Amundsen’s Way Race to the South Pole by Joanna Grochowicz

Amundsen's Way - The Race to the South Pole cover image
Buy this book here: available 5th Sept. 2019

Amundsens’ Way – Race to the South Pole, is Joanna’s second stunning book about the Antarctic explorers of the early 19 Century.  Roald Amundsen was  determined, heroic and courageous but not best liked but he did win the race to the South Pole in 1911.

Joanna’s skill shines through beyond the words as she writes with intrigue and knowledge about the stories and challenges on this epic but cruel journey.  Her understanding of Amundsen details his faults as well as his abilities, and although she admires his courage, his methods were often very hard.

Amundsen’s Way is Joanna’s second novel of narrative non-fiction, her first Into the White – Scott’s Antarctic Odyssey, is hugely successful and was a finalist for the New Zealand Book Awards 2018. The illustrator for both books is Sarah Lippett.

Buy this book here (Available 5th Sept 2019)

Amundsen’s Way is published by Allen and Unwin of Australia and will be released in the UK in  Autumn 2019.

Books Go Walkabout is planning Joanna’s next visit to the UK and currently talking with schools and organisations on bookings in November.

Her charismatic storytelling abilities will captivate any audience of young people, it’s a great story!

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

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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We Build Our Homes

We buld our homes - book cover and weblink
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 We Build Our Homes is a beautiful book to have and to read. It is packed with information about how different creatures make their homes. Each page has a stunning picture with the text woven into the  illustrations

Another great book from Lorna Knowles  and Chris Madden.

The front cover is beautiful, and shows a shiny blue, bower bird making his home with all sorts of useful and interesting things, like a wrist band and jam jar top.

On the back of the book a beaver wanders across his lodge as he makes a dam under which he and his family can live.

Buy this book here with free delivery….

These are small stories of incredible animal architects. It is not only humans who can create incredible structures around the world; there are weaver birds, gophers, termites, honey bees, meerkats and moles.

The world map shows locations and key facts for each animal with lists for mini beasts builders and mammal builders.

We Build Our Homes follows on from Laura’s previous book called We Travel So Far and Once Upon a Jungle, The Coral Kingdom, and It Starts with a Seed, which was awarded the Margaret Mallett Award for Children’s Non-fiction.

Laura Knowles has a love of natural history and along with Chris Madden, they have produced this creative and visual book of facts and creatures, making every little creature come alive on every page.

 

A great book from publishers Word and Pictures, part of The Quarto Group, making books open the doors of children’s imagination and exploring other worlds.

Recommended for all ages and especially for ages 6-10 years.

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

 

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

We use Stripe to handle your e-purchase. Buy with confidence from BgW. Customer FAQ's here.

Raise the Flag

Rasie the Flag - cover image and web link
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Raise the Flag is written by Clive Gifford and illustrated by Tim Bradford.

Terrific flag facts, stories and trivia in this engaging book all about flags.

It is packed full of amazing facts and information about flags. There are pages of different types of flags, great moments in history when flags were raised and lowered, and ways we can communicate with flags.

Raise the Flag is an ideal book for anyone, child or adult who loves to store facts and gain in knowledge about our world.

Buy this book here with free delivery

Included in the book are sections  where you can design your own flag, complete with a good set of instructions, you can learn how to communicate using semaphore signals, a fabulous flag quiz to test your knowledge and you can learn about the different parts of the flag, its history and what it symbolises.

Clive Gifford the author lives in Manchester and has travelled all over the world, having visited over 70 countries. He has climbed on rocket launcher towers, ridden on robots and flown gliders. He has over 200 books published and has received nominations for or won awards for Royal Society, Library Association, Blue Peter, Smithsonian and TES.

Living right next to a nature reserve in Nottingham, Tim Bradford, the illustrator is inspired by nature and loves drawing people from all over the world.

Raise the Flag is published by QED, part of the Quarto Group and this book joins a collection of outstanding non-fiction books for children.

We recommend this book for children from 7 years – 11 years.

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

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.

We use Stripe to handle your e-purchase. Buy with confidence from BgW. Customer FAQ's here.

Bone Talk, Short Listed for Costa Children’s Book Award 2018

Bone Talk - cover image and web link
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Congratulations to Candy Gourlay, author of Bone Talk, shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards, Children’s Book Award, 2018.

Candy is an award-winning author, her books include Tall Story, Shine and most recently Is It a Mermaid?

At Books Go Walkabout, we are pleased to work with Candy on school visits in the UK and Far East.

Bone Talk is a story from 100 years ago, about a boy named Samkad,  who thinks he knows everything about the world. He knows the mountains he lives in. He knows his people. He knows his blood enemy, the Mangili and he  wants  to  become  a  man,  to  be  given  his  own shield,  spear and axe to fight with.

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His best friend, Luki, wants all the same things – except she is a girl, and no girl has ever become a warrior.  But everything changes when a new boy arrives in the village. He calls  himself  Samkad’s  brother,  yet he knows nothing  of  the  ways  of  the  mountain and he brings news of a people called  ‘Americans’,  who  are bringing war and destruction right to his home…

Candy is from the Philippines and her stories are linked to culture and childhood from this amazing country on the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

Whilst writing Bone Talk, Candy travelled to her book’s remote mountain setting and became engrossed in the spirit and dynamics of this incredible country.

Bone Talk is published by David Fickling Books and is a great read for children ages, 8-11 years.

Congratulations Candy on having Bone Talk shortlisted and Good Luck  for the Costa Children’s Book Award.

Sue Martin

Books go Walkabout, stories across the world

 

 

 

 

 

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.

We use Stripe to handle your e-purchase. Buy with confidence from BgW. Customer FAQ's here.

Books! Books! Books!

Books! Books ! Books! - cover image and web link
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A book about books by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom. Explore inside the greatest library on earth!

A fascinating journey through literature via Shakespeare, Bronte sisters, Brothers Grimm, Dickens, Lewis Carroll  and many others  included at The British Library.  Opening the pages of  Books! Books! Books! is like stepping into The British Library itself in London. An enormous building full of hidden treasures and packed with books. Visit the cafe with a wall of very old books stretching from the ground floor to the second floor.

Mick Manning and Brita Granstorm work in partnership, this intriguing book is full of information and illustration; from man-eating monsters to lost children, from magical creatures to flying machines.  Mick and Brita’s Facebook page shows some of their award-winning titles, such as What Mr Darwin Saw, The Beatles and William Shakespeare.

…with free delivery

Otter-Barry Books has created and published this beautiful hardback book, which children of many ages will enjoy reading and adults too.

The book will act as a pathway for children to venture into libraries and explore, to follow their imaginations learning along the way.

We recommend for all ages and for adults too!

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

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.

We use Stripe to handle your e-purchase. Buy with confidence from BgW. Customer FAQ's here.

Swan Lake by Anne Spudvilas

Swan Lake cover image and web link
Buy this great book here – with free delivery

A magnificent visual retelling of the classic ballet story from a much-loved, award-winning Australian illustrator.

Swan Lake is an incredible book, in style, illustration and emotional involvement.

Taken from the iconic ballet of Swan Lake telling the tragic love story of a princess transformed into a swan by an evil sorcerer. In this atmospheric adaptation, Anne Spudvilas re-imagines the classic tale of passion, betrayal and heartbreak in the dramatic riverscape of the Murray-Darling.

Like a ballet the story emerges without words, and captures all the tension, heartbreak and  love with the inevitable finale or end. It has a different twist in this adaptation! The book, as the ballet, is in three acts with an explanation of the events that follow.

The illustrations are truly magical, with many dark tones and a minimal use of  a colour palette, enormously effective.

…with free delivery

Anne Spudvilas is one of Australia’s most talented visual artists. Her illustrations are full of emotion and beauty. Anne’s Swan Lake is simply enchanting and sublime!’ Li Cunxin, author of Mao’s Last Dancer and Artistic Director, Queensland Ballet

Anne Spudvilas is a multi-award-winning illustrator of children’s books and an established portrait painter and print-maker. Her first picture book, The Race by Christobel Mattingley, was awarded the Crichton Award for Illustration and was a Childrens’s Book Council of Australia Honour Book.

Anne’s move to the Murray River has inspired her latest book, an illustrated retelling of the classic ballet story Swan Lake. She lives in Wentworth, where the Murray and Darling rivers meet, surrounded by birds and river red gums.

Published by Allen and Unwin, it was released in the UK earlier this year. Allen and Unwin have a remarkable portfolio and list of amazingly beautiful books and this is one which we are lucky to have in the UK.

Whether you are also a ballet fiend or not, this book is one to have.

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

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.

We use Stripe to handle your e-purchase. Buy with confidence from BgW. Customer FAQ's here.

Authors and Schools across the world via BGW

Jumping betwixt Australia, China, Hong Kong and the UK!

Kellett School year 5’s had just returned from Beijing in May 2018 when they joined Books Go Walkabout ‘skyping’ to Carole Wilkinson, award-winning Australian author, her Dragonkeeper series is set in Ancient China.

The year 5 students at Kowloon Bay campus of Kellett School were intrigued with Carole’s presentation showing drawings and research, especially the drawing of an Emperor taking his dragon for a walk, his body curled around and walking side by side. 

The hour-long session covered a whole host of creative writing thoughts and possibilities,conversations about writing, story ideas, and characters. Dragonkeeper is now being made into a movie, it is now two years from starting and two years until completion. Very exciting and maybe two years is not too long to wait?

There be dragons!

Dragonkeeper is a fantasy story about a slave girls who saves the life of an ageing dragon, and escapes her brutal master.

Pursued by a ruthless dragon hunter, the girls and the dragon, make an epic journey across China in 141BC, carrying a mysterious stone that must be protected. There are seven books in the series plus an introduction book, a great read and some of the students have already read the first five books.

Enjoying the book…

Kellett year 5 students had already completed some brilliant writing projects about characters and the story-line. 

Books Go Walkabout provides more than just an author, we work with the school to ensure that there is great benefit to school and students and that there are curriculum matches to enhance attainment and enjoyment too.

Looking forward to more ‘skyping’ across the world.

Sue Martin

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Books Go Walkabout
Discover a world of authors, illustrators and readers!
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.

We use Stripe to handle your e-purchase. Buy with confidence from BgW. Customer FAQ's here.

The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story & Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

The Jungle Book - cover image and web link
The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story here

Palazzo Editions are delighted to publish new and sensitively abridged and adapted gift editions of The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story and Alice in Wonderland, bringing Robert Ingpen’s stunning illustrations and these timeless storied to a younger audience.

Juliet Stanley has created an amazing style of text in abridging the original story, with losing none of the magic and depth and bringing a beautiful way of engaging for younger readers.

In Jungle Book:Mowgli’s Story, by Rudyard Kipling the story speaks volumes of a child being lost and found by the wolf pack, who runs wild in the jungle, yet brings talents of human hands to support the other animals. All the animal characters are there and include, Bagheera the black panther, Baloo the bear and of course Shere Khan the tiger who was out to kill Mowgli, as soon as he had the chance.

A quote from Michael Morpurgo, “ I still marvel at the inventiveness of Rudyard Kipling… the characters come to life at the hand of Ingpen- just as my mother’s voice brought them to life when she read them to me.”


In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, the story of Alice, a child who was at the edge of growing up who fell down a rabbit hole and found a world turned inside out with characters like The Mad Hatter, The White Rabbit and the Queen of Hearts.

The book is great to read and in many ways enables the story to be understood by younger readers in this edition.

 

A quote from Philip Pullman, ” Lewis Carroll, we could say, created the whole of children’s literature with these wonderful stories. Placing a child at the centre of a narrative that was entirely free of instruction, entirely devoted to delight, was a stroke of genius. The Alice’s are the greatest nonsense ever written, and far greater, in my view than most sense.”

Alice - cover image and web link
Buy this book on-line here…

Award winning artist Robert Ingpen’s wonderful illustrations have illuminated this classic children’s titles and other books include Peter Pan and Wind in the Willows and read a recent interview with Robert Ingpen 

 

We love these books and find it hard to put them down, either for the beautiful illustrations or for the chance to read again about the adventures of characters with stories beyond our wildest dreams.

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.

We use Stripe to handle your e-purchase. Buy with confidence from BgW. Customer FAQ's here.

KidGlovz by Julie Hunt, illustrated by Dale Newman

KidGlovz
Buy this title from Bookmonitor here…

This is a book with a difference, it’s a graphic novel in hardback, with an incredible number of drawings, vividly brought to life in black and white to tell this amazing story of Kid, his music his kidnap and all the characters who appear on the way.

Kid Glovz is a musical genius. His gift is so precious that he’s kept under lock and key. But when a young thief helps him escape, Kid must embark on a perilous journey through which he will discover the terrifying nature of his talent. A spellbinding graphic fable about friendship and freedom.

The story is full of mystery, an adventure with real danger and otherworldliness, a gripping tug-of-war between the forces of good and evil. It is a beautifully produced graphic novel for children, and on Julie’s website you can read the background to the story.

The author, award-winning Julie Hunt has written some amazing titles, including Little Else and a Song for Scarlet Runner. She lives on a farm in Southern Tasmania, she has a love of dramatic landscapes and has used these to build stories full of imagination and intrigue.

Dale Newman’s stunning artwork is reminiscent of Shaun Tan’s The Arrival and has the same air of foreboding in many of the pictures. Kid Glovz is her first epic graphic novel and a stunning start to a career in children’s books. She lives in New South Wales, Australia and is also used to some amazing landscapes.

Allen and Unwin, Australian publishers have a star packed book list and KidGlovz is bound to be a great success. In Australia it has already won 2016 QLD Premier’s Literary Awards, Children’s Books and short-listed for  2016 CBCA Book of the Year, Crichton Award for New Illustrators

Books Go Walkabout recommend KidGlovz for children aged about 9+ and for adults too.

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

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.

We use Stripe to handle your e-purchase. Buy with confidence from BgW. Customer FAQ's here.

Ehsan Abdollahi at The House of Illustration

 

Ehsan AbollahiEhsan is an award-winning illustrator of children’s books, his work is published through Tiny Owl Publishers.

He teaches at Tehran’s top Honar (Art) University and he is currently in the UK to attend the Edinburgh International Book Festival and other engagements.

On Thursday 10th August he joined a discussion panel at The House of Illustration  in conjunction with Tiny Owl Publishers.

The panel was made up of James Mayhew, Erica Jarnes, Beverley Naidoo, Azita Rassi and Delaram Ghanimifard.

Discussion was fascinating and there was a strong focus on the initial refusal to entry and visa for Ehsan, a ban! After considerable pressure and public energy from many people, including The Bookseller and The Guardian, this was overturned and Ehsan was allowed entry into the UK.

But what does it mean to be ‘banned’? And who is affected by the ban? The panel felt that a ban meant that not only the person was banned from the country but also the children and recipients of the books were also banned from listening to Ehsan and his work, creating an apartheid situation.

Banning affects us all as we are not allowed to hear or take part. In effect it stops dialogue.  A dialogue, in this case where children can share an understanding of cultural differences, through books.  Where they experience a greater  understanding of a global world, sharing lives and concerns, knowing similarities and differences and valuing both.Ehsans colouring materials

Ehsan had also run some workshops for children, creating passports of peace and hope and, ‘using a poem as a springboard to explore how you might change the world and what colours you would use.’ Tiny Owl.

His books are amazing, the illustrations depict life in colour and style, they have a beautiful expressive feel about the images and tell the stories, often with no need for words.

When I Coloured the World‘ and ‘A Bottle of Happiness‘ are both wonderful books to have and to share. They tell more than the story written in the words, they are moral stories and full of meaning.A Bottle of Happiness

As picture books they have a place in libraries for children of all ages and adults too. By sharing the books with parents and teachers, there is much to discover in words, pictures and meaning.

 

 

At Books Go Walkabout, we are keen explorers of books in different places, reaching out across the world, using books and stories in a global dimension.

We are delighted to share Ehsan’s work and that of Tiny Owl Publishers with the world. We do this directly when travelling to the other side of the globe and through our blog which is read across Australia, South East Asia and in Europe.

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

 

 

 

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.

We use Stripe to handle your e-purchase. Buy with confidence from BgW. Customer FAQ's here.