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Imagine 30 children in a village school on an October afternoon, enthralled, listening and just wanting to hear the end of the tale.

For a whole hour the children in years 4, 5 and 6 at Babraham Cof E Primary School near Cambridge, sat and listened to Jackie and watched these wonderful pictures developing into a whole world of dragons, cake eating dragons, dragons made from the sun and the stars and tiny dragons with whisper thin wings.

"In their own drawings, their imaginations were sparked with fire as the dragon came to life, tails made of flowers, to dragons with spikes and claws whose tails curled round and round in spiraling circles".

By the end of the afternoon, neither the children or the teachers were in any hurry to leave, eagerly looking at the books of Jackie's we had brought.

Tell Me a Dragon(published by Frances Lincoln ) was in print from last year, the images and the story are just beautiful. The latest book from  Jackie Morris is The Ice Bear, look no further for an inspiring book as a present.

We are really looking forward to working with Jackie again. Enabling her to share with children in schools, so they can be inspired first hand is worth so much, apart from being a magical moment which both the children and staff will remember.

Dolphin Booksellers , part of SmithMartin Partnership LLP broadening horizons and widening imaginations. 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.


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Two people have been awarded the honour of SLA School Librarian of the Year.

At the celebration on 4th October in London, M.G. Harris , author of  The Joshua Files presented the awards to;

Kevin Sheehan from Offerton School in Stockport and Duncan Wright from Stewart's Melville College in Edinburgh.

Ginette Doyle, Chair of the Selection committee and Chair of the School Library Association said: “Kevin and Duncan come from two completely different schools. Kevin’s school has a higher than average learning support register and more pupils eligible for free school meals than normal. He makes his library fun; he goes beyond the book to entice pupils in and demands that they respect the space so that it has become highly valued.

Duncan’s school is more academic and he has ensured that the information literacy ladder he helped to devise is at the heart of lessons, but he too, makes the Library a fun place to be and engages disaffected readers with his enthusiasm for other things than just the Library. Two exceptional librarians, working in different ways to bring their libraries into the heart of the school and learning, we could not decide between them. They are not joint winners, but each deserves the accolade of SLA School Librarian of the Year.

The SLA School Librarian of the Year Award celebrates the essential work that school librarians are doing at a time when school libraries are being closed at an alarming rate.

We were impressed by the passion and dedication of the librarians we visited and the innovative and inspirational ways in which they bring books and an enthusiasm for learning into the heart of the school and into the lives of children. We had a hard job selecting a short list and feel that everyone on the Honour list should be celebrated.”

The Honour List:
Sue Bastone – Licensed Victuallers’ School, Ascot
Rebecca Jones – Malvern St James, Worcestershire
Shiona Lawson – Rothesay Academy, Isle of Bute
Denise Reed – Hurst Prep School, Hurstpierpoint, Sussex

You can find profiles of the six librarians are on the School Library Association website.

Dolphin Booksellers were pleased to support SLA both in their work and by attending the event.

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.


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The National Literacy Trust will have a fringe presentation at the political party conferences this autumn.

After a summer of cuts it's time to ensure that literacy stays firmly on the agenda as a priority for the coalition and all parties.

From work at the local level, with children and families both at school and in communities, reading is not just the way to success but fundamentally has the power to change lives. Children can find another world beyond their own, or read about children with the same issues as themselves. Finding out can be the biggest adventure.

Now that digital access to reading and information is creating a new dimension, what better way to promote reading. True especially for boys, although I think just the same can be said for girls!!

Try the Kindle through Dolphin Booksellers and get started reading, not only is it good value but young people love it!

csAt Dolphin Booksellers our project, called City Stories brings long term benefit to children and families, more than just a one off event but enabling a sustainable way for young people and organisations to continue the project for themselves.

For more information on the party conferences link to literacy follow the National Literacy Trust Home page.

If you would like to talk about a City Stories Event please contact Dolphin Booksellers . Always on line and ready to help.

Sue Martin

Dolphin Booksellers


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.


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ifIfeoma Onyefulu has just returned from Washington. She was a huge success and her books about life in Africa, illustrated with wonderful photographs were extremely popular.

Her book Welcome Dede! was part of play reading session at Washington Covention Centre , with a number of other well known authors.The session brought the books to life as the play scripts were directly from the books and written by the authors.

This is a great way to bring two huge continents of Africa and America together. There is much we can all learn from different ways of life, not least of which is that families have great similarities. Their values, hopes and dreams for their children are about living a great life with friends, family. Having time to share, to laugh and to love and to make the best of opportunities.

Another of Ifeoma's books, The Girl Who Married a Ghost, also published by Frances Lincoln has also had a recent great review by Gwen Grant on Armadillo, the on-line magazine. It is a series of tales from Nigeria with amazing titles and fascinating stories and as it says in the review'

girl
“As soon as I began reading the introduction to this book, I was sitting down, crossing my legs and hunching up closer to the story teller for whilst these ten stories in The Girl Who Married a Ghost are spiky, scary and funny, the ghosts are some of the scariest I have ever met. “

Gwen Grant

Dolphin Booksellers has titles from Ifeoma available - information and great books always available on line.


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.


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Ifeoma is a well known writer of children's books, using her photographs and text bringing family and community life in Africa into the western world.

At the end of June in 2010 Ifeoma is visiting Washington DC.

On 26th June she will be performing at the Washington Convention Center a play reading of one of her best loved books, Welcome Dede, a beautifully illustrated book of the naming of Dede by all the community.

af artOn 27th June she will delivering one of her exciting, interactive workshops at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Arts.

(Image from Playtime at National Museum of African Arts).

A great accolade for a great writer and illustrator.

Ifeoma's books and gallery are available to view and to buy and there is also a US version of her website, where US visitors to the site can purchase Ifeoma's books from Amazon.com

This is part of Ifeoma's programme about portraying Africa as a place full of colour, life and vibrancy and bringing this to America. Breaking down barriers, making bridges, encouraging communication and interest.

There are organisations that are already active in this endeavour, the Africa- America Institute , which has a programme to help in education and training and the site  America .gov which promotes partnership for peace and prosperity.

At Dolphin Booksellers we are delighted to support Ifeoma in her visit to Washington and will update you on this blog just as soon as the photos arrive.

Dolphin Booksellers - great books and information, always on line.


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.


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jl2This is a book with real energy.

The story is about a real big issue.... set in the streets of East London where different communities live and work together. But for one boy, whose father is deeply involved with a fascist group, life is hard. His friends are what really matters to him and yet he can't seem to change his father's attitude.

He hears a voice from his friend, Fatima, in his head, helping him, like a voice of reason when life gets tough, and tough it certainly gets. Especially when the street is filled with an intimidating march led by his father to drive non whites from their homes.

Fatima and her friends make a stand to stop the march.
Where will Georgie be? Whose side will he be on?

'For a second I could hear cries of anger and confusion from some of the Fascists close by him. They were soon drowned out by an enormous cheer from behind me........ But soon, like a receding tide, they all began trudging back the way they had come.'

Joe Layburn at his best, and with a flair for excellent story writing and dialogue that all children will relate to.

Street Heroes is a new publication from Frances Lincoln. This book deserves to be read by children and adults alike.

Joe had joined us at one of our City Stories events called Leyton Stories - a great success.


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.


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Bradfield College

A whole weekend of children's books at Bradfield College, Berkshire - a splendid setting and the warmest days so far.

A great success for the FCBG Annual Conference 2010 .

Cake at Conference

We were there for the Saturday speakers.

Hadn't realised that there would be so much cake.

Definitely a bonus!

A Gothic Imagination started the day with Sarah Singleton, author of The Poison Garden and Century . She carried us through the attics of neurosis and cellars of repression, describing gothic style as somewhat claustrophobic, with decay and a feeling of being trapped in the past.

John Burningham(author of Mr Gumpy and many many more books), gave some amazing reflections on his work and career as an illustrator and author, somehow even finding a flair for trains in Japan.

Truth Lies and Violence was a lively seminar with Graham Marks (I Spy - The Constantinople Caper) and Marcus Sedgwick (Revolver). They even managed to travel to get the real feel of the settings for their books and in Marcus' case tried out a gun to see what it would feel like.

Books at Bedtime, in the middle of the afternoon, wasn't at all soporific! Wendy Cooling , David Melling and Clara Vulliamy were inspirational in their illustrations and composition of picture books. Hugless Douglas and The Bear with Sticky Paws are two of their titles.

And even time to relax too!

sm

Time to look at new books coming on the scene, chance to meet up with friends.

We enjoyed the opportunity to sit back and listen to the creativity of writing and illustrating.

Just wait until the children start getting stuck into those books.

Dolphin Booksellers for books and information on-line.


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.


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cj1

Crispy Juice – Love Music, Love poetry, Love kids.

A new concept bringing rhymes and poetry together in a beautifully presented package. Crispy Juice website has style, quality and is a real delight in the illustrations and the way rhymes and music are put together.

The music is available to listen to on the website and CD's can be purchased on line. If you are lucky enough to live near Bristol, there may be some markets where you can find a Crispy Juice stall.

When you buy a CD, a donation of £1 is given to Zambuko library.

calpCalico Pie is the first CD produced. There are over 20 rhymes and songs, old favourites and new ones too, set to music by Paul Bradley using a melodica, glockenspiel, guitar and piano.

Its very dreamy and as they say on the CD, 'Its best served warm with a cosy blanket'.

Just right for winter evenings and anytime that you and the children want to enjoy music and rhymes.
It would be great for nurseries 'sleepy times' just after lunch. You know that sort of time when you don't need to actually sleep, but music and a comfy chair and a good book are just right!

Dolphin Booksellers have information and lists of books for Christmas, plus you can buy them direct through the link to Amazon, so great books at good prices. A winning combination.


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.


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dvSo good to have an award to celebrate diversity in children's fiction. Frances Lincoln Ltd, the award winning publisher and Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books announced the second Diverse Voices Children's Book Award.

Its aim is to encourage and promote diversity in children's fiction and is in memory of Frances Lincoln ( 1945 - 2001).

In the UK we have an amazing richness of cultures and people from all over the world. Children's perceptions of the world are largely based on the environment around them, the friends they meet and the books they read. Books need to be relevant to children of today.

The Diverse Voices Award is in its second year and is for new writers, whose books ensure that heroes, heroines and the range of characters reflect our modern cultures. The manuscript must celebrate cultural diversity in the widest sense, either through the story, or the origins of the author.

tdThere is a prize worth £1500 and an option for Frances Lincoln to publish the novel.

Last year's winner was Christy Burne and there's lots more information on her web page.

The fiction must be unpublished, between 15,000 and 35,000 words and written for 8 – 12 year olds, by a writer aged 16 or over.

All the details are on the Frances Lincoln and Seven Stories, where you will also find the entry forms.

If you already have an idea or have even started writing, there's nothing to lose and lots to gain.

Dolphin Booksellers are delighted to be able to include this information on Dolphin Book Blog and make it available to a wide audience of Children's Centres and schools.


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.


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old pHeroes and Heroines is the theme of the Old Possum's Children's Poetry Competition for for 2009. Time to get your imaginations fired up again after the summer break and get writing.

The Children's Bookshelf is organising the competition, they're part of the Poetry Book Society. Even if you don't want to get involved in the competition, its worth having a look at their website, it has all the details and much more beside.

The competition, now in its fourth year, is open to individuals and schools, and divided into 2 age groups,7- 8 yr olds and 9 - 11 yr olds. There are cash prizes as well as books and CPB memberships. A teacher's guide will be available from early September.

Entries will be accepted from 10 September until 19th October, so its just right for that first few days back in the classroom! On Thursday 8th October we have National Poetry day, the work cover 2 activities in 1!

Carol Ann Duffy, the new poet laureate will chair the panel, to include, John Agard, Antonia Byatt, Gillian Clarke, Janetta Otter Barry and Roger Stevens. They all have a fantastic achievements within their work and connections to children's poetry.

gdSupport for the project also comes from Old Possum's Practical Trust. TS Elliot would undoubtedly enjoy the title of the competition, Heroes and Heroines. I'm just wondering which heroine I would choose?

Visit Dolphin Booksellers home page for information and books.


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.