6+ Years – Page 2 – Bookmonitor – news from around the world

A Bottle of Happiness by Pippa Goodhart and Ehsan Abdollahi

A Bottle of Happiness - cover image and web link — Buy this book from BgW here…

On one side of a big mountain the people were rich and worked hard to become richer, but they were not happy.

On the other side of the mountain, people were not rich but shared things, including stories and they were happy. A small boy climbs the mountain to find the other side is full of wealth.

He returns one day with a bottle and brings the riches of happiness into that community. The moral is, share with others and you will have riches in abundance.

A story about people and getting on with each other, a fable with meaning and a positive ending.

Created and published by Tiny Owl, who are a very exciting new, independent publishing company, established in 2015. They believe in having stories which act as bridges. They have a number of books from Iranian authors.

They have a programme of intercultural projects where authors and illustrators from different countries work together in creation of a children’s book.

A Bottle of Happiness is written by Pippa Goodhart and illustrator is Ehsan Abdollahi. The text and illustration matches the idea behind the story.

Pippa has also written over a hundred books, including Winnie the Witch. Ehsan works as an illustrator of children’s books and newspapers as well as teaching at university in Iran, He recently was initially refused entry to the UK, when booked to deliver an event at Edinburgh Festival 2017. After much support and pressure Ehsan was granted a visa into the UK. Hooray!!

This is a beautiful book and a heart-warming story. Recommended for homes, sharing, libraries and schools.

Sue Martin

Bookmonitor is our news source for reviews and project information.

Books go Walkabout is our international books and literacy project - connecting authors and illustrators with children and young people around the globe.

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Pet Dragon – Dare to Care by M.P.Robertson and Sally Symes

Dare to Care Pet Dragon — Buy this book on-line here…

Have you ever wondered how to look after your dragon? Once caught and living with you, looking after a dragon is not an easy pet option!

From choosing the type of dragon to assisting in learning how to fly… this is the book for you!

The illustrations are captivating and appealing and dragons of all sorts and all colours and kinds are shown in detail of scales, fiery tongues and flames with boxes of text to read and enjoy.

The idea was conceived by M.P Robertson, and written by Sally Symes, and finally published by Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, who have a brilliant knack of spotting a great book potential.

If you are feeling brave… visit M.P Robertson website and you can find ways to draw and do more with dragons.

But first, we recommend that you buy the book and then when you have your dragon, let us know how.

PS Warning !! Never feed your dragon Brussel Sprouts!

Sue Martin

Maya Angelou – Little People, Big Dreams

Maya Angelou, is a remarkable story of the woman and the girl.

Born in St Louis, Missouri, she faced much unfairness about the colour of her skin. At eight years of age she was attacked by her mother’s boyfriend and stopped speaking for 5 years!

She became many things… dancer, singer, writer, producer, teacher and an activist for civil rights, as well as a mother and grandmother. She wrote a book called I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, with memories from her childhood. She read from her collection of poems at both the White House and United Nations and she is remembered for her message of hope for all people.

The book, Maya Angelou, is written by Lisbeth Kaiser and illustrated by Leire Salaberria. It is part of the Little People, Big Dreams series from Frances Lincoln, part of QuartoKnows, discovers the lives of outstanding people,from designers and artists to scientists. All of them achieved incredible things, yet each began life as a child with a dream.

Other books we have featured in this great series: Agatha Christie and Marie Curie…read more here

Beautiful hard back books, written in a highly illustrated copy, to engage readers of all ages and for children who want to find out more and explore without thousands of words. Good for older children with ESOL too.

Sue Martin

What on Earth? Bees

Explore, create and investigate with this wonderful book written by Andrea Quigley and illustrated by Paulina Morgan.

Are you busy as a bee? Bees are the hardest working insects on our planet and without them the world would be a very different place. From looking at the different types of bees to making honey flapjacks, this book takes you on a journey into the life of the bee, bees around the world, making honey, life in the hive and being a bee keeper.

It is packed with facts in this very intriguing style of text and illustration, both working cleverly to enhance the interest and develop a real sense of enjoyment, understanding and learning.

As part of the What on Earth series published by QED this is a great book to have in your home or in the library. I can think of many children from ages 6 -10 who would enjoy finding out more about bees using this book as a guide.

At Books GoWalkabout, we are working with schools in Hong Kong. For students who are learning English, this is a wonderful resource to use for students from 11 and upwards. We will be promoting this book in Asia.

Sue Martin

Dare to Care: Pet Dragon

If you too have ever wanted to have a pet dragon, then this is the book for you!

A spectacular and fun spoof pet-care guide to dragons with everything you would ever need; taking your dragon to the vets, how to groom your dragon, teaching it to fly.

Written by Sally Symes and illustrated by M.P Robertson, published by Frances Lincoln it is now available in paper back at £6.99 or for a gift in hardback at £11.99.

There are pages of fun facts, such as what to give your dragon to eat and what is not so good, brussel sprouts for instance are a complete No!

The Dragon Snatcher cover image — See more…

When it comes to grooming the illustrations are really good and include a tiler fixing the scales, a chimney sweep for the fire and smoke places and much more.

Great team work on this book and makes an excellent book for children aged from 5 and above. It’s part of a series about dragons and includes The Egg and the Dragon Snatcher.

Sue Martin

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Atlas of Animal Adventures from Wide Eyed Publishers

Atlas of Animal Adventures by Wide Eyed Publishers — Review or buy on Amazon.co.uk

New Release for 1^st September is the Atlas of Animal Adventures by Wide Eyed Editions part of Quarto Publishing group. Illustrated by Lucy Letherland, written by Rachel Williams and Emily Hawkins

From the creators of the bestselling Atlas of Adventures .

A terrific book! A collection of nature’s most unmissable events, epic migrations and extraordinary behaviours.

It’s a large hardback book which feels and looks wonderful. Each page is packed with information in a beautiful style of illustration. Alongside a main section of text there are smaller bite size sentences amongst the images, great style and a great way to explore and find out.

Each continent has several pages with different countries. It is easy and very clear how to find the countries and their continents. In Europe, for instance, there are Polar Bears in Greenland, Puffins in Iceland, Honey bees in the British Isles and, my favourite Barn Owls in France. The owls are gorgeous and we have owlets with nightcaps on in the tree and a protective parent owl overseeing the lavender field at dusk, a beautiful image.

Further afield we have Narwhals in Canada, Black Bears in the USA, Hummingbirds in Costa Rica, Hippos in Botswana and Birds of Paradise in Papua New Guinea.

We recommend the Atlas of Animal Adventures for everyone really and I am about to buy this book for presents for the family!! And for children… well, we go for ages, 6 and above and all ages too!!

Sue Martin Books Go Walkabout

Adder, Bluebell, Lobster
Wild Poems by Chrissie Gittins

Adder, Bluebell, Lobster - book cover image — Review or buy from Amazon.co.uk here…

There is more to this Wild Book of Poems from Otter-Barry Books than meets the eye!

From Adder to Wren, forty fantastic poems celebrate forty amazing animals, birds and plants and their beautiful names – names which you can help poet Chrissie Gittins save from EXTINCTION!

They are all words which have been left out of the latest Oxford Junior Dictionary. Join authors such as Michael Morpurgo and Margaret Atwood, who along with 28 other authors, protested against Oxford Junior Dictionary’s replacement of natural words with 21st century terms.

The poems are brilliant, each page has a poem from Chrissie and illustration from Paul Bommer such as. Harry the Hamster…

‘Harry the hamster, in his ball

rolled round the bedroom,

rolled round the hall.

He rolled to the bathroom,

he rolled to the stairs

where a huge teddy bear

took him clean unawares’.

We recommend for ages 6+ and for all ages.

Sue Martin

The Jungle Book – a reimagining of Mowgli’s story by Robert Hunter – New Release!

Jungle Book cover image — Buy this book from Amazon here…

An evocative tale of Mowgli and his story in the jungle, with Bagheeera, Baloo and the wolf pack. Mowgli has to face life with others who are not so keen to help, Kaa,the snake, the pack of monkeys and Shere Khan, the tiger.

The first in a series of classic texts reimagined into the modern day, published by Frances Lincoln (Quarto Group), as Classics Here and Now. These will be a wonderful way of bringing the classic stories to children of today and maybe encouraging them to read the original versions.

The publication coincides with the release of a new feature length film of Jungle Book from Disney and it also commemorates the 80th anniversary of the death of Rudyard Kipling.

Robert Hunter is a London based illustrator and this is his first children’s book, but he is well known with work for V&A, The New York Times and other places.

The images in the book are beautiful and bring a sense of a forever sunset in the jungle, using blue, purple and pinks. The presentation of the book is one for everyone and in hardback makes a really special present and book for keeps.

The parting words of Baloo are the call of any parent.

” Remember!” called Baloo. ” If you ever get in trouble, use the Jungle Call!” And he made the sound, which carried through the night, mournful and long.

“AaHaoOO!”

But Mowgli had already gone.’

We recommend for ages from 6 years for sharing and for 7 onwards to adults and beyond for reading.

Sue Martin Books Go Walkabout and Dolphin Booksellers

Little People, Big Dreams

Coco Chanel cover image... — Buy this from Amazon.co.uk here…

This is a new series of books from Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, which tell people’s stories, and how they became famous. Starting off as children, finding a dream and following it through to a successful career.

The first book follows Coco Chanel, from her early life in an orphanage, where she is a genius with needle and thread, to her time as a cabaret singer, hat maker and international fashion designer.The book is written by Ms Isabel Sanchez Vegara and with beautifully stylised illustrations by Ana Albero.

The second book is about Frida Kahlo, she wanted to study medicine but had a bad childhood accident. But despite a terrible time her career culminated in a solo exhibition in America.

These are inspirational biographies perfect for encouraging children to follow their dreams. They are excellently published books in hardback and encourage you to open them from the start. I was in The British Library recently and noticed that many people just had to peep inside.

Frida Kahlo cover image... — Buy this book from Amazon.co.uk…

In each book there is a fact section and a timeline.

Future books will include Maya Angelou and Amelia Earhart, can’t wait for that one!

We love these books and recommend for children from 6 years to 9 years.

Sue Martin

Dolphin Booksellers and Books Go Walkabout

The Jackal Who Thought he Was a Peacock and The Orange House, from Tiny Owl Publishers

The cover illustration on The Jackal Who Thought he Was a Peacock just makes you want to open the cover.

It is based on a fable by Rumi, a Persian mystic and poet and is retold by Fereshteh Sarlak.

Jackal is unhappy with his dull brown and grey. He dreams of looking resplendent like a peacock. He thinks that this new beauty will win him friendship, rather like the leopard who changes his spots.

The illustrations from Firoozeh Golmohammadi are very exciting and exotic and really engage with the text.

We recommend the book for 5 – 10 yr olds.

The Orange House written and illustrated by Nahid Kazemi and translated by Azita Rassi. Nahid is an award winning author born in Iran and currently living in Canada.

The small Orange House stands at the end of the alley and is feeling sad and left out as all the other buildings are tall and new.Workmen arrive and head towards the Orange House and eventually she has new things too and knows just how good it feels.

The story is all about relationships and isolation and will help children to find new ways to make friends.

These books are both from Tiny Owl Publishers, they have the most beautiful website, which reflects the care and imagination in their books.

We recommend this book for 5- 8 year olds.

Sue Martin Dolphin Booksellers and Books Go Walkabout