Nosy Crow's Blog, page 166

Win copies of next year's books!

Whilst I have every sympathy for those of you are still coming to terms with the fact that Christmas is only THREE DAYS AWAY, we are already looking ahead to next year, and our biggest publishing programme yet. We have some absolutely incredible books out in 2015 – and you can win copies of them all! Our monthly books newsletter competition is back, and January will be one of our busiest publication months ever: we’re kicking off the year with a bang. Here’s what’s out next month – and what you can win!

We’ll be publishing two AMAZING new Bizzy Bear books by Benji Davies – Deepsea Diver and Dinosaur Safari. These are (seriously) my two favourite books in the series so far: the subjects are perfect and the colours and detail on every spread are just brilliant – toddlers will love them.

Pre-order the book now.

Pre-order the book now.

Continuing our dinosaur theme, we’re also publishing Dinosaur Rocket! by Penny Dale. Regular readers of this blog will know how much I love this book: it is one of my favourite picture books of next year, and my absolute favourite in Penny’s dinosaur series so far. It is a masterpiece, and perfect for 2+ year olds. Here’s a look inside:



Pre-order the book now.

January will also see publication of Love Always Everywhere, illustrated by Sarah Massini – a joyful, inspirational book celebrating love in its many forms. Whether quiet, loud, shy or proud, the lyrical text champions love for a faithful pet, a best friend or simply your most favourite person in the WHOLE world. Heart-warming and tender, with charming artwork from Massini, this is a perfect book to share and read aloud. Here’s a look inside:



Pre-order the book now.

We’re INCREDIBLY excited to be publishing beautiful, physical editions of the first two of our award-winning fairytale apps next month: The Three Little Pigs and Cinderella, illustrated by the amazing Ed Bryan. Gorgeously designed, and packaged with delightful detail and drama, these are books to treasure and enjoy over and over again. Here’s a look inside the first two books:

Pre-order the book now.

Pre-order the book now.

And we’ll also be publishing the first paperback edition of Because I Love You, written by David Bedford and illustrated by Rebecca Harry. It’s bedtime for Little Bear, but as his mummy tucks him into bed, he wonders if he’s had enough love that day. So Mummy Bear takes Little Bear on a journey, reminding him of all that they’ve done that day – of the laughter, the discovery, the joy – but most of all of the love they’ve shared. And Little Bear goes to bed happy, warm – and loved. This is an absolutely charming story, beautifully illustrated (and foiled throughout!), about a mother’s love – here’s a look inside:



Pre-order the book now.

For newly-independent readers, next month we’re publishing Zoe’s Rescue Zoo: The Pesky Polar Bear, the seventh brilliant story in the phenomenally successful Zoe’s Rescue Zoo series by Amelia Cobb. 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 lovely recent review by a 10-year-old-boy who loves the series. And here’s a look inside the book:



Pre-order the book now.

We’ll be publishing My Headteacher is a Vampire Rat by Pamela Butchart – the hilarious third book in the sequence begun with the Red House Children’s Book Award-shortlisted Baby Aliens Got My Teacher and continued with the Blue Peter Book Award-shortlisted The Spy Who Loves School Dinners. This time, Izzy and her friends are SHOCKED when they meet their new head teacher. He has black hair, wears a cape, and has horrible, wormy lips. One time, they even hear him hissing in his office, and sunlight makes him go bright red. But it’s when he bans garlic bread on Italian Day that they KNOW. Their new head teacher is a vampire and his army of vampire rats are going to take over the school. EEEK! These are brilliantly funny books for 6 – 9 year olds – and they capture school life PERFECTLY. Here’s a look inside My Headteacher is a Vampire Rat:



Pre-order the book now.

And finally, next month will see the release of Emily’s Dream by Holly Webb – the fourth and final novel in a fantastic sequence of novels about four friends who want to make the world a better place – entertaining, inspirational and ideal for 8+ year olds. Emily loves animals. But she comes from a big family and there’s no room for any pets. So she decides to help at the local animal-rescue centre instead. But the rescue centre is under threat. Can Emily and her friends make sure all the animals don’t end up homeless? Here’s a look inside the book:



Pre-order the book now.

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@nosycrow.com with “Newsletter competition” in the subject heading and the title of the book you’d like to win 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 in January.

And now… back to some frantic last-minute Christmas preparations!

Festive celebrations at Nosy Crow

On Monday the Crow’s Nest underwent its annual transformation (largely thanks to the beautiful – and laws-of-physics-defyingly-long – paper chains made by our design team), in order for us to mark the end of the year with an evening of festive drinks and home-made canapés. It was as lovely an evening as one could imagine, shared with many of our friends: authors, illustrators, agents, booksellers, journalists, librarians, designers, and many more. And here, by popular demand, are some of the photos taken on the night:

Helen Oxenbury, Nosy Crow Head of Picture Books Louise Bolongaro, John Burningham, and Nosy Crow Managing Director Kate Wilson

My Brother is a Superhero author David Solomons and Nosy Crow Editorial Director Camilla Reid

Pip and Posy illustrator Axel Scheffler and Follow that Car illustrator Stephan Lomp

Nosy Crow Fiction Editor Kirsty Stansfield and The Spy Who Loved School Dinners author Pamela Butchart

Literary Assistant Alice Sutherland-Hawes, The Princess and the Peas illustrator Sarah Warburton, Louise Bolongaro, and agent Hilary Delamere

Bizzy Bear illustrator Benji Davies and Superhero Dad author Timothy Knapman

Baby and Me illustrator Emma Dodd, Playbook Castle paper engineer Corina Fletcher, and designer Giselle Gimblett

Kate Wilson and Andy Stanton

A full album of photos will be posted on our Facebook page later today. And from all of us at Nosy Crow, merry Christmas!

My first Crow Christmas

With the festive chill of December well and truly in the air, the Crows of Lant Street set out to throw another unforgettable Christmas party. Talk of canape recipes, party playlists, and the all important party decoration idea floated around the office. The Crows were determined to transform their Nest into a magical winter wonderland…

We thought that it would be great if this year, we could fill the office ceiling with sweeping hand made white paper chains. After ordering a heap of paper and double sided tape from our stationery supplier, we were set. Zoe and I headed to Steph’s house in north London, to make our vision into a reality. We arrived at around 6:15, and after spending the first half an hour pecking away at a very festive cheese board, we set down our plates, picked up our scalpels, paper and tape, and got chaining.

We made two difference sizes of paper chains, each made by cutting strips of A3 pieces of paper, rolling them around into circles and securing with double sided tape, after chaining onto the next piece in the chain. We had a wonderful evening and were very pleased with what we had created.

After transporting the paper chains into the office, we hung them the morning of the party and they looked great teamed with our Fairy lights and decorative trees. The party was a huge success, the paper chains looked great, the canapes were delicious and the prosecco was flowing, everybody had a wonderful time.

My first Christmas as Crow was truly magical. Not only does Nosy Crow know how to throw a wonderful Christmas party, we also have a lovely Christmas Lunch, and eat lots of biscuits, chocolate, and of course, delicious cakes throughout the Christmas period.

With Christmas just over a week away, the Christmas spirit has well and truly set in. So from me and all at Nosy Crow, I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas, and that you eat as much cake and chocolate as we have these last few weeks! Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Holiday reading: the books that we'll be giving and receiving this Christmas

This blogpost is becoming something of a yearly (and not terribly imaginative, but that needn’t stop anyone…) tradition: here are some of the books we’re giving (and hoping to receive!) this Christmas. If you’re stuck for ideas, there’s a pretty wide selection here – something for almost everyone.

Imogen Blundell, Head of Operations:

I can’t possibly tell you exactly what I’ve bought in case my family read the blog! I have bought a few cookery books and coffee table type books though. I don’t really have any books that I’m hoping to receive but I have a good idea that I’ll receive a cookery book or two and maybe something to do with DIY! We aren’t big on fiction at Christmas time in my family; it’s all about non-fiction.

Louise Bolongaro, Head of Picture Books and Non-Fiction:

I am very much hoping to receive a copy of Mark Herald’s nature book as I just love looking at it.

Tom Bonnick, Business Development Manager:

As with last year, and echoing Imogen’s concern, I cannot reveal ALL of the books that I’ve bought, because my mother reads this blog. That caveat aside, some of the books I’ll be giving are The Miniaturist, by Jessie Burton (now available as a lovely new edition from Waterstones), Love, Nina, by Nina Stibbe, Letters of Note (which I think I’ll probably be giving as a Christmas present for the rest of my life…), Texts from Jane Eyre, by Mallory Ortberg, Yes Please, by Amy Poehler, Say Cheese: The Original Collection of Cheese Jokes (yes, really), and lots and lots of Bizzy Bear books for my niece. And I would LOVE to receive the new Ottolenghi book, Plenty More, and Probably Nothing, by Matilda Tristram.

Ellie Corbett, Publishing Assistant

Books I’m giving:

Mug Cakes: Ready in Five Minutes in the Microwave, by Lene Knudsen (for my housemate who is a student, and who therefore spends a lot of time thinking about adventurous things to do with a microwave)

Are Men Obsolete? by Caitlin Moran, Camille Paglia, Hanna Rosin and Maureen Dowd

The Things that Nobody Knows: 501 Mysteries of Life, the Universe and Everything, by William Hartston

And I can’t really mention any more presents, because since I got the job, my parents have been religious Nosy Crow blog readers, and I don’t want to ruin any surprises!

Books I’m hoping to get:

Not That Kind of Girl, by Lena Dunham

Letters to a Friend, by Diana Athill

The Miniaturist, by Jessie Burton (I know, I’m so late to the party)

Victoria England, Assistant Editor:

This year I will be giving the Timeout Cycle London guide to an avid city cyclist, and for someone who has only read one book this year (The Cuckoo’s Calling), I will be gift-wrapping them a copy of The Silkworm. I am hoping to receive the luminous Once Upon an Alphabet by Oliver Jeffers.

Dom Kingston, Head of Publicity:

Getting-wise, I want some books on hen-care because I’m GETTING MY CHICKENS THIS SPRING! I can’t wait! And that biography about Princess Louise (Queen Victoria’s ‘fast’ daughter) is out in PB, so I’ve dropped some heavy hints about that.

Giving-wise my mum finds reading hard after her stroke, so I’m getting her a set of ‘Mapp & Lucia’ and C.J. Sansom audiobooks.

Kirsty Stansfield, Fiction Editor:

Books I am giving:

Molesworth

Does My Goldfish Know Who I am?

How to Write Everything/David Quantick

How to Draw Animals

Top Gear sticker book (sorry)

Fluff the Farting Fish

Books I want:

That one by Amy Poehler

Something like The Goldfinch – any suggestions?

Ruth Symons, Editor:

I have asked for The Miniaturist. I’m giving some Paddington as I was raised on it (I love that bear), some Monsieur Pamplemousse (carrying on the Michael Bond theme), and The Empty Stocking by Richard Curtis and Rebecca Cobb (along with plenty of Nosy Crow books, of course).

I’m also giving a few not very exciting non-fiction books for my in-laws including Tiny Stations for my train loving father-in-law, I Never Knew That About England’s Country Churches and some of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year books too.

Kate Wilson, Managing Director:

I have bought so many books it is ridiculous, as always.

The books I have bought for children are:

Animalium by Jenny Broom

A Year of Stories and Things To Do by Shirley Hughes

A First Book of Nature by Nicola Davies

The Big Book Of Beautiful Babies by David Elwand

Paul Smith for Richard Scarry Cars and Trucks and Things That Go

For my own teenagers’ stockings I have bought:

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

Texts from Jane Eyre by Mallory Ortberg

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

… and I know I have picked up other stuff over the year that I will discover in the Secret Present Box

For grown-ups I have bought:

London: The Information Capital: 100 Maps and graphics that will change how you live (3 copies)

Talking to Terrorists by Jonathan Powell

Hack Attack by Nick Davies

Moranthology (4 copies)

Persiana by Sabrina Ghayour

For me, I have bought Listen to Your Child which is about young children’s language development, something I find absolutely fascinating and which is useful professionally. This adds to a collection of print books and ebooks that I will be hoping to get through this Christmas.

I am pretty sure there are more…

We’d love to hear the books that you’re giving (and hoping to receive) this Christmas – do let us know in the comments underneath this post!

Dinosaur Rocket: "I just died and went to heaven"

Next month we’re publishing a picture book that I’ve been looking forward to for AGES: Dinosaur Rocket by Penny Dale, the fourth book in Penny’s incredible dinosaur sequence. I’ve written about this book (and the previous ones) before, and I love it SO much: it is a sort of picture book platonic ideal for me. Dinosaurs! And Space! It’s so brilliant.

And one person who I knew would also love the book is Ben Johncock. Ben’s an author who has expressed his admiration for Penny’s books in the past, and has also written a space book of his own (for adults), Burning Blue, which will be published by Picador USA in July next year. This was Ben’s reaction when I sent him the cover for Dinosaur Rocket in September:

I JUST DIED AND WENT TO HEAVEN. And there were dinosaurs there. In rockets. RT tombonnick</a>: <a href="http://t.co/nKRgyssdsU">pic.twitter.com/nKRgyssdsU</a></p>&mdash; Benjamin Johncock (benjohncock) September 16, 2014

So when advance copies of the book arrived in the office a couple of weeks ago, there was one with Ben’s name on it. And I was THRILLED to see his reaction on Twitter:

And speaking of NosyCrow</a>.. LOOK AT THIS LITTLE BEAUTY!! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/dinosaurrocket?src=hash">#dinosaurrocket</a> <a href="http://t.co/prxfaTZN87">pic.twitter.com/prxfaTZN87</a></p>&mdash; Benjamin Johncock (benjohncock) December 10, 2014

Nothing escaped Ben’s notice – and it’s the small, perfect details that make this book so special:

I love this book so much! LOOK AT HIS LITTLE FACE! NosyCrow</a> (Thank you, thank you <a href="https://twitter.com/tombonnick">tombonnick!) pic.twitter.com/lUK5N45bKG

— Benjamin Johncock (@benjohncock) December 10, 2014

I think this speaks for itself:

And just look at Penny Dale's gorgeous illustrations – so rich with texture. pic.twitter.com/pmScS7WAXR

— Benjamin Johncock (@benjohncock) December 10, 2014

And of course, it was very gratifying to see someone take the rocket science so seriously (particularly as Penny is INCREDIBLY diligent in her research for every book):

I note that Penny decided to go with Direct Ascent, rather that Lunar Orbit Rendezvous… NosyCrow</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/tombonnick">tombonnick pic.twitter.com/dJiQZE3ixv

— Benjamin Johncock (@benjohncock) December 10, 2014

But then, even NASA would struggle to get 3 dinos in the LEM, I guess. NosyCrow</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/tombonnick">tombonnick

— Benjamin Johncock (@benjohncock) December 10, 2014

But none of that distracts from the sheer joy of reading about dinosaurs going into SPACE:

LOOK AT THESE GUYS! pic.twitter.com/5epK2GJjON

— Benjamin Johncock (@benjohncock) December 10, 2014

And this was, I think, a very fitting note for Ben to end his Twitter review on:

Okay, last one (for now) – this is a beautiful dino touch. Kudos, NosyCrow</a>, kudos. <a href="http://t.co/lVKp3Lklz6">pic.twitter.com/lVKp3Lklz6</a></p>&mdash; Benjamin Johncock (benjohncock) December 10, 2014

(With just one more note on astronaut etiquette):

(Although technically astronaut/test pilots were not types given to such introspection… but I'll forgive those dinos this once :) )

— Benjamin Johncock (@benjohncock) December 10, 2014

And the book had such a profound effect that Ben carried on tweeting about it the next day:

Dinosaurs + rockets = the perfect marriage of beast and machine.

— Benjamin Johncock (@benjohncock) December 11, 2014

I think this might be one of my favourite reviews for one of our books, ever. Thank you very much, Ben, and thank you, Penny!

Dinosaur Rocket will be out in January and you can pre-order it online now.

Christmas fun with Nosy Crow Jigsaws

We’ve just released a Christmas update for our free Nosy Crow Jigsaws app – you can now make jigsaws from some of your favourite Christmassy Nosy Crow books!

The new update features artwork from Just Right for Christmas, by Rosalind Beardshaw and Birdie Black, Pip and Posy: The Snowy Day, by Axel Scheffler, and Snow Bunny’s Christmas Wish and Snow Bunny’s Christmas Gift, by Rebecca Harry.

Will has made a very quick Vine showing just SOME of the lovely new artwork featured in the app:

You can find more in the app itself, which you can download from the App Store for free here.

And of course, as well as all of this fantastic Christmas artwork, you can also make your OWN jigsaws with the app’s photo feature – turn any of the pictures on the Camera Roll of your device into a jigsaw! This is GREAT family fun for the Christmas holidays – it’s perfect for keeping everyone occupied, and you can turn all of your holiday photos into great puzzles to share. Here’s a look at this great feature:

Nosy Crow Jigsaws is a free-to-download jigsaw puzzle app, featuring over 250 jigsaws based on artwork from our award-winning apps and print picture books. It’s packed full of great features, which make it incredibly intuitive and unbelievably easy to use, and also a wonderfully satisfying, absorbing jigsaw experience – fun for the whole family!

You can choose the level of complexity for each jigsaw, from 4 to 300 pieces, using an intuitive slider that adjusts the difficulty level. There’s a “piece rotation” toggle, which allows you to start with jigsaw pieces randomly assorted or in the correct position. There’s a very easy-to-use “tray” to search through pieces as you work on your jigsaw. You can zoom in and out to explore detail in each jigsaw and see the whole picture. There are information pages at the end of every jigsaw – learn more about our books and apps and explore more of the picture with “Can you see” questions for young children. And there’s lot’s more! You can watch Ed demonstrate just a few of the great features in the app in the video below:

In praise of School Libraries

Last week I zipped up my boots and went back to my roots – to Suffolk! The county I grew up in and where I went to school- and school is an important theme in this post. I was very kindly invited to visit the Suffolk Schools Library Service by the resource centre manger, Maxine, who I’d met at an Askews & Holt Library Conference at CILIP, in London.

Now, my school was lucky enough to have an excellent library – it figured to a large degree in our school day (especially mine as it was where you went for ‘off-games’ … and I LOVED ‘off-games’!! Soooo much better than games – you could read instead of getting out of breath and cold.) and was well-stocked, well-run and was a very pleasant place to be.

And, of course, I took it for granted.

As a grown up working in children’s publishing, my attitude has shifted somewhat. Actually, quite a bit. In my years organising and attending author events in schools, I’ve seen my fair share of school libraries- and schools without proper libraries – and I how realise how incredibly lucky I was. Now I remember my school library in a perpetual Summer, where bluebirds flew about my head, deer brought me books to read, bunnies gambolled at my feet and an owl gently hooted and ‘shhhhed’ noisy pupils from the top of the Soil Erosion shelf.

I can imagine all that, but I can’t imagine not having had really good access to books- especially when at school- as a child.

And reading has given me so much pleasure my whole life, I can’t imagine ever NOT having that pleasure.

I loved reading and I could indulge that love of books without a second thought in our school library. Fiction, non-fiction, magazines, newspaper…everything. I can’t help thinking now that, in some way, that library was ‘priming the pump’. I don’t know what I’d be doing if I wasn’t working in publishing but I KNOW I’d still be the type of person who has four books on the go at any one time.

And, there I was, lucky to spend a day with a team dedicated to doing whatever they could to ensure as many children has possible had the pleasure of reading. Ensuring school libraries all over the county were as appealing to children- and as well-run by teachers and librarians – as they possibly could be.

Operating out of a building packed with books, Maxine’s team (they’d very kindly arranged a Nosy Crow display and put on a delicious lunch spread for my visit!) did everything and more to make sure that the schools of Suffolk (those who signed up to the School Library Service) had the best access to the best the books they could. Training courses, pop-up cafes, school visits, author events, book quizzes, cocktail parties (fruit juice cocktails…) – YOU NAME IT.

And they were doing all this in pretty adverse conditions, too, owing to funding issues.

It did my soul good to see people so committed to putting good books in the hands of teachers and children- so that, hopefully, those children would love reading and again, hopefully, that love would last a lifetime.

On a less spiritual level, I had an absolute BALL with them. We laughed like drains, generally put the world to rights and I’d really like to thank Maxine and Jacky for taking such excellent care of me.

Why do we have music?

My eight-year-old is currently absorbed by a really excellent book called Why Can’t I Tickle Myself?, in which children ask the questions that vex them most (‘Is it OK to eat a worm?’ ‘Why are grown-ups in charge?’) and have them answered by experts in the field. So Bear Grylls tackles the worm question and, er, Miranda Hart does the grown-up one. It’s great, and the eight-year-old will be getting the sequel, Does My Goldfish Know Who I Am?, in her stocking. One of the questions posed is Why Do We Have Music? and this is answered by that inestimable rock god, Jarvis Cocker. He ruminates on what life would be without it (‘boring – and Musical Statues would never get going, would it?’) and ends with:

‘It’s magic & we can have it whenever we want. When you put on one of your favourite songs & get a sort of shivery feeling behind your ears & down the back of your neck, that’s one of the best feelings there is. & that’s why we have it.’

It was in that spirit that I forewent Homeland last Sunday (something I don’t do lightly) and took my eldest to his first ever live-music event. The Capital Radio Jingle Bell Ball is an annual event at the O2 where the chart-toppingest, most digitally-downloaded Grammy-nominated popsters of today do their thing and get really, really screamed at for their trouble. The audience is routinely bombarded by glittery paper and iTunes vouchers are shot out of cannons. In other words, it’s excellent! I did not scream, but I did do some extreme mum-dancing and waved my phone-torch about enthusiastically when asked to by Ed Sheeran. Well, why not?

It got me thinking about the first gig I ever went to, back in 1803. I persuaded my poor long-suffering father to drive me and my best friend down to see The Police at the Cornwall Coliseum, a concrete bunker that has probably fallen into the sea by now. It was halfway there back then. As we waited for the doors to open (keen? just a bit) we huddled into our calf-length herring-bone coats and fretted about the damage the bitterly cold sea ‘breeze’ was doing to our carefully asymmetric hair. My father huddled into the car (he was less concerned about getting a place near the front) and got a Silk Cut going.

But that whole Jarvis Cocker magical feeling was there in spades – and on Sunday I studied my small companion closely as he jigged about to Taylor Swift. Is he feeling it, man? And although he was careful to maintain his all-important ten-year-old insouciance afterwards, he declared the whole thing ‘awesome’ and hasn’t stopped humming (and occasionally whistling) since.

& that’s why we have it.

Fantastic fiction coming from Nosy Crow in January

Wednesdays are busy days at Nosy Crow: they’re they days with the most people in the office at once, and so, somewhat inevitably, are also the days with the most meetings. And it was during our general publishing meeting this morning that I had one of those things-you-know-to-be-true-but-haven’t-really-comprehended realisations: we are publishing an enormous number of books next year… at least, it certainly feels that way, compared to the 23 titles we published in 2011, our first year. And 2015 is kicking off with some absolutely BRILLIANT fiction, so today I thought I’d share our January titles.

We’ll be publishing My Headteacher is a Vampire Rat by Pamela Butchart – the hilarious third book in the sequence begun with the Red House Children’s Book Award-shortlisted Baby Aliens Got My Teacher and continued with the Blue Peter Book Award-shortlisted The Spy Who Loves School Dinners. This time, Izzy and her friends are SHOCKED when they meet their new head teacher. He has black hair, wears a cape, and has horrible, wormy lips. One time, they even hear him hissing in his office, and sunlight makes him go bright red. But it’s when he bans garlic bread on Italian Day that they KNOW. Their new head teacher is a vampire and his army of vampire rats are going to take over the school. EEEK!

These are brilliantly funny books for 6 – 9 year olds – and they capture school life PERFECTLY. Here’s a FIRST LOOK inside My Headteacher is a Vampire Rat:



Buy the book online.

We’re publishing Zoe’s Rescue Zoo: The Pesky Polar Bear, the seventh brilliant story in the phenomenally successful Zoe’s Rescue Zoo series by Amelia Cobb. 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 lovely recent review by a 10-year-old-boy who loves the series.

In the Pesky Polar Bear. it’s birthday time at the rescue zoo, and Snowy the polar bear has lots of party ideas and is being a bit bossy! Can Zoe show the other animals that Snowy only wants to have fun? Here’s a look inside the book:



Buy the book online.

And finally, we’ll be publishing Emily’s Dream by Holly Webb – the fourth and final novel in a fantastic sequence of novels about four friends who want to make the world a better place – entertaining, inspirational and ideal for 8+ year olds. Emily loves animals. But she comes from a big family and there’s no room for any pets. So she decides to help at the local animal-rescue centre instead. But the rescue centre is under threat. Can Emily and her friends make sure al the animals don’t end up homeless? Here’s a look inside the book:



Buy the book online.

Win some fantastic Jack and the Beanstalk prizes!

It’s been a happy few days for our Jack and the Beanstalk app – on Friday, we learnt that it had been shortlisted for a Digital Book Award, and then, over the weekend, we found out that it had been included in USA Today’s list of the 10 top kids apps of 2014.

And so, to celebrate, we’re giving away some FANTASTIC Jack and the Beanstalk prizes – and to win them, all you have to do is sign up to our Apps Mailing List.

Our first prize are some VERY stylish postcard books featuring artwork from the app – there are twenty different postcards in each pack and they come in a rather fetching, Nosy Crow-red card wallet. Here’s just some of the artwork featured in the postcard sets:

We have fifteen sets of the postcards to give away – and it’s first-come, first-served! If you’d like a set, send an email to apps@nosycrow.com with Jack and the Beanstalk postcards in the subject heading – and be quick!

As if that’s not enough, one VERY lucky winner will also receive a beautiful, limited-edition, signed and numbered Jack and the Beanstalk giclee print.

And our second prize are copies of the app itself! If you don’t already own Jack and the Beanstalk and would like to, now’s your chance to win a copy! We have five promo codes to give away – and once again, it’s first-come-first served. If you’d like a code, send an email to apps@nosycrow.com with Jack and the Beanstalk app code in the subject heading

If you’ve not discovered our Jack and the Beanstalk app yet, you can watch a trailer here:

And you can download it from the App Store here.

The postcard competition is open to all UK and Ireland residents, and the app promo code competition is worldwide – we’ll email all our winners by the end of the week.