I have always loved feminist fractured fairy tales, of which there are plenty published. But Gender Swapped Fairy Tales by Karrie Fransman and Jonathan Plackett (Faber) is an anthology like no other. Rather than fracture and rewrite the traditional tales, what the creators have done is ‘simply’ switch the genders in each story. Nothing less, …
As soon as The B on Your Thumb (Frances Lincoln) appeared in the mail, it grabbed my attention. The book consists 60 poems written by Colette Hillier which all play on language and spelling. As a non-native speaker of English, I was instantly drawn to it because it highlights with humour, but a gentle touch, …
Régis, thank you for agreeing to answer a few questions about The Garden on Inside-Outside. Could you tell us how you came to such an unusual project? “The editors from Les Editions des Eléphants , Caroline Drouault and Ilona Meyer, contacted me directly, having thought of me after seeing Chiara Mezzalama’s text. I was surprised …
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 …
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 …
Panda and Penguin live together and share everything, including the beloved tatty old sofa they love to sit on. They decide to go and buy a new one, but none feels quite right, and for good reasons. Fifi Kuo’s The Perfect Sofa (Boxer Books) is absolutely delightful; its succinct text is teamed with bold colourful double-spreads and …
Today is National Unicorn Day and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than to introduce Beatrice Blue’s gorgeous début picturebook Once Upon a Unicorn Horn (Frances Lincoln), which is published as part of the First Editions list, which showcases new talents. June lives with her parents in a magical forest and loves to …
The Blue Balloon (Hodder Children’s Books), Mick Inkpen’s classic picture book, is 30 years old this year! A favourite of so many families, which uses innovative use of flaps and fold-out pages, it is a true celebration of the importance of play and the power of the imagination for preschoolers. It also highlights how easily it …
A newcomer last year with the gorgeous Red and the City, Marie Voigt is back with a new and very different picturebook, The Light in the Night (Simon & Schuster Children’s Books), which is Library Mice picturebook of the week: Betty loves night-time because with the dark comes the time for stories! But Cosmo, the bear in her favourite book, …
Today is Library Mice’s turn to host a stop of Steve Antony’s blog tour for his latest picturebook Amazing, which is Library Mice Picturebook of the Week this week! I am delighted to welcome Steve back to Library Mice (you can see an earlier, guest post, with his childhood Fabulous Five, here) and he has got …
