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Comic Classics: Treasure Island – Comic Classics by Jack Noel

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Previously: Comic Classics – Great Expectations

OLD books get NEW doodles – it’s the classics as you’ve never seen them before!

A hilarious new series that brings the classics to life with illustrations by Jack Noel. 

Jim Hawkins spends his life helping out at his mum’s boring old inn by the sea, wishing he could sail away and have adventures. But when an old sea captain turns up with a secret, it’s the start of a bigger adventure than Jim could ever have imagined – soon he’s on a ship on the trail of buried treasure, accompanied by a suspicious sailor named Long John Silver … Will Jim escape the pirates? Or will he walk the plank?


 

Weird, Wild & Wonderful: The Poetry World of James Carter by James Carter ill. Neal Layton

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Packed with James Carter’s most popular and requested poems, plus 8 brand new poems, this is an important collection from one of the top children’s poets writing today.

Expect to hear the moon speak, explore a magic wood and play air guitar. You’ll meet wolves, elephants and a dung beetle; you’ll get close to a gorilla and sing a lullaby to a woolly mammoth; you might even meet an alien in a library.


 

 

Everything Comes Next: Collected and New Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye ill. Rafael Lopez

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 8 Jan 2020

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“Emotionally resonant and stirring, this is a must-have title.”
KIRKUS
“Lucky the reader who would have this collection lying around for visiting and revisiting.”
HORN BOOK

Everything Comes Next is a treasure chest of Naomi Shihab Nye’s poems from the past 40 years, including several not previously published. From favourites such as “Famous” and “A Valentine for Ernest Mann,” to the widely shared “Kindness” and “Gate A-4,” this collection celebrates her term as Young People’s Poet Laureate in the US. The book is an introduction to her work for new readers as well as a comprehensive edition for classroom and family sharing. Writing prompts and tips by the award-winning poet make this an outstanding choice for aspiring poets of all ages.

Follow Naomi Shihab Nye on Twitter: https://www.instagram.com/naomishihabnye/
Follow the book’s illustrator, Rafael Lopez, on Twitter:

 

 
 
 
 
 
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The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Book by Lucy Rowland ill. Ben Mantle

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A witty take on a much-loved fairy tale, The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Book celebrates the magic of reading and storytelling, and being kind to others.

A follow-up to Little Red Riding Hood by the same author-illustrator team:

When Ben’s mum gets distracted halfway through his bedtime story, he decides to finish the tale himself. There’s only one problem – he can’t quite read yet. To Ben’s surprise, the three little pigs come knocking on the door, and the big bad wolf isn’t far behind … But this time, will the story have a different ending?

The Magic Of Mums by Justin Coe ill. Steve Wells

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Be entranced by Circus Mum, find out what it’s like to have a Celebrity Mum, play the beautiful game with Football Mum, admire Hard-working Mum, School-Run-Mum and Stunt Mum, and discover what it’s like to have Two Mums.

A funny, heart-warming and thoughtful sequel to The Dictionary of Dads, by a brilliant poet, who performs in schools and theatres across the UK.

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There’s a Crocodile in the House by Paul Cookson ill.Liz Million

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Cookson’s  assured sense of rhythm and rhyme make this a wonderful collection for reading aloud. The poems are so accessible they will appeal to the full primary school age range. Perfect for every teacher to have in their kitbag for those precious spare moments in the teaching day. And it goes without saying there should be a copy in every primary school library. In case there isn’t, buy a personal copy for anyone you think would appreciate it.

Paul Cookson’s staggeringly versatile range as a performance poet is fully displayed in this new collection. Humour, danger, wonder, surprise are the elements underlying his work. The collection contains some poems that need to be shouted and some that have to be whispered very quietly. There are many interactive poems in which a whole class or group of children can participate.

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Apple: Skin To The Core by Eric Gansworth

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 2 Dec 2020

“Easily one of the best books to be published in 2020. The kind of book bound to save lives.”
John Freeman, LitHub

“This introspective memoir confirms by its very existence that, though the boarding schools tried to erase Indian culture, Native peoples “are still / here, / still standing, still walking, one resilient step at a time.” Back matter includes further information about the author’s poetry and art and explains musical connections.” HORN BOOK

The term “Apple” is a slur in Native communities across the country. It’s for someone supposedly “red on the outside, white on the inside.”

Eric Gansworth is telling his story in Apple (Skin to the Core). The story of his family, of Onondaga among Tuscaroras, of Native folks everywhere. From the horrible legacy of the government boarding schools to a boy watching his siblings leave and return and leave again, to a young man fighting to be an artist who balances multiple worlds.

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The Queen, the Princes and the Mermaid: Hans Christian Andersen’s Most Enchanting Tales ill. Lucie Arnoux (illustrator) tr. Misha Hoekstra

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 26 Nov 2020

A girl journeys across unknown lands to rescue her friend from the clutches of The Snow Queen, who has imprisoned his heart in ice. A sister struggles to break the spell that has turned her ten princely brothers into swans. A mermaid decides to leave her underwater world behind for love. These renowned fairy tales, brimming with imaginative richness, are some of the most magical and inspiring ever written. Contains: ‘The Snow Queen’, ‘The Wild Swans’, ‘The Nightingale’, ‘The Little Mermaid’, ‘The True-Hearted Tin Soldier’.

Lucie Arnoux, the illustrator, left her native South of France in 2011 to sketch around in London. She graduated from Kingston University in Illustration and Animation in 2013, and has since been working for a variety of clients.
Follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luciedrawsthings/

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A Poem for Every Winter Day – A Poem for Every Day and Night of the Year ed. Allie Esiri

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The poems are selected from Allie Esiri’s bestselling poetry anthologies A Poem for Every Day of the Year and A Poem for Every Night of the Year. Perfect for reading aloud and sharing with all the family, this book dazzles with an array of familiar favourites and remarkable new discoveries. These seasonal poems – together with introductory paragraphs – have a link to the date on which they appear.

Includes poems by Mary Oliver, Edgar Allan Poe, Thomas Hardy, E. E. Cummings and Robert Burns who sit alongside Joseph Coelho, George the Poet, Benjamin Zephaniah and Jackie Kay. This soul-enhancing book will keep you company for every day of winter.

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A World Of Poems ed. Sylvia Vardell ill. Sonny Ross

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 16 Nov 2020

The American anthologist (and poetry blogger) of this new collection from DK writes: “It was such a privilege to have this project come my way at the beginning of the year and once the pandemic hit in March, it became such a therapeutic outlet. I read and read and read and pored over piles and piles of poetry books—and probably recommended five times as many poems as they were finally able to include in this anthology. Then I learned a TON working through the permission process—wishing we could afford to include a poem by Langston Hughes or Pablo Neruda, for example, but not able to afford them within the DK budget. But I learned HOW to get permission! And I lobbied hard for diverse voices and was fairly successful, although I would have loved to include even more. And it was fascinating to work with people in the London office and alert them to some of our new U.S. poets and also be educated about some of their most distinguished voices in the U.K.”

The poems are gathered together in eight major sections:

  1. Family and Friends
  2. Feelings
  3. Animals and Nature
  4. Cities, Towns, and Travel
  5. Fun and Games
  6. Science and Art
  7. Body and Health
  8. A World of Learning

and closes with a variety of poetry activities for children and families.

The UK illustrator graduated from Birmingham City University in 2014 with a first-class degree in Illustration and has gone on to work full time as a freelance illustrator working in editorial, conceptual, lifestyle, food and children’s books. 
Follow him on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sonnyrossillustration/

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