Month: August 2022

The Secret Unicorn Club

On August 24, 2022

In Magic Cat Publishing, 4 -5 Years, All Ages, Children's books, Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators

Do you believe in unicorns? Would you like to join a secret club of unicorn experts, who search for and look after unicorns in the wild? Now is the time to earn your place in the Secret Unicorn Club.

Earn ten badges on your journey towards becoming an official Secret Unicorn Club member then discover a hidden handbook for only the truest friend of the unicorns.

Guard the precious knowledge within these pages for the good of all horsekind…

EMMA ROBERTS is the author and her life-long passion for all things Shakespeare in the student-theatre scene. When Emma isn’t queuing for tickets at The Globe, she is either performing in local theatre or training for her next marathon. Her latest book, The Dragon Ark, was published by Magic Cat in 2020.

*A book within a book! Such a delightful surprise!*

RAE RITCHIE, illustrator, lives with her daughter, her husband and her cat Nomi in Minneapolis, MN. Her watercolour and gouache paintings are created in a sunny little room in her home, and she is greatly inspired by the lushness of nature, classic children’s books and old photographs. Rae’s clients include Los Angeles Times, Dear Stella Design and Fjallraven.

TOMISLAV TOMIĆ, illustrator known for his pen and ink drawings that are based on a Re-naissance engraving style. He’s a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb and lives with his family is Croatia.

Did you know that a Hippogriff is a winged magical horse of a different kind, part horse and griffin, which is also part lion and eagle. Built for speed and travelling large distances it will tolerate passenger but only in exceptional circumstances.

Magic Cat Publishing Magic Cat creates beautiful children’s books that do more. We gently weave ideas that matter into stories that engage, entertain and bring joy. Ideas about kindness, togetherness, friendship, inclusivity. Ideas about the future of our planet, about culture, activism, and mindfulness. Our books inspire care for our world…
and each other.

Ideal as a present, this book will thrill and be treasured by children of all ages. a star of a book! Watch out for more beautiful books from this talented new Magic Cat Publishing team,

Sue Martin Children’s Literacy Specialist

Stories Across the World…

A House Without Walls by Elizabeth Laird

By The Book Monitor team

On August 11, 2022

In Books go Walkabout,, 9 to 10 years, All Ages, BookMonitor, Books go Walkabout, Featured authors, Featured children's book

*Could losing her home mean finding herself…*

An incredibly moving story of Safiya, and her family who were forced to leave their home in Damascus, Syria. Taken from a life where her father was a lawyer, where they had a house and Safiya went to school, as well as her brother. But the Syrian war destroyed all of that and Safiya and her family were no longer welcome in the place they called home.

The story in which Safiya, aged thirteen is the protagonist, and her family are being driven out of Syria by civil war. Safiya knows how lucky she is to be at a relative’s house, lucky to be living near her family and not in a refugee camp, lucky to be alive.

But it’s hard to feel grateful when her house is a tent. As they struggle to survive, Safiya realizes that her family has always been incomplete. With her own future in the balance, it’s time to uncover the secrets that war has kept buried.

An intriguing story of a family in a time of crisis but uncovering issues hidden in the past. This book gives a glance at life in the midst of a war torn country, the consequences on individuals and the immense changes to life and life opportunities.

Elizabeth Laird is a remarkable traveller and award winning author of books which bring issues and concerns from all over the world into a narrative where we can have a smattering of understanding with situations of war and crisis which otherwise we would leave behind us. Her website has brilliant pdf’s for teachers , as free downloads. Here latest book, The Misunderstandings of Charity Brown was published in July and is the next book on my reading list, it looks excellent.

Panmacmillan are the publishers who have a great portfolio of books about a modern day understanding of war torn places in our world.

Definitely a great book! It’s for teachers, class projects and reading at home.

Sue Martin Children’s Literacy Specialist

The Secret Life of Birds by Moira Butterfield and Vivian Mineker

By The Book Monitor team

On August 4, 2022

In All Ages, Books go Walkabout, Children's books, Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators, New titles, Non Fiction, Quarto Kids

A beautiful book full of facts and information about birds in chunk size pieces. The introduction of each page are led by Speedy the Swift, who flies faster than the fastest race car between different places in the world.

*Did you know birds find their way by following invisible pathways in the sky?*

The Secret Life of Birds is a collection of stories and facts, providing a love of birds and nature to the next generation, inspiring them to look after the world around them.
Did you know birds navigate by invisible pathways in the sky, that they can call to each other in thousands of different ways and they can be as big as a car or as small as a little finger?

Read some beautiful bird folklore stories from around the planet, too. Speedy has learnt much on her travels and she will be a great guide and inspiration for young readers.

*Fly with Swifts… Swift chicks do press-ups on their wingtips to make themselves stronger*

But before we get carried away with thinking this book is just for young readers, delve into the pages yourself, you will be amazed. The many intriguing facts, such as the wings of swifts are so well designed that drones are built in a similar way.

Moira Butterfield, the author has created this book from the amazing success of The Secret Life of Bees and other books. She writes non-fiction/stories to spark a child’s imagination about our amazing world.

Vivian Mineker, the illustrator, lives in Amsterdam via Taipei, Portland and Ljubljana has designed and created visual images which are captivating and make the facts jump off the page.

Happy Yak is an imprint of Quarto Kids and has a wonderful portfolio of beautiful and inspirational books for young people.

But this book like others, reaches more than just the young people, it is a way of accessing information in chunky sizes which support learning and inspire imaginations.

Sue Martin Children’s Literacy Specialist

PS Just spotted another fact… did you know there is only one bird in the world that hibernates? Read p 35 to find out which bird!

A Better Best Friend by Olivier Tallec April 2, 2024
A feel-good picture book about best friendship told with sensitivity and an open ending—squirrel and mushroom are best friends until another best friend comes to play. This morning when I was out walking, I found a best friend. At least I think so. It certainly looks a lot like it! He really has a best […]
The Dolphin
Good Night, Good Beach by Joy Cowley, illustrated by Hilary Jean Tapper April 1, 2024
An evocative bedtime picture book that distils the essence of a family summer at the beach. Living in Norfolk in the UK with the wild beaches nearby this book is a wonderful memory of holidays at the beach hut. It's a glorious way of being family together and enjoying the simple things of life […]
The Dolphin
Have You Seen Dinosaur? By David Barrow March 4, 2024
Play hide and seek in the city with a boy, his animal friends and a dinosaur that’s surprisingly hard to spot. The brilliantly interactive follow-up to international bestselling picture book, Have You Seen Elephant? An amazing book in which children will spot the dinosaurs well ahead of the adults, I guess! The story charmingly follows a journey with many clues. Children […]
The Dolphin
Mo’s Best Friend, A Stone Age Story by Bridget Marzo February 27, 2024
A recent astonishing discovery was made in the famous Chauvet Cave in France, where the footprint if a young child was found with a paw print beside it- from 26,000 years ago! When Mo makes friends with a little wild beast, her family are horrified – wild beasts are dangerous. But could this wild beast […]
The Dolphin
The Cat Who Couldn’t Be Bothered by Jack Kurland February 8, 2024
There is a cat. A cat that couldn’t be bothered to do anything … anything at all. His friends ask him if he wants to play but he doesn’t feel like it. They invite him on adventures to far-off places, but he would rather stay at home. Until one day, a friend asks how he […]
The Dolphin
The Lucky Red Envelope Vikki Zhang December 5, 2023
Get ready for Lunar New Year, following a young girl and her family as they get ready for and celebrate the Lunar New Year festival. A stunning book with so much visual information, set around a young Chinese girl called Yue. Perfect for children around the world to celebrate and understand the beauty and joy […]
The Dolphin
Lenny Has Lunch by Ken Wilson-Max, October 13, 2023
Lenny Has Lunch written and illustrated by Ken Wilson-Max, is a wonderfully illustrated picture book for young children. Have fun sharing the book together and the everyday things that make life full of adventure. Lenny and Daddy prepare a delicious lunch, looked on lovingly by the dog. Lenny uses the large blue spoon to feed […]
The Dolphin
The Most Famous Rhinoceros By Dianne Hofmeyr – Illustrated by Simona Mulazzani September 25, 2023
An intriguing look into the past when animals were moved from one country to another as gifts. Explore the world at that time with the history and geography of that time and place. A moving and beautiful story inspired by a work of art, Albrecht Dürer's celebrated woodcut print of the rhinoceros sent from India […]
The Dolphin
When Dinosaurs Walked the Earth by Sean Taylor and Zehra Hicks July 12, 2023
Set back in the days WHEN DINOSAURS WALKED THE EARTH, this is a hilarious picture-book about Smallasaurus, who enjoys a plant-based diet, and Badasaurus who likes to eat small dinosaurs who enjoy a plant-based diet. It all begins when Smallasaurus has to think. And thinking can be a problem when you only have a brain the […]
The Dolphin
The Last Tiger by By Petr Horáček July 11, 2023
When the last tiger is captured by human hunters, he realises that it is more important to be free than to be strong... Strong and proud, the tiger is lord of the jungle, but all his strength and boldness cannot keep him safe from the human hunters. In captivity, the tiger realises that what […]
The Dolphin