Goodbye

I think the time has come when I have to admit enough  is enough !

I hope it's been useful and I have loved doing it

and the paper copy of Around the Bookshops all these years but this is the last communication on this Blog. 

Someone said just let it drift away but I think it is better that you know then you don't go fruitlessly looking! 

All the best from

Barbara M. 

A New Snake and Lizard collection

To be published early February

NZ Writer and Illustrator

Joy Cowley, illustrated by Gavin Bishop

Helper and Helper Book Three in the Snake and Lizard series

Gecko Press NZ 2017  $23.00pb 114 pp

ISBN 978 1 7765 7105 5

Themes: Short stories

Following the much loved and admired first book Snake and Lizard here is Book Three in the series to delight and enchant us all. Let’s hope Moira Wairama and Tony Hopkins her partner, will make it even more memorable with their wonderful storytelling skills.   

Year 1 up/ Age 5 up

Have retyped this so I hope it works this time!! 

Exciting new website for children's books

Launching Today

Go to:

https://www.boosted.org.nz/projects/the-sapling-because-books-grow-humans 

for details.

Start of a new series by Kyle Mewburn and Donovan Bixley

NZ Writer and Illustrator Kyle Mewburn, illustrated by Donovan Bixley  Dinosaur Trouble # The Great Egg Stink

Scholastic NZ 2017  $5.00 60pp

ISBN `978 1 7754 3366 8

Themes: ‘Easy’ reading/ Stone Age times/

Arg and his stone age family feature in this first book in a new series by a duo who always seems to come up with something special.  Very simple reading and a lot of laughing when Arg finds an extra messy dinosaur egg with a surprise inside. 

Year 1 up/ Age 5 up

A bit of personal news!

I am a great believer in calling a spade a spade so this is to let you know I have been diagnosed with terminal cancer with a ball park figure from the oncologist of around 6 months to countdown.  I will do as much blogging of new books as I can in that time but don’t be surprised if it becomes a bit spasmodic.

Barbara Murison  

I don't like animals!

USA Writer and Illustrator 

David Baddiel, illustrated by Jim Field

AniMalcolm – life as an animal is wild

HarperCollins 2017  $22.99pb 355 pp

ISBN 978 0 0081 8515 2

Themes: Dislike of animals!/ School trips/ Technology

Malcolm just doesn’t like animals at all which is strange because his family absolutely love them all and totally fill up their house with as many as possible.  Malcolm is into technology – laptops and computers, iPads and Notebooks.  But all is about to change when a school trip to a farm is arranged and Malcolm really sees animals face to face for the first time. This is a highly original story by a writer I think is going to be someone to watch. Google his name to see what he has achieved so far.

Year 3up/ Age 7 up

A story of a WW1 survivor

To Be Released in March 2017 (apologies that I have jumped the gun a bit with this)

NZ Writer and Illustrator Jennifer Beck, illustrated by Fifi Colston Torty and the soldier – a story of a WWI survivor Scholastic 2017  $15.99pb 32 pp

ISBN 978 1 7754 3365 1

Themes: Salonica/ True stories/ World War I

Over 100 years have passed since a field hospital was bombed in Salonika during World War I. It was here a young Kiwi soldier, Stewart Little rescued a small Greek tortoise that had been run over by a tank and eventually brought her back to New Zealand and cared for her. When she finally died it was estimated she was over 200 years old. In spite of it being set (at the beginning) in a distressing war zone this is a gentle story brought amazingly to life by Jennifer Beck (see the net for her other well known World War 1 stories) and in Fifi Colston’s illustrations. Fifi has also ‘specialised’ in this area and I think these illustrations are amongst her best.

Year 2 up/ Age 6 up