Ivy and Bean

Chronicle Books posted this lovely clip this week…

The Ivy and Bean series of books are about two spunky and smart seven year old girls. They have very different personalities…

 ’Ivy was always reading a big book. Bean never read big books. Reading made her jumpy’.

The author of the Ivy and Bean series is Annie Barrows who wrote the bestselling adult novel The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. What I love about her writing for children with Ivy and Bean is how natural the characters and  story lines are. There are no big challenging issues in these stories, they are fun and playful. She makes the stories funny and children really relate to them, the dialogue is just fantastic to read aloud.

Ivy and Bean are often and rightly compared to the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary.  

The illustrations are by Australian Sophie Blackall who lends a beautiful spirit to Ivy and Bean. She really makes the characters come alive.

I love how the boys in the clip enjoy the books too.

We have the first two Ivy and Bean books available in our store and will be receiveing the rest of the series soon, including the new book Ivy and Bean: Doomed to Dance.

Let’s Dance…

This has made us very happy – thank you Media Macaroni.

We’re getting excited…

We are having lots of exciting times at We Heart Books - we have been celebrating little Otto joining the fold and now we are frantically getting ready for TWO beautiful Magnolia Square markets before Christmas.

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We are gathering some beautiful books and other lovely things to take. We will be running story times and having lots of fun.

Katie and I plan to do all our Christmas shopping at Magnolia Square because the line up of incredibly talented people is just incredible. Pop the dates in your diaries now and come by and say hello.

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In the Library

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Kate from With Love From Kate is an amazing graphic designer and artist who is currently working on a storybook – I can’t wait to see it. This gorgeous print is a sample of her overwhelming talent. Have a look at her Etsy store, website and blog.

Winners – The Red Piano

The Red Piano

Thanks to all who entered our giveaway of The Red Piano by selecting their favourite Wilkins Farago title. We have two winners, thanks to the Random Number Generator…

Naga Chokkanathan with the comment:
I Like Chocolate … I mean, I like the book “I Like Chocolate”

and Rebecca with the comment:
‘Wating for Mummy’ looks very sweet however for this family it would have to be ‘I Like Chocolate’!

Naga and Rebecca, please email us your contact details and we will send you out your books.

For those who missed out, we will have copies of The Red Piano in our store later this week. To pre-order your copy, please email us.

A new We Heart Books family member…

I’ve been a bit busy the last 10 days…

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Our little boy, Otto, was born on 29 September.

One of the nicest things someone has said about our choice of names was that ‘Rowan and Otto sound just like two characters from a book…’ And while the name Otto was not inspired by literature, I was reminded of the Otto in Helen Palmer and P.D. Eastman’s Beginner Book, A Fish Out of Water by our good friend and reader of We Heart Books, Sarah.

“This little fish,”
I said to Mr Carp,
“I want him.
I like him.
And he likes me.
I will call him Otto.”

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If you know this story, you’ll remember what happens to a goldfish with an apparently insatiable appetite. So far, our Otto is exhibiting some similar traits, but I won’t be following the pet shop owner’s advice:

“Never feed him a lot. Never more than a spot! Or something may happen. You never know what.”

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