Nosy Crow's Blog, page 97

Where’s Mr Lion has won the Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Award!

Emma Brewster, Children’s Book Buyer at Sainsbury’s; Camilla Reid; and Axel Scheffler, award judge

This Thursday and last have been tense times in our household: with children born two school years apart, we were waiting for both A Level and GCSE results. Everything turned out fine, thank you for asking, but there’s nothing like these rites of passage to make you feel nostalgic for the babies that you once had, and so the timing of yesterday’s news was particularly poignant for me.

Yesterday, Camilla, Frances and I went to the Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Awards, now in their fourth year. (And in another bout of nostalgia I was recalling that, in 2013, when Nosy Crow was smaller, and frankly less well organised than it is now, I cycled up to Sainsbury’s head office in a lather of sweat to drop off our entries and the relevant forms, arriving at the very end of the day, and finding it almost impossible to find anyone to take them from me.)

The awards are divided into various categories – Baby and Toddler, Learning and Development, Picture Book, Fiction, and Licensed Book – and we’ve been shortlisted in the past but, sadly, never won.

This year, we were shortlisted in the Baby and Toddler category for Where’s Mr Lion, illustrated by Ingela P Arrhenius, against The Crayons’ Book of Colours by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers (that would be THE Oliver Jeffers), and Bathtime for Little Rabbit by Jörg Mühle – both really strong books. Remembering our past experiences of the award, we had our good losers’ faces on when Jill Coleman, Director of Publisher Relations and Book Purchasing at BookTrust, which was involved with the awards for the first time this year, took to the stage to announce the winner.

And we won the Baby and Toddler award. Yes, we were surprised! But also, in a sort of a way, we weren’t. Where’s Mr Lion is a perfect book, I think: it’s got bright, sometimes neon-bright, felt flaps on each spread, each revealing a stylishly-drawn character, and a mirror behind a final felt flap on the last page. The pared-to-the-bone text is repetitive – the only variation on each page is the name of the animal that the baby is looking for. I remember being shown a mock-up of the pages before we commissioned the illustrations from the brilliant Ingela P Arrhenius, and just knowing that this was a book – and a series, because this is the first in a series – that we HAD to publish. The only problem was that the financial numbers looked absolutely terrible. It is a nice example of the advantages of being a small publishing company that we were able to take the risk on this excellent book, which could easily have bitten the dust at the point at which it was costed and found wanting: if we were more formal or bureaucratic in our acquisitions process, this is a book that would never have gone any further. The truth is that this book was, and remains, an expensive book to make. It has to be printed and hand-assembled in China and each colour of felt has to be individually safety tested. The art has to be beautiful, and beautiful art is not cheap art. But we took the risk, and have six-figure international sales of this first title in the series alone since it was published in January. So sometimes it pays to back the creative vision of an editor and a designer combined with a bit of a sales hunch.

We basked in the glory of our category win while the other category winners were announced – Adrian Edmonson’s Tilly and the Time Machine won the Fiction Award; The Pokemon Encyclopedia won the Licensed Book award; Usborne’s 100 Things to Know About the Human Body won the Learning and Development Award; and Rachel Bright and Jim Field’s The Koala Who Could won the Picture Book Award. These were pretty heavy hitters, so we assembled our good losers’ faces again, as the overall Sainsbury’s Children’s Book of the Year award winner was announced.

The winner was… Where’s Mr Lion! I cannot tell you how happy we are to have won this award. This is a book with five spreads of minimal illustrations, and a total of 31 words, 5 of which are “where”. It looks… simple. And there aren’t many prizes that acknowledge how difficult it is to make books that look simple, but that really, really work well for their audience, let alone prizes that acknowledge that to the point that such a book wins over fiction, and picture books and non-fiction books. It’s such an accolade, and also an important acknowledgement of the importance of books for the youngest children. Reading becomes a habit the younger you are when you start doing it, and sharing books with babies is one of the best things that parents can do to contribute to the emotional well-being, language development and later life success of children, according to multiple pieces of research.

I said that I was feeling nostalgic for my babies, and I feel nostalgic, too, about the books I read to my babies. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Dear Zoo, Where’s Spot and Peepo! are all simple-looking books with novelty elements – holes or flaps – that invite the uncoordinated scrabble of the tiniest of fingers. They have simple texts that I could recite even now based on how often I read them nearly two decades ago. I hope that mums nearly twenty years from now will recall Where’s Mr Lion with the same teary fondness.

Where’s Mr Lion and our Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Award

 

The Velveteen Rabbit has been shortlisted for a 2017 British Book Design and Production Award

The shortlists for the 2017 British Book Design and Production Awards have been announced, and we’re absolutely delighted to see that The Velveteen Rabbit, written by Margery Williams and illustrated by Sarah Massini, has been shortlisted in the Children’s 0 to 8 Years category!

The awards recognise and promote the excellence of the British book design and production industry by celebrating the best books of the year. These include everything from photographic books, art and architecture monographs, to scholarly, academic and reference books.

Our edition of The Velveteen Rabbit is the first in a new series of highly collectible Nosy Crow Classics. Created with lavish illustrations, these beautiful books will bring old favourites to a new generation.

Here’s a look inside the book:

Buy the book online.

You can find out more about the British Book Design and Production Awards, and read the full list of shortlists, here. The Awards will be presented on Thursday 16 November – wish us luck!

 

The next Nosy Crow Reading Group is almost here – we’re discussing The Explorer by Katherine Rundell

After a Summer hiatus, the Nosy Crow Reading Group will be back in a couple of weeks – we’ll be discussing The Explorer by Katherine Rundell.

And if you’re interested in coming along, there are just a couple of places remaining!

We’ll be meeting on Tuesday, September 26th at 6.30pm, here at the Nosy Crow offices – 14 Baden Place, Crosby Row, London, SE1 1YW – for a discussion of the book (along with wine and crisps).

If you’d like to come along, just register for a place with the form below, or at this page – if the reading group becomes fully booked, you can add your name to our waiting list, and we’ll notify you if a place opens up.

You can buy a signed copy of The Explorer online from Waterstones here.

We hope you can join us!

There’s a week left to apply for a Designer position at Nosy Crow

A little while ago we announced that we’re hiring a Designer to work on our fiction list – and there are just a few days left to apply for the role: the closing date is August 25th.

This is a fantastic opportunity for a highly creative, talented, hardworking Designer to join our design team, working on our award-winning fiction list.

This is a full-time role and the successful applicant will be based in London, at the Nosy Crow office near London Bridge.

Candidates will have experience in children’s fiction publishing, on both illustrated and non-illustrated titles. We are looking for someone who is bursting with ideas and creative energy.

A high level of proficiency in Indesign, Photoshop and Illustrator programmes, excellent proven book design and typographic skills, and a love of children’s book illustration are essential, along with good written and spoken communication skills, and the ability to work to a deadline.

The successful candidate will manage book projects from cover and initial layouts all the way through to production, briefing and working with the illustrator throughout the creative process. The designer will report to the Head of Design but will work closely with other members of the Nosy Crow team, particularly the editorial staff, to produce child-focused, parent-friendly, high-quality books.

We are a small, close team here at The Crow’s Nest working in a friendly, highly creative and professional environment and we need a team player who is willing to muck in, particularly during busy times.

If you would like to apply for the role, please send a CV and application letter, along with samples of your design work, to Nia Roberts via email (nia@nosycrow.com).

Candidates should have the right to live and work in the UK.

The closing date for applications is 25th August 2017 at midnight (UK time).

Nosy Crow is an equal opportunities employer. We believe that employing a diverse workforce is an important factor in success and make recruiting decisions based on applicants’ experience and skills. We welcome applications from all members of society irrespective of age, gender, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion or belief.

“Every book Christopher Edge writes is a surprise and a delight”: boundary-pushing children’s books

Janet Smyth, the Children and Education Programme Director at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, has collected some of her favourite fantasy and science fiction children’s books for Lounge Books – “innovative books that push the boundaries of expectation and imagination”. And we are delighted to see that The Jamie Drake Equation, by Christopher Edge, is included in her selection!

On The Jamie Drake Equation, Janet writes:

“Every book Christopher Edge writes is a surprise and a delight. His latest is about Jamie whose dad is an astronaut. While doing his homework at the observation lab one night, Jamie’s phone picks up a up a weird signal. Could it be a message from aliens? A message that Jamie has to get to his father before it’s too late? But how do you rescue an astronaut without heading into space yourself?”

You can read the full round-up on the Lounge Books site, here.

Named one of The Times’ best children’s books of the year, The Jamie Drake Equation combines action and adventure with cutting-edge space exploration and a compelling emotional core – it is truly awesome storytelling. You can take a look inside the book below:

Buy the book online.

Our new app, Axel Scheffler’s Flip Flap Ocean, is out now!

Our newest app, Axel Scheffler’s Flip Flap Ocean, is available on the App Store now!

This is the sixth app in the brilliant, award-winning Flip Flap Animal series, with incredible new artwork from Axel, new funny poems, 121 new silly animal hybrid names and creatures, and the same wonderfully intuitive interface – swipe any part of the screen to create new animals and hear the poem read aloud, with original sound effects, music, and text highlighting.

It is INCREDIBLY satisfying (and addictive) – you’ll be swiping for hours – and all for just 99¢/ 99p!

What do you get if you cross a whale with a jellyfish? Why, a whellyfish of course!  And how about a lobster and an octopus? Well, that would be a lobstopus!

Here are just a few of the brilliant combinations you can make:

And if you like the app, you’ll love the book! We’ve published a print edition of Axel Scheffler’s Flip Flap Ocean too, in a wonderful split-page, spiral-bound board-book format – you can find out more here.

If you enjoy Axel Scheffler’s Flip Flap Ocean, or one of our other apps, we’d be incredibly grateful if you’d consider leaving a review on the App Store – it really makes a huge difference. And if you’d like to stay up to date with our upcoming apps, you can sign up for our apps newsletter here.

We hope you enjoy Axel Scheffler’s Flip Flap Ocean!

This Zoo Is Not For You is The Observer’s children’s book of the week

This Zoo is Not For You, the brand new picture book by Ross Collins, author-illustrator of There’s a Bear On My Chair, has been named The Observer’s children’s book of the week!

Imogen Carter writes: “Some books seem to carry a memory of the fun their creators must have had conceiving them and the latest from Scottish author/illustrator Ross Collins – about a platypus enduring a series of job interviews with some snooty zoo animals – is shot through with a particular brand of mischief. Told in rhyming couplets with beautifully expressive illustrations, it bounces along, a pleasure to read aloud … There’s a touch of Tim Minchin about Collins, who has worked on more than 100 children’s books and won several awards: his tone is funny but heartfelt and a little bit rock’n’roll … Clearly Collins knows how to throw a good party – young children should find the invitation irresistible.”

You can read the full review here – and here’s a look inside This Zoo is Not For You:

The book will be in shops next month – you can pre-order it online here. And 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.

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Nosy Crow at the Cheltenham Literature Festival

The programme for this year’s Cheltenham Literature Festival has been unveiled, and there’ll be some fantastic events taking place featuring Nosy Crow authors and illustrators!

On Sunday October 8, The Jamie Drake Equation author Christopher Edge will be taking part in a Get Creative! session. Fire up your imagination as authors and illustrators get together in a creative madcap event for the whole family discussing all aspects of creativity, from things they made as children, to finding time for it in their busy adult lives and sharing top tips for budding creatives. You can find out more about the event here – and here’s a look inside The Jamie Drake Equation:

Buy the book online.

On Monday October 9, Tracey Corderoy, author of the Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam picture book and illustrated fiction series, will lead a fantastic session of fun, games and storytelling. You can find out more about the event here – and here’s a look inside Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: Up, Up and Away!, the latest illustrated fiction title in the Shifty and Sam series:

Buy the book online.

And on Sunday October 15, you can join illustrator Helen Stephens as she reads, and draws, from her new book, Oliver Elephant. You’ll be able to draw along with Helen too! You can find out more about the event here – and here’s a look inside the book:

Pre-order the book online.

Tickets for all of the events at Cheltenham go on sale on Wednesday August 30 for festival members, and on Wednesday September 6 for the general public – save the date in your diaries, and we hope to see you there!

There’s a fortnight left to apply for a Designer position at Nosy Crow

A little while ago we announced that we’re hiring a Designer to work on our fiction list – and there are just a couple of weeks left to apply for the role: the closing date is August 25th.

This is a fantastic opportunity for a highly creative, talented, hardworking Designer to join our design team, working on our award-winning fiction list.

This is a full-time role and the successful applicant will be based in London, at the Nosy Crow office near London Bridge.

Candidates will have experience in children’s fiction publishing, on both illustrated and non-illustrated titles. We are looking for someone who is bursting with ideas and creative energy.

A high level of proficiency in Indesign, Photoshop and Illustrator programmes, excellent proven book design and typographic skills, and a love of children’s book illustration are essential, along with good written and spoken communication skills, and the ability to work to a deadline.

The successful candidate will manage book projects from cover and initial layouts all the way through to production, briefing and working with the illustrator throughout the creative process. The designer will report to the Head of Design but will work closely with other members of the Nosy Crow team, particularly the editorial staff, to produce child-focused, parent-friendly, high-quality books.

We are a small, close team here at The Crow’s Nest working in a friendly, highly creative and professional environment and we need a team player who is willing to muck in, particularly during busy times.

If you would like to apply for the role, please send a CV and application letter, along with samples of your design work, to Nia Roberts via email (nia@nosycrow.com).

Candidates should have the right to live and work in the UK.

The closing date for applications is 25th August 2017 at midnight (UK time).

Nosy Crow is an equal opportunities employer. We believe that employing a diverse workforce is an important factor in success and make recruiting decisions based on applicants’ experience and skills. We welcome applications from all members of society irrespective of age, gender, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion or belief.

Take a look inside The Secret Diary of Jane Pinny, Victorian House Maid (and Accidental Detective)

Next month we’re incredibly pleased to be publishing the second book in the fantastic National Trust Secret Diaries series – The Secret Diary of Jane Pinny, Victorian House Maid (and Accidental Detective), written by Philip Ardagh and illustrated by Jamie Littler. And today you can take a very first look inside the new book!

A fantastic balance of great characters and exciting plot, and packed with interesting, accessible historical facts woven into the story, this is Gosford Park meets Horrible Histories. It’s FILLED with fascinating historical detail and Victorian trivia – and with a gripping story, a mystery to solve, a wonderful hero, and all perfectly accompanied by Jamie’s hugely appealing and child-friendly artwork, it’s perfect for 7 – 9 year olds.

Jane Pinny has moved to the very grand Lytton House to be a Maid Of All Work. And being a Maid Of All Work means that she has to do… well, ALL the work, obviously! Cleaning, dusting, scrubbing, washing – there’s SO much to do in a Victorian country house. But when a priceless jade necklace belonging to the lady of the house disappears, Jane turns accidental detective (with the help of her best friend, a pigeon called Plump…) – can she solve the mystery of the missing jewels before it’s too late?

Here’s a very first look inside!

The Secret Diary of Jane Pinny will be in shops from September – you can find out more about the book here. And 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.

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