Many authors and illustrators have had to cancel or postpone book launches and no longer have the opportunity to promote their books in real life. We invited authors, illustrators and publishers to share news of their picture books published in March and April 2020 so that we could share them with you.
Authors and illustrators depend on money earnt from school visits and other literary events, none of which are possible in the current climate. If there is any way that you can support them please do. One way of giving support is by buying books, preferably from your local independent book shop.
So here you go! We haven’t read all the books, the text below has been taken from official press releases.
Fiction
The first two picture books have been written to help children understand the impact of the coronavirus on our lives. Chitra has kindly given us permission to share the YouTube video of her story.
Farmer Falgu Stays At Home by Chitra Soundar & Kanika Nair – Karadi Tales
Farmer Falgu hears on the news that it’s not safe to go out except when it’s really necessary, and that people must stay indoors. His daughter Eila is rather cross, and wants to know why everyone has to follow this rule – she misses her friends and wants nothing more than to play outside. But Farmer Falgu explains that staying home is the only way to keep the people around us healthy.
It’s amazing how quickly Chitra and Kanika managed to create this new Farmer Falgu story – congratulations to you and Farmer Falgu for helping to convey an important message in a really child friendly way.
The Day the Lines Changed by Kelley Donner – A Little Donnerwetter
Carefree and happy, the green line lives together with her family, goes to school during the week, and on weekends visits the town square. Then one day some of the orange and purple lines begin to turn crooked and suddenly, everything is different for the green line and her family. Just as green begins to worry, if her own family might turn crooked, one line makes a fantastic discovery which changes the lives of the lines forever.
This sounds like a really intriguing story – well done to Kelley for writing and publishing it so quickly!
Number 7 Evergreen Street by Julia Patton – Templar Books
When a little girl’s home is threatened by developers, she comes up with a green-fingered solution to save it. Pea lives in a flat at Number 7 Evergreen Street. It’s a grey building in a grey street, in a grey city. Inside the building, however, it’s not grey at all. Pea and her parents have lots of amazing, colourful neighbours.
One day, an army of construction workers turn up on the street and start putting up brand new buildings. When it looks like Number 7 Evergreen Street is going to be demolished, Pea has to think quickly to save her home.
We love the sound of this story and really want to read it to see how Pea comes up with a solution to save her street.
Look, Daddy, Look! by Manlu Tu – Salariya Publishing
When Daddy Hedgehog can’t find his young daughter, he searches high and low for her in snowy forests and deep ponds, asking all of the other animals if they’ve seen her. Little does he know that his daughter is with Mrs Squirrel, who’s pursuing Daddy Hedgehog to return his daughter to him!
We really enjoyed reading Manlu Tu’s debut picture book and absolutely love her illustrations. The relationship between the two hedgehogs is adorable 🙂
Non Fiction
Let’s Dance! by Valerie Bolling and Maine Diaz – Boyds Mill Press
In this book, young readers can read while clapping and snapping with Flamenco dancers, twirling alongside ballerinas, and learning to dance the cha-cha! There are all kinds of dances to explore.
Educational backmatter gives a toddler-friendly introduction to the history of each dance. Kids will want to leap, dip, and zip along with the dances on the page, and parents will enjoy the sly transition to counting dancing sheep that makes this read a perfect right-before-naptime ritual.
Let’s Dance! is vibrant and fun, it’s a great book to inspire children to get moving and research different styles of dance from around the world. Dancing is a fun way for children to keep fit while they are staying at home.
Marie Curie and the Power of Persistence by Karla Valenti & Annalisa Beghelli – Sourcebooks Inc
Marie Curie and the Power of Persistence, uses a novel storytelling approach to bring this historical figure to life for readers, both young and old. Written and illustrated as a dynamic superhero story, this book introduces children to Marie Curie as an important scientist whose greatest achievement was not the discovery of radium and polonium, nor having earned two Nobel Prizes, but rather for her extraordinary power – the power of persistence.
We love the sound of this picture book which is written for middle grade readers. Marie Curie’s story is inspirational and we think it’s great that it’s being told as a superhero story 🙂
Please share this post far and wide so that we can support the authors and illustrators of these newly published picture books published in March and April 2020. If you are an author and / or illustrator and would like your newly published picture book or middle grade fiction featured on Story Snug please email a press release using the email icon on this page.
We’re now working on a post about Middle Grade and Early Readers that have been published in April. It will be published later in the month…
Happy Reading everybody and stay well!
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