As well as being World Book Day week, the first week of March is also a time to celebrate Will Eisner Week. Will Eisner Week is a Worldwide Celebration of Comics, Graphic Novels, Sequential Art, Free Speech and Will Eisner’s Legacy. As part of this celebration, organisers encourage people to read a graphic novel. …
Joanna Carey (Thames & Hudson) Part of The Illustrators series (whose consultant is Sir Quentin Blake), this is a wonderful celebration of one of Britain’s most beloved and cherished picturebook makers, Judith Kerr. In this tome, readers are given access to a extensive selection of Kerr’s art, including very early drawings saved by her mother as they …
The Fate of Fausto Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins Children’s Books) There was once a man who believed he owned everything and set out to survey what was his ….” So begins Oliver Jeffers’ latest picturebook, a longer narrative, which despite being originally written in 2015, sadly resonates very true in today’s world: Fausto is greedy, throws …
I loved The Brontës, which was the inaugural title for Anna Doherty’s series Fantastically Feminist series and was really pleased to find out that there was to be a new volume on Michelle Obama: The Fantastically Feminist (and Totally True) Story of the Inspirational Activist and Campaigner (Wren & Rook). You don’t really get more empowering and inspiring …
Today, some very lucky children in Ipswich will be taking part in an event with Jon Agee as part of the The Children’s Book Show. Jon Agee is the author and illustrator of many acclaimed books for children, including ALA Notable Books Little Santa, Terrific, Milo’s Hat Trick, Nothing, The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau, and the Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor winner It’s Only …
Corrinne Averiss (text) & Rosalind Beardshaw (artwork) (Orchard Books) When a little girl finds a fallen star underneath a tree, she decides to nurse him back to health with kindness and care. The two become firm friends but Star doesn’t feel quite at home in the hut. So the little girl decides to do what …
In A Planet Full of Plastic (Wren & Rook) Neal Layton introduces children to the current and vital topic of plastic pollution. The book covers many topics within the theme, from the history of the creation of plastic, to biodegradation and to what we can do to reverse the problem. It is extremely informative, detailed yet simple enough for young …
Katherine Rundell (Bloomsbury) Fellow children’s literature appreciators have all experienced the following, when stepping out of their echo chambers: the slight bewilderment of others when they learn that you read children’s literature. That bewildered expression often turns to aghast when you confess that you have studied it, or worse, that you read /study picturebooks. Yes, yes, those people …
Today I am hosting the Read for Empathy blog tour, which celebrates books that help develop empathy, in the build-up to Empathy Day which takes place on June 11th. Empathy Day was founded in 2017 by not-for-profit EmpathyLab. It aims to drive a new empathy movement, inspired by research showing that humans are not born with …
