ACHUKAblog
Don’t you just LOVE that cover?!
When two penguins arrive from a faraway place and want to make friends, the other animals do not want to play with them. If only they would give the penguins a chance, they might discover how wonderful they really are! A funny story about welcoming others – brilliantly written and illustrated by best-selling author of Ten Little Superheroes.
Mike Brownlow’s 10 Little Bookworms was one of the special World Book Day 2019 titles.
Poppy and Sam, characters loved by toddlers and families for over 30 years, return this month in new formats.
Animal Sounds is a board book with sound buttons to press.
Animal Hide-and-Seek, the bestselling Poppy and Sam title of all time, is now given a touchy-feely lift-the-flap look.
Check out other titles available on the Usborne website.
CILIP Carnegie Medal shortlist (alphabetical by author surname):
CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal shortlist (alphabetical by illustrator surname):
The Carnegie shortlist contains three verse novels for the first time in the Medal’s 81-year history. Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X, Kwame Alexander’s Rebound and Jason Reynold’s Long Way Down each use free verse to create coming-of-age stories, blending influences from slam poetry and hip-hop to explore identity, first love, loss and gang crime. The Carnegie Medal was first won by verse nove in 2016, by Sarah Crossan for One.
Jon Klassen is the only previous winner to appear on this year’s Medal shortlists, having won the 2014 Kate Greenaway Medal with This Is Not My Hat. Former shortlistees to make it onto this year’s lists are Frances Hardinge and Kate Saunders for the Carnegie Medal, and Rebecca Cobb, David Roberts and Jackie Morris for the Kate Greenaway Medal.
There is a strong showing for independent publishers on the lists, with seven of the 16 titles coming from Andersen Press, Child’s Play Library, David Fickling Books, Faber & Faber and Lantana Publishing. The two smallest presses – Child’s Play Library and Lantana Publishing – have books on the Kate Greenaway shortlist for the first time.
Savannah Brown, author of The Truth About Keeping Secrets, explains all about ESCAPRIL, a community social media poetry project that encourages participants to write and post a poem a day throughout April.
ACHUKA plans to get on board to support and promote this – why not join in too?
The Madeleine Milburn agency has sold UK & Commonwealth rights to Damaris Young’s debut middle-grade book, The Switching Hour to Lauren Fortune at Scholastic in a two-book deal.
Due for publication in August 2019 the book is inspired by the landscapes and legends from Damaris’ childhood growing up in Southern Africa, telling the story of a girl called Amaya…
Damaris is a middle-grade author who wrote The Switching Hour whilst on the Bath Spa MA. She spent her childhood in Zambia where she was told local myths and stories which now influence her writing. She has since moved to Bristol where she works on building worlds and adventures for MG readers with strong friendships at the heart of them.
In 2018, Madeleine Milburn won Literary Agent of the Year at the British Book Awards. She was praised for her ‘prolific deal-making‘ andis known as a ‘tenacious negotiator and an excellent collaborator with a nose for commercial success’.
Candy Gourlay has become the next Writer in Residence for BookTrust, taking over from Nicola Davies.
Candy Gourlay is well-known for her books Bone Talk, , Shine and Tall Story. She has been nominated for top industry prizes including the Guardian Children’s Book Prize, the Carnegie Medal, the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the Blue Peter Book Award and the Branford Boase Award.
Highlights of Candy’s residency will include a creative writing competition for primary schools and an exciting book event for Filipino children in London.
This book began life as a web comic, supported by pledges from Patreon – see previous blog post…
Charlie and Nick are at the same school, but they’ve never met … until one day when they’re made to sit together. They quickly become friends, and soon Charlie is falling hard for Nick, even though he doesn’t think he has a chance.
But love works in surprising ways, and Nick is more interested in Charlie than either of them realised.
Heartstopper is about love, friendship, loyalty and mental illness. It encompasses all the small stories of Nick and Charlie’s lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us.
This is the first volume of Heartstopper, with more to come.
A stunning debut novel.
Sydney’s dad is the only psychiatrist for miles around their small Ohio town. He is also unexpectedly dead. Is Sydney crazy, or is it kind of weird that her dad – a guy whose entire job revolved around other peoples’ secrets – crashed alone, with no explanation? And why is June Copeland, homecoming queen and the town’s golden child, at his funeral?
As the two teenagers grow closer in the wake of the accident, it’s clear that not everyone is happy about their new friendship.
Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week, 10 Feb 2019
From the launch list of Scallywag Press, founded by Sarah Pakenham, formerly in the rights department at Andersen Press.
ACHUKA understands the first print run of this title sold out in less than a month.
Jon Agee is brilliant in his use of the page turn, visual storytelling, and deadpan humour, and appeals to fans of Oliver Jeffers and Jon Klassen.
Have a great [22nd] World Book day everyone!
Here’s a reminder of the special £1 titles that the vouchers can be exchanged for – remember, though, that the voucher can be put toward the cost of any other book.
Visit Waterstones special World Book Day page….
