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Tag: booksgowalkabout

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Digger - cover image and web link
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Digger is the story of one toy kangaroo, one Australian soldier,  Annie and Colette, set in two countries engaged in a world at war.

It is an amazingly poignant story and beautifully portrayed in text and illustration. 

It is  a tribute to the French school children who tended the graves of Australian soldiers and a quiet reminder of the casualties of the battle for Villers-Bretonneux in April 1918.

James goes off to war, leaving his homeland Australia behind and takes with him Digger, a toy kangaroo which Annie,  his sister, has lovingly repaired and named just for him. The pages turn over to show images of a soldier who is keen to help and fight for his own country and for others. He faces everything with courage.

Digger is always with him and  they both even survive a blast in the trenches.

Colette in France, helps to repair Digger and one day he is brought to Colette without James. He is sent back to Australia repaired and with a note for Annie...

Mike Dumbleton is the author and illustrated by Robin Cowcher another great book from publishers Allen and Unwin, Australia.

Buy this book - button image and web link

With tears in my eyes on the last page, I believe this book is truly amazing and will be a sad but good read for anyone, whether they are coping with loss, learning about the effects of war or just as a brilliant picture book.

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

What kind of monster is lurking under your bed? Grobblechops is one of those monsters that just becomes more frightening by the minute.

An old tale by Rumi, a 13th century poet and Sufi mystic, which is given a new take by award-winning author, Elizabeth Laird.

Grobblechops looms large in each of the stunning illustrations from Jenny Lucander, it is spiky and brown, with teeth as large as you can imagine and eyes that keep on staring at you.

'But what....' asks Amir at every answer given by his parents to his worried and questions. ' But what if my monster's got a Dad too?'

...with free delivery!

Eventually, Amir is persuaded that his monster might just like to play. And so he does and so does the monster's mother and father and life can calm down once again.

Brilliantly told tale and Elizabeth Laird has an amazing way of making the words on each page just right for the images.

Or maybe it's the skill of illustrator Jenny Lucander to create the pictures that fit so amazingly well with the words? Either way publishers Tiny Owl have another excellent book to add to their collection.

Watch a video from publisher

A great book to have, recommended for ages 3-7 and older too!

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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Silnet NIght - cover image and web link
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The world's best-loved carol celebrated in this wonderfully illustrated book by Lara Hawthorne.

UNESCO declared this iconic song an intangible cultural heritage in 2011 and this book brings you more than the carol as it winds its way through the verses, with illustrations that will bring joy to you this Christmas.

 

The story of the nativity is shown and you can follow the journey of Mary and Joseph to the stable where Jesus is born, and the arrival of the guests; the shepherds, the animals and the wise men.

Buy this book here - image and web link
...with free delivery

Above all the book presents the spirituality of the nativity, as the world welcomes Jesus quietly into the world, Christ the Savior is born!

I remember Silent Night from my school days,as our music teacher was so in awe of the carol that we were never able to sing it, in case it brought tears to her eyes! I have tried to sing it quietly ever since!

There is a page at the back of the book about the carol and some of the history. It was written in 1818 in Salzburg, Austria by Joseph Mohr - a curate in the town especially for the Christmas Eve service.

It was later sung on December 25th 1914, during the truce period of the First World War by soldiers on both sides of the trenches.

Lara Hawthorne, the author and illustrator is based in Bristol and has many titles to her name, including The NIght Flower and Huberto. Lincoln Children's Books part of QuartoKnows includes this title in their portfolio and it has a special place as we approach Christmas.

HIghly recommended for children of all ages.

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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A Kid in My Class - cover image and web link
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Meet a class of school children, every one described in A Kid in My Class, the pushy one to the shy one, the tough kid and the not so tough!

A favourite is...

Cool… He thinks he’s a sub hero dude. A dude.
A geezer who’s too cool for school uniform.
Chews on mint gum. Calls me Swot, Loser, Dumb.
Tells me to chill. Thinks he is it.
Well, he’s not.

This is a great collection and will be much enjoyed by children around ages of 8 –11. It speaks about how you feel as an individual in a class of others. And how others feel the same, even though they don’t say anything.

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Free delivery!

Rachel Rooney is an award winning and  well renowned  poet who has contributed to this year’s official National Poetry Day anthology, Poetry for a Change. Rachel lives in Brighton and is in demand for school events and performances at festivals, and as a previous special needs teacher, she has many skills on how best to interact with children and support their enjoyment and learning..

Chris Riddell has some brilliant sketches on every page which make the poems come alive. He was Children’s Laureate from 2015-17 and has many awards for his work. He is also president of The School Library Association. His vast number of books includes Goth Girl and A Great Big Cuddle (Michael Rosen)

Otter-Barry Books are publishers of some excellent books and have an excellent poetry range in their book list.

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.


Published on
Adder, Bluebell, Lobster - book cover image
Review or buy from Amazon.co.uk here...

There is more to this Wild Book of Poems from Otter-Barry Books than meets the eye!

From Adder to Wren, forty fantastic poems celebrate forty amazing animals, birds and plants and their beautiful names - names which you can help poet Chrissie Gittins save from EXTINCTION!

They are all words which have been left out of the latest Oxford Junior Dictionary. Join authors such as Michael Morpurgo and Margaret Atwood who along with 28 other authors protested against Oxford Junior Dictionary's replacement of natural words with 21st century terms.

The poems are brilliant, each page has a poem from Chrissie and illustration from Paul Bommer such as. Harry the Hamster...

'Harry the hamster, in his ball

rolled round the bedroom,

rolled round the hall.

He rolled to the bathroom,

he rolled to the stairs

where a huge teddy bear

took him clean unawares'.

We recommend for ages 6+ and for all ages. Follow the picture link to buy.

Sue Martin

dolphinlogo2014imageright


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.


Published on
ifeoma talks at Archway image
Ifeoma entertains her audience in Islington...

Ifeoma Onyefulu is a writer, children's author and photographer.

Her books and photographs reflect life in Africa and are an amazing collection of images and stories. See her collection at Amazon.co.uk here.

Ifeoma's exhibition was held at Archway Library in Islington, London. The photographs displayed were from Ifeoma's travels over the last few years in Africa including Senegal, Mali, Nigeria and Ghana.

There was a well attended post-exhibition talk at Archway Library on Monday 1st August and Ifeoma talked about her work, her travels and her books. The next day there was a workshop and activities for children.

Visit Ifeoma's web pages here.

A is for Africa cover image
Explore Africa from your armchair...

See Ifeoma's travel blog here.

Our team recently worked in Hong Kong with Ifeoma and we are delighted that her exhibition was such a success.

Her most well known book, A is for Africa, is out in a new edition this year and published by Frances Lincoln and is a great book to have.

 

Sue Martin

Dolphin Booksellers

Books Go Walkabout

dolphinlogo2012imageright3.jpg


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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Spot the Bird
Review or buy this title from Amazon.co.uk

Spot the Bird on the Building Site is a new book in this series of Spot the... by Sarah Khan and illustrated by Moreno Chiacchiera and published by Quarto Kids, QED.

A wonderful choice for Summer Holidays reads, they are packed with images of activities, around for instance, a building site. Trying to find the image amongst an array of pictures gets everyone searching, reading, looking and learning too. They are great fun!

These titles are part of the QED publishing for children's books, which are excellently produced in style, content and feel. They are books to have and to read,which will linger on the table and the shelves.

Spot the Bird on the Building Site shows some major building projects, like cranes on buildings in London. There are facts on every page,such as, ' The world's tallest crane is also the strongest. It can lift a load the weight of 12 blue whales over 50 storeys high.'

My favourite of the series is Spot the Seal around the World. It's a tour around the continents of the world and images and a few facts to remember, such as, 'Oceania is made up of lots of islands - the biggest one is Australia'.

Spot the Mummy in the Museum
Buy this book

Spot the Mummy in the Museum has a curious mummy figure in bandages with two wide open eyes as it finds its way around the museum; the collections of dinosaurs, masks, buried treasures, Ancient Greeks and Romans , great to follow and acquire more information as you go over the pages.

We would recommend these books for a wide age group, as they will be easily delved into by 9 and 10 year olds as well as exploring with 5/6 year olds along with parents and teachers.

Have fun reading, exploring and finding out...

Spot the Seal

 

Sue Martin

Dolphin Booksellers and Books Go Walkabout


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.


Published on
Outside. A Guide to Discovering Nature
Review or purchase this great book from Amazon.co.uk here...

A real discovery book, excellent in all aspects of creating a love of nature, finding out and just getting outside with a purpose.

Outside. A Guide to Discovering Nature was published by Frances Lincoln in March 2016 and is a great book to buy now for the summer holidays and for enjoying time together in the Big Outside.

The authors are: Maria Ana Peixe Dias and Inês Teixeira do Rosário and the book is beautifully illustrated by Bernardo P. Carvalho, all from Portugal.

This book won the Bologna Regazzi award, which aims to arouse curiosity about fauna, flora and to get to know the outside world.

Every page turned has an intriguing illustration or fascinating information in the text. From how to build a swing and reach the clouds, with facts about making a swing in a tree to the different types and styles of beaks on birds! It is literally packed with information for children ages, 8-12 and for adults who have maybe forgotten that stuff or never knew!

Who does this footprint belong to?
What is this worm up to?
What is the name of this tree?

Even if we live in the city, nature is still all around us: clouds and stars, trees and flowers, rocks and beaches, birds, reptiles or mammals.
What are we waiting for?

I will definitely be using this book through the summer and can't wait for a child or two to share our time in the Outside. A Guide to Discovering Nature.

Very much recommended!!

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout           Dolphin Bookshelf


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.