I have just come back from holiday with my family (and dogs Wallace and Nelly, see pic), where I was lucky enough to have two weeks of sun and sea in Ireland – who said it always rains in Ireland. Perfect to re-charge the batteries and start thinking about new ideas for the future.
When I got back to work, I was really pleased to find copies of some of our new titles for August sitting on my desk. Simple First Sounds – this is a new series for us. We’re starting with two books, Noisy Trucks and Noisy Zoo. Inside each book, there are great photographs of zoo animals and all kinds of different trucks for kids to look at, and some simple first facts to learn, too – like the different parts of the trucks and the names of the animals’ family groups. But what I think preschoolers will love best about these books, are the sound buttons – there are four in each book for them to press, so they can actually hear the noises that the animals and trucks make. The buttons are big and strong and I can guarantee that the sounds are a very high quality. My son Gabriel’s favourite is the chimpanzee!
Seems a bit strange sitting here in August talking about Christmas, but as I write this, there are in fact only 131 days to go before Christmas Day. Which is why the last book in my pile is a Christmas one, for those of you who like to get organised early. I think you’ll love to sit down and share our Christmas Lift-the-Flap Shadow Book with your child – it’s really simply illustrated with shadow pictures of all those things that make Christmas exciting, like presents, the tree, snowmen, Santa… But I think what kids will love best is trying to work out what the silhouette pictures are, along with the fun questions which you can read together. They can try to guess the answer, then lift up the flaps which reveal a photograph and find out if they are right. This is a really lovely design that will make a great gift at Christmas.
I hope that you find something that you like from the books we are publishing, we have certainly had a lot of fun making them
