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A beautiful book...

 

Flooded is the funny and beautifully illustrated tale of animals who live in a city that is ever so slowly flooding.

The flood comes gradually at first. There is a sense of poignancy as many of us live in a place where we are slowly watching water levels increase.

All the animals ignore the obvious and go about their busy lives, disjointed from one another and preoccupied by their own problems.
Eventually, the flood water reaches a height that they can no longer ignore and they have to work together to save their city.
All the animals join together in a line and pull out the plug that is drowning the city.

This is an exceptionally illustrated story that teaches a message not to let problems fester and with a little team work and community spirit, no problem is insurmountable. 

Mariajo Ilustrajo is a highly talented Spanish author and illustrator, who lives in London and graduated in 2021 with an MA in Children's Book Illustration at Anglia Ruskin, Cambridge.

Flooded is part of an amazing portfolio of children's books Frances Lincoln part of Quarto Knows.

Sue Martin - Children's Literacy Specialist

Part of Books Go Walkabout, Stories across the world.

 


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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Joy - cover image and web link
Buy this book here...

Fern decides that she can find the joy that has gone out of Nanna's life and bring it back for her. Off she sets with a net, a box and a bag, in fact all that she needs to return the joy to Nanna.

It seems easy to find joy but quite another thing to bring it back in a bag. Fern tries to catch the chuckles of a baby on a swing, the sparkles on the duck pond, all of which fill her with joy. But she can't get them into her bag!

Nanna listens as Fern tells her all the things she has seen. And then a smile breaks out across Nanna's face, she can feel the joy at last.

Beautifully told and stunningly illustrated this book will always be one to share and to read time and again.

Joy - buy this book, image and web link
...with free delivery

The author is Corrinne Averiss, and she has written many thoughtful and humorous  books for children, as well as working with TV series, such as children's BAFTA winning Share a Story competition.

Isabelle Follath, the illustrator lives in Switzerland, and Joy is her debut children's book. The pictures are beautiful, and colour washes and ink drawings are very moving.

Words and Pictures are the publishers, who have an exciting book list, making innovative and entertaining books for younger readers that open the door to their imagination.

Sue Martin


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 New Baby and Me
Buy this book on-line here...

A new baby is on the way! What will it be like? A book which is wonderfully illustrated with text which mirrors children's thoughts, about a new arrival into the family.

The author is Christine Kidney and it is illustrated by award-winning Hoda Haddadi. It celebrates the importance of individuality and imagination, especially when welcoming a new sibling.

Will the baby be an explorer and together with his brother will find new lands or maybe he will be an artist and together they will paint the world. But there is a surprise ahead!

A perfect book for a family waiting for their new baby, and a great book to read and share with siblings. Much to talk about and the illustrations give wonderful starting points to explore and plan.

Christine Kidney graduated from Cambridge University and also has her own editorial consultancy, this is a great start for her own books.

Hoda Haddadi is an Iranian illustrator and has won many awards including gold prize winner for Best Illustrator at 2017 Moonbeam Children's book contest.

Tiny Owl Children's Book Publisher are committed to producing beautiful original books and have many which are from Iranian authors and illustrators.

Sue Martin


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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Search and Find, the Aphabet of Alphabets
Get your copy from The Dolphin here...

This is a myriad of alphabets! 1 book, 26 alphabets and 676 incredible things to find. Take and exhilarating  ride through 26 fully illustrated alphabets,each one with an A to Z of things to spot and search for.

A great book for observations, a great book for facts and knowledge seekers, and a great book for just spending time looking at thousands of amazing illustrations.

The book is written and created by Mike Jolley and Amanda Wood with illustrations from Allan Sanders. A great team in the production of  this alphabet extravaganza. One of my favourite pages is F for Forest, where we have jackdaws, logs and bears and also dragons and knights.

  It is another beautifully presented book from the Wide Eyed Editions, part of the Quarto group.

A great book for a present, or for schools and libraries and for sharing at home.

Sue Martin


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 Carnivorous Crocodile cover image
Buy this book here...

The jungle animals find that an extremely carnivorous crocodile has claimed their waterhole for himself! Not even the elephants,  giraffes or monkeys dare to argue with the crocodile.

But the flamingos have a cunning plan! They tell the crocodile that if he eats them he will get hiccups. We all know that crocodiles can't stand hiccups.

And so eventually crocodile learns to share and the elephants, monkeys and giraffes learn that they too can frighten a fierce crocodile.

A great story about sharing, togetherness, being brave and the environment.

   Jonnie Wild, the author has been involved with forest conservation for many years and works at the University of Leeds. This is his first children's book and a great start to a new venture.

Brita Granstorm, the illustrator has won many awards and has been shortlisted twice for the Astrid Lingren Memorial Award. Often working with her partner Mick Manning, they have recently completed Books! Books! Books.

Otter-Barry Books has an extensive range of children's books on their lists and is making a difference, pushing boundaries and publishing books which children love!

Sue Martin

 


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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Once upon a Jungle - cover image and web link
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Once upon a time there was a jungle... but that was just the beginning. Delve into the undergrowth to discover the story of a food chain.

A brilliantly, beautiful book  published by Words and Pictures and Quarto Knows, whose concept of delivering visual storytelling is wonderfully portrayed in Once Upon a Jungle.

The black background of the jungle undergrowth gives the brightly coloured images huge impact. I love the preying mantis in bright green, who of course was about to eat the ants, who was then gobbled by the lizard and... well it would spoil it to tell you more.

Laura Knowles has previously written It Starts with a Seed. Her interest in environment and nature has a huge impact on her books. The illustrator James Boast, has a unique style which children will love.

 

The opportunity both for learning and pure enjoyment is huge in this hard backed book. It is a book to keep at home, to have on the shelves at the library and to deliver a project on in the nursery and school.

Sue Martin


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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On 26th June, Shirley Hughes CBE, was guest editor on BBC Woman’s Hour. She talked with enormous warmth about illustrating books for young children; how she started illustrating with a  notebook always in her hand or bag, then to her roughs, her working colleagues Andrea MacDonald, Education Director for Penguin Random House and her love of hats.

A woman of character and depth who would not be drawn in to any signs of weakness in women’s role in society, Shirley Hughes is the winner of many,many awards.

Undoubtedly her most famous book is Dogger. The story of a little, brown, soft toy dog, with one ear up and one ear down, who was lost at the Jumble sale. Dogger was actually her son’s dog and had so much love that although he started off with both ears down, he was cuddled closely for so long with one ear up, it just stayed that way.

Other early books  were Lucy and Tom’s Day and Alfie, which started her in the delightful and highly memorable books about everyday life. These were  stories which all could relate to, stories which children loved to read and to look at over and over again.

Shirley talked about visual literacy and  her thoughts on; how to help children to look at pictures and share a book together, use some physical closeness as you journey through a picture book and explore the world from the safety of a comfy chair. Children will learn to look and search for details and become visually literate.

A keen supporter of galleries, Shirley talked with Gill Hart of the National Gallery about taking children to look at paintings. Her advice was, "to go to the gallery, look at one or two paintings, have a delicious tea, buy a postcard, go home, and stick the postcard on the wall or the fridge. Children will remember them."

On looking at too many paintings, Shirley said, ‘You can get indigestion quite quickly!’

Libraries are a favourite of Shirley’s and she is extremely supportive of the free library systems. In her childhood, growing up in the Second World War libraries had special meaning and gave a wealth of books to read and explore. Shirley talked about the Edinburgh Central Library as a brilliant example of an excellent library

Finally, after talking with her son Ed Vulliamy, a journalist and the proud owner of Dogger, Shirley went on to talk about her passion on wearing hats.

A lady of character and charm, intelligence and warmth, with much more to give in her books for children and adults too.

In the near future there will be a release of a new Alfie book about  a day in the nursery. Alfie, who will always be known for his time spent on one side of the door, with his Mum and Baby Rose, on the other side.

For me,on this damp Friday evening,  I am going to find all the Shirley Hughes books on the shelf, immerse myself in a comfy sofa and a cup of tea.

Sue Martin

Dolphin Books

 

 


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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What on earth: Wind - cover image and web purchase link
Buy this book from The Dolphin...

An exciting new series of books which explore natural elements about the earth and how that impacts on our lives. They are full of questions and answers, experiments and results and children can form conclusions on aspects of our world which affect them every day.Written and illustrated by Isabel Thomas and  Pau Morgan and published by QED.

I really love the way the books are laid out, with a contents page and glossary, templates and reference points. The illustrations are very appealing and with a pastel range palette of colours and images.

The books are produced in a most attractive way being half way between hard back and paper back. They have a real open the book feel about them!

What on Earth? Wind
   This book is packed with information and the titles and text is laid out in a way which is engaging and interesting. On the page called Ships Ahoy there is a world map with info about the trade winds and how the winds influenced the methods of sailing around the world. On the page, inside a storm, the formation of tornadoes is demonstrated and then an experiment to create a tornado in a bottle,  great stuff!

What on Earth? Water

What on Earth: Water - cover image and web purchase link
Buy this book from The Dolphin

Water cycles, our watery world and water and our planets are some of the sections, which then have a double page for a subject, such as racing to the sea… erosion, make a water wheel and water on other worlds.

Racing to the sea has colourful blocks of text which explain aspects of water from river to sea on a background of mountains, hills and shoreline.

QED have a wealth of expertise in producing fiction titles in a format which is very appealing and stylish and make great books to start a journey into exploration.

Isabel Thomas is a Science writer and children’s author, shortlisted for the Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize 2016, with 130 titles published.

Pau Morgan     is an illustrator based in Chile with an amazing porftolio of work.

   We really recommend these titles for children any age or  especially for 6- 9 years.

Sue Martin

 

 


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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Two people have been awarded the honour of SLA School Librarian of the Year.

At the celebration on 4th October in London, M.G. Harris , author of  The Joshua Files presented the awards to;

Kevin Sheehan from Offerton School in Stockport and Duncan Wright from Stewart's Melville College in Edinburgh.

Ginette Doyle, Chair of the Selection committee and Chair of the School Library Association said: “Kevin and Duncan come from two completely different schools. Kevin’s school has a higher than average learning support register and more pupils eligible for free school meals than normal. He makes his library fun; he goes beyond the book to entice pupils in and demands that they respect the space so that it has become highly valued.

Duncan’s school is more academic and he has ensured that the information literacy ladder he helped to devise is at the heart of lessons, but he too, makes the Library a fun place to be and engages disaffected readers with his enthusiasm for other things than just the Library. Two exceptional librarians, working in different ways to bring their libraries into the heart of the school and learning, we could not decide between them. They are not joint winners, but each deserves the accolade of SLA School Librarian of the Year.

The SLA School Librarian of the Year Award celebrates the essential work that school librarians are doing at a time when school libraries are being closed at an alarming rate.

We were impressed by the passion and dedication of the librarians we visited and the innovative and inspirational ways in which they bring books and an enthusiasm for learning into the heart of the school and into the lives of children. We had a hard job selecting a short list and feel that everyone on the Honour list should be celebrated.”

The Honour List:
Sue Bastone – Licensed Victuallers’ School, Ascot
Rebecca Jones – Malvern St James, Worcestershire
Shiona Lawson – Rothesay Academy, Isle of Bute
Denise Reed – Hurst Prep School, Hurstpierpoint, Sussex

You can find profiles of the six librarians are on the School Library Association website.

Dolphin Booksellers were pleased to support SLA both in their work and by attending the event.

Sue Martin


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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70 years of Puffin Books – what an amazing feat!! And celebrated by the opening of an exhibition at Seven Stories, Newcastle featuring a whole host of brilliant authors and illustrators.

This is an exhibition about everyone's childhood reading, whichever generation is yours, you can find books that will take you straight back to your own memories. As we approached Stig of the Dump's Cave I touched the Stig type clothes, someone next to me said'
'I'm not going in there! I always worried about the smoke from Stig's fire.'

Mr Big is there with his piano and author Ed Vere is delighted to be in the exhibition,
“ It’s a real honour for me to be part of Puffin’s 70th birthday celebrations and this wonderful exhibition.”

A real gem of the exhibition has to be the Kaye Webb Collection . Kaye was the second editor at Puffin and much of her work inspired the addition of so many titles and new authors and illustrators.
Along with her complete archive of children's books, which was the first major purchase of Seven Stories, there are letters written to authors and friends. Written on the old style type writer and with a soft way of expression, they make enchanting reading, especially when there is the odd correction, crossed out and over written.

There are some very modern ways too of interacting with characters, The Borrowers , by Mary Norton is well worth stopping at, just past the grandfather clock..... thanks to the team at Newcastle University for providing support.

If you are in Newcastle, then do visit the exhibition and Seven Stories, its just up from the Quayside and make sure you get to find the little boat in the Ouseburn.....

And even if you can't get to Seven Stories in Newcastle on Tyne, you can still take part.

Everyone has a favourite place to read. In a comfy chair, on a bus, up a tree... It could be anywhere! Email Seven Stories a picture of you reading in your favourite spot and you can be on the super screen in the exhibition too!

Sue Martin at Dolphin Booksellers - information and 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.