorgeous rhyming picture book about the power of bedtime stories. Here’s a look inside the book:
We’ll be publishing Funny Face, Sunny Face, written by Sally Symes illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw – a charming new picture books for the very young, featuring adorable animals, heavenly toddlers, and an exuberant rhyming text. It’s a JOY to read aloud – here’s a look inside:
March will see publication of the first paperback edition of Use Your Imagination by Nicola O’Byrne – an inventive, entertaining story about how an imaginative rabbit outwits a wolf and becomes the hero of his own adventure. Here’s a look inside:
You could win the new paperback edition of Littleland Around the World by Marion Billet. From New York to Australia, and lots of lands in between, this second Littleland picture book features a stunning scene on every spread and is perfect for developing vocabulary and exploring different cultures. Here’s a look inside:
Wigglesbottom Primary: The Toilet Ghost, written by Pamela Butchart and illustrated by Becka Moor, is out next month – a brilliant new series for newly-independent readers, with three hilariously-illustrated stories in each book. Here’s a look inside:
And finally, The Beneath, by S. C. Ransom, is up for grabs – a gripping, atmospheric thriller for 12+ year-olds from the author of the acclaimed Small Blue Thing trilogy. Here’s a look inside the book:
Pre-order the book online.
To win any of these books, all you have to do is subscribe to our books newsletter (if you’ve already subscribed you’re still eligible for this competition) and send an email to tom at nosycrow dot com with “Newsletter competition” in the subject heading and the title of the book you’d like to win, and your address, in the body of your email. So have a good think about which book you’d like to win (we can only accept one entry per person), and good luck – we’ll pick the winners at random next week.
February 20, 2015
A spot of Samba with Snow White
Last week we shared a very first look at our upcoming Snow White app in action.
The app is very nearly ready, and today we’re very pleased to share a second look at the app! Snow White and her prince are SUCH talented dancers…
Snow White will be available on the App Store next month – and it is truly brilliant. This is THE iconic fairy tale, re-told for a brand new audience, with stunning artwork from Ed Bryan, incredible animation, exciting and imaginative interactivity, original music and audio, and more. It is an absolutely timeless story, and this version is wonderful: it feels like a true contemporary classic; both modern and faithful to the story.
If you’re new to our fairy tale apps, then this is your lucky week: to celebrate the fourth birthday of our first app, The Three Little Pigs, we’ve just launched a brand new bundle with a special price for our entire fairy tale collection – you can find it on the App Store here.
Sign up to our newsletter and be the first to find out when Snow White is available.
February 19, 2015
What’s in a list?
Today’s guest blog comes from Louise Johns-Shepherd and Fatim Kesvani, Chief Executive and Marketing Manager at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education.
At the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) we believe that the use of high quality books within the reading curriculum is at the heart of a school’s successful approach to engage and support children to become motivated and independent readers. If children enjoy reading, they read more frequently and become better readers. If teachers and those who work in schools know about the best children’s literature available they will be able to share that with the children they teach and encourage them to be inspired as readers and motivated to read for themselves.
With this in mind we have recently launched the Core Books Online website, curated by our librarian, Ann Lazim. It is updated regularly with new titles and relevant recommendations, contains ready-created booklists and gives users the freedom to create wish-lists and download free teaching resources to support teaching with texts in the classroom. It lists books which are engaging for children for a variety of reasons and cover a range of genres – poetry, picture books (with and without words), information texts, chapter books, modern stories, traditional tales and famous classics. The books are chosen because they support children learning to read and provide memorable and positive reading experiences.
The website’s popularity has surpassed our expectations with 1600 registered users since the launch in November (which involved no advertising campaign or promotion).
Core Books Online had a humble start. First created as a simple, black and white photocopy back in 1997, it supported busy teachers by letting them know about the very best available children’s literature. It was updated every two years and teachers had to purchase it.
This cult publication soon grew in popularity due to ‘word of mouth’ and recommendations from teachers-to-teachers on forums such as the TES.
Over the years we have gained an increasingly loyal customer base and in response to this, we have been adapting our support for a generation of primary teachers who have never been so busy.
Near the top of our list of resources that we knew would be even more valuable if updated was The Core Book List. We know how important it is to ensure that children are developing the habits and the skills that enable them to read for their own pleasure but the downside of updating this paper publication every two years was that so many great new titles couldn’t be added. There is significant research that has shown us how important it is that teachers are knowledgeable about children’s literature. We know that when teachers develop their own experience, preferences and enthusiasms in reading, their personal engagement and involvement as adult readers helps them to be very clear about the nature of reading and the experience of being a reader. We had so much that we wanted to add to support teachers to develop their own reading experience and share which again we couldn’t add to a printed publication.
Getting the Core Book List online was our aim and generous support from the Man Charitable Trust meant we could offer it as a free resource for teachers – and as it is online it can also be accessed by parents, librarians and anybody else who is interested in children’s literature.
Core Books Online has now evolved and meets our commitment to support teachers with resources they actually need. The website houses a massive selection of carefully chosen texts for teachers to use when they are developing collections for their classrooms and schools as part of their reading and literacy programmes. We are able to keep it up to date; adding great new books as soon as they are published. We can include supporting teaching sequences for selected texts for download and ensure that we have useful and relevant information available to teachers all the time.
As a charity, we’ve remained true to our mission: dedicated to helping teachers to teach all aspects of literacy. We particularly emphasise the importance of books and literature in enabling children to become confident, happy and enthusiastic readers and writers, with all the benefits this brings. This has naturally brought about opportunities to reach teachers on a national scale – we are a World Book Day Partner, a National Poetry Day Partner and part of the National Literacy Forum.
Developing readers and dedicated teachers deserve Core Books Online. Teachers, librarians and parents can now freely access it knowing they will find a treasure trove of books that children will want to read, re-read, savour and remember. We are delighted to be able to spread the word about it and hope that many more people will join the current 1600 registered users encouraging a new generation of engaged children who love to read for pleasure.
Thank you, Louise and Fatim!
February 18, 2015
Nosy Crow is shortlisted for three (or four) 2015 Independent Publishers Guild Awards
We’re really proud to discover today that Nosy Crow has been shortlisted for all three of the Independent Publishers Guild awards for which we entered:
Independent Publishers Guild Children’s Publisher of the Year, for which Bloomsbury Children’s Books, Walker Books and Usborne (yes, all much bigger, and yes, all much more established than Nosy Crow, hey ho) are also shortlisted.
Nielsen Digital Marketing Award, for which How2Become and Edward Elgar are also shortlisted, and which we won last year.
Ingram Content Group Digital Publishing Award, for which Bloomsbury’s Academic and Professional Division and Edward Elgar are also shortlisted.
We are one one of three publishers leading the field with three shortlistings – the others are Bloomsbury and Edward Elgar.
Actually, we sort of have a fourth shortlisting: we’re hugely proud that Tom Bonnick, our Business Development Manager, has been shortlisted for the Independent Publishers Guild Young Independent Publisher of the Year for the second year running. His competition is Sam Hutchinson of B Small Publishing and Hajera Memon of Shade 7 Publishing.
We have had an extraordinary run of luck at the IPG awards in our short history.
In 2014, we won the Independent Publishers Guild Digital Marketing Award and the Independent Publishers Guild International Achievement Award.
In 2013, we won the Independent Publishers Guild Children’s Publisher of the Year Award and the Independent Publishers Guild International Achievement Award.
In 2012, we won the Independent Publishers Guild Children’s Publisher of the Year Award, the Independent Publishers Guild Innovation Award, and the 2012 Independent Publishers Guild Newcomer’s Award.
It’s such a boost to all of us in the Crow’s Nest to have all our efforts acknowledged in the context of the independent publishing community. Whatever happens on the night, though, we have to thank our supportive customers around the world, whether they’re publishers, bookshops, wholesalers, librarians, or mums, dads and other grown-ups who buy our books for children. And, of course, we have to thank our brilliant and hard-working authors and illustrators, without whom we don’t have books to sell.
The full list of IPG award shortlistings is here.
Nosy Crow Titles Featured in the Read for My School Competition 2015
Today’s guest post is by Shiraz Engineer, Programme Coordinator at Booktrust, on the Read for My School competition.
Now in its third year, the Read for My School competition is well on its way to becoming bigger and better than ever before.
Booktrust is really proud to run this free national schools reading competition with Pearson, supported by the DfE. All schools have to do to take part is register, and then encourage their pupils to read as many books as they can! It’s all about reading for pleasure, and getting whole schools excited about books and reading. What could be more exciting than that?
The competition challenges children in Years 3-8 in England to read as many books as they can across two months of the spring term. This doesn’t seem so difficult when you look at the incentives – prizes are available for pupils and for schools at regional and national levels as well as through regular prize draws. A big thank you goes out to our generous prize partners: the Beano, Pottermore, Monsoon Accessorize, Penguin Schools, BFI and the Society of London Theatres. We are extremely lucky to have them all on board!
To help pupils find something great to read, a Recommended Reads list has been carefully selected by a panel of literacy experts. The list includes two Nosy Crow titles – The Spy Who Loved School Dinners by Pamela Butchart, and Space Pirates: Treasure by Jim Ladd. Both of these titles were very well received by the panel and will be an excellent addition to the list. Speaking on The Spy Who Loved School Dinners, panellist and Senior Lecturer of Education at the University of Winchester Liz Chamberlain said, “This is a charming and funny story with strong characters who will appeal to both girls and boys, and a storyline which will keep the pages turning.”
All pupils taking part also have access to a free digital library of over 150 titles which, this year, they can enjoy on their iPads and other mobile devices. Who knows – perhaps the experience of curling up with an entire library in one’s lap will inspire a new generation of e-reader fans.
In 2014, over 850,000 books were read by over 200,000 participants. This year, Read for My School hopes that pupils will read 1 million books. Since the competition kicked off on 19 January, pupils across the nation have already read a staggering 370,000 titles and still counting!
On 21st January, to celebrate the launch of Read for My School, we were joined at Stroud Green Primary School by children’s author Jeremy Strong and Nick Gibb MP, an eager supporter of the competition. Mr Gibb took great pleasure in reading one of his favourite books to pupils in the library, and shortly afterwards, Years 3-6 were treated to a reading by Jeremy Strong from his hilarious new book Romans on the Rampage. The school hall was full of laughter, especially during the Q&A session when Jeremy treated everyone to an anecdote about a child in a hospital who accidentally had a rubber glove superglued to his head – by the doctor!
Read for My School has a number of famous supporters including children’s author Liz Pichon, as well as less likely backers – namely ex-England football pro Frank Lampard! In an exclusive interview, Lampard said, “There’s a good range of books on this year’s list which is vital… To any child, I would say just pick up a book that grabs you and don’t worry what it is. Eventually, you will find something that you love.”
Read for My School 2015 runs until 20 March. Schools can still register to take part, start reading and be in for a chance to win some fantastic prizes both during and after the competition. If you’re a teacher and wish to register, just visit www.readformyschool.co.uk, click ‘Register as an Educator’ and follow the instructions on screen.
We’re really pleased to have Nosy Crow’s The Spy Who Loved School Dinners and Space Pirates: Treasure on our list. If you and your school are taking part in the competition, good luck and we hope you’re having lots of fun reading!
February 17, 2015
The Three Little Pigs is four years old!
Today is a bit of a milestone for Nosy Crow: The Three Little Pigs, our very first app, is exactly four years old. It’s an app that we’re ENORMOUSLY proud of, and one that we think looks and feels as innovative, beautiful and interactive as it did on the day that it launched.
And so to celebrate The Three Little Pigs’ fourth birthday, we’ve created a new App Store bundle – you can now buy a collection of all four of our fairy tale apps at a special discounted price.
Here’s the bundle on the App Store.
And here’s a very quick look at each of our fairy tale apps:
First there was The Three Little Pigs:
Then came Cinderella:
Then there was Little Red Riding Hood:
And then came Jack and the Beanstalk!
If you already own some of our fairy tale apps, you can choose the “Complete my Bundle” option and still pay less than you normally would – and if you own ALL of our fairy tales, why not share the news with someone who hasn’t tried them yet!
Our fifth incredible fairy tale app, Snow White, will be out next month – you can take a very first look at it here, and if you’d like to be kept informed of the app’s release, you can sign up to our apps newsletter here.
Happy birthday, Three Little Pigs!
February 16, 2015
Join in with this week's Five Children on the Western Front reading group
The Nosy Crow Reading Group is taking place this week – and we’d love for you to join in!
We’ll be meeting on Wednesday, February 18 at 6.30pm, here at the Nosy Crow offices – 10a Lant Street, London, SE1 1QR – to discuss Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders, a new sequel to E Nesbit’s classic Five Children and It. Winner of the Costa Children’s Book of the Year award, The Guardian called Five Children on the Western Front “a skilful and deeply moving piece of work: poignant, beautifully judged, not a crass pastiche but a respectful homage that recycles its source material to pack a powerful anti-war punch.”
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. How heavily do you think Five Children on the Western Front relies on an existing knowledge of E. Nesbit’s books? Does it ‘work’ as a standalone novel?
2. What role does the Psammead play?
3. How well do the fantasy and adventure motifs of the book sit alongside the World War One setting?
4. What did you make of the ‘voice’ of the novel? Did it feel authentic?
You can buy the book online here, and there are still some places if you’d like to join us – if you’re interested, you can book a place with the form below. 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.
Event registration for Nosy Crow Reading Group: Five Children on the Western Front powered by Eventbrite
We hope you can join us!
February 13, 2015
Happy Valentine's Day from Snow White and Nosy Crow!
Today we’ve got something INCREDIBLY exciting to share – the very first look at our upcoming Snow White app in action!
We’re celebrating Valentine’s Day a day early, with a wedding between a charming prince and Snow White herself – and they’ve got some truly excellent dance moves…
And that’s not all! There’s a SECOND Snow White video that we’ll share tomorrow, exclusively to our apps newsletter subscribers – so if you’d like to see another dance between Snow White and the prince, sign up to the newsletter here.
Snow White will be available on the App Store next month – and it is truly brilliant. The fifth app in our series, this is THE quintessential fairy tale, re-told for a brand new audience, with stunning artwork from Ed Bryan, incredible animation, exciting and imaginative interactivity, original music and audio, and more. It is extraordinary, and we can’t wait to share it with you.
Sign up to our newsletter and be the first to find out when the Snow White has been launched.
February 11, 2015
Cowgirl by G R Gemin makes the 2015 Waterstones Children's Book Prize shortlist
We’re feeling extremely chipper this grey February morning, now that the news is out that G R Gemin’s Cowgirl has been shortlisted in the books for 5-12 year-olds category of the 2015 Waterstones Children’s Book Prize.
We are so pleased for author Giancarlo, and we are very happy that new and emerging writers is the area on which Waterstones continues to focus its award attention: to have a retailer with Waterstones’ scale and clout behind an author or illustrator can really transform their UK sales, and a Waterstones Prize shortlisting or win has value in terms of selling translation rights too, helping to validate a publisher’s decision to publish new talent in the eyes of overseas publishers.
Nosy Crow is hugely keen to champion new writing and illustration talent too: G R Gemin, Nicola O’Byrne (Open Very Carefully won the 2014 Waterstones Children’s Illustrated Book Prize), Helen Peters (The Secret Hen House Theatre was shortlisted for the 2013 Waterstones Children’s Book Prize), Elys Dolan (Weasels was shortlisted for the 2014 Waterstones Children’s Book Prize), S C Ransom, Paula Harrison, Catherine Wilkins, Steven Lenton, Pamela Butchart and Olivia Tuffin all launched their children’s book writing and/or illustration career with books published by Nosy Crow over the last four years, and we’ve been involved in the early days of other authors and illustrators too.
So we are delighted that Cowgirl has been shortlisted in this year’s Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. It’s tough to take the leap and launch new writing talent, particularly in a world in which so much of the market is taken up by either long-established names or authors from David Walliams to Zoe Sugg who are primarily known for things other than their children’s book writing. But from the moment we read the Cowgirl manuscript, we loved Gemma’s voice (it’s a first-person narrative) and were drawn into her world (a run-down housing estate on the outskirts of a Welsh town within striking distance of glorious Welsh countryside, and, specifically, the farm on which schoolmate Kate, scathingly known as “Cowgirl”, lives). It’s a book about the redemptive powers of friendship and nature. And it’s funnier than I’ve made it sound, thanks to Giancarlo’s fine ear for dialogue. It’s been longlisted for the UKLA Book Award and the Branford Boase Award. It’s a Carnegie Medal nominated book too.
We’re also delighted to see Anne Booth’s novel, Girl With A White Dog, shortlisted: we’re publishing her first picture book, The Fairiest Fairy, later this year.
The full shortlists for the the awards can be found here – the winners will be announced at the end of March. You can read the opening of Cowgirl below, or order the book online here.
The Beneath is here
Next month we’re very excited to be publishing a gripping, atmospheric thriller for 12+ year-olds: The Beneath, by S.C. Ransom, author of the acclaimed Small Blue Thing trilogy.
And yesterday, the first finished copies of the book arrived in the office – they look fantastic!
This is a fantastically dark, imaginative, and absorbing story that will hold on to you until the last page – perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere or China Mieville’s Un Lun Dun.
It’s an ordinary school day, but Lily is about to step into a nightmare. The girl rushing out of the Tube tunnel tells a crazy story about an underground community and a charismatic leader with an evil plan. How can Lily trust her? It’s only when Lily finds herself in the labyrinth beneath London that she learns the horrific truth – about the Farmer, the Crop and about herself. You’ll never be able to take the Tube again without wondering what lies beneath…
Here’s an early look at the book’s opening chapter:
And if you’d like to win an early advance copy, head over to the @NosyCrowBooks Twitter feed – we’re running a special giveaway! Just RT this tweet to be in with a chance of winning a copy:
RT to win a copy of THE BENEATH by scransom</a> - out in March! Pre-order: <a href="http://t.co/xxB1fE2Jel">http://t.co/xxB1fE2Jel</a> <a href="http://t.co/4v7hwO4Tyn">pic.twitter.com/4v7hwO4Tyn</a></p>— Nosy Crow Books (NosyCrowBooks) February 11, 2015
The Beneath will be published on March 5 – you can pre-order it online here.
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