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Category: Featured authors

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Image 1Kevin Crossley-Holland,celebrated author and President of the School Library Association, delivered an enchanting and beautifully crafted lecture:

'Footprints on the Grass: Speaking of Gardens and Children's Books' to a full house at Homerton College Cambridge on 6th September.

The theme of gardens was delicately drawn into ways in which children use imagination within places where there is space, beauty and security.

Kevin talked about John the Peddar from Norfolk, is journey to London following a dream about a pot of gold, only to turn back and return home where the pot was in his back garden.

' The greatest treasure in the world is on our doorstep, but you may have to go away and come back to find it.'

There were many references to Philippa's writing, and especially her most famous book, Tom's Midnight Garden.

Philippa Pearce died in 2006, but respect and affection for her writing is as strong as ever. In her memory, a series of lectures is now underway, each intended to celebrate excellence in writing for children.

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The inaugural Philippa Pearce Memorial Lecture was held on 11th September 2008, at Homerton College, Cambridge, and focused on Philippa Pearce's own writing and contribution to children's literature. Subsequent lectures have ranged more widely and speakers have included Michael Rosen, Michael Morpurgo, Philip Pullman and Malorie Blackman.

The 2014 Lecture will be given by Frank Cottrell Boyce.

Kevin's speech was filmed and will be available on the Philippa Pearce Memorial Lecture website soon. http://www.pearcelecture.com


Dolphinbooksellers.co.uk is part of SmithMartin LLP

A retail resource for the best children's books, entry point into our children's and community library procurement and supply service. Offering a miscellany of news and featured authors for all our readers, whatever their age.


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Image 2Poetry will be back in the mainstay of children's learning at school. Frances Lincoln have just published a brilliant array of books in a series called, Poetry for Children.

Titles and authors include; Kathy Henderson with The Dragon with a Big Nose, Cheryl Moskowitz with Can it be about Me?, Brian Moses with The Monster Sale along with Roger McGough, Grace Nichols and Wes Magee.

 

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The new Primary National Curriculum, to be introduced from September 2014, will bring a focus on poetry. The Bookseller said,

"The move could help to boost children’s poetry publishing output, support poets in schools and encourage booksellers to revitalise their limited children’s poetry offer."

Take a look at the Frances Lincoln poetry books, and from our Dolphin site go to Anytime Book Shop and shop via Amazon. When you buy books through Dolphin we will donate 20p per book to supporting children at school in Nepal(or at least getting to school as the recent monsoons have meant a long break!).

Sue Martin

Dolphin Booksellers - the best in children's books always on line


Dolphinbooksellers.co.uk is part of SmithMartin LLP

A retail resource for the best children's books, entry point into our children's and community library procurement and supply service. Offering a miscellany of news and featured authors for all our readers, whatever their age.


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maxMax is a small boy mad about sport, and every day Max imagines that he is the most successful sports person,taking parts in all sorts of exciting sports.

In his world, he dives into an Olympic swimming pool, he takes the lead in the bob sleigh and he scores a winning goal in an amazing football team.

His friends are there in his dreams too, and in the illustrations, which speak as much as the words, you can find many aspects of disability and inclusion. Look carefully and you will find a hearing aid and an oxygen tube, and more...

What a wealth of opportunity for all children and a book that will go down really well in the classroom as teachers can use both as a good story book and also as a real resource for inclusion and disabilities as part of everyday life.

Max the Champion, written by Sean Stockdale and Alexandra Strick and illustrated by Ros Asquith and published by Frances Lincoln. As publishers, they are amazing at delivering books that are both great reads and meet the needs of our diverse and rich culture.

You can buy this book through Dolphin Booksellers today.

Sue Martin

Dolphin Booksellers - the best in children's books - always on line.


Dolphinbooksellers.co.uk is part of SmithMartin LLP

A retail resource for the best children's books, entry point into our children's and community library procurement and supply service. Offering a miscellany of news and featured authors for all our readers, whatever their age.


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BGW logoJSBooks Go Walkabout has just started on a new journey, into e-publishing. The project is now able to publish books for authors and creative writers around the globe.

Books go Walkabout is the e-publishing arm of SmithMartin LLP, the parent practice of Dolphinbooksellers.

An exciting new adventure and we are pleased to start our journey with the first book in series called Writing about Africa. Short stories about Africa, fiction, travel, interest and lots more to come.

The first story, The Goat That Vanished  is by Ifeoma Onyefulu.  A story of a goat, some elders and a wedding gift that went wrong... a story of culture, humour and family life.

Ifeoma Onyefulu - a story about a goat
The Goat That Vanished

Ifeoma writes for children and uses her captivating photos of African life as she travels across the continent.

Buy from the Amazon Kindle Store for less than the price of a cup of coffee here.

Our publications are set to grow, in conjunction with the Worldreader programme, who provide 300 stories on a Kindle free to individual children throughout Africa. Great readers!

Our publications are designed to feed into social projects supporting children and literacy in Africa, but their interest is world wide. already the story is available across the globe, in 9 different countries.

A real success for Books Go Walkabout...join us on the journey.

Books Go Walkabout - Children and authors using technology across the globe

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Dolphinbooksellers.co.uk is part of SmithMartin LLP

A retail resource for the best children's books, entry point into our children's and community library procurement and supply service. Offering a miscellany of news and featured authors for all our readers, whatever their age.


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Now in its fourth year, the Diverse Voices Children's Book Award, will announce the winner on Thursday May 23rd at Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children's Books in Newcastle upon Tyne.Image 3

 

Image 2The award, continues the Frances Lincoln's tradition of promoting writing which celebrates cultural diversity and cultural and social tolerance. It provides a platform for new authors to present their work and celebrate aspects of their own culture through the world of children's books.

The award is also supported by The Arts Council and encourages writers to have a voice and to reach out to all children, and especially for children who can find reflections of their own lives in the stories.

“Diversity in children’s books is crucial – in this ever-shrinking world we are all foreigners somewhere. I’m delighted to be part of an award recognising the importance of this element in young people’s fiction.”
Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty (The National Council for Civil Liberties)

This year the short list is

One of a Kind by Jude (Najoud) Ensaff

Samosa Girl by Swapna Haddow

You're Not Proper by Tariq Mehmood

From dark secrets, from characters whose existence is shaped by issues of war,to children with multiple identities, these are all great books to be short listed.

Dolphin Booksellers will post the announcements.

Sue Martin - Dolphin Booksellers, best in children's books, always on line.


Dolphinbooksellers.co.uk is part of SmithMartin LLP

A retail resource for the best children's books, entry point into our children's and community library procurement and supply service. Offering a miscellany of news and featured authors for all our readers, whatever their age.


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567A most beautiful story,from Jackie Morris with her wonderful illustrations of a polar bear, forests, skies and seas. A story, which Jackie describes as...

" ...there are some stories that when you hear them for the very first time it is as if you know them, as they are part of your soul. You then spend the rest of your life trying to understand them.... It is a journey, an adventure, a love story that in the writing took an unexpected turn."

 

It is a magical story and a book to treasure and return to. It will make you go back to it and try and relive the story or find yourself as the girl seeking through all the winds to find her lost love in the castle east of the sun and west of the moon.

Published by Frances Lincoln the book is available via this Amazon link. The format of the book is wonderful with a neat hardcover. It's a book for a present and especially for yourself too, a treat and a joy.

Jackie lives in a small house by the sea in Pembrokeshire where she writes and paints. She has a range of wonderful books, such as The Snow Leopard and Can You See a Little Bear?  Jackie's website is a dream and is worth hours of exploring.

There is a competition to win the necklace from East of the Sun, West of the Moon on Jackie's blog.

 

Dolphin Booksellers - the best in children's books always on line.

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Dolphinbooksellers.co.uk is part of SmithMartin LLP

A retail resource for the best children's books, entry point into our children's and community library procurement and supply service. Offering a miscellany of news and featured authors for all our readers, whatever their age.


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Image 1The Federation of Childrens' Book Groups annual conference was a great event held over the weekend of March 23rd and 24th.

Not the usual Spring like feel as the snow blew in from the east and in Suffolk, that means cold!

The engaging authors,publishers stalls,splendid array of books for sale(Norfolk Children's Book Centre) made it a weekend of books, stories and illustrations.

Saturday was the busiest day and authors enlivened the discussions with slides and talks about their writing, their books and all the things that just makes their books special.

Authors we especially connected with;

Marcus Sedgewick, Annabel Pitcher,Liz Pichon, Emma Chichester Clark, Gill Lewis, Adele Geras and Colin Mulhern. Worth looking at their websites and following their work. Brilliant stuff!

But especially the work of Gill Lewis, Image 2

Sky Hawk, White Dolphin and Moon Bear. Her work as a vet has a big influence. Her childhood of hating books and librarians must have turned her into a great writer!

'I turned my back on books, but other children got lost in the magic of books, I couldn't get lost in that world.'

You can buy more books from the pages of Dolphin Booksellers, and we will make a donation to supporting Kalpana to get to school in Nepal.

Sue Martin

Dolphin Booksellers- the best in children's books always on line

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Dolphinbooksellers.co.uk is part of SmithMartin LLP

A retail resource for the best children's books, entry point into our children's and community library procurement and supply service. Offering a miscellany of news and featured authors for all our readers, whatever their age.


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A true story of a girl in exile in the 1940's, The Endless Steppe .... written by Esther Hautzig and now re-published by Jane Nissen Books.

'One of the truly great stories of the survival of the human spirit against all odds,' says Michael Morpurgo.

 

 

A remarkable story of a girl who starts out at age 10 from her comfortable home in Poland. With her family they travel for six weeks in a cattle truck as they are transported to Siberia. Esther lives for the next five years in exile and learns to live with hunger, loss and a deep struggle for the barest essentials.

Twenty years later and settled in New York, Esther writes her story. A story that cries out to be read from the very first page.

To find more books that are classics or favourites from the past, visit Jane Nissen Books, a wealth of stories that should not be forgotten.

You can buy The Endless Steppe  here or through Jane Nissen Books.

Dolphin Booksellers - the best in children's books always on line Sue Martin

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Dolphinbooksellers.co.uk is part of SmithMartin LLP

A retail resource for the best children's books, entry point into our children's and community library procurement and supply service. Offering a miscellany of news and featured authors for all our readers, whatever their age.


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Winner of the 2011 Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Award,Helen Limon's novel Om Shanti Babe is a real winner of a story, hard to put down from beginning to end.

Cassia can't wait for her first visit to India... Bollywood glamour, new friends, a new adventure into this exciting world.

But it doesn't work out quite like that!

Kerala has a life all of it's own and the culture shock is HUGE! and then her Mum's new romance with 'call me V' Mr Chaudury, her own stand off with fashion mad Priyanka takes over. But pop idol Jonny Gold arrives on the beach with his new song, Om Shanti, Babe, sparking a mystery, new friendships, a race to save the mangrove swamps...

Om Shanti, Babe, a roller coaster journey of discovery with an exciting environmental twist- all against the backdrop of beautiful Kerala.

The Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Award encourages and promotes diversity in children's fiction. Jointly founded by Frances Lincoln Ltd and Seven Stories, the national centre for children's books it is a powerful voice for the world of children.

Om Shanti, Babe is published by Janetta Otter-Barry at Frances Lincoln. Buy direct from Frances Lincoln or through Dolphin Booksellers.

Dolphin Booksellers- the best in children's books always on line.

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Dolphinbooksellers.co.uk is part of SmithMartin LLP

A retail resource for the best children's books, entry point into our children's and community library procurement and supply service. Offering a miscellany of news and featured authors for all our readers, whatever their age.


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The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling

Cas vac

 

Pre-order now for September 27th 2012 release...

Your chance to get ahead and enjoy a J.K. Rowling book all for yourself!

Click on the book to pre-order at Amazon price of £9.86 (saving of £10.14)

The first novel for adults by J.K.Rowling will be released on Thursday 27th September.

A big novel about a small town, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling's first novel for adults. It is the work of a storyteller like no other.

For all Harry Potter e books visit Pottermore.

The Casual Vacancy is published by Little Brown Book Group and will be available in hardback and ebook at £11.99

The plot...
When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.
Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty facade is a town at war.
Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils... Pagford is not what it first seems.
And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

It's going to be the Big Read and Must Have book.

Pre- order through Dolphin's link to Amazon  or just click on the book cover above.

Dolphin Booksellers- the best in children's books always on line

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Dolphinbooksellers.co.uk is part of SmithMartin LLP

A retail resource for the best children's books, entry point into our children's and community library procurement and supply service. Offering a miscellany of news and featured authors for all our readers, whatever their age.