Fraser Ross Associates

04/11/2024

Reasons to be cheerful!

Congratulations to all those nominated by librarians for the Yoto Carnegies (previously The Carnegie Medal and the Kate Greenaway Medal) - but let's have an especially raucous round of cheering and applause for YuRong and Fiona Carswell!

The Boy Who Loves to Lick the Wind (published by Otter-Barry Books), is a very special picture book.

31/10/2024

Happy... Halloween...?!

Not for those populating the pages of Helen Grant's latest story, The Third Curse.

Included in this handsome anthology, edited by Paul Kane and Marie O'Regan, BEYOND AND WITHIN: FOLK HORROR published by Flame Tree Press, Helen's deeply unsettling story is the perfect Halloween read.

23/10/2024

TONIGHT! 6pm Wed 23rd Oct at Waterstones Edinburgh West End. Joseph Coelho and Kate Milner in conversation with our very own Vivian French. Book your ticket now and we'll see you there! Otter-Barry Books Waterstones

Joseph Coelho OBE, and writer and illustrator Kate Milner will appear at Waterstones West End on 23rd October to chat about their playful and moving tale of self-discovery, The Boy Lost in the Maze. What's On Edinburgh - your guide to events in Edinburgh!

21/10/2024

It’s competition time! We’ve teamed up with The Week Junior, a multi award-winning news magazine for kids, to give you the chance to win a 12 month subscription to their magazine PLUS a 12 month subscription to The Week Junior Science+Nature magazine, worth a total of £215. 📚

Deadline: 25 October 2024

Follow this link to find out more and enter - https://theweekjunior.co.uk/edbook-fest

17/10/2024

16/10/2024

Look who's interviewing Joseph Coelho and Kate Milner next week - Vivian French!

Edinburgh Waterstones Edinburgh - 23rd October 6pm

Otter-Barry Books

Events at Waterstones get you closer to the books and authors you admire most. Find information and tickets about An evening with Joseph Coelho today.

15/10/2024

Deadline alert!

Calling all emerging children’s book illustrators!📕🎨

Our mentoring programme will give your craft a final polish and help you launch your career as a fully-fledged children’s book illustrator.

Paired with an established professional illustrator over nine months, you will develop specific pieces of work, attend masterclasses and meet publishers, finishing with an exhibition to showcase your illustration work.

If you are an illustrator with degree experience and/or a developed portfolio of existing work who wants to become industry ready, our mentoring programme is for you.

Full details at https://www.picturehooks.org.uk/mentoring_programme-2/ Deadline for applications is midnight UK time on 28 October 2024.

Good luck!

Artwork from The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess. Illustration copyright ©️ 2021 Tom Gauld.

08/10/2024

Tanya Landman is taking her acclaimed one woman Jane Eyre play to Beaford - for one night only, 18th October at 8pm.

https://beaford.org/events/janeeyreberry?fbclid=IwY2xjawFx5sZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHWEiIHcNlXKWkGFO_7FFcUeTuxFpJqKZLi6frM4_O2szg4ag3lcCYhTFwA_aem_ztyahlwGKjdu8fi3NmT-bQ

Come and join award winning author, actress, and storyteller, Tanya Landman as she delves into the life of the second Mrs Rochester.

03/10/2024

Happy National Poetry Day!

We were having a nostalgic moment earlier, recalling National Poetry Days of the past. The highs and the lows… When we worked at Scottish Book Trust we organised the National Poetry Day postcards which were distributed free by supermarkets, bookshops and libraries. Wrapping up those parcels of postcards was a huge job involving miles of brown paper and rolls and rolls of brown tape - and quite a bit of working late to get them all ready.

We squirrelled some of them away - but supplies are dwindling. This one from 1998 - designed by Janet Smyth and sponsored by Bluebird Coaches - is sent only to those and such as those.

Sarah: Fed Up by Janet Paisley

01/10/2024

It's National Vegetarian Week - don't be like Marlene McKean in the classic picture book I DO NOT EAT THE COLOUR GREEN written by Lynne Rickards and illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain, published by Wacky Bee Books.

Marlene sees the error of her ways

Available in your favourite bookshops and libraries, or from here - https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/i-do-not-eat-the-colour-green-lynne-rickards/5079402?ean=9781913292140

30/09/2024

Congratulations!

Huge congratulations to Kate Wakeling whose poetry collection, A Dinosaur at the Bus Stop: Poems to Have Fun With, illustrated by Eilidh Muldoon and published by Otter-Barry Books has won The Week Junior Children's Book of the Year: Poetry

It was such a strong shortlist and this is such a well-deserved win!

27/09/2024

We are so sad to hear of Malcolm Donaldson’s death.

He has been with Julia at the heart of so many joyful children’s book events over the years. We have a wealth of happy memories of Malcolm relishing every one of his roles in their remarkable productions.

Our thoughts are with Julia, and the family.

26/09/2024

The power of an author visit!

17/09/2024

Congratulations to Tanya Landman!

Her fourth retelling of a classic novel - Charles Dickens' Great Expectations - is now out, published by Barrington Stoke.

Great Expectations follows Tanya's highly acclaimed retellings of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

What next...?

Tanya Landman has also devised one-woman shows of both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights which she has performed at festivals in the UK and Ireland to rave reviews.

HarperCollins Publishers UK

13/09/2024

A lovely launch at Waterstones Argyle Street last night for 'An Illustrated Treasury of Dragon Tales' written by the wonderful Theresa Breslin, Author, illustrated by the super-talented and published by the fabulous Floris Books! Fascinating to hear about some of the careful research - and the delightful serendipity! - that went into creating this gorgeous treasury of dragon stories from around the world.

09/09/2024

05/09/2024

Happy Book Birthday to illustrator & author extraordinaire, on the publication of a beautiful new picture book, FREE AS A BIRD! Good friends, Jonas the lighthouse-keeper and Blue the whale, rescue an exhausted, bedraggled bird from the waves in this tender, empathetic tale of refuge, friendship and freedom. Published by the wonderful Otter-Barry Books.

28/08/2024

MY KIND OF BOOK, an Accessible Book & Story Festival, is being held on 13th & 14th September at the Scottish Storytelling Centre. The first festival of its kind in the UK! Showcasing some of the wonderful ways books & stories are being made accessible to children with additional needs with a particular focus on . For parents, teachers, storytellers, writers, illustrators, publishers and more... Come along and be inspired! See the full programme and book your tickets here:

13-14 September 2024

27/08/2024

'The books in the “Tell Me About…” series, which also includes titles about Plants and Human Body, are special in way they balance education with entertainment. Emily Dodd’s writing is clear and engaging, perfectly suited to the target age group, and together with Chorkung’s gorgeous illustrations, the books that are not just informative, but also deeply inspiring.'

Splendid reviews of the third and fourth titles in the Tell Me About.. series for 5 to 8 year-olds, by Emily Dodd and Chorkung, published by Templar Books.

https://www.mybookcorner.co.uk/tell-me-about-planet-earth-and-tell-me-about-space-by-emily-dodd-chorkung/?fbclid=IwY2xjawE6lGpleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHXtHzm7LEOYfKiPIEbl30C6OrVcRmoIHCeM9vd2j4-DJWjC2fYo0_Ol_tA_aem_RtJUF53WRo4El3nBAhgAhA

Here at My Book Corner, we're always on the lookout for books that not only educate but also inspire wonder in children. The "Tell Me About..." series by Emily Dodd, beautifully illustrated by Chorkung, achieves just that. Today, we’re diving into two standout titles:Tell Me About...Planet Earth &...

27/08/2024

The wonderful The Edinburgh Bookshop opened the doors of its splendid new premises to eager customers last week. There is now a separate children's fiction room. Hurrah! And amongst its many delights is a magnificent dragon mural by artist & illustrator . Here's Kate standing proudlybeneath her slumbering, book-loving dragon on a busy, buzzing opening day, and a closer view of her fabulous artwork. But you'll get any even better view if you go and see it for yourself; browse and buy; and say Happy New Bookshop! to the brilliant The Edinburgh Bookshop team.

13/08/2024

Poetry ruled yesterday afternoon at the Edinburgh International Book Festival as an enthusiastic young audience revelled in a fabulous menagerie of poems, songs and live (and speedy!) drawing presented by John Dougherty and Tom Morgan-Jones, writer and illustrator respectively of brilliant poetry collection ZOOMING THE ZOO published by Otter-Barry Books.