Book Monitor - books from across the world

Engaging reads for children, from Books go Walkabout

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The Pinchers and the Curse of the Egyptian Cat by Anders Sparring & illustrator Per Gustavsson

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On February 12, 2025

In Gecko Press, BookMonitor, Featured children's book

Super readable book in a great format, a really lovely book to hold and to read! The first in a funny chapter book crime series about a well-behaved child who doesn’t fit in to his family of criminals—featuring a prison break, a diamond heist, and a lie that saves the day.

Theo is good at most things. He can almost count to a thousand, knows several French words, and can operate the washing machine. But he can’t lie or steal.

“You must try harder,” says his mother sternly.

The Pincher Family love to steal things. It’s what they are born for! When his parents leave to visit the diamond exhibition, Theo’s heart sinks. After breaking Grandma out of prison (his little sister needs someone to read her bedtime story), Theo sees no alternative but to stop his parents stealing the diamond. His shout of “Stop! Police!” brings them only delight—Theo’s lie has shown he is a true Pincher.

A mix of adventure, silliness, and everyday family life, and with bright and funny illustrations, this is a perfect chapter book for beginning and reluctant readers.

Anders Sparring lives in Sweden, he writes children’s books and is a screen writer as well as being a stand up comedian.

Per Gustavsson is an illustrator and author with his books translated into other languages.

Gecko Press hand-picks books by some of the best writers and illustrators in the world—books of good heart and strong character, excellent in story, illustration and design.

Sue Martin – Children’s Literacy Specialist

I Love Books by Mariajo Ilustrajo

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On March 5, 2024

In Frances Lincoln Children's Books, BookMonitor, Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators

*Winner of the Klaus Flugge Prize for Illustration 2023*

From the award-winning creator of Flooded and Lost comes a magical story about the joy of discovering a connection with books for the very first time.

This brightly illustrated adventure story is perfect for kids who claim to hate reading, as the enchanting narrative opens their eyes to a fantasy world created by words on a page.

In this spellbinding story, we meet a little girl excited for the end of term. No more school! However, she’s given the very unreasonable task of reading a whole book over the holidays. A whole book? but she HATES books. Luckily, her sister takes her to the library and says she has just the thing.

Slowly, the little girl is drawn into a world of adventure inside her own imagination, for the very first time. Even the greyscale world starts to fill with colour as she is carried away in the story. A little fennec fox leads her to meet fairytale witches and creatures as they find ingredients to cast a special spell at the end of her book. The little girl is dismayed to learn that this spell seemingly hasn’t changed a thing. However, the little fox points out that she is completely transformed: discovering the power of her imagination has changed her forever.

This charming and engaging picture book shows children how wonderful books can really be, leaving them with a lifelong affinity for reading. Discover adventure on every page and turn I Hate Books into I Love Books.

Mariajo Ilustrajo is an award-winning Spanish illustrator based in the UK. She completed her MA in Children’s Illustration from the prestigious Cambridge Anglia Ruskin course in April 2021. Her debut picture book, Flooded, won the Klaus Flugge Prize for Illustration 2023.

Super book from Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, a great way to help children find the magic of reading.

Sue Martin – Children’s Literacy Specialist

Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr by Sara Khan

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On March 4, 2024

In words and pictures, BookMonitor, Featured children's book, Quarto Kids

Join Raya and her mama and aba as they enjoy iftar, bake Ramadan cookies, do good deeds around their community and visit the mosque.

Raya is celebrating Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr with her family and inviting you along to learn more! It’s a time full of fun activities and celebrations, and a great opportunity to get closer to Allah. Learn about this special time as Raya makes Ramadan mubarak cards for her friends and has her hands decorated with henna!

And when the month of Ramadan is over, Raya, her mama and aba, aunts, uncles and cousins have a magical Eid celebration, playing games, opening presents and eating delicious food.

This bright and engaging picture book is the perfect way to introduce little ones to Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr. Author Sara Khan brings the celebrations to life, drawing on her own experiences with her daughter, also named Raya! This book also offers fun activities that parents and children can do together in the lead-up to the celebration, such as making a pop-up card and cookies. A fun fact file and colourful quiz follow the story, giving kids the opportunity to learn more about Allah, worship and the lunar calendar.

Sara Khan is an international bestselling Author and Art Director of Islamic Board Books for Toddlers and Young Children (Kube Publishing). She is a Linguist and Qualified Translator with a First-class BA (hons) in Linguistics and Arabic as well as a MA in Translation & Interpreting Studies. 

Words and Pictures are an imprint of the Quarto Group with an amazing portfolio of picture books.

Sue Martin Children’s Literacy Specialist

Nikhil and Jay: Flying High

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On February 9, 2024

In Otter-Barry Books, BookMonitor, Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators

Nikhil and Jay: Flying High

By Chitra Soundar & Illustrated by Soofiya

The Nikhil and Jay series is perfect for children moving on from picture books to longer storybook. In this fourth book for early readers about the irrepressible British Asian brothers, Nikhil and Jay, the boys have four fun adventures at home.

Nikhil and Jay feel sorry for Appa when he falls and hurts his ankle, but they make him feel better by playing Dayan, the Indian Board Game; litter-picking at the Clean and Green Club is great fun when the boys do it in the park with all their friends; one windy day Nikhil, Jay, Amma and Appa make kites and decorate them – and have a fantastic time flying them; Jay doesn’t like tidying up but he discovers that putting away his toys can be a fun game when he does it together with Nikhil!

Chitra Soundar, author and storyteller has written over 40 books and is widely celebrated as a writer and storyteller. She lives between south London and Chennai, India.

Soffiya is the visual artist and illustrator of the Nikhil and Jay books. Her work explores ideas around race and gender. Her website has a great star wandering mouse!!

Otter-Barry Books are the publishers of this amazing series which provides early readers with just the right amount of text to image, and in globally diverse situations.

Sue Martin – Children’s Literacy Specialist

Books Go Walkabout



The Panda’s Child by Jackie Morris and Cathy Fisher

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On January 24, 2024

In BookMonitor, Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators

9781913074043.jpg

The Panda’s Child

From internationally bestselling author Jackie Morris and award-winning illustrator Cathy Fisher, a beautiful gift book with the resonance of a legend and a passion for the wild world

In a faraway forest a baby is lost and found, protected by a she-panda.
Nine years later another baby, the panda’s child, is in great danger, and only a boy and the spirit of the forest can save him.

Stunningly beautiful book! Illustrations portray the powerful story of being lost and found and the rescuer who turned the wicked plans of man upside down. A mysterious and appealing story full of fears and joys.


Jackie Morris is internationally admired for her imaginative and atmospheric picture books, illustrated with watercolours and often with a fantasy dimension. Her previous books include The Snow Leopard, The Ice Bear and Tell Me a Dragon. Her books The Seal Children, New Born Child and One Cheetah, One Cherry were published by Otter-Barry Books in 2016. In 2019 she was awarded the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal for her work on The Lost Words. Jackie Morris lives in St. David’s, Pembrokeshire.

Cathy Fisher graduated in the ’80s. She taught in art schools in Britain, Seychelles and then, as an artist, in Australia. She now lives in Wales, where she has worked in collaboration with author Nicola Davies. She was longlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal for Perfect and The Pond and was nominated for The New Girl. Her latest collaboration is with the acclaimed author and illustrator Jackie Morris. Illustrating with watercolours and mixed media, her pictures convey her deeply felt connection with nature and her observations of human behaviour and emotion.
This magical, powerful story by Jackie Morris, co-creator of The Lost Words, and award-winning illustrator Cathy Fisher, is a book for all ages to treasure, exploring our most vital connection with wild nature.

Sue Martin – Children’s Literacy Specialist

A Hero Like Me by Angela Joy and Jen Reid, illustrated by Leire Salaberria

By

On June 9, 2023

In Frances Lincoln Children's Books, BookMonitor, Children's books, Featured children's book

Empower children to stand up for what is right with this picture book inspired by the real-life events around the statue of a slave trader, its toppling and heroic replacement.
 
They call him ‘HERO’, but he’s no HERO – not to me.

This inspiring picture book of events through the eyes of a young girl; called Jen, who, every day, on her way to school, sees a towering statue. A statue of a man who sold freedom for cotton and tea. The world around her says this man is a hero. But she knows he’s not a hero – not a real one.

Heroes are hard to find. The girl looks for them around corners, under rocks, and on TV, but there are none that she can see. And so, she marches and shouts for them instead. And that statue – he doesn’t belong. He doesn’t stand for Kindness. He doesn’t stand for Peace. Maybe he shouldn’t stand at all.

 
A Hero Like Me is inspired by the events of 7 June 2020, when a statue of seventeenth-century slave trader Edward Colston was pulled down and thrown into Bristol Harbour during an anti-racism protest. Co-author Jen Reid was one of the protesters that day, and despite being afraid of heights, she spontaneously climbed onto the empty plinth and raised her fist high above her head – a moment that was captured on camera and shared around the world.
 
On the morning of 15 July, a statue of Jen by Marc Quinn was added to the empty plinth. It was called A Surge of Power and it gained national attention for the 24 hours it was in place, and beyond. 

A Hero Like Me empowers children to have courage to stand up for what is right and be their own hero. It shows every child that they have a voice in their community and a say in who is on their streets. That they too have power, just like Jen.

Another brilliant ‘fact finder picture book’ from publishers Frances Lincoln, part of Quarto Knows.

Sue Martin – Children’s Literacy Specialist

A House Without Walls by Elizabeth Laird

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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.

Lucy Eldridge , illustrator…

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

Stories Across the World…

What Are You Doing Today, Mother Nature? by Lucy Brownridge & illustrated by Margaux Samson Abadie

By

On June 3, 2022

In BookMonitor, Books go Walkabout, Featured children's book, WideEyed Editions

Mother Nature all around the world in 48 stories

This is a book to fall in love with. An exquisitely illustrated treasury showcases the most dramatic and beautiful Natural History stories that play out right under our noses year after year.

Every moment of the year, Mother Nature is hard at work, making clouds for the rain to fall from, preparing a squirrel to hide nuts for the winter cold, or guiding a little chick on its first flight halfway around the world. Find out what she is doing right now, in 48 stories of nature’s ever turning cycles across the world.

There are forty-eight double spreads which tell in wonderfully illustrated pages, stories of animals and nature across the world. This is  a great way to learn about our planet, the seasons and the huge diversity that exists in a wide variety of climates  and ecosystems.

Lucy Brownridge, has written and compiled this powerful and intriguing collection of stories from ‘A Hot Bath in Winter’ to ‘ The Sky Ablaze’. There is something for everyone with chunks of text, intriguing and evocative.

England in April…

Margaux Samson Abadie has created incredibly beautiful illustrations which are full of artistic images with diagrammatic forms, wonderful tools to enable understanding.

Wide Eyed Editions have produced a masterpiece, I highly recommend What Are You Doing Today, Mother Nature? for any age in schools, libraries and at home.

My favourite page is The Wood Wide Web, which tells how trees in a wood have a system of communication through the root systems and fungus spores…. Amazing!! Read the book to find our more…

Sue Martin Children’s Literacy Specialist

Books Go Walkabout
Stories across the world...

Poems Aloud by Joseph Coelho and illustrated by Daniel Gray-Barnett

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On January 21, 2022

In The Book Monitor, BookMonitor, Books go Walkabout, Featured children's book, WideEyed Editions

Vibrant, colourful and a wonderful book of poems for reading aloud!

Tackle tongue twisters, confound your classmates with riddles, make your friends laugh and transform into a bowl of slime as you perform these poems. Build your confidence from the award-winning poet Joseph Coelho. This is the perfect book for confident children and shy readers alike. This brings the real fun of poetry to life for everybody.

The illustrations are brilliant, warm stylish and just make the words come alive.

One of my favourite poems in Poems Aloud is This Bear which is set over a double page and the bear is shown gazing into the pink sunset. He is an older bear and wandering quietly along.

This poem sounds best when read slowly take your time pause and breathe to add emphasis

‘This lumbering bear is old.

 This lumbering, bumbling bear has shuffled over rugged imagined mountains.

Urged his bulk slow and strong.

 Slow as geography.

Strong as tree growth

Through the forests of his mind.’

Joseph Coelho is an award-winning poet and performer from London. He has been long listed for the Carnegie children’s award. He won the 2015 CLPE CLiPPA poetry award with his debut poetry collection Werewolf Club Rules.

Watch this link from Edinburgh International Book Festival

Daniel Grey Barnett is an Australian illustrator and author living in Tasmania. He has illustrated for the New York Times, Sydney Opera House, The New Yorker. He brings a huge dimension of fun and engagement for this collection of poems for children.

The publishers are Wide Eyed, and they have a stunning portfolio of books for children.

Whether this book is for you at home or to use at school or nursery it is definitely one to buy. It will support reading and writing, and you will hear the words being remembered again and again.

Sue Martin Children’s Literacy Specialist

Stories Across the World

Storm Dragon by Dianne Hofmeyr & illustrated by Carol Thompson

By

On March 19, 2021

In 2-4 years, The Book Monitor, BookMonitor, Books go Walkabout, Children's books, Early Years, Featured authors, Featured children's book, Featured illustrators, New titles, Otter-Barry

Storm! Storm!

Rain raps the windows, wind rattles the door.

‘Let’s look for storm dragons,” says Grandpa.

“ Watch  out dragons. We’re coming.”

Off they go, Grandpa and grandchild, down to the beach for a wild and wonderful adventure…And what do they find? Dragon footprints, dragon jewels and even a dragon baby, but who is the REAL storm dragon.

A great story and amazingly engaging illustrations as Grandpa and grandchild find their way along the beach as the storm blows, and waves crash on the shore. There are chants and repetitions to shout out as the adventure progresses.

The loving friendship and imaginative play between the generations is wonderfully expressed, both with the words and in the illustrations.

Dianne Hofmeyr, an award-winning author, livening in London, was born in South Africa and grew up between the mountains and the sea. Author of many books for young children including Zeraffa Giraffa, Tiger Walk and The Glassmaker’s Daughter.

Carol Thompson is an internationally acclaimed illustrator of books for young children with a huge skill in seeing the world through their eyes. She has received honours for many of her books  and is a member of IBBY UK.

Otter-Barry are the publishers who have an enormous skill in publishing beautiful children’s books which children love and enjoy for years. Storm Dragon was published in March 2021. Time to reserve a first copy edition!

We love this book and will take home this weekend to share online with a very young person, who just loves books at the age of nearly 2!

Sue Martin

Stories around the world…

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