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Home Alone by Barbara Nascimbeni

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 20 Jul 2021

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“Rendered in uncluttered lines and simple shapes on off-white pages, the illustrations are notable for their effective use of negative space and clever overall design that projects action and ambiance with minimal clutter. Frido is drawn in simple lines and a uniform tan/yellow wash but nevertheless conveys a truly impressive variety of expressions and poses… A grand match of dry humor and sweet illustrative delivery.” KIRKUS
“Pleasingly whimsical.” FT

When Frido the dog is left at home by himself, he feigns loneliness just long enough to get his owner out the door – and then the fun begins. After scootering down the hallway and somersaulting on the bed, Frido embarks on a strict agenda of all his favourite things: dressing up, chatting online, yoga, and disco-dancing with friends. But the day goes by too quickly! Can he cover his tracks in time?

Follow Barbara Nascimbeni on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barbara.nascimbeni/

sample spread

Incredible Doom – Incredible Doom 1 by Matthew Bogart and Jesse Holden

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 23 Jun 2021

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“Heartfelt computer nerd drama.” KIRKUS
“Its protagonists’ nuanced, substantive character arcs offer an accurate look at 1990s-flavored loneliness and geek subcultures.” Publishers Weekly

Allison is drowning under the weight of her manipulative stage magician father. When he brings home the family’s first computer, she escapes into a thrilling new world where she meetings Samir, a like-minded new online friend who has just agreed to run away from home with her. After moving to a new town and leaving all of his friends behind, Richard receives a mysterious note in his locker with instructions on how to connect to “Evol BBS,” a dial-in bulletin board system, and meets a fierce punk named Tina who comes into his life and shakes his entire worldview loose.

Unlikely alliances, first love, and minor crime sprees abound in this teen graphic novel debut about making connections while your world is falling apart.

The series has its own website: https://www.incredibledoom.com

Follow Matthew Bogart on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matthewbogart/

Heartstopper 4 by Alice Oseman

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“An adorable diary of love’s gut punches.” KIRKUS on Heartstopper1
““The thing I really love most about making comics is being able to express emotions in a story without having to use any words. My favourite scenes in Heartstopper are the ones where there is no dialogue, you completely understand how everyone is feeling just from the images.” Alice Oseman in The Bookseller

The bestselling LGBTQ+ graphic novel about life, love, and everything that happens in between.

Charlie didn’t think Nick could ever like him back, but now they’re officially boyfriends. Charlie’s beginning to feel ready to say those three little words:I love you. Nick’s been feeling the same, but he’s got a lot on his mind – not least coming out to his dad, and the fact that Charlie might have an eating disorder. As summer turns to autumn and a new school year begins, Charlie and Nick are about to learn a lot about what love means.

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.

Heartstopper 1

Klaus Flugge Longlist Announced

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The 2018 Klaus Flugge Prize longlist in full:

  • The Long Island, Drew Beckmeyer, editor Taylor Norman, designer Kristine Brogno (Chronicle Books)
  • Mini Rabbit Not Lost, John Bond, editor Alice Blacker, designer Goldy Broad (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
  • The Extraordinary Gardner, Sam Boughton, edited by Holly Tonks, designer Ness Wood (Tate)
  • Looking After William, Eve Coy, editor Libby Hamilton, designer Rebecca Garrill (Andersen Press)
  • The Ink House, Rory Dobner, editor Jo Lightfoot and Katherine Pitt, designer Mariana Sameiro, (Laurence King)
  • Cycle City, Alison Farrell, editor Taylor Norman, designer Ryan Hayes (Chronicle Books)
  • Erik the Lone Wolf, Sarah Finan, editor Jenny Broom, designer Zoë Tucker (Lincoln Children’s Books)
  • The King Who Banned the Dark, Emily Haworth-Booth, editor Neil Dunnicliffe, designer Lee-May Lim (Pavilion Children’s Books)
  • Maybe the Moon, Frances Ives, editor Jocelyn Norbury, designer Jack Clucas (LOM Art)
  • I Can Fly, Fifi Kuo, editor Leilani Sparrow, designer David Bennett (Boxer Books)
  • Julian is a Mermaid, Jessica Love, editor Tanya Rosie, art director Deirdre McDermott (Walker Books)
  • Say Hi to Hedgehogs, Jane McGuiness, editor Becky Watson, designer Beth Aves (Walker Books)
  • You’re Safe with Me, Poonam Mistry, written by Chitra Soundar, editor Alice Curry (Lantana Publishing)
  • The Red Dread, Tom Morgan-Jones, editor Emma Hargarve, designer Julie-Ann Murray (Barrington Stoke)
  • The Story of Tantrum O’Furrily, Mark Nicholas, written by Cressida Cowell, editor Anne McNeil (Hodder Children’s Books)
  • The Buildings that Made London, Josie Shenoy, editor Saskia Gwinn, designer Sophie Gordon (Bloomsbury)
  • I Love You Bunny, Alina Surnaite, editor Katie Cotto, designer Mike Jolley and Karissa Santos (Lincoln Children’s Books)
  • The Wardrobe Monster, Bryony Thomson, editor Ruth Huddleston, designer Mike Jolley (Old Barn Books)
  • Red and the City, Marie Voigt, editor Peter Marley, designer Kate Adams (Oxford)
  • The Best Sound in the World, Cindy Wume, editor Katie Cotton, designer Zoë Tucker (Lincoln Children’s Books)

Established in 2016, the Klaus Flugge Prize is awarded to the most promising and exciting newcomer to children’s book picture book illustration. It honours publisher Klaus Flugge, founder of publisher Andersen Press and a supremely influential figure in picture books.

For the second year running more than fifty books were submitted and twenty have made the longlist. 

The judges for the 2019 prize are:

  • Anthony Browne, award-winning illustrator and former Waterstones Children’s Laureate
  • Derek Brazell, of the Association of Illustrators
  • Billiejo Carlisle Seven Stories bookseller
  • Farrah Serroukh, Learning Programme Leader at CLPE (Centre for Literary in Primary Education)
  • Kate Milner last year’s winner

The panel will be chaired by Julia Eccleshare, director of the children’s programme of the Hay Festival.

The shortlist will be announced on 15 May 2019 by Anthony Browne at a special evening event at Foyles Charing Cross Road and the winner will be revealed on 11 September 2019.

Picture Book Reviews – New York Times

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Five new humorous children’s books offer young readers a plethora of pleasure, plus pants for potatoes. Though very different from one another, four of the five feature classic children’s book imagery in one form or another. The fifth features, as I said, potato pants….

Books reviewed:

KING ALICE (Feiwel and Friends, 32 pp., $17.99; ages 4 to 8), Matthew Cordell

INTERRUPTING CHICKEN AND THE ELEPHANT OF SURPRISE (Candlewick, 48 pp., $16.99; ages 4 to 8), David Ezra Stein

JUST ADD GLITTER (Beach Lane, 32 pp., $17.99; ages 4 to 8),  Angela DiTerlizzi and the illustrator Samantha Cotterill

THE WALL IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BOOK (Dial, 40 pp., $17.99; ages 4 to 8), Jon Agee

POTATO PANTS! (Holt/Christy Ottaviano, 32 pp., $16.99; ages 4 to 8), Laurie Keller

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/09/books/review/matthew-cordell-king-alice.html

Picture Books About Dreams and Dreamers – The New York Times

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Paul O. Zelinsky reviews four dream-themed books for the New York Times:

With each new season of children’s books, subjects seem to cluster. Not long ago, a slew of sloth books appeared. Then two blobfish books, in the same month. This year it’s picture books that wear their hearts on their sleeves, displaying value statements, as titles, on their jackets. Recently, “Be Kind” and “All Are Welcome” have shared space on a Times best-seller list topped by the similarly didactic but less utopian “We Don’t Eat Our Classmates!”Now four new picture books, whose illustrators are among America’s best, arrive with almost matching titles: “The Dreamer,” “Dreamers,” “Imagine!” and “Imagine.” Until recently, people who imagined were dreamers, more or less; now “dreamer” has taken on an additional, weighty meaning. Two of these four books contend with the dreams that immigrants harbor, while two just celebrate the liberating imagination that informs both art and science. You might guess which are which, and you’d be wrong.

The 4 books reviewed are:
The Dreamer by Sung Na
Dreamers by Yuyi Morales
Imagine by Raúl Colón
Imagine by Juan Felipe Herrera and Lauren Castillo

via Picture Books About Dreams and Dreamers of All Kinds – The New York Times.

Q&A With Creator Of Forthcoming Bolivar – Hybrid Picture Book & Graphic Novel

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This forthcoming title (not seemingly available in the UK till the end of December, but worth asking for isn specialist graphic novel shops) looks like one worthy of note. Publishers Weekly has just highlighted it and interviewed its creator Sean Rubin, previously known as the illustrator for Brian Jacques’ Redwall series….

Sean Rubin’s Bolivar is half picture book, half graphic novel—and all good, clean fun. The 224-page hardcover children’s book will be published this month by Archaia.

Bolivar tells the tale of a dinosaur named Bolivar who lives quietly on New York City’s Upper West Side. Dinosaurs may be extinct, but Bolivar definitely isn’t, and his fellow New Yorkers are so busy no one seems to notice his presence. And it’s not like he’s a recluse. He visits the Met, hangs out in Central Park, shops on 72nd Street and Broadway and loves old bookstores. He minds his own business, until his neighbor, a girl with a camera and nose for a mystery, sniffs him out.

Before his work on Bolivar, Rubin provided illustrations for the late Brian Jacques’ popular Redwall series of fantasy novels. He is also a contributor to Archaia’s Eisner Award-winning Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard Vol. 1, an anthology of comics stories by acclaimed illustrators set in Dave Petersen’s Mouse Guard fantasy world. PW spoke with Rubin about the long gestation of this new hybrid work.

for the Q&A (recommended) >>> https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/comics/article/75486-bolivar-a-q-a-with-sean-rubin.html

Oscar’s Book Prize Winner

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A story about a koala that hates change has won the £5000 Oscar’s Book Prize 2017.
The Koala Who Could by Rachel Bright and Jim Field won the prize for the best under-fives book at a ceremony in London on Monday night.
The award is named after Oscar Ashton who died from a heart condition in 2012 at the age of three and a half. It is supported by Amazon and the National Literacy Trust and aims to promote books that parents will love reading with young children.
via NEWS — Oscar’s Book Prize.