All You Can Eat 5-12 (2021)

Best Middle-Grade Fiction of 2021, Kirkus.

Can You Whistle, Johanna? is a funny, sensitive illustrated chapter book about two boys searching for a grandfather and friendship across generations.

It is an international award-winner and a classic in many countries.

Translated by Julia Marshall

Read the first chapter

A hide-and-seek picture book from New York Times award-winning author Leo Timmers, about three silly knights and a clever dragon in disguise.

The king can’t sleep for fear of the dragon, so he sends his three knights outside to find it. With only one candle between them, they go out into the dark. Is that a dragon? Attack! But every suspicious shape turns out to be something else, until the knights confidently turn for home, not noticing what’s behind them.

This cleverly illustrated game-inside-a-book will have young children shouting out loud in delight as they spot the dragon hidden on every page.

With intricately detailed illustrations and joyful rhyming text, this picture book is a fun read-aloud for toddlers and pre-schoolers aged 2 years and up.

Where Is the Dragon? is an absurdly fun take on mistaken dragon identity, from the master storyteller and author of Monkey on the Run, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book. Leo Timmers is one of Belgium’s pre-eminent picture book artists. Translated from the Dutch edition by poet James Brown.

Picture Book Winner, Teach Early Years Awards 2021.

Outstanding Science Book 2022, National Science Teachers Association/Children's Book Council.

A large-format non-fiction picture book that describes the incredible creatures that once walked the Earth, with a lively mix of illustrations, comics and facts.

Written and illustrated by Hélène Rajcak and Damien Laverdunt, translated by Daniel Hahn.

Best Middle-Grade Nature Books of 2021, Kirkus.

A fully illustrated compendium of astonishing facts about animal reproduction—the birds and the bees, literally.

Bats give birth upside down. Swifts can mate while plummeting through the air. Scorpions attract their partners with a romantic dance. Male humpback whales sing together for days to bring females from many miles away. Dolphin babies come out tail first.

Do Animals Fall in Love? is a compendium of all the weird and wonderful ways the animal kingdom reproduces. Wittily illustrated and frankly told, it covers courting rituals both elaborate and devious, extraordinary physiology, cleverly planned pregnancies, the most devoted fathers and the sweetest animal babies on Earth.

Written by Katharina von der Gathen, illustrated by Anke Kuhl and translated by Shelley Tanaka.

A library-loving dinosaur reminds us how it feels to be transported by story in this picture book for young children.

Leilong’s friends are taking him to story time at the library. But it’s difficult for a large, clumsy brontosaurus without a library card to follow all the rules. Especially when enthusiastic Leilong gets caught up in the story and joins in, threatening to flatten the library. Is Leilong too big for the library, or is the library too small?

With vibrant and vintage-like illustrations, children of all ages will love this enthusiastic, bumbling dinosaur who just wants, like all of us, to hear a good story. Perfect to read aloud or together with younger dino fans and book-lovers, or for readers aged 5-7.

Written by Julia Liu, illustrated by Bei Lynn and translated by Helen Wang.

Ebook available wherever you buy your ebooks

A lockdown bestseller and high spirited story about an enterprising only child and a single-father’s juggle to work from home.

Mika’s father works from home and he’s very busy! He can never find time for the promised swimming trip. So Dad allows Mika to choose a pet from the store while he finishes the project—something quiet like a mouse. And so begins a wonderfully turbulent story in which Mika brings home one animal after another… The mouse gets lost so they need a dog to find it. The dog is followed by a seal, the seal a penguin. One pet for Mika leads to another and another. How many animals can come to stay before a harassed father notices?

A relatable, cheerful and wild picture book for families, with a single-parent juggling working from home and childcare. Celebrating Mika’s initiative and creativity, this is a fun and absurd story ideal for 5-7 year olds to read independently or together. Featuring a single dad working from home and gender neutral child, Mika, this picture book allows young readers of all ages to identify with diverse characters.

Written by Constanze Spengler, illustrated by Katja Gehrmann and translated by Shelley Tanaka.

Ebook available wherever you buy your ebooks.

The audacious and captivating Hattie and her best friend Linda navigate the social politics of their first school years in this funny illustrated chapter book.

Read the first chapter

Ebook available wherever you buy your ebooks

Written by Frida Nilsson, illustrated by Stina Wirsén and translated by Julia Marshall.

A small and cosy book leaving preschoolers snug as a bug, from award-winning author, Joy
Cowley.

The Times Children’s Book of the Week.

The tiny woman makes a coat of leaves with the help of her animal friends. The trees, geese,
porcupine, horse and plants all share something so the tiny woman can snip, snip, snip and
stitch, stitch, stitch a coat to keep herself warm.

Friendship and sharing are at the heart of this warm and simple rhythmic poem by one of the
world’s best children’s writers. A perfectly cosy hardback storybook to read-aloud and share
with babies, toddlers and preschoolers who will delight in everything tiny and small, including
the fresh and funny illustrations by award-winning illustrator Giselle Clarkson.

“Now I have a new favourite cosy read to add to my collection.” — The Times.

Joy Cowley is one of New Zealand’s best-loved writers for children and adults, and her stories
are loved around the world. She has won a multitude of awards and honours for her bestselling
books, including the Prime Minister's Award for contribution to literature. She was shortlisted
for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2018.

Giselle Clarkson is an illustrator and comic artist based in New Zealand. She illustrated Egg and
Spoon: An Illustrated Cookbook by Alexandra Tylee which won the Elsie Locke Award for Non-
Fiction at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and The Gobbledegook
Book: A Joy Cowley Anthology.

Best Books for Kids 2021, The Sydney Morning Herald

A funny illustrated fairy tale for early readers about the brave and capable Dulcinea, who must save her father from the witch’s spell and get him home to celebrate her birthday.

Written and illustrated by Ole Könnecke, translated by Shelley Tanaka.

An illustrated collection of thought-provoking stories about how anger doesn't always have to be
angry.

Written by Toon Tellegen, illustrated by Marc Boutavant, and translated by David Colmer.

A magical lift-the-flaps adventure—part puzzle, part fairy tale—where the boy’s suitcase full of tricks and treasures is the key to getting him home.

Selected by The New York Times for their Holiday Gift Books for Children Guide 2021

A 2022 USBBY Outstanding International Book.

Written and illustrated by Clotilde Perrin, translated by Daniel Hahn.

A follow-up to the internationally successful The Mapmakers' Race—the Santander children are drawn into a community’s rebellion against a despot and use their mapping skills to avert an environmental scam.

Read the first chapter here

Watch the video here

Ebook available wherever you buy your ebooks

Written by Eirlys Hunter and illustrated by Kirsten Slade.