booksgowalkabout – Page 11 – Bookmonitor

Bologna Children’s Bookfair 2015

The best venue for those interested in Children’s Books is Bologna Children’s Bookfair, March 30th – April 2nd 2015.

The country focus this year at Bologna is Croatia and there are a wealth of countries from all over the globe with fascinating workshops and stands.

Books Go Walkabout is especially interested in the Digital Café,

Meeting with Dust or Magic

Speakers: Warren Buckleitner, Chris Meade, Louise Carleton-Gertz and Kristin Heitmann
Organized by: Children’s Tech Review

An impromptu coffee with Warren Buckleitner (Children’s Tech Review), to discuss the state of children’s tech.

Last year Walker Books, Australia, won the Bologna Prize for Best Children’s Publisher of the Year – Oceania Region.

A great achievement and we are pleased to be working closely with Walker Books Australia and their authors.

Stay on line, if you can’t make it to Bologna and listen to some amazing stories.

This blog will keep you in touch, or join us on Twitter @booksgowalk

Sue Martin at Books Go Walkabout BGW logoJS

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Tell Me a Picture by Quentin Blake

Adventures in looking at Art is a brilliant book by Quentin Blake and published by Frances Lincoln in association with the National Gallery Company, London.

Quentin describes the vision for this book as a way for children to talk about the pictures, and the story that is within them. On each page there are characters alongside the picture with captions from the characters.

Great to watch on Quentin Blake’s web page.

The book was originally published in 2001 and this new edition is in hard back and makes a truly beautiful book to have for home and for school.

On choosing the pictures, Quentin says,

‘All the pictures in this book are the ones I like, and if you like them too you may eventually want to know more about them and the artists who created them, so there are many notes about the artists…at the end of the book.‘

Tell Me a Picture is a book with real adventures in looking at art, and if you buy this book it will lead into further adventurers I’m sure.

Sue Martin – Children’s Books in Dolphin Booksellers and BooksGoWalkabout

World Book Day 2015

March 5th 2015

The Biggest Book show on Earth…. is how World Book Day is described. With children all over the world dressing up and just getting down to reading, there are all sorts of things to do. Share a story competition, Dress Up and Donate, The Biggest Bookshop in Earth Online and a World Book Day, Lucky Dip… plus of course the £1 offer on loads of books.

BooksGoWalkabout is offering a free conversation with one of our authors from across the world. It can be to any school with internet connection that can skype out.

BGW logoJS Check out the offer at World Book Day events

Have fun on World Book Day.

Sue Martin Books Go Walkabout-

Daisy’s Big Dig

‘You are invited to a Digging Party and there will be free cakes and even some hidden treasure.’

Daisy’s Big Dig is one of the new books from Francis Lincoln this Spring, through Janetta Otter-Barry Books. It is written and illustrated by Angie Morgan, and the pastels and watercolour mixes make for some brilliant illustrations throughout the book.

‘The people who live in Daisy’s street, never, ever talk to each other. But Daisy has a big plan to bring everyone together- a Digging Party!’

This must make a welcome change to all parents who try and find the latest in childrens themed parties.

A great book written and illustrated beautifully and published by such a successful childrens book publisher.

Sue Martin Dolphin Booksellers – Children’s Books on line

iBbY 21st Annual Conference Belonging is…

IbbY uk – 21st Annual IBBY UK/NCRCL

MA Conference, University of Roehampton, Saturday 8th November 2014

‘Belonging is…an exploration of the right to be included and the barriers that must be overcome’

Something that is deep inside us all is the need to belong, to belong to our family, to belong to a group of friends, to belong to the places that we are part of in our work and free time.

A good theme for the conference and met with enthusiasm by all present.

The topics ranged from inclusivity and diversity, against the need for publishers commercial concerns,.

It was really interesting to hear about The International Conference held in Mexico this year. Pam Dix, the chair of iBbY UK, and other members who attended the Congres International de IBBY gave a wonderful account of the global dimensions and international development in children’s books and the need to pursue an agenda of translation.

Alexandra Strick, from Inclusive Minds encouraged others to join their collective and share ways of enabling inclusivity and the creation of characters with needs being just part of the story rather than being a stereotype of special needs.

Julia Hope, who has carried out a great deal of research on refugees in the primary classroom, gave a brilliant account and gave examples of children’s books which are fundamental to the story and narrative of refugees. These included; The Silver Sword by Ian Serrailer, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr and Waiting for Anya by Michael Morpurgo.

Always a good day with time for reflection and thoughts about the role and immense importance of children’s literature.

Sue Martin – Books Go Walkabout and Dolphin Booksellers

E-Reading for South Africa

World Reader and Cambridge University Press, South Africa (CUP SA) are working in partnership on e readers and mobile phones.

This means that anyone with a phone (non smart phone), in South Africa, can now access books and stories through the World Reader app, on the cloud based mobile application platform BiNu. This enables phones such as Nokia, which are widely used across the continent of Africa, to be used as reading devices.

Wow!!

This is amazing news for literacy and for all who are working to make reading a possibility for everyone across the world.

Niall McNulty, digital publisher at CUP SA, described the development as ‘genius’.

‘A recent report by UNESCO, Reading in the mobile era: A study of mobile reading in developing countries, highlights the importance of using mobile devices to encourage a culture of reading by providing access to books to people who previously had none.’ African Branch of Cambridge University Press, 11.8.14

Last year, World Reader had 330,000 monthly active users, reading 650,000 books on mobile phones.

CUP has made 360 e-books available via the app, including titles from the Cambridge African Language Library which is a primary reading series.

SmithMartin Partnership are excited at this development and all that it may mean for future readers. We are working with World Reader in a smaller way, through our Books Go Walkabout project to support e-reading and literacy.

The way ahead for future readers!

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout, Dolphin Booksellers,

part of SmithMartin Partnership LLP

Kellett School, Hong Kong Students in Beijing

Year 5 Kellett School students have just returned from a week in Beijing.

An experience of a lifetime with many cultural visits and contact with students in the capital of China. At Books Go Walkabout we just think this is an amazing experience and will produce life long memories and connections with China. What an experience!

In March, this year we were pleased to work with Year 5’s on books written by award winning author,Carole Wilkinson, The Dragonkeeper Trilogy. The books are about a slave girl and other dragon keepers in Ancient China. They are some amazing fiction stories with excellent research and information about life in Ancient China.

The books were sent from the UK, written by Carole in Australia and read by students in Hong Kong. We held a video conversation with Carole direct to the students at school, which was great and the students went away eager to read more of the stories.

Books Go Walkabout is on the journey….. Ancient China and beyond!!

Sue Martin – Books go Walkabout

Tell Me a Dragon

‘My dragon is made from the sun and the stars.

Sparkled with stardust,

all night he follows the silver moon path

across the sky….’

An excerpt about the first dragon in the book, ‘Tell Me a Dragon’ by Jackie Morris, published by Frances Lincoln.

At Books Go Walkabout we held an author event in March with Jackie at William Tyndale Primary School, London, as part of their Bookweek adventures.

Jackie had the classes spellbound and intrigued as she talked about the places in West Wales where she writes and gets inspiration. The children all live in the city and a far cry from the wildness of the Welsh coast.

From a painting Jackie completed at the school, the Year 5’s began to use water colours and explore making a wash of colour.

Lots of fun and lots of learning.

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout Dolphin Booksellers

Twitter @booksgo

Sue, Jackie…after lunch!

World Book Day 2014 Hong Kong and Australia

Books Go Walkabout is in Kellett School,Hong Kong during March 2014, celebrating World Book Day with a world book conversation. Based in Cambridge, UK we bring live conversations between authors and children across the world.

We are part of The World Book Day events!

Year 5 students at Kellett School are working on a project about China and Books Go Walkabout is bringing Australian award winning author, Carol Wilkinson via a video link, direct to the classroom.

Carol has written the award wining Dragonkeeper series set in Ancient China during the Han Dynasty. A slave girl, Ping, saves the life of an ageing dragon and escapes her brutal master. Pursued by a ruthless dragon hunter, the girl and the dragon begin an epic journey across China.

A great start to our events for World Book Day and for extending good books across the world.

Sharing stories, back in time, journeys into China…

Dolphin Booksellers – the best in children’s books always on line

The Dragonkeeper Trilogy

Dragonkeeper by Carole Wilkinson is published by black dog books, an imprint of Walker Books Australia

Dragonkeeper is the first book in The Dragonkeeper Trilogy

The stories are set in Ancient China and as the three books develop over time, the dragonkeepers are set challenges to ensure that the dragons are safe and free from harm.

In a country which has dragons at the heart of its culture there are all sorts of dangers and perils in which the dragons find themselves. They need a dragon keeper, but dragon keepers are born and have special characteristics. To be a true dragonkeeper is a destiny for only a few.

The Dragonkeeper is set in Ancient China during the Han Dynasty.

A slave girl, Ping, saves the life of an ageing dragon and escapes her brutal master. Pursued by a ruthless dragon hunter, the girl and the dragon make an epic journey across China carrying a mysterious stone that must be protected.

It is the story of a young slave girl who believes she is not worthy of a name but finds within herself the strength and courage to make this perilous journey — and do what must be done.

As a story of adventure and courage, this book has it all!
For all those setting out on an adventure in life, from childhood to adulthood, this gives some real insights into challenges, friendships and journeys.

At Books Go Walkabout we are pleased to be bringing this book to the year 5 students at Kellett School in Hong Kong, as part of their studies and literacy programme. We are even more delighted to be bringing Carole Wilkinson direct into their school by live video links to have a conversation and to talk with the children.
We’ll keep you posted and this is just the start of our adventure in Hong Kong.

Sue Martin
Books Go Walkabout