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

Seasons Greetings

To everyone who looks at this BLOG

A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS SEASON AND A 2017 FULL OF GOOD SURPRISES

Barbara Murison

A straight out funny story

NZ Writer and Illustrator 

Chris Szekely, illustrated by Josh Morgan

Rona

Huia 2016  $15.00pb 113 pp

ISBN 978 1 7755 0198 5

Themes: Funny stories

A light-hearted story about an imaginative nine-year-old who lives in the country with her grandparents, who has fun with her cousin Jessie while trying to find ways to ambush her real ‘enemy’ Stewart. Great to read aloud.

Year 3 up/ Age 7 up  

At present I am having chemotherapy to shrink some tumours and it is sometimes hard to concentrate  (the dreaded ‘chemo brain’) so please indulge me a little over the next few months! And forgive me if the flow of postings is not as constant as in the past.

Barbara Murison

At last a sweet smelling Santa!

 

NZ Writer and Illustrator 

Juliette MacIver, illustrated by Sarah Davis

Marmaduke Duke and the Christmas Calamity

Scholastic 2016 18.99pb 40pp

ISBN 978 1 7754 3390 3

Themes: Christmas Eve/ Series/ Stories in rhyme

Just a few hours before they are due to take off for their traditional midnight ride through the skies, Santa, his band of elves and all of the reindeer take off for a short relaxing break. Carelessly, none of them look where they are going, plunge down the side of a cliff and are buried deep in the snow. Who will stand in for this traditional task? Who else but Marmaduke Duck, Bernadette Bear (a rather portly but very believable Santa Claus) and all the animals now recast as reindeer. This is a lot of fun to share and read aloud and how wonderful to find a recent book about Santa where he isn’t having bowel problems and the reindeer are not full of wind! This is the fourth book in the series and Juliette and Sarah seem to become more inventive with each one.

Pre school up/ Age 3 up

Sequel to Joy Cowley's Snake and Lizard

A great treat is coming for you! Joy Cowley and Gavin Bishop have collaborated once more and the result is a new title in the Snake and Lizard series. I never think it is fair to publishers to give details and early reviews of books - in fact I have been flicked over the wrist for doing just that in the past.  So the details of HELPER AND HELPER will not be posted here until a few days before its publication date in  early February 2017. I of course have read it (it was only sent yesterday) and I love it as much as I know the children (and the reader aloud) will.

Palm Oil, Factory Farming and Orangutans

NZ Writer   Linda Hansen  Bad Oil and the Animals  Onepoto Press 2016 $19.95pb 126pp  ISBN 978 0 4733 7380 1

Themes: Factory farming/ Orangutans/ Palm oil/ Photography/ Teenage protesters

Heidi is sixteen and intent on being a society photographer but life doesn’t always turn out the way we expect. Instead Heidi becomes deeply involved with a group of teenage protestors who are trying to save orangutans in the wild. Add factory farming, the use of palm oil extract as stock feed and a whole world of subterfuge. A book with a message this certainly is but it is such an important message and the pages are studded with a cast of such lively and spirited young people that it all makes for an unputdownable read.

Please visit www.onepotopress.com  to contact Linda Hansen

Year 7 up/ Age 11 up

PHILIPPA WERRY IN THE ANTARCTIC

Please continue to visit Pippa’s Antarctic Blog http://www.philippawerry.co.nz/ for a fascinating day by day account of her adventures and research down on the Ice Shelf. I can’t wait to bring it up on screen each morning to see what she has been involved in the day before!

Slight delays

Apologies for the delays in my postings over the past week. I have been having some ‘treatment’ and have not really felt l would be doing justice to any Blogging of the great books that have been accumulating. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to make another start. And also give you news of Philippa Werry, writer and historian now On The Ice in the Antarctic and geared (clothing wise and in words) to send back some fascinating material. Google Philippa Werry Antarctic Blog for starters. This is aimed especially at children and their teachers. 

Pippa and Bob Kerr at the Children's Bookshop, Kilbirnie

A new title from the Author and Illustrator of ‘A is for Auckland’

Available from December 1st 2016

NZ Writer and Illustrator

Diane Newcombe & Melissa Anderson Scott

A is for Aotearoa

Picture Puffin NZ 2016  $25.00pb 48pp

ISBN 978 0 1435 0730 7

Themes: Lift-the-flap books/ NZ history and geography/Paper treasure hunts

You may remember Girl and Bird from the earlier title by this creative illustrator/ writer ‘team’ - A is for Auckland published in 2013. This time the addition of ‘flaps’ give real meaning to the treasure hunt aspect of the book as we dart from Auckland (of course!) down and around the country trying to guess where we are. The answers are at the back of the book but half the fun is trying to work it out from the many clues. Of course this is only beginning and mainly for slightly older children but even the youngest will appreciate the detailed and subtly coloured pictures of sometimes very familiar landscapes. Watch the flaps though and although this is not for the purists a small strip of magic mending tape on the hinges might prevent the clues underneath being revealed!

Preschool up/ Age 4 up

Please Google the names of the writer and artist to see their amazing background in working with young children.

Fifteen years in the NZ bush

NZ Writer Brian Falkner Shooting Stars Scholastic NZ 2016  $21.00pb 348pp ISBN 978 1 7753 3360 6 Themes: Codes of conduct/ Coromandal Peninsula/ Domestic violence/ Mothers and Sons/ Street kids

Ethan Tucker and his mother have lived in a hidden valley not too far from the Coromandal Peninsula for fifteen years  - the length of Ethan’s life - and that had meant no contact of any sort with all the things we take for granted – like hot water and the internet. One thing in the primitive ‘house’ in which they live, is evidence of a love of literature and while he is waiting for the world to open up in front of him and if he is not out in the bush catching their dinner, Ethan is immersing himself in some of the books – particularly Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. This is a complex story with twists and unexpected turns which I read with admiration and, of course, it is full of the ideas and suggestions which the writer encourages from his enormous audience of young readers. This is the fifteenth novel Brian Falkner has had published internationally.

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up

Wishes can come true if Paul Jennings is writing about them!

Australian Writer and Illustrator Paul Jennings, illustrated by Craig Smith The Unforgettable What’s His Name Allen & Unwin, 2016  $17.00pb 216pp ISBN 978 1 7602 9085 6 Themes: Bikies/ Funny stories/ Loneliness/ Mothers and sons/ Shape shifting

He’s a lonely boy the boy who tells this story  - we only find his name on the very last line in the book - and he sometimes wishes he was invisible just to avoid people seeing his aloneness!! But you should always be careful what you wish for as this one comes true in a quite unexpected way. As with all books by this writer, the story is both funny and sad, totally original plus it has a heart-warming ending. I would love to read it to a class. 

Year 5 up/ Age 9 up

A penguin in the jungle?

NZ Writer and Illustrator 

Juliette MacIver, illustrated by Terri Rose Baynton

Gwendolyn

ABC Books, 2016  $30.00hb 32pp

ISBN 978 0 7333 3517 4

Themes: Antarctica/ Homes/ Jungles   

There are monkeys and jaguars, parrots and crocodiles all living happily in the jungle – and of course there are no penguins because penguins live in the Antarctic. But wait. There is a penguin in this jungle and her name is Gwendolyn – a rather discontented penguin who thinks she would really rather live in the Antarctic with all the other penguins.  A story about finding your true heart’s desire and about being comfortable in your surroundings.  There is much to think about and to look at in this very unusual story. The children with whom I shared it all LOVED it and that is always a very good feeling for the storyteller.

Preschool up/ Age 3 up