Boundless Sky is the story of a bird who flies halfway around the world looking for a place to nest and of a young girl from northern Africa fleeing halfway around the world looking for a place of peace. This is the story of a chance encounter and a long journey home. Bounless Sky is a beautifully crafted book, both the story and illustrations.
Amanda Addison is an author, illustrator and educator, she is currently interested in writing about identity and how it fits in with art and design heritages, her book Boundless
12 year old Cora is having trouble fitting in at school and the last thing she wants is to be dragged along to the home of an intimidating CEO in her free time. Its here however that she unexpectedly strikes up a friendship with Adrien whose dad is said CEO of Pomegranate Technologies. Adrien thankfully is the opposite, carefree, funny and can be unpredictable, but being home schooled, he’s also in need of a friend
As their friendship grows Cora finds that she has a lot to learn from Adrien, she also becomes intrigued by his dads company. Pomegranate Technologie’s trade is in creating hologram forms of real people, Cora’s intrigue quickly turns to discomfort the deeper she digs, uncovering dark secrets about the companies practice.
Elle McNichols second book, continuing her theme of featuring Neurodivergent characters at the heart of her books, these characters are carefully crafted into a story that takes you on a nail-biting journey, but at its core is about friendship and learning to love who you are and standing up for what you believe.
11 yr old Addie and her class mates have been set a new ‘fun’ school project, they’re going to be studying the witch trials of the 16th Century, uncovering how women were accused of witchcraft and how these accusations were proved to be right or wrong. Horrified by these accounts Addie sets out to ensure these past injustices cannot be forgotten, she starts lobbying for a local memorial in the small Scottish village that is her home.
The issues raised however don’t just exist in the past and the text of history books, unfortunately, as Addie experiences first hand, the oppression of people perceived to be ‘different’ is still very much alive and kicking in the present day. The story follows Addie on her journey to challenge how the people in her town see her, and her autism, can she make her voice heard?
Written by Elle McNichol, a Neurodivergent writer, who for a while just wrote stories for her own amusement until, on completing her Masters dissertation on the lack of Own Voices representation for Neurodivergent children, she grew tired of the lack of inclusivity in the industry, and wrote a book herself, we’re certainly very glad she did!!
Alys Fowler was a gardener before she could even ride a bike, she had her very own garden underneath a fig tree, her mom provided her with lots of lovely plants that were nice to stroke. This early experience sparked a life long passion for plants and a love of gardening, foraging and creating.
Through this gloriously illustrated book Alys shares her love of gardening with simply written, yet informative text to help your small folk (and you) establish an understanding of how to nurture plants and what to do with them once you’ve grown them. The book is divided cleverly into activities, experiments, tips about growing and information about foraging, beautifully illustrated throughout by Heidi Griffiths.
I’ve no doubt that this inspirational book will spark a new generation of budding gardeners and foragers! it will probably help one or two grown ups too.
All Pigeons need to read this book, it’s a book about survival and how to defeat cats, which frankly is vital if you’re a pigeon! Dave Pigeon has come to the rescue of all pigeons in compiling this book with the aid of Skipper his faithful companion. Daves main aims in life are to defeat his nemesis Mean Cat and eating all of YOUR biscuits.
A laugh out loud book that’s perfect for young readers, with brilliantly expressive illustrations throughout. This is the first in the series if your small folk get hooked email me for details about purchasing the follow ups.
Kiki is a witch in training and along with her constant companion Jiji the cat, she is determined to be independent and find her own way in the world. She may be a witch but she’s not that great at spells, in fact her only magical talent is flying, therefor she plays to her strengths and sets up a delivery service, using her broomstick skills to deliver all over town. Things aren’t always that simple though and it seems there’s always trouble of one sort or another around the corner!
Written by Eiko Kadono in 1985 this edition features a great introduction by the author, she explains that Kiki was inpsired by a drawing of her daughters, of a witch on a broomstick carrying a radio. She knew that if she chose to write for a living that she too would fly as writing fiction made her feel as though she had wings! . Reading this book will hopefully give you that same feeling too, a wonderful story to escape in, with illustrations by Joe Todd Stanton throughout and translation by Emily Balistrieri.
Poor Akissi! The neighbourhood cats are trying to steal her fish, her little monkey Boubou almost ends up in a frying pan and she’s nothing but a pest to her older brother Fofana… But Akissi is a true adventurer full of silliness and mischief, and nothing will scare her for long!
This is the first English edition of the Akissi comic series by critically acclaimed author Marguerite Abouet featuring this wonderfully cheeky and mischievious protagonist and the anitcs she gets up to in her home in West Africa.
Imagine if you had to save the home that you loved, by embarking on the biggest ever treasure hunt? quite the challenge, well thats exactly what happens to Demelza thankfully she has her new best friend Nessa in tow to solve the mysteries with her.
Demelza lives on Penfurzy a small island rich in myth and legend, where many centuries ago the Penfurzy Knights built a big castle, hid a bunch of cursed treasure inside – and then both they and the castle mysteriously disappeared.
Her favourite place in the whole wide world is the crazy golf park that her mom lovling built before she died, but now her dads having to consider selling up and moving them closer to town, an utter disaster in Demelza’s opinion. So in order to turn things around Demelza sets her heart on finding the long-lost treasure, breaking the Knights curse and saving the park and her home. The discovery of a hidden notebook is the stroke of good luck they really needed and now they may just have a chance of success… let the treasure hunt commence!
If you were on the run from a bunch of bullies what would you want to discover? well a forest with ropes swings, water slides and someone who makes up incredible inventions like Cow-pat-a-pults would be perfect wouldn’t it? This is EXACTLY whats happens to Ben Pole when he’s being chased by Monty Grabbe and his gang, he stumbles upon King Coo (a bearded female ruler of course) she lives in a treehouse, with Herbert the wombat and creates incredible inventions, which is extremely helpful because Monty and his gang have a dastardly plan and Ben needs all the help he can get to defeat them….
Hugely entertainting and funny adventure book by award winning illustrator / author Adam Stower with illustrations throughout.
** Please Note this book is on pre-order, it is published 4th March 2021**
Join Gaspard on a sightseeing trip around London, as the handsomest fox in London attempts to catch up with his friend Finty (who happens to be a dog) and her owner Honey, he unwittingly ends up on a tour of the city’s streets aboard the number 38 bus, taking in Islington Green, Museum Street, Chinatown, the West End and many more. Until the final stop see’s Gaspard become the inspiration for a musical crescendo!
This is the third in the Gaspard series, written by Zeb Soanes Radio 4 Journalist and voice of the shipping forecast! and wonderfully illustrated by the very talented James Mayhew.
When Melody discovers an old abandoned house she sets off to explore, not expecting to find a spy in training hiding away in there. He doesn’t look much like a spy but the boy whose name is Hal is adamant that he’s on an undercover surveillance mission! Melody’s friends Matthew and Jake are not convinced, who would entrust a teenager with a mission like that? no one would, so they decide that they are going to be the spies and set out to unravel the mystery of what Hal is really up to.
The Graveyard Riddle see’s Lisa Thompson returning to her much loved characters from The Goldfish Boy, taking up the story of Melody this time in another gripping mystery!
Matthew is a 12 year old boy, but unlike a lot of other 12 year olds Matthew spends most of his time trapped in his bedroom, staring out of his window, not out of choice but because a condition called OCD keeps him from venturing outside. As he sits an watches his neighbours come and go he becomes very observant, a skill that helps to turn his life around, when, one day his next door neighbours son Teddy goes missing. Matthew was definitely the last person to see him and so now he must take on the role of detective and unravel the mystery to save Teddy.
“Page-turning, heartbreaking, but ultimately life-affirming, this story is perfect for fans of Can You See Me, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time and Wonder”
Two orphans Pip & Flora have run away from Sunny Bay Home for Superflous and Accidentally Parentless Children and have fallen into another world entirely, they soon discover that the two worlds are linked and in trying to find their way home they’re thrown into a world of adventure, encountering cinnamon bears, wobsers and dastardly kelps along the way, Of course they also happen upon some snergs, in particular their new friend Gorbo, a cheerful if somewhat happless snerg, who helps then along the way.
The original (on which this book is based) was written by E.A.Wyke-Smith and is credited with having inspired J.R.R Tolkien to write The Hobbit. This updated version written by Veronica Cossanteli is fantastical, funny and adventurous, with just the right level of peril and an all important satisfying ending! The new edition published by Chickenhouse books is accompanied throughout with glorious illustrations by Melissa Castrillón.
Encourage all those green fingered small folk with this beautifully illustrated gardening book. Gardening is a great way to engage your kids in outdoor activity and whether you have a garden, a balcony or windowsill this book has projects to suit all including:
how to make a seed ball
growing vegetables indoors (and from kitchen scraps!)
making a kokedama
creating a terrarium
and many more!! The book also takes you through the inside of a flower and garden maintenance, with a handy glossary at the back of the book. It’s wondefully written with clear and simple instructions and full of inspiration.
“So what can we do about rainclouds” This beautiful book perfectly illustrates what its like to have a raincloud day, how your thoughts are sometimes like nice white fluffy ones, but then along comes a raincloud thought and makes you feel all fizzy and stormy, or maybe just a bit grey. It walks us through the choices we have when faced with a raincloud thought, get caught up inside it, get your wellies on and dig around inside it, ignore it and hope it floats away, or acknowledge it and then notice all the other white fluffy clouds along side it.
Bronwen Ballard is a coach and psychologist, she teaches mindfulness based thinking skills in primary schools, her approach here provides a clear and calm approach to what can be a tricky subject to discuss with kids. Matched perfectly with Laura Carlin’s wonderful illustrations, that demonstrate so well the feeling of wrestling with raincloud thoughts.
We bought this book for our kids and it’s become a truly important resource for when dark clouds come around.
During the months of the UK’s national lockdown Katherine Rundell felt in need of hope and she was pretty sure so did everyone else, so she set about capturing some by asking children’s authors and artist who she most admired, to write or draw something that, in her words would “give a sense of possibillity even in darkness” the result is a wonderful selection of stories and poems “true accounts of cats and hares and plastic-devouring caterpillars; there are doodles and flowers; revolting poems and beautiful poems; and there are stories of space travel and new shoes and dragons”
The original was produced as an ebook completely free to read online here at National Literacy Trust, later came this beautiful hard back edition the sales of which will contribute to the NHS Charities Together, or UK sales £2.10 will be donated per book.
The book is dedicated to the doctors, nurses, carers, porters, cleaners and everyone currently working in hospitals.