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Publisher: Oxford University Press

Picturebook

Everybody worries and that’s OK.

This reassuring and practical picture book combines helpful tips endorsed by clinical psychologists with fun rhyming couplets and colourful pictures to help children open up about their feelings and get anxiety under control.

The perfect book to soothe worries during stressful times, which can be a great springboard into having important conversations with your child.

Picturebook

In this wonderfully festive picture book, Yuval Zommer imagines the Northern Lights’ fleeting journey from space to Earth and how they weave a special magic for the animals and people living in the frozen lands below.

Picturebook

A little polar bear, Miki, wanders away while his mother is diving for fish. He sees a dot in the snow and rushes towards it. Readers discover that the dot is a little girl. But Miki has never seen a human before and the little girl has never seen a polar bear. They discover more about each other as they play in the snow but then the perils of the polar landscape impel Miki to take the little girl home before undertaking the long journey to find his own mother. Although one is a polar bear and one is a little girl, Miki and Dot share a common experience: they are both separated from their mothers when they meet. Their bond of friendship gives them the strength to support each other during the course of a day that will last with them both forever. This is a moving and poignant story set in a changing and challenging polar landscape, perfect for the Christmas season. It wraps up important themes about empathy, kindness, and courage. The story is both simply told and affecting. The gorgeous snowscapes, full of real atmosphere, are created with printmaking techniques by debut illustrator Fiona Woodcock.

Picturebook

We all have feelings and that’s okay! How are YOU feeling today? With fun characters and eye-popping artwork, Jon Burgerman’s entertaining book introduces over twenty feelings, putting each one in relatable context and providing young children with the vocabulary they need to talk about feelings.

Chapter book

A lively, gorgeously illustrated story from Dynamic Duo, Reeve and McIntyre!

Along with his new friends, a grumpy old albatross, a short-sighted mermaid, and a friendly island called Cliff, Oliver goes off in search of his missing parents. But before he can put his rescue plan into action there’s the evil Stacey de Lacey and an army of greasy, green sea monkeys to contend with…

Chapter book

To the Keeper of this Book – it’s time for you to visit the magical Kingdom waiting within. Believe in yourself – that will give you wings to fly! When Maya receives a special colouring book – The Magical Kingdom of Birds – she is transported to a beautiful realm filled with magnificent birds and their fairy friends. But the kingdom is in trouble – evil Lord Astor has a plan to capture and cage the tiniest residents, the hummingbirds – and as Keeper of the Book it’s up to Maya to protect them. Packed with beautiful illustrations, information on the real birds that inspired the story, and includes a special colouring page!

Chapter book

Learning to ballet dance is harder than Millie expected. The other dancers in the class aren’t very nice to her either. But just when she’s thinking that maybe ballet isn’t for her after all, Millie meets the ballet bunnies! They live hidden in the ballet school, using what they find to make their home-ballet shoes for beds, upside down cups for tables-and secretly take the ballet classes with the humans. Maybe the ballet bunnies can help Millie master some news ballet skills after all!

Picturebook

It is sad but true that no one is ever pleased to see Cyril the cloud. He’s always being blamed for ruining everyone’s fun: casting shadows over everywhere he goes, and making things look dull and miserable. So, one day, Cyril drifts far, far away in search of a friendly face: over farmland, towns, and an ocean . . . Eventually he arrives in a new land whose ground is baking hot. Here everyone welcomes the shade Cyril gives. This makes Cyril so happy that he cries big glorious tears of joy. And his tears soak the land and everything seems to smile. And that is all Cyril ever wanted – to look down on the world and see a happy smile. A beautiful story that taps right into what Tim Hopgood’s books are all about: celebrating the natural world and promoting a positive outlook on life.

Chapter book

Beautifully illustrated in two colours, this NEW series from the world of Isadora Moon introduces Isadora’s mermaid friend, Emerald!

Emerald is learning how to be a mermaid princess, but she doesn’t feel like one at all. She’s not very good at waving to crowds and royal headdresses just aren’t her thing – her hair is too spiky and wild. Emerald’s wriggly pet octopus, Inkibelle, doesn’t much like living at the royal palace either. The annual Ocean Parade is coming up. Will Emerald be brave enough to be a mermaid princess but do it her own, special way?

Isadora Moon is such a popular series with early readers and is known for flying off the shelves in KS1 classrooms and libraries. We can’t help feeling that Emerald and her underwater world will also make waves with children looking for first chapter books.

Chapter book

When Tom is sent to stay at his aunt and uncle’s house for the summer, he resigns himself to endless weeks of boredom. As he lies awake in his bed he hears the grandfather clock downstairs strike . . .eleven . . . twelve . . . thirteen . . .

Thirteen! Tom races down the stairs and out the back door, into a garden everyone told him wasn’t there. In this enchanted thirteenth hour, the garden comes alive – but Tom is never sure whether the children he meets there are real or ghosts.

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