Nosy Crow's Blog, page 175

Zap, tentacle-bum and Dave: a report on this year's Edinburgh Festival

An Edinburgh Festival report from Pamela Butchart, author of Baby Aliens Got My Teacher! and The Spy Who Loved School Dinners.

Visiting the Edinburgh Book Festival to see my favourite authors, raid the amazing children’s bookshop and soak up the atmosphere has been one of the highlights of my year for the past four years. And this year was definitely the best so far. Not only was I lucky enough to see my all-time favourite author, Judith Kerr, for the second time at the festival, I was also very honoured to be asked to do my own events.

I think I might have had some of the best fun of my life during my event. We played games and laughed about horrible teachers, crisp twins and interrupting your mum on the toilet. But the BEST bit was when we all made our BABY ALIENS using plasticine and gave them all POWERS such as invisibility, laser eyes and even shape-shifting powers. And then named them awesome alien names such as Zap, tentacle-bum and Dave before making glow-the-dark spaceships for them to zoom around in. We ended with a surprising game of ‘Heads Down Thumbs Up’ where everyone turned into aliens and left with alien-eye head-boppers to prove it! (I have the best job ever!).

And when I ran out of stickers during my book signing (with one child left) a flash of creative genius from my husband resulted in the best sticker ever!

Other highlights of this year FAB EdFest included: live drawing with Axel Schefler; jam scones and laughs in the Yurt; Emer Stamp’s very funny Pig event, David Levithan’s though-provoking words, dinner with a side of Russian-mystery chat with Nosy Crow folk and Richard Herring, and Gordon Brown stealing my seat in the Yurt.

Roll on EdFest 2015!!!

Thank you, Pamela! You can take a look inside Pamela’s latest book, The Spy Who Loved School Dinners, below, or order the book online here.

Have you heard about our upcoming children’s publishing conference? Tickets are available now.

Back to School reading

Loathe as I am to accept it, all of the available meteorological evidence points to a single, inescapable conclusion: Summer is over and Autumn is here. And with it come three words beloved of stationers and the children’s clothing departments of Marks and Spencers across the land: Back to School.

But Back to School doesn’t have to be ALL bad – and here are some of our best new books for back to school reading.

My School Musical and other Punishments is the third hilarious novel for 9+ readers by Catherine Wilkins, author of My Best Friend and other Enemies and My Brilliant Life and other Disasters. Clever, knowing, and wonderfully true-to-life, these books are brilliant for fans of funny books – every one will recognise Catherine’s spot-on depictions of friends, enemies and frenemies. Here’s a look inside:



Buy the book online.

Izzy’s River, by Holly Webb, is the second book in a fantastic new sequence of novels about four friends who want to make the world a better place – entertaining, inspirational and ideal for 8+ year olds. Here’s a look inside:



Buy the book online.

If you know a child who’s not entirely over the moon about going back to school, then some excellent new escapism might be in order – in which case, look no further than Witchworld, by Emma Fischel, which is out in September. With an ingeniously imaginative story from Emma, stunning cover artwork from Ottoline creator Chris Riddell, and a brilliantly bewitching new heroine, this is a fabulous foray into fantastical fiction for 9+ readers – Sabrina with a smartphone! Here’s a look inside:



Buy the book online.

For fans of The Twits or Mr. Gum, The Grunts in a Jam will be just the ticket – the third book in this very funny, very silly series by Philip Ardagh and Axel Scheffler. The gloriously grubby Grunt family head to a country fair so Mrs Grunt’s mother can enter her homemade jam in the Preserves, Jams and Jellies Competition. What could possibly go wrong…? Here’s a look inside:



Buy the book online.

And finally, for 7+ year olds, you simply CANNOT go wrong with The Spy Who Loved School Dinners by Pamela Butchart, the brilliantly bonkers new book from the author of Baby Aliens Got My Teacher! It’s funny, crazy, and absolutely SPOT ON at capturing day-to-day life at primary school. Here’s a look inside:



Buy the book online.

Do let us know your best back to school reading recommendations below!

Have you heard about our upcoming children’s publishing conference? Early Bird tickets are available now.

Jurassic-ally fantastic storytelling

This year we thought Nosy Crow’s Edinburgh International Book Festival jaunt was so epic, we just couldn’t do it justice in a single blog post. So, this one will be the first of a few – and where better to start than the Triassic Era? Penny Dale’s digging, zooming and rescuing dinosaurs made their appearance in Charlotte Square, Edinburgh last week … and they were not alone. After lots of Jurassic-ally fantastic storytelling and quite a lot of shouting like various emergency vehicle sirens, Penny led the audience in the assembly of a dinosaur made out of stickers, so each child would have his or her own dinosaur to take away. On a flipchart at the front Penny stuck parts of the dinosaur, one by one, in the correct place and the audience was encouraged to follow suit on their own sheets of paper. Which, by and large, they did. SOME dinosaurs did have ice-creams, plasters – and even eyes – in some odd places, but that all added to the joy of the event. And who’s to say in a few years we won’t ALL be making dinosaurs that way? There was just time to sing the Dinosaur Song, complete with ROARING and plenty of teeth/claw/digger mimes before the time was up. My 5 year old self would have instantly dropped to the floor and had a tantrum. My 38 year old self ALMOST did. Everyone was having such a good time singing and dinosaur-decorating I don’t think I was ready for it to be over…

But, ever the professional, I forewent the histrionics and helped Penny’s husband, Bryan, take down the dinosaur bunting we’d previously- and artfully- draped the venue with. We’d all had an absolute ball and I would like to thank Penny and her husband Bryan for all the preparation they put into a truly cracking event! Below are some audience dinosaurs for your delight…

You can take a look inside Penny Dale’s most recent dinosaur book, Dinosaur Rescue, below, or buy the book online here.

Have you heard about our upcoming children’s publishing conference? Early Bird tickets are available now.

Cakes and conferences

The Nosy Crow conference is approaching, and as the date nears, all sorts of preparations are being made for the day. And as this is a Nosy Crow conference, that means there’s cake to think about.

For last year’s conference, we promised – some might say foolhardily – to make cakes, with our own fair hands, for EVERYONE who’d attend: over 150 cakes, individually baked, iced and decorated. And I am pleased to say that we did not yield: between Kate and I, the cakes were baked, with a little help from other members of Nosy Crow, and the heroic Tracey Corderoy, who was staying with Kate on the night before the conference.

And having achieved this feat during our debut conference, it seems that it would be miserly not to repeat it. So this year, once again, there’ll be hand-made cakes for everyone in attendance.

But – not wanting to miss an opportunity to needlessly up the ante – there’s more! This year we’re also taking REQUESTS.

If you have a particular favourite flavour of cupcake (and you’re coming to the conference…), let us know in the comments underneath this post, and we will endeavour to make it! I mean, we’re not talking about Heston Blumenthal levels of culinary expertise here (my repertoire doesn’t really extend beyond vanilla, chocolate, or lemon flavours), so there are no guarantees that you’ll get what you ask for, but I’m a firm believer that a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, so we’ll do our best. Really what we’re asking for here are SUGGESTIONS for good flavours of cake. And if all else fails, there’ll STILL be the chocolate, vanilla, and lemon ones.

If you haven’t bought your ticket to our conference yet, you can do so here (they’re selling out fast), or with the form below. Taking place on Saturday, September 13th, it’s shaping up to be a FANTASTIC day, with speakers including literary agent Hilary Delamere, Charlotte Eyre, Children’s Editor at The Bookseller, Waterstones Children’s Buyer Florentyna Martin, Social Media Expert Adam Tinworth, authors Jeff Norton, Helen Peters, and (once again!) Tracey Corderoy, and more.

And as well as cake, there’ll also be morning and afternoon tea and coffee breaks, lunch, and a glass of wine at the end of the day. What more could you ask for?

Event Registration Online for Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Children’s Publishing… powered by Eventbrite

We hope you can join us – and please, cake suggestions below!

9 of the best books about books

Today we’re publishing a very special picture book: Use Your Imagination by Nicola O’Byrne, illustrator of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize-winning Open Very Carefully. This is a wonderfully clever, inventive picture book all about storytelling and the power of imagination – and so, in honour of the occasion, we thought we’d collect together some of our favourite picture books about books and storytelling – an increasingly popular genre, and one which includes a number of true modern classics. I’ve tried to be strict in my definition here and not include – for instance – fractured fairytales, which feel to me to be about a different sort of thing… but I’ll let you decide that for yourselves. Here are our choices:

Use Your Imagination, Nicola O’Byrne

The story of an imaginative rabbit, who outwits a wolf and becomes the hero of his own adventure – and like Open Very Carefully, it’s also a brilliant celebration of the physical book in all its glory, with a STUNNING fold-out final spread.

Buy the book.

Open Very Carefully, Nicola O’Byrne and Nick Bromley

What would you do if you were settling down for a quiet bedtime story and you realised that a crocodile had fallen out of one story and into yours and was – not to put too fine a point on it – furious? Would you slam that book shut, cram it in the bookshelf for evermore or would you be brave enough to peek?

Buy the book.

It’s a Book, Lane Smith

This is a story which Smith himself describes, rather straightforwardly, as being “about a book loving monkey, a tech savvy jackass and a straight talking little mouse.” But is that really all it’s about? With a muted colour palette, a striking use of repeated imagery, and a dry, understated sense of humour, this is a witty – and quite adult – paean to good old-fashioned reading.

The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith

Another book with illustrations by Smith, this is an absolutely, bona fide HILARIOUS collection of re-told fairy tale classics (which, I will concede, sort of breaks my “no fractured fairytales rule”, but I could not bear not to mention it), including “The Really Ugly Duckling” (spoiler alert: he grows up to become a Really Ugly Duck), “Cinderumplestiltskin” and “The Tortoise and the Hair”. It’s very dark, very clever, and very, very funny.

Wolves, Emily Gravett

An absolutely extraordinary picture book debut (and winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal), this is the story of a rabbit who borrows a book about wolves from the library… and ends up with a bit more than he originally bargained for.

The Incredible Book Eating Boy, Oliver Jeffers

Henry LOVES books – but unlike the rest of us, he loves eating them. And the more he eats, the cleverer he gets. Written and illustrated in Jeffers’ inimitable style, this is a stylish, charming and offbeat story.

But Excuse Me That Is My Book, Lauren Child

Lola is distraught to find that her favourite book in the world, Beetles, Bugs and Butterflies, is missing from the library. She’s absolutely inconsolable… until her brother Charlie finds her Chimps and Chimpanzees, and she has a new favourite book.

Books Always Everywhere, Jane Blatt and Sarah Massini

A joyful celebration of the physical book in all its glory! For the very young, books can be anything – from a chair, to a tower, to a hat – but the best thing they can be… is a book. And it’s never too soon to share a good book with your little ones.

Buy the book.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, William Joyce

This final choice is a sort of un-conventional one – Morris Lessmore began life as an animated short film, and then an iPad app, before being published as a print picture book – a lovely, beautiful, uplifting story.

What do you think we’ve missed? What are your favourite picture books about books and stories? Do let us know in the comments!

Have you heard about our upcoming children’s publishing conference? Early Bird tickets are available now.

Win a copy of our latest app, Axel Scheffler's Flip Flap Safari!

We’ve got some very exciting new app news in the next couple of weeks… but for today, we have something almost as good to share – we’re giving away copies of our most recent app, Axel Scheffler’s Flip Flap Safari! The app features brand new animal artwork from Axel, along with new poems, music, sound effects and read-along audio – and all for just 99¢/ 69p!

In their review, Apps Playground wrote “It’s silly in all the best ways, and as usual, Axel’s illustrations are marvellous (and instantly recognisable). It’s a must-have for any animal-mad preschooler, not to mention their parents.”

And today you can win a copy!

To be in with a chance of winining this app (or, if you already own Flip Flap Safari, a copy of Axel Scheffler’s Flip Flap Farm instead), all you have to do is retweet this tweet from @NosyCrowApps – and we’ll pick the winners at random tomorrow.

Here are some of the great combinations you can make:

If you enjoy Axel Scheffler’s Flip Flap Safari, or one of our other apps, we’d be incredibly grateful if you’d consider leaving a review on the App Store – it’s so important to us. And if you’d like to stay up to date with our upcoming apps, you can sign up for our Apps Announcement Mailing List here.

Have you heard about our upcoming children’s publishing conference? Early Bird tickets are available now.

Win copies of of our September books!

It’s time for our monthly books giveaway! If you’re a resident of the UK or Ireland, you can win any of our upcoming September 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 up for grabs…

We’re publishing Bizzy Bear’s Big Building Book by Benji Davies – a lavish, large format, Bizzy Bear gift edition with five robust mechisms – perfect for toddlers who love to play at being builders!

You can win Wickle Woo has a Halloween party! – a brilliant new halloween Tiny Tabs board book by Jannie Ho. With simple stories, repeated refrains and a host of faces to spot and name, these are the perfect books to engage and entertain the very young.

Spells and Surprises Activity Storybook, by Marnie Edwards and Leigh Hodgkinson, is up for grabs – the fantastic fourth adventure in the Magical Mix-Ups series. Emerald is off to Spell Summer Camp to brush up her magic skills, and asks her best friend, Sapphire to come too . . . Magical fun and chaos ensue and the reader can draw, design, colour and doodle to help the story along.

We’ll be publishing Hubble Bubble: The Super-Spooky Fright Night! by Tracey Corderoy and Joe Berger. The third young fiction title from the creators of the highly-acclaimed Hubble Bubble picture books, this is ideal for newly independent readers with a thirst for magic and mayhem! Here’s a look inside:

You can win Zoe’s Rescue Zoo: The Lucky Snow Leopard by Amelia Cobb – the sixth fabulous story in the highly collectible Zoe’s Rescue Zoo series, featuring a go-getting central character, talking animals, compelling story lines and evocative illustrations. You can read the first chapter here:

The Grunts in a Jam by Philip Ardagh and Axel Scheffler will be out next month. The third book in the superlatively silly Grunts series sees the gloriously grubby Grunt family head to a country fair so Mrs Grunt’s mother can enter her homemade jam in the Preserves, Jams and Jellies Competition. There’s nothing in that plan to suggest they’ll encounter sabotage, bad poetry and prison, is there? Hmm. This is The Grunts we’re talking about… Here’s a look inside:

And finally, you can win Witchworld by Emma Fischel – the first volume in an exciting new series for 9+ year olds. With an ingeniously imaginative story from Emma, stunning cover artwork from Ottoline creator Chris Riddell, and a brilliantly bewitching new heroine, this is a fabulous foray into fantastical fiction for older readers – Sabrina with a smartphone! Here’s a look inside:

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 next week.

Have you heard about our upcoming children’s publishing conference? Early Bird tickets are available now.

The art of flying: our new Rights and Digital Assistant reports on her first month at Nosy Crow

As crows, we are of course very well acquainted with the art of flying, but it still surprised me when I realised five weeks had flown by since I started as a Rights and Digital Assistant at Nosy Crow. Time for a little reflection on my time in the office so far.

For those who are unfamiliar with the Nosy Crow office, its location comes as a welcome surprise. Hidden in a little courtyard full of greenery and brightly coloured flowers, the crow’s nest is a peaceful and pretty place to work in (well, that is to say, when there is no building work going on next door…). Around the corner is Borough Market, which is dangerously close for a foodie like me. Most Fridays the girls from the office will take a trip down to the market to stack up on cheese and other treats necessary for the weekend. If the weather is nice, you can have your lunch in the lovely cosy park across from the office.

So far, so good for outside the office, but that’s of course not what we’re here for. In the office everyone works really hard to publish those beautiful books and apps that Nosy Crow is so well known for. For the people who are familiar with publishing, you might wonder at the peculiarity of my position. Indeed, rights and digital are not a very common combination, but the job is wonderfully varied. I schedule appointments for the Frankfurt fair, test new apps, create exciting iBooks, and help Tom with the organisation of the upcoming Nosy Crow conference, which I will be attending and am really looking forward to (if you haven’t got your tickets yet, book them here).

Before I started this job I heard that most publishers have an affinity for cake, and I can confirm that this is indeed very true! Cake is a very present feature in this office, and more often than not someone will bring in one of his or her baking marvels. It gives a lovely homely feeling, which is, when you’re new to the big city like me, very welcoming. It might have only been five weeks, but I already feel part of the crow crew, and that is a brilliant feeling!

Only one month to go until the Nosy Crow conference

There’s just under a month to go until the Nosy Crow conference, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Children’s Publishing (But Were Afraid to Ask), and there are only a few tickets left, so if you’d like to come, don’t delay!

Event Registration Online for Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Children’s Publishing… powered by Eventbrite

If you’ve written a book and don’t know what to do next, or you’re interested in beginning a career in publishing, or you want to know the best ways of marketing your books (and yourself) online and in the real world, or you’re just generally interested in everything to do with children’s books, then this conference is for you! We have a day’s worth of experts who’ll be sharing their knowledge on every aspect of the industry and the publishing process – editors, agents, journalists, retailers, social media experts, and, of course, authors.

The conference is taking place on Saturday September 13th at the St Bride Foundation in London and will last all day (including morning and afternoon tea and coffee breaks, lunch, and a glass of wine and homemade cake at the end of the day, when you’ll be able to chat with fellow attendees, speakers, and members of Nosy Crow).

Here’s our fantastic line-up of speakers:

Louise Bolongaro, Head of Picture Books at Nosy Crow

Tracey Corderoy, Author

Hilary Delamere, Literary Agent

Charlotte Eyre, Children’s Editor at The Bookseller

Florentyna Martin, Waterstones Children’s Buyer

Jeff Norton, Author

Helen Peters, Author

Adam Tinworth, Social Media Expert

Kate Wilson, Managing Director at Nosy Crow

And don’t forget – if you’re a librarian who’d like to attend, you can get a special discount off the ticket price – you can find out more here.

Last year’s event had some absolutely fantastic feedback – if you’d like to read what some of our attendees made of the day, here’s a round-up of reviews:

What I learned that I know at Nosy Crow.

Refreshingly honest, knowledgeable and inspirational – Nosy Crow’s debut publishing conference.

A day of sparkling wit and fascinating revelations.

Tickets for the day are available here – we hope you can make it!

Event Registration Online for Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Children’s Publishing… powered by Eventbrite

Only month until the Nosy Crow conference

There’s just under a month to go until the Nosy Crow conference, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Children’s Publishing (But Were Afraid to Ask), and there are only a few tickets left, so if you’d like to come, don’t delay!

Event Registration Online for Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Children’s Publishing… powered by Eventbrite

If you’ve written a book and don’t know what to do next, or you’re interested in beginning a career in publishing, or you want to know the best ways of marketing your books (and yourself) online and in the real world, or you’re just generally interested in everything to do with children’s books, then this conference is for you! We have a day’s worth of experts who’ll be sharing their knowledge on every aspect of the industry and the publishing process – editors, agents, journalists, retailers, social media experts, and, of course, authors.

The conference is taking place on Saturday September 13th at the St Bride Foundation in London and will last all day (including morning and afternoon tea and coffee breaks, lunch, and a glass of wine and homemade cake at the end of the day, when you’ll be able to chat with fellow attendees, speakers, and members of Nosy Crow).

Here’s our fantastic line-up of speakers:

Louise Bolongaro, Head of Picture Books at Nosy Crow

Tracey Corderoy, Author

Hilary Delamere, Literary Agent

Charlotte Eyre, Children’s Editor at The Bookseller

Florentyna Martin, Waterstones Children’s Buyer

Jeff Norton, Author

Helen Peters, Author

Adam Tinworth, Social Media Expert

Kate Wilson, Managing Director at Nosy Crow

And don’t forget – if you’re a librarian who’d like to attend, you can get a special discount off the ticket price – you can find out more here.

Last year’s event had some absolutely fantastic feedback – if you’d like to read what some of our attendees made of the day, here’s a round-up of reviews:

What I learned that I know at Nosy Crow.

Refreshingly honest, knowledgeable and inspirational – Nosy Crow’s debut publishing conference.

A day of sparkling wit and fascinating revelations.

Tickets for the day are available here – we hope you can make it!

Event Registration Online for Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Children’s Publishing… powered by Eventbrite