Has Anyone Seen My Chihuahua?

This month saw the publication of the fabulous Picture Book Picnic title Has Anyone Seen my Chihuahua? by Clare Wigfall & Ollie Lett. Playful, vibrant and highly entertaining, this is an original picture book about a child's missing Chihuahua.



Oh, where has he gone? A little girl has lost her Chihuahua! And he's her bestest best friend! He's soft, cuddly, bouncy and has the most ENORMOUS ears. But none of the animals she meets resemble her lost Chihuahua, Fernando. Each of them is too big, too small, too green or too

feathery. Will she ever find him?

Illustrator Ollie Lett is a fine artist and his style and colour palette create something very unique on the page whilst author Clare Wigfall, an established writer of adult fiction, presents us with her first picture book text. Clare's voice is contemporary, accessible and very funny. Together Ollie and Clare have produced a great read-aloud for young children and whilst this is the first time Clare and Ollie have worked together they are also life-long friends which you can see coming across in the warmth and humour of Has Anyone Seen my Chihuahua?



Excitingly Clare is also the current Booktrust writer in residence giving you lots of behind the scenes glimpses to the way she writes, what influences her work, music she listens to and a very fascinating blog post about the creative process behind Has Anyone Seen my Chihuahua – do go and take a look, it’s a great read.



Clare has very kindly agreed to do a special Picture Book Picnic blog post, for your eyes only, so look out for that coming very soon.

South Ken Kids Festival 24th - 27th November

 

Four of our wonderful Picture Book Picnic authors and illustrators will be attending South Ken Kids Festival, 24th -27th November. Polly Dunbar, Viviane Schwarz, Chris Haughton and Sara Fanelli will all be doing events, from drawing duels to create your own story workshops – there’s guaranteed to be something to entertain your little ones!

Things kick off with Sara Fanelli, illustrator of Pinocchio, on Saturday 26th November at the French Institute. Sara will be in discussion with Lauren Child talking about their French passions in the world of illustration.Whilst author and illustrator Viviane Schwarz will be leading a workshop showing you how to create some of her playful cats from her hilarious picture book There Are No Cats in This Book!

Super Sunday follows with Polly Dunbar’s create a story workshop kicking things off at 10am; you will discover a world of wonder and characters with Polly and meet Penguin, Tilly and Friends. Polly will create a shared story with the participants using everybody’s input!



The drawing duels then kick off at 11am on Sunday with Chris Haughton taking on Joëlle Jolivet. Joëlle’s 365 penguins will duel against Chris’s lost owl from A Bit Lost; a winged duel for an intense and unusual session of bird-watching.

12 o’clock see’s Viviane Schwarz take on Stephanie Blake in another drawing duel. Viv’s many crafty cats will take on Simon the rabbit – who will lose more fur? Hopefully the cats will win out as Viv will then take on Marc Boutavant and his cuddly bear in a second drawing duel at 1.15pm on Sunday.







The final duelling duo will be Polly Dunbar and Olivier Tallec at 2pm. Tallec’s dynamic duo Rita and Whatsit will duel against Polly’s Tilly and friends. Prepare to rock and roll!



All the authors and illustrators will also be taking part in public book signings throughout the day giving everyone a chance to get their favourite books signed.



For more information and to book tickets for these events visit the South Ken Chidren's Festival website here.

Mole & Friends Join the RNIB's Really Good Read.....

We have joined forces with the RNIB and Waterstone’s in a partnership to launch the RNIB’s Really Good Read campaign, inviting the nation to celebrate the joy of reading and to help RNIB continue to provide reading services for adults and children with sight problems across the UK. 



The signature event will be an attempt to smash the Guinness World Record for the worlds’ longest reading relay at Waterstone’s Piccadilly on Thursday 13th October, 350 people, including children who are partially sighted or who are blind, will gather to each read aloud from Anthony Horowitz’s exclusive Diamond Brothers’ short story The Double Eagle has Landed, not yet published in the UK. The story will be accessible to everyone at the record attempt, as it will be available in giant print, audio and Braille, as well as in standard print.  The current Austrian world record is 290 people.  Anthony says:



"I'm delighted that one of my stories has been chosen for this world record-breaking attempt. I'm afraid 13th October will be a sad day for Austria as we smash the record and fly the flag for the UK. All credit to RNIB and Waterstone's for encouraging literacy in such a fun and inclusive way."



Walker Books, Waterstone’s and the RNIB will also mark the first ever Read for RNIB Day on 14th October, by giving children all over the country a free picture book.  A special edition of Mole’s Sunrise by Jeanne Willis and Sarah Fox-Davies – a beautifully written story which reminds us how important sight is – will be given away through the Daily Mail where readers will be invited to take a voucher to Waterstone’s stores nationwide to collect their free copy. For every voucher redeemed, Waterstone’s will also donate 20p to the RNIB to help blind and partially sighted people find their lives again



Every day 100 people in the UK start to lose their sight. To find out more information or to join people reading for fun, and help the blind and partially sighted, do visit www.rnib.org.uk/readforrnibday

Awards, Awards and More Awards

We’re absolutely delighted to announce three Picture Book Picnic titles have been long-listed for the UKLA Book Awards 2012. A Bit Lost by Chris Haughton, A Place to Call Home by Viviane Schwarz & Alexis Deacon and Mole’s Sunrise by Jeanne Willis & Sarah Fox-Davies have all been selected in the 3-6 years category and will go on to fight it out with the other titles for the shortlist announced in March next year.



The UKLA Children’s Book Award is a national award conferred by education professionals and it is held in high esteem by teachers, who regard the shortlist as a reliable indicator of the best books of the year for inclusion in class and school collections.

We’re also proud to see A Place to Call Home has been recognised in the shortlist for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, a unique award launched to honour those books that make young people, and all of us, roar with laughter.



Concerned that the really side-splittingly funny books were being overlooked by other book awards, Michael Rosen created the Roald Dahl Funny Prize in 2008 with Booktrust, as part of his work as Children’s Laureate. The Prize aims to reward those authors and artists who write and illustrate their books using humour in their fiction and poetry.

Congratulations to all our wonderful authors and illustrators, it's their talent and energy that make all our books so great! We’re keeping everything crossed for all of these titles and will let you know the results as soon as we hear anything.

Have You Seen Our Hat?

 Today sees the global blog tour for I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen kick off in style. The fabulous Playing by the Book blog has interviewed Jon who shares eight books that reflect pivotal moments in his life so far, with particular reference to his journey towards becoming a published author/illustrator.



The tour will continue with stop-offs at Kids’ Book Capers, Not Just for Kids, Bringing up Charlie, My Book Corner, Wahm-Bam!, Pickle Me This, There’s a Book, My Little Bookcase, Chris Rettstatt over the next nine days. So why not sit back, relax and travel the globe from the comfort of your own home, who knows you might even find bear’s elusive hat!



We’re also delighted to be able to share with you this wonderful trailer, created by Klassen himself, for I Want My Hat Back - take a peek! And, if you like it, why not let us know with a quick tweet!



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I Want My Hat Back!

Have you seen my hat?



This is the concept behind the brilliant I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen. This is coming out in October, but is already available to pre-order on Amazon.



Jon Klassen has created a great little trailer for us, which is live on the Guardian Children’s Books website now – take a peek! And, if you like it, why not let us know with a quick tweet!



Tweet



On the 19th September, we’re taking part in a GLOBAL blog tour. That’s right, GLOBAL. As you can imagine, we are pretty excited about this one… it’s going to be EPIC.



We will have stops at blogs from America, Canada, Australia and from right here in the UK. There will be exclusive interviews with Jon Klassen, reviews, competitions and more, so don’t miss it! We’ll be tweeting about the tour and all things hats on twitter on #IWantMyHatBack. So, if you have something to say about the book, or have an interesting hat tale to share with us, just send us a tweet!



We’ve also created a downloadable hat for kids – so they can download it, design it, print it… We’d love to see any designs, however wacky, so tweet us a photo @WalkerBooksUK or share on our facebook page now…

Dear Fairy Godmother...

Deep in the enchanted forest, the fairy tale creatures all have problems. Luckily they can call on the ultimate agony aunt – Dear Fairy Godmother!



A sequel to Dear Mother Goose, this is a hilarious collection of fairy stories with a difference. All the best-loved fairy-tale characters are here and they all have a different problem, from the pesky girl who keeps eating little bear's porridge, to Pinocchio's mendacious habits, to the wolf who just won't leave Little Red Riding Hood alone. Along with their letters asking for advice comes the scene with the problem – then lift the flap and see Fairy Godmother's ingenious solutions to their predicaments! Wittily illustrated by Nick Sharratt, with a very funny text from Michael Rosen, this is a novelty book full of unexpected solutions – and a party at the end!

The Observer on Dear Fairy Godmother; 'When you can capture a child’s imagination from the first page, you know you’re on to something and this original idea based on classic fairy-tales does just that…Great fun'!



Nick Sharratt is the illustrator in residence at Edinburgh Festival this month and wants to get everybody involved in creating a giant Book Festival frieze. If you happen to be in Edinburgh why not drop in to take part and add your own ideas to this giant picture. Drop-in events are limited to 15 people at any one time. As part of the Illustrator in Residence Nick will also be running a full program of events, storytelling's and workshops throughout the month and you can learn more here! 



As a final treat, below is a fantastic video for you to enjoy from author Michael Rosen, former children's laureate, all about chocolate cake - what isn't there to love about that!