‘Cat Sparrow isn’t like other people. She loves music, and playing her bird-flute. She thinks differently too and for a girl like her, the world can be an unsettling place. When Cat’s beloved sister, Meg, is snatched from their home she sets out to find her with the help of a young actor, she follows Meg’s trail to the palace of Henry VIII and his queen, Katherine, and then over the sea to the strange and wondrous pageant of the ‘Field of Cloth of Gold’.
Ally Sherrick is the author of Black Powder, TheBuried Crown and new book The Queen’s Fool. She loves exploring ruined castles and decaying mansions and imagining what it must have been like to live in them without electricity and hot and cold running water – although she’s quite glad she doesn’t have to herself! She lives with her husband and assorted garden wildlife in Surrey.
I dare anyone to read ‘I Don’t Like Poetry’ and then decide that they don’t like poetry, there are poems about all kinds of things included in this hillarious collection, poems about siblings, beards, werewolves, and even lost bottoms, there’s simply something for everyone!
Joshua Seigal is a poet and performer, he spends a lot of his time visiting schools and theatres around the UK, he has performed his poetry at many festivals, but quite often just ends up performing in front of his mirror (using a hairbrush as a microphone).
A young boy is convinced that his Dad IS a grizzly bear, he’s certainly very hairy, growls like a bear, is grumpy when he’s woken up and when he’s hungry…but when the little boy is scared there is no one else in the world quite like his Dad for giving bear hugs and making him feel safe.
Swapna Haddow wrote her first novella aged 8, unfortunately she swapped it for some stickers and so can’t remember what it was about. Swapna lives in New Zealand with her husband and son and their dog, Archie. If she wasn’t writing books, she would love to run a detective agency or wash windows because she’s very nosy. My Dad Is A Grizzly Bear is her latest book. Swapna is also the author of the hugely popular Dave Pigeon series featured in the Word Play magazine.
Dapo Adeola is an award-winning illustrator and designer who creates characters and images that challenge expectations around race and gender in a fun and upbeat way. He is the co-creator and illustrator of bestselling picture book Look Up! – winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and the number 1 debut picture book of 2019. London born and bred but of Nigerian heritage, when he’s not busy cooking up new characters and adventures you can find Dapo running illustration and character design workshops with children or organising events to help highlight the possibilities of a career in illustration to underrepresented members of the Black diaspora.
Young Kira doesn’t like the rain it always makes her feel gloomy, one day her friends Ana and Ilo ask her to join them on an adventure..outside…IN THE RAIN!! thankfully she takes the plunge and discovers just how much fun you can have in the rain.
Rassi Narika is an Indonesian author, she has been writing since she was a child. Whilst studying at University she wrote and illustrated her first picture book. When It Rains is her second picture book and is published by Birmingham based The Emma Press.
A collection of poems in the voice of a small boy who wants to tell you about all the things he’s learning, all the time. During the book, he moves from the Netherlands to America and has to adjust to his new life there. Then Covid-19 hits and his world changes all over again.
Rakhshan Rizwan is a writer and scholar, originally from Pakistan she currently lives in the Bay Area in the United States. My Sneezes Are Perfect is her debut children’s poetry collection it was co-written with her six-year-old son Yusuf Samee and is illustrated by Benjamin Philips.
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.
A wonderfully quirky book beautifully illustrated by one of my favourite artists. Step into a curious room where everything is in half, half a chair, half a cat..when there’s a knock on half a door who could it be?
A celebration of the surreal and the serendipitous, and the beauty of the two together, this brilliant picture book will have readers seeing the joys of halves with whole new eyes.
Carson Ellis is the author and illustrator of the bestselling picture books Home and Du Iz Tak? She has illustrated a number of books for kids including The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, The Composer Is Dead by Lemony Snicket. Carson lives on a farm in Oregon with Colin, their two sons, two cats, two llamas, two goats, one sheep, fourteen chickens, a family of barn owls and an unfathomable multitude of tree frogs. In The Half Room is her latest book which she wrote with her son.
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.