Anna just released this trailer for Peggy this morning…

Peggy will be officially launched at an event at The Little Bookroom in  Melbourne on the 1st of September, more information here.

Saturday August the 11th is National Bookshop Day in Australia. This is an annual event to celebrate bookshops and their role in our communities.

National Bookshop Day has a Facebook page and just looking at all the wonderful events planned around the country makes me smile.

I have worked for numerous bookshops in my career, all of which I have absolutely loved and been passionate about. Katie and I met working  in a bookshop – Borders in 1998, when we set up and worked in their first store in Australia at South Yarra.

Book Bonding, Keilor Road, Niddrie

When we go on family holidays one of the things I need to do is find the local bookshop – just to have a look. My partner always says to me – “But, you work in a bookshop! Why do you want to visit others?” But why would I not? I love the product passionately, I might see something I didn’t know existed and I can have a chat with the store owners about lovely books new and old.

Hill of Content – Bourke Street, Melbourne

I have used the Book Depository, I have used Amazon and I have used Australian book websites too – they all have their place of course. But none of those sites can replace the beauty of browsing a bookshop or picking up a gorgeously designed hardcover or asking incredibly knowledgeable and well read staff for recommendations.

Coventry Bookstore – South Melbourne

That is the thing about our Australian bookstores; we have amazing staff who are so totally passionate about what they do. Bookselling is a retail like no other. You don’t just hand someone a dress and say try this on for size, bookselling is about getting the right book into the right hands. Children’s bookselling in particular is an art and of such great importance for the future of reading in our country.

The Little Bookroom – Degraves Street, Melbourne

Over the past couple of years there has been a huge resurgence in people buying handmade and artisan in craft and clothing and food – let’s support our local bookshops like we do those other products.

Are you visiting a bookshop this Saturday? What are your favourite bookshops? We’d love you to share your thoughts and loves with us.

* Katie did a series of posts about children’s bookshops around the world that you can re-read here *

The displays in this museum are beautifully conceived – somehow the exhibits manage to evoke the taxidermy museums of old, while combining this with a cutting edge style and a strong conservationist message.

Down an avenue of trees at the other end of the park sits the Museum of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy.

As you can see every available space is taken up with ancient bones. Rowan and I followed the lead of some French kids and sat down in the Museum of Paleontology to do some sketches…

With the memories of these museums strong in our minds, it was so serendipitous that Rowan received this book for his sixth birthday soon after our return home.

Published for the first time in English this year, by Gecko Press, Small and Tall Tales of Extinct Animals was originally a French production by Helene Rajcak and Damien Laverdunt (whose collaboration is celebrated on their gorgeous blog, Les Tigres Gauchers). The scientific advisers on the project were from the Paris National History Museum, and wrote a beautiful and touching foreword to the book:

“Long before setting foot on the Moon, humans evolved on planet Earth – one continent, one ocean, one island at a time. Humans were enthralled by the world around them. To feed their fascination, they collected pictures and momentos of bones, feathers, herbariums, casts and fossils… But natural history museums – that once so proudly displayed the first examples of newly discovered species – now face the unenviable task of exhibiting their remains: the last skeleton, the last skin, the last paw print, the last photograph.”

The book is a collection of 27 of the world’s extinct species, and is a beautiful production. A double-page spread is devoted to each species – the left hand page consists of a cartoon strip, often a retelling of a legend or anecdote associated with the extinction or discovery story. The right-hand page includes a large illustration of the animal or bird, a description of the extinction and some facts, and most fascinatingly to Rowan, a diagram showing its size in relation to a man. The illustration style is naive and the colours and fonts retro and the overall impression is very approachable and appealing.

This is the perfect book for Rowan, whose obsession with David Attenborough documentaries show no sign of abating. But it would no doubt interest many kids from age 6 up – it’s a great example of a picture book pitched perfectly at older kids. Museums and galleries are doing some wonderful publishing collaborations – do you have any favourites at your house?

Unfortunately I don’t know what happened to the book but it is a book that still lives inside me to this day and I will need to track down a copy.  The lovely Burgin who writes the incredible blog ‘Vintage Kids’ Books My Kid Loves’ posted a review of A Very Young Dancer if you are interested.

The amazing thing, that is quite rare in children’s picture books, is that Jill Krementz who is the author of the book is actually a photographer and the book is illustrated in photo’s. The story, a true one, is of a young girl’s journey in the New York City Ballet company and starring in their Christmas production of the Nutcracker. Using the photo’s to tell the story was so inclusive for me as a child. I wanted to be the ‘Young Dancer’ and I gained so much from observing the reality in the photography – the amazement and wonder of a city that I had never seen and the grittyness of the backstage and training process of a professional ballet company.

So when I saw Kiki & Coco in Paris, a picture book that is also illustrated with photography, I was again instantly transported and I knew I had to have it. It is a little different to A Very Young Dancer as Kiki and Coco in Paris is for much younger children and the photography staged for the story line but it still has those amazing inclusive qualities that photography brings to a book.

Published as a really beautiful extra large format hardcover book how could you even resist the jacket image….

Kiki and Coco in Paris is a collaboration between three amazing women – photographer Stephanie Rausser, Doll and textile artist Jess Brown and the story is written by Nina Gruener.

Coco is a doll made by Jess Brown and her owner is a divine little girl called Kiki.

‘When Kiki holds Coco’s hand, Coco’s feet skim the floor like a ballerina. It’s as if they were made for each other.’

They are packing to go to a city called Paris and the story that follows is a really lovely soft, gentle tale about the trip to France illustrated with the most amazing photography of their adventures.

The colours and the clarity in the photography is incredible – Kiki’s vibrant and trendy outfits (notice her little Saltwater sandals), Coco’s stunning gold dress and the backdrops of the amazing Parisian scenery are all so crystal clear, it is like you could touch them. And the end papers are striking. As you open the book you are hit with the most beautiful sunny yellow and white stripes – everything about this book makes me happy.

The story is quite a traditional one, that has the essence of many classics. Coco is Kiki’s friend and goes with her everywhere until she is left behind at a Parisian cafe and is found by a dog, who carry’s her around for a little while until she is reunited with Kiki. The difference is with this book is that the story is actually better as a gentle flow in the background and mainly used as a prompt to interpret what the photography portrays.

‘A famous tower with stairs that seem to go on forever. 

At the top. Kiki is quiet as she gazes out. Coco looks up at the clouds as tiny drops start to fall.’

For me this is one of the best examples of modern picture book publishing, especially in the age of the iPad and apps. There is so much that is classic about this book but yet it also very 2012. Our love for the handmade and artisan is given a nod in the stunning doll by Jess Brown and the movement and life that Stephanie Rausser has captured in her photographs satisfies some of the ‘screen’ obsession we all have. (In saying that there is actually also an iPad and iPhone version of the book available on iTunes.)

There is also our love for travel, encompassed in a city that is close to many of our hearts. Kiki likes to explore and has a passion to experience different things in Paris, a trait that I would love to instil in my own children.  It would have been easy for this book to seem a bit pretentious and contrived but it is in fact the opposite.  Kiki & Coco in Paris is a warm and lovely picture book that I will remain ever fond of just like A Very Young Dancer.

In my years as a bookseller I have had many wrestles with the board book section and finding the right books to appeal to that age group is still a challenge. However my little road tester Tessie has found some she loves that I thought I’d share !! Those of you who follow us on Facebook would have seen this picture of her kissing these books…

The books she is kissing in this photo are the incredibly delightful and happy series of Noodle books by Marion Billet.

Tess is one but she has loved these books for some months now. Noodle is published by new independent publishing house Nosy Crow and we have Noodle Loves to Cuddle, Noodle Loves the Farm, Noodle Loves Bedtime – there are another couple of titles available too.

Each book has touchy feel-y pieces throughout and they all end with a mirror on the final page – a good mirror, not one of those ones that used to be in books that made you look like you were at Luna Park.

The textured components are really great quality also. Each time I have bought a new Noodle book for Tess I have watched her as she recognised the need to look for the bits to touch on each page, running her pointer finger over the page to find the different texture.

The text in the Noodle series is both rhythmic and fun but also brief  – great for keeping her attention. It is also repetitive, saying Noodle’s name on each page so that now I only have to mention Noodle and she instantly turns for the books.

As a parent I have really fallen for the Noodle series and for the author/illustrator Marion Billet. Billet is French and has illustrated over 80 books – mostly in French and she has also done illustration work for toy companies among others. Her website is out of this world cute.

Like another favourite illustrator of mine -Marc Boutavant, her use of colour is in a word, luminous! Little Panda Noodle has these big gorgeous eyes and so much character. He really is a wide eyed, exploring little toddler. I’m sure the Japanese would find him super Kawaii.

Noodle is a board book series that really hits the spot with the right mix for the age group and very easy on the eyes for parents too.

The Noodle series is distributed by Allen & Unwin in Australia and available at your local Indie Bookshop.

This is our little girl, Mira, 7 weeks old. I can’t wait to share another wonderful reading journey with her, as I have with her two big brothers.

Among her many beautiful gifts have been a couple of lovely books. One of them is this book, Pom Pom Where Are You? written by Natalie Jane Prior and illustrated by Cheryl Orsini.

The perfect book for anyone who loves Paris, this is a romp through the iconic sites of my favourite city through a dogs-eye view. Pom Pom lives in Paris and longs for adventure, which is exactly what he gets one day when he loses his owner while out on their daily walk. The premise reminds me a little of Harry the Dirty Dog, except that where Harry collects dirt, Pom Pom collects new friends and experiences – a restaurant lunch, a trip on a bateau mouche, a visit to Notre Dame, the Louvre and the Tuileries Gardens – and at every place he finds a new friend.

Like all good picture books, the illustrations in this story are much more than a straightforward expression of the text – and Cheryl Orsini’s artwork offers a rich and comical sub-text. Characters from one illustration and carried through to the next, and if you look very carefully you find that Pom Pom’s loving owner is really not that far behind him…

And there are so many authentic details included, making this wonderful Penguin Australia production feel very, very French. You can read more about what author Natalie Jane Prior thinks of the book here, and of naming Pom Pom’s owner, Henriette, after her own grandmother… Cheryl Orsini also has a beautiful website and blog.

This book was even more perfectly appropriate for Mira than my dear friend who chose it even knew. For not only does her mama love all things French, but lucky little Mira will herself get the chance to visit Paris later this year. And so this book will be doubly special in our house – as an intro to our travels it will be well read by her brothers before we go and as a wonderful keepsake for Mira to celebrate her first travel experience!

Rebekka is an artist and illustrator from Nashville, Tennessee. She writes a beautiful blog and does the most amazing commission work, including stunning house portraits.

Rebekka is just so talented and we feel so very privileged to have been able to work with her.

As a little treat for this our first post back here is a little interview we have done with Rebekka …

What were your favourite books when you where little?

My two favorite books when I was very tiny were “Oh Captain Kitty” by Godfrey Lynn and “The Fire Cat” Esther Averill. Haha…do you sense a theme developing here? I also loved (and still love) all of the Elsa Beskow books…The Sun Egg, Around the Year, Children of the Forest…my grandmother was Swedish, and I felt such a connection to her through Elsa’s stories.

Do you have some favourite contemporary illustrators for children?

Oh my, yes. Jen Corace’s work is so breathtakingly beautiful, in such a  quiet, special way. And Pamela Dalton’s papercuts (especially the ones she did for “Brother Sun, Sister Moon“) are just mesmerizing. And I love Carson Ellis…gosh, who doesn’t?

Would you like to author/illustrate a book? What  would it be about?

It’s only my lifelong dream! Right now I’m working with Artisan Books on a really exciting book  project (I can’t give details yet), but it’s not a children’s book. I would absolutely love to author and illustrate a children’s book of some sort. There are lots of ideas bumbling around inside my head right now and I’m hoping to put together a proposal for one of them sometime this year!

We absolutely cannot wait to see a book illustrated by Rebekka!

As you can see, we have a brand new header design – by the awesome Rebekka Seale. More on that later.

We can’t wait to get blogging again and to hear from you all again. Did you know we are also on Facebook? We post lots of fun stuff there, so please Like us, do!

Created as books for children that were to be low cost and high quality so as to make literature accessible to children of poorer parts of the US. Random House US have a great website devoted to Little Golden Books where you can find some great printables and activities as well as more history of the series.

SO you all know how much Katie and I LOVE Golden Books! We have written about our love on the blog numerous times – you can find the collection of our Golden Book posts here.

Now the wonderful Jackie from My Little Bookcase has issued a challenge to the blog world. She wants ideas on how to up cycle Golden Books that have seen better days and she invited us to take part.

We have been collecting very old and bedraggled Golden Books for a while now so we have a fair collection…

This is just a little pile!

Most of them have pages like this….

Scribble!

Or look like this….

Very grotty!

So we have been having fun using them as bunting. The first lot of bunting I made was for Ned’s 3rd birthday in his favourite colour – yellow.

Then I started to make some that we sold and also used as display at Magnolia Square...

I think I have a soft spot for the  Christmas bunting because it just looks so Christmasy!! There’s nothing better than displaying your love of books around the house – they are my favourite accessory.

We have also been using our collection to make gift tags for our online store orders. This has been really fun, because even in the tattiest book you can find the most divine illustrations to use on a parcel…

Such a beautiful new print in the Petit Collage range by Lorena Siminovich. He is called Story Bear and he is a print on Maple veneer. Petit Collage will ship Internationally.

Lorena also illustrates the ‘In My‘ series of board books.