Skip to content

Category: Featured illustrators

Published on
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.


Published on
The Snowbear cover image and weblink
Buy this book on-line here...

The Snowbear is a spellbinding story about the magic of snow and the power of a child's imagination. With a simple text and beautiful illustrations, it will be read and enjoyed again and again.

Written by Sean Taylor and illustrated by Claire Alexander, The Snowbear is published by Words and Pictures. 

The snow came in the night and in the morning Iggy and Martine went out to make a snowman.

"Make a snowman if you want. But be careful because the hill is very slippery." warns their Mum.

   A snow bear is made and the children  have fun in the snow. But then they decide to slide down and down the hill in their sledge, so fast and so far that they can't stop! Alone with only the eyes of a wolf in the trees they are scared.

lolloping down the hill the Snowbear scares the wolf away. He picks up the children and the sledge and carries them home, safe and sound!

Beautifully written and enchantingly illustrated, a perfect gift for Christmas and winter months.

Sue Martin

Dolphin Booksellers logo

 

 


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
Up the Creek by Nicholas Oldland
Buy this book from The Dolphin
Up the Creek.

There once was a bear, a moose and a beaver who were the best of friends, though they often disagreed.

A journey up  river is not the best time to argue about who is steering and who is rowing, as these chums set  out on a journey across rapids and  fast flowing currents.

They finally agree  and make the journey in the canoe to the end of the rapids. Once out of the water they have lunch and decide on the best route home, that's by walking!

A great story about friendship, cooperation and adventure. Nicholas Oldland is the writer and illustrator and the characters come to life in the pictures and the words.


 It is from a new publishing house, Pikku Books, based in the UK, with a Finnish background. They are an engaging team with a passion to share in good books with good stories, and new writers, often from afar.

 

The Busy Beaver
Buy this book from The Dolphin

The Busy Beaver also by Nicholas Oldland and published by Pikku Books is part of the Life in the Wild series.

The beaver is so busy working and cutting trees down he doesn't notice all the damage he has made. That is until one day when he finds himself on the wrong side of a falling tree. Landing in hospital with bandages and wounds makes him think and he decides to do things differently.

He hauls off trees which were strewn across the fields, he used broken branches to fix leaking dams and he planted saplings to replace the trees that he has felled.

A delightful story and the Life in the Wild series would make a great purchase for home and school,  lots to talk about and share, lots to do research on and explore the worlds of beavers, moose and bears.

   Books can be bought direct from Dolphin or through Pikku publishers. We are really pleased to be working with this new publishing team in promoting good quality books that you can't always find in the stores.

Sue Martin

Dolphin Booksellers logo

 


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
We Travel so Far cover image
Buy this book from The Dolphin

Small stories of incredibly giant journeys. However far you have travelled these stories will surpass your longest journey.

The whales, birds, butterflies, turtles, fish and eels of all shapes and sizes make the most amazing journeys imaginable.

We Travel So Far is a book which will capture your imagination and set you off on a journey to find out more.

I was intrigued by; the Caribbean Spiny Lobsters which travel at the bottom of the sea in a long line, and the Arctic Terns which journey from North Pole to the South Pole. I have often watched them as they fly close to the water on the North Norfolk beaches.

There are so many journeys and so many different ways of travelling across the globe. Laura and Chris have made the pages intriguing, with a combined use of text and beautiful colour coordinated illustrations. From Whooping Cranes, as the ghostly white fliers, to the African elephants, the giants of the savannah, each page gives an insight into a world full of movement and travel.

At the end of the book, there is a page on migration data and also a page on people as travellers. We travel for adventure, to find food, to find freedom and much more, but we all travel.

Great book! Well written by Laura Knowles and illustrated by Chris Madden, published by Words and Pictures part of the Quarto Knows group.

 

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
Pirate Baby cover image
Buy this book from The Dolphin

How do pirates cope with babies?

"Shiver me timbers," said the captain. "It's a baby!"   

When the crew of pirate ship Ramshackle find a tiny baby adrift on the high seas, they are a bit flummoxed. Even more so, when they discover it's a baby girl.

This is a book full of adventure, surprises, fun and imagination. Taken into a world of pirates on the high seas, it will immerse you into amazing characters, exciting adventures and just how the dare devil pirates cope with a baby girl. As she wins them over, they find ways to give her milk, but in a different way; condensed milk with water is not maybe the best, but she seems to like it!

The pirates won't give up their baby, not even to the women pirates and when a huge sea monster appears it is baby Isla who saves the whole company of pirates.

Mary Hoffman, the author is well-known for her many children's books including Amazing Grace, which has sold over a million copies. The narrative is full of her wonderful style fitting the scenes with pirate adventures.

Ros Asquith a world-famous illustrator and cartoonist, has created delightful characters in the big blue seas. Her books are translated into over 20 languages and she was a Guardian cartoonist for 25 years.

Publishers Otter-Barry are a new publisher and aim to make a difference, push boundaries and publish books that children love. Pirate Baby certainly does all of those.

Buy direct from Dolphin Booksellers and we give 10% of the book price to support children in Nepal.

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
Dragons Father and Son cover image and web link
Buy this great book here...

Admiration or Fear? Which is the best thing for a dragon? This is a heart warming tale about a dragon trying to be fierce, his father wants him to burn down the whole village!

But the young dragon finds another way to make his father proud of him. And it doesn't involve any kind of burning!

A debut book, published Sept 21st 2017, from an exciting new author based in Paris. A tale about fathers and sons and also about dragons. Drake, the young dragon sets off to the village in search of a house to burn, but it just doesn't work out. No one is afraid of him and he does some good along the way.

 

Delightful illustrations...

It is a hardback book, beautifully presented with engaging illustrations and a story that is just right to read aloud in a class, or to share at home. The last place Drake visits is an old wooden shack, just right for breathing fire upon. But instead the fisherman comes along and Drake lights a fire to cook the fish.

And the rest of the story is for reading...

Alexandre Lacroix is the author, he has written several books for adults and is the editor of Philosophie Magazine.

Ronan Badel lives and works in Brittany where he writes and illustrates childrens books for most of the time.

A great book from Words and Pictures.

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
Mrs Noah's Pockets cover image
Buy this great book here...

When Mr Noah builds the ark, he makes two lists, one for all the animals who will come on board, and one for those troublesome creatures he will leave behind. Meanwhile, Mrs Noah gets out her sewing machine and makes a coat with very deep pockets.

The waters rise and rise and Mr Noah is very busy gathering in all the animals.

‘Mrs Noah went for one last walk, wading through water, into the heart of the Mythico Wood, on errands of her own.’

This is a beautiful book with a starlit combination of author, Jackie Morris and illustrator, James Mayhew. It is published by Otter-Barry Books, and is a delightful new book on their collection this year, published on 7th September 2017.

   Jackie Morris is an author and illustrator, photographer and painter. She lives in a small house by the sea in St David’s Wales, a place of wonderful views and possibly a little bit of magic too?

James Mayhew is also an author, artist and storyteller whose books reflects his passionate advocacy of the arts for young children. He lives in Baldock, Hertfordshire.

The text is magical with a sense of mischief and purpose around Mrs Noah, as she sets out on her journeys in the coat with very large pockets.

At the end when the dove returns with the olive tree twigs and the animals are released, the answer to the mystery of the pockets appears in the illustrations.

I loved it and would like to read and look at this book again and again.

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
Look Fo Ladybird in Plant city
Buy this book on-line here...

Ladybird has gone missing! Daisy is so worried, as Ladybird heads for Plant City and may be lost forever!

Basil the detective, and Daisy, search and search through this amazing Technicolor array of places and creatures.

This is a Technicolor 'search and find' book, like no other. The artwork is amazing and very detailed, so finding the ladybird on each page takes some searching. But she is there, just keep looking.

The scenes are full of energy and packed with things to look at, children will have great fun finding all sorts of things as well as the ladybird; like the aphid juice bar or a root pizza in the restaurant.

 

This is the first in a series of books from Katherine Manolessou, published by Frances Lincoln and is definitely one to watch out for and to buy. The format is in hard back and a really good size for opening out on the carpet and sharing together in the search for ladybird.

Katherine is an up and coming illustrator who has worked with Ted Baker, The Guardian and Random House and is also an Associate Lecturer at Camberwell College of Arts. Her previous book with Frances Lincoln is Tveg: The Story of a Carrot Crunching Dinosaur.

Thoroughly recommend  Look For Ladybird in Plant City, we are sure you will have huge amounts of fun.

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
Tug of War cover image and web link
Buy this book here...

When Elephant and Hippo are nasty to Tortoise, he shows them that while he may not be big, he certainly is brainy!

A funny and heart warming story from a well-known myth from West Africa with beautiful illustrations and meaningful text.

Tortoise is out to find a friend in the jungle but is called names by the two biggest creatures around, the elephant and the hippopotamus. With the help of bird, tortoise decides to let them know that he is worth having as a friend,even if he is not extra-large and grey.

A tug of war follows and elephant and hippo fall over backwards in a very inelegant position, as the rope eventually snaps. They discover that it would be good to have tortoise as a friend.

Tug of War
Great illustrations!

A second book from Naomi Howarth, whose debut novel, The Crow's Tale was shortlisted for the 2015 Waterstone's Children's Book Prize. Naomi has huge talent in illustration and a background of working in art in costume and film, leading to a stunning career in children's illustrations and writing.

 

Published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books, we know that you will love this hard back book at home, in the library and at 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.


Published on
Elliot's Arctic Surprise -cover image and web link
Buy this book here...

Elliot was on holiday by the sea. He went for a paddle and built a sand whale. It was fun but what he really wanted was an adventure...

He finds a message in a bottle from Father Christmas, asking for urgent help to save his home. Elliot sails to the Arctic with children from all over the world. to stop the oil drillers and to rescue the Arctic.

A  great picture book with a plenty of meaning. Through the story and  illustrations we follow Elliot in his quest and discover icebergs falling into the sea, oil rigs creating heat and undermining the stability of the Arctic.

Written by Catherine Barr and illustrated by Francesca Chesa and published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books.

 

The book has been developed in conversation with Greenpeace and the blurb on the back cover from Booktrust states, 'If the people of the world unite to protect the planet, there is hope for a better future.'

A good reason why children's books are so important in creating an understanding of truths and  reasons for making a difference.

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.