Nosy Crow's Blog, page 37

Take a look inside The Castle the King Built

In January we’re excited to be publishing The Castle the King Built – a brilliant new guide to what goes on inside medieval castles, based on the classic rhyme ‘This is the House that Jack Built.’ Featuring striking retro artwork by new illustrator Tom Froese, and carefully researched rhyme from author Rebecca Colby, this promises to be a fun and stylish guide to medieval life.

And today you can take a first look inside the book!

How many people does it take to build a castle? And what exactly does each person do? Discover masons to merchants and bakers to blacksmiths in this unique take on the classic rhyme ‘This is the House that Jack Built’. Beautifully produced on wood-free paper with stunning silver foil on the cover and a visual glossary of characters at the end.

Take a look inside:

The Castle the King Built will be published in January – you can pre-order a copy from Waterstones here or Amazon here. If you’d like to stay up-to-date, with all of our books news, sign up to our books newsletter on this page or with the form below.

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Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright! An Animal Poem For Every Day of the Year shortlisted for the Waterstones Book of the Year

The shortlist for the 2020 Waterstones Book of the Year has been announced today, and we are delighted that Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright! An Animal Poem for Every Day of the Year, illustrated by Britta Teckentrup and with poetry collected by Fiona Waters, has been recognised.

The ambitious sequel to our award-winning, highly-acclaimed first poetry collection, I Am the Seed That Grew the Tree: A Nature Poem For Every Day of the Year (winner of the inaugural Waterstones Children’s Gift of the Year award), Tiger, Tiger is a lavishly illustrated gift book of 366 animal poems – one for every day of the year – ranging from unforgettable classics to contemporary works from around the world, including poetry in translation. From William Blake and Roger McGough to Grace Nicols, Christina Rossetti, Emily Dickinson and many more, this is a breathtaking collection, complemented by artwork that brings the richness and wonder of the animal kingdom to life.

You can watch our trailer for Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright! below:

And here’s a look inside the book:

You can find the full Waterstones Book of the Year shortlist here – and you can buy Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright! from Waterstones here.

Congratulations, Britta and Fiona – and good luck!

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Take a look inside Making A Baby: An Inclusive Guide to How Every Family Begins

Every child deserves to see their birth and family in the pages of books about where babies come from – and this is exactly what our new book, Making A Baby: An Inclusive Guide to How Every Family Begins, is all about. Today we’re delighted to share an early preview of this very special book, written by our Head of Non-Fiction, Rachel Greener, and with charming artwork by Clare Owen!

In this honest, accessible illustrated guide to how babies are made, young readers can find out exactly what is needed to grow a baby, from introducing the basic building blocks of life such as sperm and eggs, to explaining the different ways that these building blocks can be put together to create a family.

Working closely with a leading national LGBT organisation, this inclusive guide to Making a Baby covers sex, sperm and egg donation, IUI, IVF, surrogacy and adoption, as well as explaining how a baby grows in the womb and about different kinds of births.

Written in gentle and accessible language that can be shared with younger children or read alone by confident readers, we hope this book and its charming illustrations will provide the stepping stone for every parent to have an open conversation with their child about how babies are made, and their family began.

And you can take a look inside the book below:

Making A Baby will be available in January. If you’d like to stay up-to-date with all of our book news, you can sign up to our books newsletter at this page, or with the form below, and you’ll never miss a thing.

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Four Nosy Crow books nominated for the 2021 CILIP Carnegie Medal

The nomination lists for the 2020 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Awards has been published today – and we’re delighted that four Nosy Crow books have been nominated for the Carnegie Medal this year!

The CILIP Carnegie Medal is one of the UK’s oldest children’s book awards, awarded to outstanding books for children and young people, and judged solely by librarians.

TrooFriend by Kirsty Applebaum, Orion Lost by Alastair Chisholm, Talking to the Moon by S.E. Durrant, and The Girl Who Stole an Elephant by Nizrana Farook, have all been nominated.

Take a look at the nominated books below:

Buy the book.

Buy the book.

Buy the book.

Buy the book.

You can read more about the awards, and view the full list of nominations, here. The longlist for the Carnegie Medal will be published in February, followed by the shortlist in March, and overall winners will be announced in June.

Congratulations Kirsty, Alastair, Sue, and Nizrana!

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Coronavirus: A Book for Children about Covid-19 shortlisted for the 2020 FutureBook Awards

We are so delighted that Coronavirus: A Book for Children about Covid-19 has been shortlisted for the Best of Lockdown book award. The other books on the shortlist are Dear NHS: 100 Stories to Say Thank You, edited by Adam Kay (Orion); Andy Serkis’ reading of The Hobbit (HarperCollins); Edinburgh Unlocked: Over 20 Acts from the Fringe that Never Was (Penguin Random House); and the We Love Romance app (Mills & Boon).

Nosy Crow published Coronavirus: A book for children about Covid-19 as a free digital book for children on April 6 2020 under a creative commons licence – a first, we think, for trade publishing. So far, it’s been viewed or downloaded 1.4m times via the Nosy Crow website but it’s also hosted on many other sites. And has been translated into 62 languages, including 3 different sign languages.

We updated it on 23 July, when Nosy Crow also published a not-for-profit £1.99 print version, with £1 from each copy going to the NHS, selling 23.5k copies in two months.

The project was conceived on March 17 (3 weeks before publication). It was written in-house by Elizabeth Jenner, Nia Roberts and me and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. Professor Graham Medley at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine acted as scientific consultant. Two headteachers and a child psychologist associated with the Evelina Children’s Hospital acted as advisors.

Both Axel Scheffler and I were widely interviewed by online, traditional press, regional and national UK, Australian and US TV and Radio.

School Library Journal gave the book a starred review: “A diverse cast, a global stage, practical and expert advice, along with friendly, accessible illustrations by Scheffler make this free digital download a must-have in the home or collection of everyone on the planet… This is a generous, straightforward, and necessary text; by showing people of all races, every age, all abilities or challenges… An elegant, effective work. Download this now, read it immediately, share it with everyone you know. An educated citizenry is our best hope.”

One of the 4-star+ customer reviews on Amazon (the book has 94% 4-star plus reviews) says: “Worded for a child to understand easily. The familiarity of Axel Scheffler’s illustrations help to get the message across in a gentle and comforting way. Would definitely recommend as a way to explain the current situation to children.”

And Professor Medley tweeted: “TFW you spend a few hours discussing draft manuscripts and it turns out to be, perhaps, the most significant thing you ever did.”

You can read the updated edition of Coronavirus: A Book for Children About Covid-19 below, and download it as a PDF here.

The print edition is available for sale from Waterstones here, from Hive here, and from Amazon here.

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The Girl Who Stole an Elephant longlisted for the 2021 Blue Peter Book Awards

We’re incredibly proud to announce that The Girl Who Stole an Elephant, by Nizrana Farook, has been longlisted for the 2021 Blue Peter Book Award in the Best Story category!

Now in its nineteenth year, the enormously popular and influential Blue Peter Book Awards recognise and celebrate the best authors, most creative illustrators, and greatest reads for children. Our very own Pamela Butchart and Thomas Flintham – the duo behind the hugely popular Baby Aliens series – are previous winners of the award, so we’re thrilled to have another Nosy Crow book recognised.

Chaya, a no-nonsense, outspoken hero, leads her friends and a gorgeous elephant on a noisy, fraught, joyous adventure through the jungle where revolution is stirring and leeches lurk. Will stealing the queen’s jewels be the beginning or the end of everything for the intrepid gang?

The Girl Who Stole an Elephant is a thrilling jungle adventure, filled with mystery, action and peril – perfect for 9-12 year-old readers.

Here are a few words from the author, Nizrana Farook: “Lockdown notwithstanding, I’ve had the most fantastic debut year. But to think that my Elephant would be trumpeting loud and proud on the Blue Peter longlist is the stuff of dreams that I’d never expected to hear! Massive thanks to Nosy Crow and everyone who’s been part of the journey.”

Editor, Kirsty Stansfield, said: “Everyone has their own special childhood moment on the Blue Peter continuum – mine’s the one where John Noakes matter-of-factly climbs Nelson’s Column in flares with no safety rope – and it can never really be bettered, but today’s news comes pretty close. The Blue Peter Award beams enthusiasm for great children’s books into living rooms across the UK and we couldn’t be more pleased and proud to see The Girl Who Stole an Elephant on such an illustrious longlist. Congratulations, Nizrana – I am wearing my best flappy trousers in celebration!”

Take a look inside the book:

You can buy a copy of The Girl Who Stole an Elephant from Waterstones here, Hive here, or Amazon here. The winners of the award will be announced next year – you find out more here.

Congratulations Nizrana!

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Watch Catherine Bruton read from Another Twist in the Tale

Next month we’re thrilled to be publishing Another Twist in the Tale – a brilliantly-imagined, rip-roaring sequel to Dickens’ much-loved classic, written by award-winning Catherine Bruton. And today we’re sharing Catherine reading from the book – you can watch it above!

You have heard, no doubt, the tale of Master Oliver Twist – that rags-to-riches boy; the parish orphan who became heir to the Brownlow fortune. But what few know is that was a second Twist – a girl, brought into this world moments ahead of her brother.

This is the story of Twill Twist – and her journey through the gambling dens and workhouses of London, as she attempts to make a life for herself, rescue her friends, and uncover the mystery of her past – while meeting some familiar faces along the way…

Take a look inside the book:

Another Twist in the Tale will be published on November 5th – you can pre-order a copy from Waterstones here, Amazon here, and Hive here. If you’d like to stay up-to-date with all of our book news, you can sign up to our books newsletter here, and you’ll never miss a thing.

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Spooky Stories – a guest post from Dashe Roberts

Halloween is almost here! Today we’re excited to share this guest post from Dashe Roberts – author of the hair-raising Sticky Pines series – on where spooky stories come from, where she finds inspiration, and some tips for writing your own.

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It’s that time of year again, when the leaves turn blood-red and tumble from the treetops with a ghoulish glee, when the days grow darker and the nights grow longer, and when everything starts to feel just a little bit SPOOKY.

Halloween is my favourite time of year. If you’ve read the books in my Sticky Pines series –where things get very WEIRD and a little bit spine-tingly – you might not be surprised to hear this! I, like many readers, have always enjoyed stories with hair-raising action, strange creatures, and seriously scary bumps in the night. In fact, many of my favourite pulse-quickening stories helped to inspire the eerie world of Sticky Pines.

Since the days of the ancients we humans have found it great fun to scare ourselves on purpose, something that is evident in the many scary tales passed down through the generations. In the 1st century A.D. the Roman senator Pliny wrote that he had witnessed the spectre of an old man with a long beard at his house in Athens, loudly rattling his chains. And in England, sightings of Ann Boleyn’s ghost have been reported ever since King Henry VIII’s wife was executed in 1536 following accusations of witchcraft and treason.

Ghost stories have proven wildly popular all over the world, from the djinn demons in One Thousand and One Nights – the Western compilation of Middle Eastern folk tales that made Aladdin famous – to the headless horseman of Washington Irving’s 19th-century story Sleepy Hollow in American literature. Growing up in America, I loved spooky stories: a particular favourite was Alvin Schwartz’s trio of books beginning with Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, which explore the kind of frightening folklore that people have been telling around campfires for centuries. From songs about wriggly worms squirming in corpses, tales of severed limbs, ghoulish scarecrows and creepy haunted houses, to urban legends about men with hooks for hands, these chilling books have all it takes to scare you senseless!

If you like your books more on the strange side than the ghastly side, Neil Gaiman’s modern classic Coraline might do the trick. The title character finds herself crawling through a hidden tunnel in her new house, where she discovers a parallel world eerily similar to our own, but where everything is a little bit… off. I love the uncanny imagery in this book, especially the “other mother” character with buttons for eyes! Stranger still is A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, a science fiction wonder that begins on a windy, lightning-filled night, and takes its protagonists on an adventure across the galaxy. There, they encounter terrifying star-eating monsters, civilisations filled with dead-eyed obedient slaves, and a disembodied villain bent on controlling everything in its path…

Some other fabulously ghoulish reads to snag this Halloween season include The Orphans of St Halibuts by Sophie Wills, a wickedly funny book about a trio of orphans who must use their wiles to get by after the untimely death of their headmistress, and The Midnight Hour by Benjamin Read and Laura Trindles, about a girl whose parents disappear one night and the magical monsters she encounters in their absence.

Even more fun than READING a scary story, though, is WRITING your own! The first thing to do is to create a suitably spooky setting. Where will your story take place? If it’s in a house, what kind of house is it? A sparsely furnished one where footsteps echo in the halls, or a cluttered, creaky old building with hidden doors and a forgotten cellar? Don’t forget to think of the five main senses… how does your setting smell? What does it look and sound like? Does it feel stiflingly hot or chillingly cold? Can you taste the decay in the air? Write down five seriously creepy details about your setting as you brainstorm what horrifying events will befall the characters you are about to create.

Once you’ve got your setting sorted and brainstormed a few ideas about what might be lurking therein, it’s time to get to work and let the imagination run wild! Start with “It was a dark and stormy night” and go from there. If you have more than one child nearby, ask them to take turns writing for two minutes each, then swap stories by passing their paper to the right. After ten minutes of writing, you’ll have some seriously scary, strange and uncanny stories to share by torchlight – IF YOU DARE…

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Thank you for those spine-tingling tips, Dashe!

You can read an extract from the latest book in the Sticky Pines series, below:



Buy the book.

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Watch our Halloween books for kids video!

It’s almost Halloween – and what better way to celebrate the spooky season than with some scary books!

We’ve picked some of the best Halloween books for kids of all ages – from board books and picture books to activity books and fiction, there’s something for everyone.

You can watch the book recommendations video at the post of this post! And you can find the full list of books, here.

If you liked this video, subscribe to our YouTube channel for more book recommendations, trailers, author Q&As, readings, and more. We’ll be sharing more Halloween content over the next few weeks, including an exciting cover reveal and a giveaway!

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A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes and Poems out today!

We’re delighted that the latest addition to the Nosy Crow Classics series, A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes and Poems, is out today! This enchanting collection of classic rhymes, poems, and songs – illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon, award-winning illustrator of I Am the Seed That Grew the Tree – is a book to treasure and the perfect gift for any child this Christmas.

As with the first three books in the Nosy Crow Classics series, A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes and Poems is published in a beautiful cloth-bound hardback format, with stunning foiled jacket, luxurious paper, and a ribbon marker.

In this captivating collection, you’ll meet favourite friends Humpty Dumpty, the Owl and the Pussy-cat and Little Miss Muffet, as well as mermaids, elves and a whole host of animals at a magical fair. Discover games for playtime, songs for suppertime and star-filled lullabies for bedtime – a book that will delight throughout the year.

You can take a look inside this stunning collection below:

Order a copy of A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes and Poems from our website here, from Waterstones here, The Hive here, or from Amazon here.

Don’t forget to sign up to our books newsletter to stay up-to-date with all of our books news at this page, or with the form below, and you’ll never miss a thing.

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