Anita Loughrey's blog. This is my journal about my experiences and thoughts on writing. As well as news about me and my books, it includes writing tips, book reviews, author interviews and blog tours.
For more information about me and my books see my website: www.anitaloughrey.com. Follow me on Twitter @amloughrey, Facebook @anitaloughrey.author and on Instagram @anitaloughrey
Spread Your Wings is a heart warming book about growing up. A cockatoo is talking to their child in rhyme about how much they love them , but they will soon be big enough to fly and explore the world themselves.
As we snuggle here together,
gazing at the sky,
I know that soon the day will come
when you’ll spread your wings and fly.
Spread Your Wings by Emma Dodd
The cockatoo reassures their child that where ever they go they will still be in their heart and can come home when ever they want. The stunning illustrations are embellished with gold to give the book a magical,. sparkly feel that glistens as the light hits it.
This would be a lovely book to cuddle up with your child to read at bedtime or on cold wintery days.
Granny was a Buffer Girl is set in industrial Sheffield from the 1930s to the 1980s. Three generations of Jess’s family tell her the heart-breaking and funny family stories and romances that bind them together. 11+ Carnegie medal, Boston Globe-Horn Honor.
A new edition of Granny Was a Buffer Girl will be published by UCLan in 2024. This book was the winner of the Carnegie Medal in 1986 and has been refreshed with an eye-catching new cover by Tamsin Rosewell.
Before leaving Sheffield for a year’s adventure in France, 18 year-old Jess joins a family gathering. They share stories that have bound them together through generations. Stories of heartbreak, humour and romance. She listens to the tale of her grandparents, whose love kept them together in spite of family conflicts; of her other granny Dorothy’s daily toil from the dirt and grime of the buffing wheel; and of her parents’ first meeting. And, of course, there’s Jess’s own story too.
Blurb for Granny was a Buffer Girl by Berlie Doherty
Berlie Doherty is the author of the best-selling novel, Street Child, and over 60 more books for children, teenagers and adults, and has written many plays for radio, theatre and television.
She has been translated into over twenty languages and has won many awards, including the Carnegie medal for both Granny Was a Buffer Girl and Dear Nobody, and the Writers’ Guild Award for both Daughter of the Sea and the theatre version of Dear Nobody. She has three children and seven grandchildren, and lives in the Derbyshire Peak District.
To find out more about Berlie Doherty and her books take a look at her website: https://berliedoherty.com/
By The Sea – Life Along The Coast is a creative non-fiction book aimed at children 8+ but would also be suitable for use in the classroom with younger readers. Coasts have always been the starting of discovery whether by explorers searching for new lands or children sifting through the sand for beautiful shells.
The book starts by explaining how the Earth and the first coasts were formed.
The reader is then taken on an extraordinary journey around the world’s oceans. Each double-page is highly detailed and jam-packed with fascinating information on historic events, famous people and scientific facts. I particularly liked the spreads on the art of navigation, history of sailor’s tattoos, exotic sea life, myths and legends and pirates.
The book also provides a Twenty-First Century corrective to Western-centric narratives about exploration and colonialism including immigration and traditions.
By The Sea – Life Along The Coast looks at every aspect of critical coastal habitats, including the ebb and flow of tides; life in a coastal settlement; artistic depictions of seashores; native animals and plants; the whaling industry; tourism; and climate change.
Readers can spend hours exploring the accompanying maps and scenes to discover fun bites and facts which will satisfy the most curious minds. This is indeed an ” informative, vibrant book that takes readers on a trip around the globe to foster a feeling of connection between their lives and the world’s coastlines.”
A great book for exploring during quiet reading times or to support a topic on the coastlines at all ages. A modern day encyclopaedia of the sea that will keep the children engaged and turning the pages.
You can buy copies of By The Sea – Life Along The Coastby Judith Homoki and Martin Haake from your local bookshop, or online at uk.bookshop.org which supports local, independent bookshops.
Children of Winter is a historical time-slip novel set in the Derbyshire village of Eyam. Three siblings have to survive alone in a barn during the Great Plague of 1666. They long to know what is happening down in their village.
Previously published by Catnip, November 2019 and originally published by Methuen, 1985 (HarperCollins paperback) a new edition of the much loved classic was published by UCLan on 2 November 2023. It was also available as a BBC Jackanory cassette, read by Sylvestra le Touzel, a video: Channel 4 schools Bookbox dramatisation and a BBC4 schools abridged reading.
Catherine and her family set out for her grandmother’s house deep in the Derbyshire hills. Sheltering from a storm in an old cruck barn with her younger sister and brother, it becomes strangely familiar to her, and she is drawn back to a time when three children sheltered all winter away from a terrible plague that was devastating their village. Written by a master storyteller, Children of Winter recreates the time when the tiny village of Eyam in Derbyshire cut itself off from the rest of England in 1666.
Blurb for Children of Winter by Berlie Doherty
Cover Art by Tamsin Rosewell.
Berlie Doherty is the author of the best-selling novel, Street Child, and over 60 more books for children, teenagers and adults, and has written many plays for radio, theatre and television.
She has been translated into over twenty languages and has won many awards, including the Carnegie medal for both Granny Was a Buffer Girl and Dear Nobody, and the Writers’ Guild Award for both Daughter of the Sea and the theatre version of Dear Nobody.
To find out more about Berlie Doherty and her books take a look at her website: https://berliedoherty.com
Wheels – The Big Fun Book of Vehicles is another fun modern style encyclopaedia for children aged 8 upwards. The book is divided into extremely detailed double-page spreads.
“From prehistoric carts to cars of tomorrow, this big, fun book takes a historic journey through a world where everything has wheels, from the Trojan horse to the Harley Davidson; from the stagecoach and the steam train to the Vespa and the Ferrari; from skateboards to electric scooters.
Every spread of this deliriously entertaining and educational book is filled with Tom Schamp’s quirky and colourful art. His sly, subtle texts will make older readers smile. Younger readers will return again and again to these playfully crowded pages to discover what different countries’ emergency vehicles look like; to learn about buses of every imaginable dimension and weight; and to choose which bike they’d use to win a race. Each viewing will reveal charming new details that are as absurdly funny as they are educationally rewarding.”
Blurb from the press release
Wheels explores in picturesque detail different forms of wheeled transport through the ages from stage coaches to limousines and into the future. A child will enjoy dipping in and out to glean snippets of information. At the beginning of the book it includes illustrations of wheels that are antiquities and toys and moves on to wheels from Rome, China and the middle ages. There are no boats in this book. It is about wheels only.
My favourite spreads were the ones on bicycles, race cars and the emergency services.
Children will enjoy exploring the meticulous images during quiet reading time and this book would support a topic on transport at all ages.
Tom Schamps has written and illustrated more than thirty book for children, including It’s A Great Big Colourful World, also published by Prestel.
Wheels – The Big Fun Book of Vehicles is another exciting encyclopaedic omnibus that will keep children engaged and turning the pages.
It is my stop on the epic Do Penguins Like the Cold? blog tour. So grab your life jacket and wrap up warm – it’s time to go polar!
In this entertaining and highly informative book, expert field guide Huw Lewis Jones and nature illustrator Sam Caldwell take readers on an intrepid voyage to meet the eighteen species of penguin and to witness the conservation work underway to protect these incredible birds and their native habitats.
By observing penguins first hand, readers will discover whether penguins truly like the cold, how their diving skills make up for the fact that penguins can’t fly, and how to tell what a penguin had for dinner based on the colour of its poo!
You’ll travel by ship across mighty oceans, visit remote islands and trek across icy landscapes to discover all the different types of penguin, from emperors and kings to chinstraps and rockhoppers. This book is packed with facts, fun and everything there is to know about penguins and gives readers a taste of what it’s really like to work in the wild.
Huw Lewis Jones is an expedition leader, naturalist and award-winning author of books for adults and children, including Do Bears Poop in the Woods? He teaches natural history at Falmouth University and is lucky to have met many penguins in the wild.
Sam Caldwell is an illustrator based in Glasgow, Scotland. He studied painting at the Edinburgh College of Art and is the illustrator of several books for children, including Do Bears Poop in the Woods?
My stop on the tour takes the form of a book review.
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Title: Do Penguins Like the Cold?
Written by: Huw Lewis
Illustrated by: Sam Caldwell
Published by: Thames & Hudson
Do Penguins Like the Cold? by Huw Lewis and Sam Caldwell is a fascinating tour to Antarctica with tour guide Huw and expedition illustrator Sam. On our trip we can learn lots of incredible facts about penguins and where they live, how they survive and what we can do to protect them in their natural homes and habitats. This creative non-fiction picture books contains everything you want to know about penguins and more.
Some of my favourite parts was discovering where the word ‘penguin’ originated from and learning the differences between the eighteen species of penguin, what they eat and how technology can help them.
The illustrations are bold with bright backgrounds and borders that bleed to the edges of the page. There is a lot of action in the pictures to keep young readers turning the pages and encourage them to explore. Included throughout are images of Huw and Sam and their band of excited children who are accompanying them on the expedition.
This entertaining picture book would be perfect for children interested in wildlife and conservation and useful in the classroom to support a project on contrasting environments or Humans and Animals.
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You can buy copies of Do Penguins Like the Cold? by Huw Lewis and Sam Caldwfrom your local bookshop, or online at uk.bookshop.org which supports local, independent bookshops.
To follow the rest of the tour check out the schedule below:
I would like to thank Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in this blog tour. Thank you.
To read my other reviews of children’s books published by Thames and Hudson see:
The enchanting new addition to the New York Times bestselling The Wild Robot series from award-winning author-illustrator Peter Brown, packed full of glorious illustrations. This heart warming and action-packed third book in the series, explores what happens when nature and technology collide.
This touching story of friendship and family is a modern day classic in the making.
Roz the robot has made an unlikely home for herself on an idyllic island dense with forests, wildflowers and friendly animal inhabitants – including her own young son Brightbill the gosling. Life on the island is perfect, until a dying seal washes ashore and warns of dangerous, cloudy waters that are flowing towards the island, bringing new dangers for the animals.
Forced inland they will have to fight over fewer resources – and Roz realises that she must march into the waves and undertake an incredible undersea adventure to find a way to protect her beloved island and all who live on it …
Peter has always loved telling stories. Growing up in New Jersey, he told stories by drawing whimsical characters and scenes from his imagination. As a teenager, he fell in love with writing and began telling his tales with words. While studying illustration at Art Center College of Design, Peter’s love of both words and pictures led him to take several courses on children’s books, and before long he knew he’d found his calling.
After graduating from Art Center Peter moved to New York City to be closer to the publishing industry. He was working on animated TV shows when he signed a book deal to write and illustrate his first picture book, Flight of the Dodo. Peter quickly signed up his second and third books, and his career as an author and illustrator of children’s books was under way.
Since then Peter has written and illustrated many books for children and earned numerous honors, including a Caldecott Honor, a Horn Book Award, two E.B. White Awards, two E.B. White Honors, a Children’s Choice Award for Illustrator of the Year, two Irma Black Honors, a Golden Kite Award, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book Award and multiple New York Times bestsellers.
Today I am on the The Haunting Scent of Poppies by Victoria Williamson blog tour. My stop on the tour is a spotlight.
This short historical YA novella was published on the 1st of December 2023 by Silver Thistle Press.
Blurb
A spine-chilling winter ghost story set in the months after the Great War. Perfect for lovers of MR James and Susan Hill
The War is over, but for petty criminal Charlie his darkest days are only just beginning.
Charlie Briggs is never off-duty, even when a botched job means he’s forced to lay low in a sleepy Hampshire town for the holiday season. Always searching for his next unwitting victim, or a shiny trinket he can pilfer, he can’t believe his luck when he happens upon a rare book so valuable it will set him up for life. All he needs to do is sit tight until Boxing Day. But there’s a desperate story that bleeds beyond the pages; something far more dangerous than London’s mobsters is lurking in the shadows.
Could the book be cursed? Why is he haunted by the horrors of war? Can he put things right before he’s suffocated by his own greed?
Blurb for The Haunting Scent of Poppies by Victoria Williamson
About the Author
Victoria Williamson is an award-winning author who grew up in Scotland surrounded by hills, books, and an historical farm estate which inspired many of her early adventure stories and spooky tales. After studying Physics at the University of Glasgow, she set out on her own real-life adventures, which included teaching maths and science in Cameroon, training teachers in Malawi, teaching English in China and working with children with additional support needs in the UK. Victoria currently works part time writing KS2 books for the education company Twinkl and spends the rest of her time writing novels, and visiting schools, libraries and literary festivals to give author talks and run creative writing workshops.
Victoria’s previous novels include The Fox Girl and the White Gazelle, The Boy with the Butterfly Mind, Hag Storm, and War of the Wind. She has won the Bolton Children’s Fiction Award 2020/2021, The YA-aldi Glasgow Secondary School Libraries Book Award 2023, and has been shortlisted for the Week Junior Book Awards 2023, The Leeds Book Awards 2023, the Red Book Award 2023, the James Reckitt Hull Book Awards 2021, The Trinity School Book Awards 2021, and longlisted for the ABA South Coast Book Awards 2023, the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2020, and the Branford Boase Award 2019.
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To read reviews of The Haunting Scent of Poppies by Victoria Williamson see Goodreads and Amazon.
You can read my reviews of a few of Victoria Williamson’s books here:
You can find out more about Victoria’s books, school visits and upcoming events on her website: www.strangelymagical.com and follow her on X (formly known as Twitter) @strangelymagic
I would like to thank The Write Reads for inviting me to take part in this ultimate tour. Thank you.
A special thank you must also go to Victoria Williamson for sending me the wonderful book package.
The Opium Incense smells absolutely lovely. Thank you.
Title: Goddesses and Heroines: Meet More than 80 Legendary Women from Around the World
Written by: Jean Menzies
Illustrated by: Katie Ponder
Published by: Dorling Kindersley (a subsidiary of Penguin Random House)
Goddesses and Heroines: Meet More than 80 Legendary Women from Around the World by Jean Menzies and Katie Ponder is a carefully crafted, hard-back illustrated non-fiction in the style of AA Publishing’s The Woman Who Rode a Shark and 50 More Wild Female Adventurers by Ailsa Ross and Amy Blackwell and A Galaxy of Her Own Amazing Stories of Women in Space by Libby Jackson, published by Century , which is another subsidiary of Penguin Random House. I found this to be a slight diversion from Dorling Kindersley usual familiar encyclopaedic format.
Jean Menzies has divided the book into four chapters: Goddesses, Magical Being, Mortals and a final shorter chapter entitled About the Myths, which discusses how the stories have been shared over the eras through story telling and art work and how they have been recorded in scrolls and famous books like The Mabinogion, often in poetry form. This chapter briefly gives a mention to some of the temples, monuments and festivals there are to worship the goddesses.
The first three chapters have been segmented into sections for example there are sections on creator goddesses, goddesses of the stars, moon and sky and goddesses of animals to name a few. Each of these sections has an introduction and then a couple of the mentioned women from each introduction are elaborated upon with a significant story about the heroine or goddess to explain why they were worshipped. Katie Ponder’s pastel coloured illustrations compliment the stories and highlight the main parts bringing the stories alive. There is also a useful pronunciation guide, glossary and index to help the readers at the back of the book.
Unlike other books of this calibre the women included have not been confined to a double page spread of facts, which makes it stand out as unique. Jean Menzies has been given the freedom to explore why the female entries were revered and often feared just as much as their male counterparts, throughout the ages. It contributes to filling the gap of equality in the world of myths and legends and highlights the diverse nature by showing how each culture worshipped similar goddesses or idealised strong female heroines each one with their own story and achievements.
Goddesses and Heroines: Meet More than 80 Legendary Women from Around the World would be a fantastic resource in the classroom and ideal for any young reader interested in myths and legends. The sections can be read in any order and is great for dipping into and for exploring the stories. Individual stories could be read aloud during story time, in assemblies or even at the end of the day before bedtime.
A beautiful celebration of the contribution women have made to their heritage.
Sisters and TV presenters Anthea and Wendy Turner have revived their successful writing partnership after almost three decades, relaunching their endearing tales of Underneath the Underground – with a modern twist.
The King’s Coronation and the Kohinoor Diamond is the first title in a brand new series of children’s stories set among the communities of mice living busily below the capital’s bustling Tube stops. The whole world was caught up with the Coronation of King Charles III on May 6, 2023 but now they’ll be able to learn the real story of what happened that day…
The story begins two weeks before the Coronation to find the British Asian mice at Hounslow Underground Station planning a fabulous party to celebrate the royal occasion.
But disaster strikes when a huge glitter ball spins around in the ballroom and fails to shine! Soon, a daring plan is made – to take the Kohinoor Diamond from the Royal Crown and add it to the glitter ball, making it sparkle and giving the diamond back to the Indian community, where it belongs. The mice work hard to replace the diamond with a piece of glass… but will King Charles and Queen Camilla notice?
Wendy said:
“We’ve absolutely loved writing about the wonderful mice of the London Underground once again. It’s been like catching up with a group of old friends and finding that you still have so much to say after all these years!
The King’s Coronation and the Kohinoor Diamond is a particularly special story because it’s completely up to date and will hopefully engage a whole new generation of young readers.”
Much To Do About Writing 