Nosy Crow's Blog, page 183

Open Very Carefully has been shortlisted for Oscar's First Book Prize!

Open Very Carefully, the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize-winning picture book illustrated by Nicola O’Byrne with words by Nick Bromley, has been shortlisted for Oscar’s First Book Prize, a new book prize established by the Evening Standard in memory of the son of City editor James Ashton, who died suddenly at the age of three.

Judging the prize for the first year are Dame Marjorie Scardino, former Pearson CEO and the first female board member of Twitter, Rupert Thomas, marketing director of Waitrose, Oscar’s parents Viveka Alvestrand and James Ashton, the Evening Standard’s City editor, and Charlotte Ross, deputy editor of the Evening Standard.

The judges described Open Very Carefully as “a book that delights the young reader by breaking all the rules, from radically changing the story’s direction to literally tearing holes in the pages.” Rupert Thomas described the book as “interactive, original and fun for children and parents. Beautifully produced.” Viveka Alvestrand, Oscar’s mother, said that, “At two-and-a-half Alice [Oscar’s sister] is a little too young to understand the idea of a crocodile eating words and gobbling up whole sentences but she loved the participatory idea of the book — rocking it to make the crocodile sleepy and pretend scribbling on it as it snored away.”

Weasels, the debut picture book by Elys Dolan, was also longlisted for the prize. You can read the full shortlist, along with all of the judges’ comments, here.

Take a look inside Open Very Carefully:



Buy the book from Waterstones.

Work experience at Nosy Crow

We have some last-minute work experience placements at Nosy Crow! If you’re in full-time education, available to work at our office in London in the next few weeks, and would like some experience in children’s publishing, we’d love to hear from you.

The placements we are offering will last for 1-2 weeks and will be largely based within our digital, sales and marketing teams. You don’t necessarily need any prior experience in publishing, but plenty of enthusiasm is a must, and our ideal candidate would also be comfortable using iPads and Apple computers.

If this sounds for you, please email a CV and covering letter to tom@nosycrow.com. Best of luck!

Fantastic new fiction from Nosy Crow!

Yesterday saw some tremendously exciting post arrive in the Crow’s Nest – finished copies of some upcoming fiction titles!

Lovely advances turned up for Zoe’s Rescue Zoo: The Eager Elephant by Amelia Cobb, The Spy Who Loved School Dinners by Pamela Butchart, and The Palomino Pony Comes Home by Olivia Tuffin.

In The Eager Elephant, a new baby elephant arrive’s at the zoo – he’s very lively and always getting into tricky situations. Then one day he gets into very hot water indeed and Zoe must use all her prowess with animals to help it. The fifth fabulous story in this series featuring a go-getting central character, talking animals, compelling story lines and evocative illustrations, this is PERFECT for animal-mad 5+ year olds. Here’s a look inside:

Zoe’s Rescue Zoo: The Eager Elephant will be out in June and you can buy the book from Waterstones here.

The Spy Who Loved School Dinners is the hilarious follow-up to Pamela Butchart’s brilliant debut novel, Baby Aliens Got My Teacher! Izzy’s suspicions are aroused when new girl Mathilde actually likes school dinners (also known as poison), and even has seconds. The only logical explanation for this is that Mathilde is a spy who has come to uncover their secrets. Can they stop her before it’s TOO LATE?! Loaded with laughs and crazy capers, this is a brilliant story for 7+ readers who LOVE funny books. Here are the first three chapters:

The Spy Who Loved School Dinners will be out in July and you can buy the book from Waterstones here.

And finally, The Palomino Pony Comes Home is the first novel in a new series by debut author Olivia Tuffin that’s absolutely PERFECT for pony-mad 9+ year olds – an exciting sequence of soon-to-be-classic pony books, shot through with action, adventure, and a genuine love of horses. All Georgia ever wants to do is spend time with the gorgeous horses at Redgrove Farm stables. The week she spends away from them in Wales is almost unbearable, until she finds a beautiful but mistreated palomino pony on a windswept mountainside. Georgia feels an instant bond with Lily and knows she must help her escape from her cruel owner, whatever the cost… Here are the first three chapters:

The Palomino Pony Comes Home will be out in June and you can buy the book from Waterstones here.

Ruth Symons joins the Nosy Crow nest as junior editor

Membership of the Nosy Crow nest grew by one today, as Ruth Symons (above left, with the remnants of her welcome cake – that special blurry quality is my photography, not intrinsic to her) joined us as Junior Editor, working on picture and novelty books. Previously at QED, part of the Quarto Group, she really impressed us in the course of what was a pretty rigorous selection process, including three interviews, a couple of editorial exercises for her to do in her own time, and proof reading and arithmetic tests.

One of the things we asked her to do at interview was to bring in three picture books she felt worked (and two she felt didn’t work so well). The three she chose that she felt worked were Lauren Child’s Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Book?; Sherri Duskey Rinker and Tom Lichtenheld’s Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site; and Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees’s Giraffes Can’t Dance. It’s not that we’re looking for someone who would choose exactly the same books that any of us would – when we do our various “best books about…” and “best books for…” lists on the blog, we have a lot of vigorous argument about what makes the cut. Instead, we are keen to understand how a candidate talks about books, and whether they pick up on and are interested in the same kind of things that we think are important. Ruth talked about rhyme and rhythm, patterning, the balance of text and images on each spread, the balance of colour and blank spaces in a book, humour, having a message without being heavily didactic, how a text reads aloud, who a book is for and what time of day a book is best suited to. My favourite quote from her at interview about one of the books she chose (I noted it down verbatim) was, “It makes you feel something. If a book leaves you cold, it’s a flop. It’s got to make you feel happy or sad or scared or something.” We think she’s right. And she can do sums and knows how to spell “diarrhoea”, so it’s all good.

We think that we might have failed to mention that in the crazy few weeks in the run up to the Bologna Book Fair, Sophie Gordon joined as Design Assistant. And, though all the novelty has worn off by now, she did get, and make, cake.

One of Sophie’s Nosy Crow cupcakes

Nosy Crow at Hay!

The line-up for the 2014 Hay Festival has been announced, and there are lots of Nosy Crow authors and illustrators who’ll be there holding events – something for everyone!

On Monday 26 May 2014 at 10am, you can join The Grunts series author Philip Ardagh for a fantastic and funny storytelling session that’s bound to be filled with mayhem, mischief, and, most likely, great big beards – BRILLIANT for 7+ year olds. You can find out more and book tickets here.

And here’s a look inside The Grunts all at Sea, the second book in the series:



The paperback of the book is out this month – you can buy it online from Waterstones here.

On Saturday 31 May 2014 at 11.30am, meet Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam – along with their creators, Tracey Corderoy and Steven Lenton. Live-drawing, story-telling, and much, much more, this is bound to be an EXTRAORDINARY event that’s perfect fun for canine-lovers everywhere! You can find out more and book tickets here.

Take a look inside Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam:



Buy the book online from Waterstones.

On Sunday 1 June 2014 at 11.30am, Cowgirl author G.R. Gemin will be sharing the story of his inspiring debut novel for 9+ year olds – a heartwarming tale of friendship, community, family…and cows. You can find out more and book tickets here.

Take a look inside Cowgirl:



Buy the book online from Waterstones.

And finally, also on Sunday 1 June 2014, at 2.30pm, you can meet Christopher Edge, author of the award-winning Twelve Minutes to Midnight trilogy, as he introduces the third and final adventure of Penny Dreadful, The Black Crow Conspiracy, in which she battles the dark forces behind an alternative World War I. The Telegraph recently described the book as “intricately plotted Victorian fun”. You can find out more and book tickets here.

Take a look inside The Black Crow Conspiracy:



Buy the book online from Waterstones.

You can read the full line-up of children’s events at Hay here – we hope to see you there!

Have you met Miss Moon?

This Summer we’re publishing an absolutely lovely new picture book from Roald Dahl Funny Prize-shortlisted author Simon Puttock and illustrator star Ali Pye – and you can take a first look inside today.

A funny and heartwarming story, Mouse’s First Night at Moonlight School is sublimely illustrated and gently reassuring – perfect for little ones who are about to start school.

It’s Mouse’s first day at Miss Moon’s Moonlight School for the wee, small creatures of the night – but she’s a little shy. Wherever can she be? Inside the paint pots? On the tops of cupboards? Under a pile of special leaves?

Here’s a sneak preview:

The book won’t be in shops until July, but you can pre-order it from Waterstones today, here.

And if you’d like to stay up to date with all our book news, details of competitions and giveaways, interviews with our authors and illustrators, and lots more, you can sign up to our monthly books newsletter here.

It's May Publication Day!

Our May titles are out today – and it’s a great month for new books! Here’s what you can find in shops now:

It’s publication day for Toddler Time: Big Book of Fun by Katie Saunders – capturing all the fun of a toddler’s busy world, this is ideal for dipping into and sharing with pre-schoolers who are ever eager to explore, learn and, of course, have loads of fun! Packed with activities, things to spot and stories to enjoy, this brilliant, bright book helps build essential skills. Here’s a look inside:

Buy the book online.

The first paperback edition of Princes Penelope and the Runaway Kitten by Alison Murray is out today – a tactile treat of a picture 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.

The Rescue Princesses: The Golden Shell is in shops now – the twelfth and final volume in Paula Harrison’s fantastic Rescue Princesses series, a great introduction to independent reading for 6+ year olds, featuring brave princesses, ninja skills, and animal rescue. This time around, Princess Ella is pretty nervous about starting school, but then she meets some lovely Rescue Princessses, and even has a baby rabbit, Daisy, as a pet! But things take a troubling turn when Daisy goes missing, and Princess Ella’s ninja moves come in very handy… Here’s the first chapter:

Buy the book online.

This month also sees the conclusion of another great series for early independent readers, Space Pirates: Treasure!, the final volume in the Space Pirates series by Jim Ladd. Sam and his Space Pirate friends have found Planet X (at last)! Now they just have to rescue Sam’s parents and carry off all the lovely treasure. But it’s not that simple. Not when Black-hole Beard is right behind them… A fast-paced, funny series with gags galore, this is a chase through space that will have you cackling from start to finish! Here’s the first chapter:

Buy the book online.

If you know someone who’s finished the Rescue Princesses series and is looking for something to move onto, Maya’s Secret might be just the thing – the first book in a brand new series by best-selling author Holly Webb. How do you save the planet when your parents have a private jet and couldn’t live without their outdoor swimming pool? And what if you really want to be a vegetarian but you love bacon sandwiches sooo much? Holly explores these questions and MUCH more in this fantastic new sequence of books about four friends who want to make the world a better place – entertaining, inspirational and ideal for 8+ year olds. Here’s the first chapter of May’s Secret:

And here’s a further excerpt:

Buy the book online.

And finally, it’s publication day for the paperback edition of The Grunts all at Sea by Philip Ardagh and Axel Scheffler – the second book in the hilarious Grunts series. Mr Grunt has become a man with a mission. He has to get a Person of Great Importance (or POGI) to someone called Mrs Bayliss by the twenty-fifth. Alive and well. And he can’t tell anyone more than that, not even his lovely wife, Mrs Grunt, because there will be people trying to snatch the POGI and so the POGI must be transported in secret. It’s an exciting adventure, but what interests Mr Grunt most are the silver coins he’s been promised at the end of it. Here’s the first chapter:

Buy the book online.

Congratulations to all of today’s authors and illustrators!

Books about books: join in with the next Nosy Crow Reading Group!

Next month the Nosy Crow Guardian Reading Group will be meeting to discuss a trio of fantastic picture books (with the unifying theme of “books about books”), and we’d love for you to join in!

The group will be taking place here at the Nosy Crow offices – 10a Lant Street, London, SE1 1QR – on Thursday, May 15 at 6.30pm. Although places for the physical event have now all gone, we can add your name to the waiting list for cancellations if you’d like – if so, send an email to tom@nosycrow.com. And if you can’t make it here, you can still join in online – either by leaving your comments underneath this blogpost, or sharing your thoughts about the book on Twitter with the #NCGKids hashtag.

We’ll be talking about It’s a Book, by Lane Smith – here’s a trailer:

We’ll be looking at one of our own titles: Open Very Carefully, illustrated by Nicola O’Byrne with words by Nick Bromley. Here’s a look inside:

And finally, we’ll be discussing Press Here, by Herve Tullet – here’s a trailer:

We’ve prepared a few discussion points to get you thinking in advance – here’s some of what we might talk about:

1) A theme of all three of these texts is “the book as physical object”. How effectively do you think each book takes advantage of the physical format?

2) Do these books sacrifice “story” at the expense of the book-about-a-book meta-conceit? Do you think this matters?

3) Who do you think the intended reader is for each of these books?

4) How present is the authorial voice in each text? Do you think the texts interact successfully with the artwork?

5) All three books rely on a striking degree of repeating imagery. What effect do you think this has?

We have a few copies left of Press Here (currently only available at a hardback price of £9.99) for sale for £6.99. You can buy a copy from us in person at our offices, or, if you’re coming to the book group, we can post you a copy and you can pay us on the night – email tom@nosycrow.com for more details.

And you can buy It’s a Book online here and Open Very Carefully online here.

We hope you can join us!

There's one more day to get Rounds: Franklin Frog for only 99¢ on the App Store

Our Spring sale for Rounds: Franklin Frog is almost over – today’s the last day to get our award-winning life science app for just 99¢/ 69p from the App Store!

A fantastic mix of story and non-fiction, Rounds: Franklin Frog follows the life cycle of a frog through three generations, with a highly innovative, looping narrative, a unique, graphic illustration style, lots of interactivity, original animation, music, and children’s voices, and dozens of interesting facts about frogs. Help Franklin jump, swim, eat, and croak, help Felicity lay her frogspawn, help a tadpole hatch and grow… and then start all over again!

Here’s the trailer:

If you like the app, we’d be immensely grateful if you’d consider leaving a review on the App Store – it makes a huge difference.

And if you’d like to keep up to date with all of our app news, you can sign up to our Apps Mailing List here, and we’ll let you know whenever there’s a new app, price promotion, or special offer.

Download Rounds: Franklin Frog from the App Store for 99¢/ 69p here.

J.K. Rowling guest-edited Woman's Hour today and you should listen to it

I do not have much to add beyond this headline: today, for the first time in its 60-year history, Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4 had a guest editor, J.K. Rowling, and the results are as excellent as one would expect.

For the episode, Rowling has included a very moving segment on Multiple Sclerosis, the disease that killed her mother (who – tragically – passed away before Harry Potter), along with pieces on the symbolic power of shoes and her unexpected interest in rugby. The whole episode is well-worth listening to: you can do so here.