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Once Upon A Fairytale: A Choose-Your-Own Fairytale Adventure by Lauren & Natalia O’Hara

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Did you ever wish to feast with fairies, live in a tree, or ride a unicorn across the sun-lit sky? In the O’Hara sisters’ magical world, you can. You can choose to be a clever princess, or a curious gingerbread man, or perhaps a gentle knight. Maybe you’ll live in a tree, or a tower on a hill. You can eat fresh-buttered sunbeams with fairies, or newt pie and pigtail pudding with ogres. Everywhere you look, you will find a new adventure. Just pick the one you like best.

This captivating book where the child chooses the story they want to tell would make an excellent gift.

Lilibet: The Girl Who Would be Queen by A.N. Wilson

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 2 Jun 2022

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“[Wilson] is to be praised for this superb distillation, which is much more perceptive than the lumpy official biographies.” Telegraph
“Packed with detail and conversations that bring to life all those who have been most important to her.” Daily Mail

An admirably brief and accessible biographical study of Queen Elizabeth II.

The moments in life of “knowing”. On Bognor Beach, with Grandpa England, she had “known” that he, and Papa, and she, would carry something on, something given, something bigger than themselves. Lilibet: a carefree child, a lover of horses and dogs, devoted to her family. And the girl who would be Queen.

A.N. Wilson, one of England’s most beloved writers, imagines the Queen on the eve of her platinum jubilee. We watch as she discovers, at the tender age of ten, that she is heir to the throne. We witness her meet the dashing Prince Phillip of Greece, who she loved steadfastly from the age of fifteen, and see their friendship blossom into passionate love. Above all, we learn of her astonishing sense of vocation and public duty, which grew during the dark years of WWII and her father’s subsequent years of ill health.

By turns funny, tender and tragic, Lilibet: The Girl Who Would be Queenhonours our beloved monarch and her illustrious reign.

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Writes of Passage: Words To Read Before You Turn 13 by Nicolette Jones ill. Mary Kate McDevitt

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“A welcome antidote to stale ‘must-read’ lists.” Guardian

An inspiring collection of over 100 pieces of writing – poems, prose, letters, speeches, song lyrics, quotations, and more – from Shakespeare to Stephen Hawking; Greta Thunberg to Galileo; Malala to Martin Luther King; Lin-Manuel Miranda to Lord Tennyson – which are in turn powerful, funny, moving, wise, and thought-provoking, and expertly selected and with accessible, thoughtful commentary by Nicolette Jones, children’s book critic for The Sunday Times.

Hilda: The Wilderness Stories by Luke Pearson

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 4 May 2022

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This special collector’s edition contains the first two books in the Hilda graphic novel series — Hilda and the Troll & Hilda and the Midnight Giant — which inspired the award-winning Hilda animated series on Netflix. The plan is for the other four Hilda stories to be collected in matching double editions like this.

Hilda: The Wilderness Stories also features behind the scenes material and an all new cover by series creator Luke Pearson.

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Tales from Shakespeare (Puffin Clothbound Classics) – Charles & Mary Lamb

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 18 Apr 2022

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First published in 1807, by literary siblings Charles and Mary Lamb, this book has never been out of print, though it seems that Mary did not get her name on the title page till the seventh edition in 1838.

Puffin Clothbound Classics is a series of much-loved stories from classic literature for children and adults, brought together in endurable hardback.

The book contains the following tales:

  1. The Tempest (Mary Lamb)
  2. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Mary Lamb)
  3. The Winter’s Tale (Mary Lamb)
  4. Much Ado About Nothing (Mary Lamb)
  5. As You Like It (Mary Lamb)
  6. Two Gentlemen of Verona (Mary Lamb)
  7. The Merchant of Venice (Mary Lamb)
  8. Cymbeline (Mary Lamb)
  9. King Lear (Charles Lamb)
  10. Macbeth (Charles Lamb)
  11. All’s Well That Ends Well (Mary Lamb)
  12. The Taming of the Shrew (Mary Lamb)
  13. The Comedy of Errors (Mary Lamb)
  14. Measure for Measure (Mary Lamb)
  15. Twelfth Night (Mary Lamb)
  16. Timon of Athens (Charles Lamb)
  17. Romeo and Juliet (Charles Lamb)
  18. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Charles Lamb)
  19. Othello (Charles Lamb)
  20. Pericles, Prince of Tyre (Mary Lamb)

You may also consider Tales from Shakespeare as told by Marcia Williams

or The Complete Collection of 10 Retellings – Michael Morpurgo’s Tales from Shakespeare

Mama: A World of Mothers and Motherhood by Helene Delforge ill. Quentin Greban

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 17 Mar 2022

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“A gorgeous, moving look at motherhood from different cultures and eras. Each of Greban’s breath-taking pencil and watercolor illustrations of a mother and child is paired with a free form poem by Delforge imagining the experience and thoughts of that mother. A wonderfully diverse portrayal of motherhood is presented, including a mother who’s been left behind by a child’s father, a mother who has lost their child, mothers who are frustrated with unwanted advice, and mothers who have mixed feelings about motherhood. An array of cultural dress and styles are also presented in this stunning book… A first purchase for all libraries serving new parents.” School Library Journal

Perfect Mother’s Day gift.

This is a stunning collection of vivid portraits and intimate reflections on motherhood from around the globe. Mama uniquely portrays the emotions and experiences that unite mothers from different times and diverse cultures.

Twenty-one striking watercolour portraits and lively pencil sketches by acclaimed artist Quentin Greban are paired with Helene Delforge’s lyrical words to create a thought-provoking celebration of motherhood in all its complexity: the satisfaction and the sadness, the frustration and the fun – and, always, the love.

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Paddington’s Easter Egg Hunt by Michael Bond ill. R. W. Alley

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Times Children’s Book of the Week 12 Mar 2022

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Paddington is excited to be organising an Easter egg hunt for his neighbours. But, from finding empty supermarket shelves, to buying a box of broken Easter eggs, Paddington wonders if the hunt can ever go ahead. That is, until Mr Gruber’s book on Roman mosaics and some sticky marmalade give him a brilliant idea…

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The Art of Alice and Martin Provensen

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“It feels rescued from a fairy tale sea or an enchanted castle flooded by a spell. Its contents include never-before-seen paintings that look as if they too had dodged if not ruin then being forgotten — as well as family photos, sketchbooks, memorabilia, speeches and personal appreciations that document the life and work of a couple whom you might think you don’t know. But you do.” New York Times

The first-ever monograph on a midcentury husband-and-wife illustration team who created more than 40 beloved children’s books over the span of seven decades, many of which appeared on the New York Times Best Illustrated Books of the Year lists. From early favourites  such as The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown (1949) to their Caldecott-winning title The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot (1983), the Provensens’ books inspired generations of young readers. Original paintings for their beloved classics such as A Child’s Garden of Verses (1951), The Iliad and the Odyssey (1959), Myths and Legends (1960) and many others, are beautifully reproduced and included here.

This comprehensive volume showcases hundreds of their well-known illustrations, as well as many never-before-seen paintings, drawings, and exquisite sketchbooks from their travels around the world. An interview with their daughter Karen Provensen Mitchell illuminates their life and career and includes many personal photographs, quotes, speeches, and memorabilia from their archive. An introduction by Leonard S. Marcus, a leading historian in children’s literature, underscores the Provensen’s importance and influence as illustrators and authors. Additionally, noted publisher and close family friend Robert Gottlieb, provides a personal essay that shares many of his memories with this cherished couple.

See also The Provensen Book of Fairy Tales, an ACHUKA Book of the Day in November 2021.

Round and Round the Garden: A First Book of Nursery Rhymes by Shirley Hughes

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 4 Mar 2022

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In honour of Shirley Hughes, whose death at the age of 94 was announced earlier this week, we select this  marvellous collection of nursery rhymes as the ACHUKA Book of the Day.

We have also established an obituaries listings page.

The Fairy Tellers: A Journey into the Secret History of Fairy Tales by Nicholas Jubber

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 18 Feb 2022

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“Nicholas Jubber’s The Fairy Tellers is billed as “A Journey into the Secret History of Fairy Tales”. It focuses on half a dozen identifiable individuals who gave us most of the well-known stories. There’s the Neapolitan Gianbattista Basile, who wrote the first western European version of Cinderella in the early 17th century; Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, who wrote Beauty and the Beast in the mid-18th century; Hanna Dyab, the Syrian Maronite from Aleppo who brought Ali Baba and Aladdin to the attention of the French earlier that century; Dortchen Wild, who gave the Grimm brothers Rumpelstiltskin and Hansel and Gretel; Ivan Khudiakov in the 19th century with his story of Baba Yaga; the elusive, unfamiliar Indian storyteller Somadeva from the 11th century; and our old friend, Hans Christian Andersen.” The Times

In this far-ranging quest, award-winning author Nicholas Jubber unearths the lives of the dreamers who made our most beloved fairy tales: inventors, thieves, rebels and forgotten geniuses who gave us classic tales such as ‘Cinderella’, ‘Hansel and Gretel’, ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘Baba Yaga’. From the Middle Ages to the birth of modern children’s literature, they include a German apothecary’s daughter, a Syrian youth running away from a career in the souk and a Russian dissident embroiled in a plot to kill the tsar.
Following these and other unlikely protagonists, we travel from the steaming cities of Italy and the Levant, under the dark branches of the Black Forest, deep into the tundra of Siberia and across the snowy fells of Lapland. In the process, we discover a fresh perspective on some of our most frequently told stories. Filled with adventure, tragedy and real-world magic, this bewitching book uncovers the stranger lives behind the strangest of tales.

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