Skip to content

Tag: children’s books

Published on

 

My Mum is a beautifully illustrated, stereotype-busting celebration of all the everyday things one child's mum does to make her so wonderfully awesome!

My Mum says that when I arrived
I was like a star
drifting
down
from the sky
and into her life.

The story follows mother and child from before the child is born, celebrating the bond between mother and child even when the child is just a dream. With a wonderful inclusive feel, all mother and child relationships are celebrated in this story – whether biological or adoptive mothers.

A joyous spirit of adventure is present throughout the story, following mother and child as they take on life's big and small adventures – together. From sailing a ship around the garden and exploring forests, streams and meadows to telling stories in a cosy den and cuddling before bedtime, a child reveals all the simple yet amazing things she loves to do with her wondrously adventurous mum.

With lyrical text by Susan Quinn and imagination-filled illustrations from Sarah Mathew, My Mum is a joyous celebration of motherhood, perfect for enjoying together as mum and child – creating a special reading experience for children to treasure.

The perfect gift for new mothers, or Mother's Day, My Mum celebrates the unique bond between mother and child, no matter how this relationship starts.

A beautiful book that is staying with me for my granddaughter and Grandma moments!

Sue Martin - Children's Literacy Specialist

Part of Books Go Walkabout, Stories across the world.

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

A story of love, care and rescue from internationally acclaimed picture book creator, Barraux. It is the story of fleeing... from all you have known and landing into the unknown. But on the way you may need some help!

One day Jonas the lighthouse keeper and his friend Blue the whale rescue a tired, bedraggled bird from the sea...a bird who has made a perilous journey from a far-off country, fleeing war and great danger.


This beautiful story of care, refuge and freedom is told and illustrated with compassion and empathy.

A perfect book from Otter-Barry Books, for all ages to reflect on journeying alone, needing and offering help and for all those who are currently travelling across the world to find peace and a place to call home.

Sue Martin - Children's Literacy Specialist


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

Join 15 diverse children in an inspirational 'We Can!' festival. Real children helped to create this book, to show the kind of world they would like to live in. A safer, greener, kinder place – can we make a difference.? This brilliant follow-up to You Can! gives a resounding 'Yes!'

This is a book full of  hope and inspiration for a better world, starting with young children. The pages are full of wonderful illustrations from Steve Antony which compliment the text from author Alexandra Strick so well.

Published by OtterBarry Books We Can, Make a Difference fits beautifully with their  aim to make a difference in children's books.

Sue Martin - Children's Literacy Specialist

 


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

Discover the magical world of Carnival of the Animals in this musical reimagining of this celebrated suite for children – push the button in each breathtaking scene to hear the vivid sound of an orchestra playing from Camille Saint-Saëns’ score.

One day, two brothers discover a magical animal kingdom behind their bookcase. They are greeted by the royal lion with his shaggy mane; ask for directions from an old lonely tortoise; take a ride on some lumbering elephants; topple a skeleton of dinosaur bones; and swim among a school of shimmering fish. If only they could take them all home...

The book includes extracts from ‘The Swan’, ‘Aquarium’, ‘Fossils’, and ‘Finale’ (From Disney’s Fantasia) along with a totally new story to link the pieces together.

As you and your little one journey through the magical scenes, you will press the buttons to hear 10 excerpts from the suite’s music. At the back of the book, find a short biography of the composer, Camille Saint-Saëns, with details about his composition of Carnival of the Animals. Next to this, you can replay the musical excerpts and, for each of them, read a discussion of the instruments, rhythms and musical techniques that make them so powerful. A glossary defines musical terms.

The Story Orchestra series brings classical music to life for children through gorgeously illustrated re-tellings of classic ballet, opera and program music stories paired with 10-second sound clips of orchestras playing from their musical scores. With The Story Orchestra keyboard sound books, children can play the famous melodies themselves with the sound of a real grand piano.

Beautifully presented and makes a wonderful gift.

Sue Martin - Children's Literacy Specialist

Part of Books Go Walkabout, Stories across the world.

 


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

Blue Monster wants to play with Rabbit - but Rabbit is sleeping and doesn't want to play. SO... what should Blue Monster do?

A fun book with meaning! Blue Monster just can't help himself from upsetting his friends in a BIG way! But together they sort it out he is forgiven, and they stay friends!

Blue Monster does something you should NEVER do and then... he does it again and again! Now he DEFINITELY has no one to play with! He feels sad, lonely and VERY guilty. But when Blue Monster opens  his mouth and YAWNS... what a surprise!

Things may get better after all! If Blue Monster only says he's sorry.

A wonderfully funny and surprising picture book about friendship and forgiveness, that's perfect for reading aloud.

Petr Horácek was born in Prague and studied at the Academy of Fine Art. After graduating in 1994, he moved to England. His first two picture books were published in 2001, winning the 'Books for Children' Newcomer award. Since then he has gained a string of international distinctions. His books for Otter-Barry include The Last Tiger, The Perfect Present, shortlisted for the BookTrust Storytime Prize 2024, and The Star Whale with Nicola Davies. He lives in Worcester.

Otter-Barry Books publishers have a wonderful portfolio of unique and beautiful children's books.

Sue Martin - Children's Literacy Specialist

Part of Books Go Walkabout, Stories across the world.

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

Beautiful book of play rhymes, love the illustrations, perfect for young children to have fund and to learn new words.

Find hamsters, dogs, robins and unicorns, little cars and big diggers – and of course Big Red Dragon, in this brilliant collection of 15 action rhymes for young children and babies.

Rhymes celebrate festivals and special events, such as Easter, Halloween, Diwali, Christmas and Chinese New Year. With clear instructions to parents and carers, there are fun activities and lots of joining in for every rhyme, for babies, toddlers and older children too.

This book is a perfect companion to Jane Newberry’s very popular first collection, Big Green Crocodile, which was shortlisted for the CLiPPA award. At home, playgroup or nursery, the rhymes provide fun while also nurturing children’s responses to language, rhyme and images.

Illustrations by Carolina Rabei bring the poems to life with wonderful colours and characters.

Another excellent book from Otter-Barry Books, beautifully produced and delightful to read.  A book for nurseries, schools and at home too, perfect!

Sue Martin Children's Literacy Specialist

Part of Books Go Walkabout, Stories across the world.

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

 

9781776575930fc

Such a beautiful book! The story develops through the illustrations as there are no words, the pictures say it all. It is an intriguing book with a whole range of stories for your imagination on every page.

Time for cake! But the eagle swipes up the blanket and flies away. The animals chase after to find all their stolen picnic things.

Thé Tjong-Khing’s visual storytelling slows us down and invites us to look more closely. Can you remember everything on the blanket? Hat, ball, doll, feather, cake? Who is hiding in the bush? What has the dog seen on the cliff? How will pig get back her sun umbrella? Why is the rabbit crying? And how can there be cake for everyone when the very hungry rat family has eaten it already?

Gecko Press are working with Thé Tjong-Khing. Interesting illustrator...

'Thé Tjong-Khing (born in 1933) is a children’s book illustrator based in the Netherlands. He was born in Indonesia, attended the Seni Rupa Arts Institute in Bandung, and moved to the Netherlands in 1956. As a child he was interested in the "Tarzan" comic strips of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Thé has won the Golden Pencil Award three times (a major Dutch children’s book award), and in 2005 the Woutertje Pieterse Prize for Best Dutch Children’s Book for his book Waar is de taart? (Where is the cake?), a wordless picture book which was also nominated for the German Youth Literature Prize in 2007.'

Collect all the missing objects, find out who they belong to, and come back home for more cake in this cheerful, wordless look-and-find story that culminates in the delightful reward of sharing.

A delight to read and share with young children and their powers of observation are superb.

Sue Martin

Children's Literacy Specialist

Part of Books Go Walkabout, Stories across the world.

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

 

Have you ever wished that you didn't have to go to a party? They are not always such fun and maybe you're a little shy?

This is a funny, heartwarming story about being brave enough to be different - and to be yourself, Dora really, really doesn't like parties! They are too loud and too busy. Maybe she won't have to go if a gorilla steals her party dress or if a giant frog eats her shoe!

But...what if Dora could find a nice quiet place at the party, and someone else who doesn't like noisy parties? Then they could have a lovely time - in their own way. and that would be...absolutely, completely, totally and perfectly OK!

Angie Morgan is an author-illustrator whose previous books include Enormouse (Frances Lincoln), Shouty Arthur and the Sedric stories (Egmont). Born in Bristol,now living in Bath, she studied graphics and illustration at Goldsmiths College, London. Her stories show an acute, sympathetic understanding of how children think abou. Angie uses a wide variety of media in her illustrations: watercolours, pastels, charcoal, and scanned ephemera of all kinds.

Otter-Barry Books have a wonderful portfolio of great books and their picture books are especially appealing and with great thoughts and ideas for young children.

Sue Martin - Children's Literacy Specialist

Part of Books Go Walkabout, Stories across the world.

 


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

Play hide and seek in the city with a boy, his animal friends and a dinosaur that’s surprisingly hard to spot. The brilliantly interactive follow-up to international bestselling picture book, Have You Seen Elephant?  

An amazing book in which children will spot the dinosaurs well ahead of the adults, I guess! The story charmingly follows a journey with many clues.  Children can use their superior observation skills !

Best friends boy, dog and elephant are VERY good at hide-and-seek. There’s a missing dinosaur in the city—who better to spot this elusive giant? They search the skate park, the museum, the subway…

No one in the city can spot the dinosaur, not even this crack hide-and-seek team. But delighted readers will be pointing “There it is!” from the first page.

This absurd, laugh-out-loud picture book for preschoolers is richly illustrated with David Barrow’s trademark beautiful use of light and colour and dramatic cityscapes—a guaranteed hit with dinosaur-loving toddlers. 

With clues, surprises and humour, this game-inside-a-book celebrates imaginative play and is perfect for sharing with children who will love being better at finding the dinosaur than their adult reader.

Author and illustrator David Barrow is a recent graduate of the Cambridge School of Art where he completed a Masters in Children’s Book Illustration and received the top prize, the Sebastian Walker award for most promising children’s illustrator.

Gecko Press  are unique publishers who hand-picks books by some of the best writers and illustrators in the world—books of good heart and strong character, excellent in story, illustration and design.

Sue Martin - Children's Literacy Specialist


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

A recent astonishing discovery was made in the famous Chauvet Cave in France, where  the footprint if a young child was found with a paw print beside it- from 26,000 years ago!

When Mo makes friends with a little wild beast, her family are horrified – wild beasts are dangerous.

But could this wild beast save baby Babba from a hungry lynx and become a friend to the whole family?
And then what would they call him? DOG!


This delightful, heart-warming story about a Stone-Age family and the first dog is inspired by the amazing, recent discovery of a child’s footprint alongside a dog’s pawprint in the Chauvet cave in France – from 26,000 years ago!

Bridget Marzo has published children's books over the world and gives amazing workshops on illustrations into schools and other organisations. She divides her time between Cambridge and France.

Otter-Barry Books is an exciting independent children’s publisher aiming to make a difference, push boundaries and publish books that children will love.

 

 

Sue Martin - Children's Literacy Specialist

Part of Books Go Walkabout, Stories across the world.

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.