Hodges Figgis Window Display

The Walker Books Illustrated Classics promotion started in Hodges Figgis today. As the poster says "The Classics Never Looked So Good"

Scorpia Rising Dublin Poster Advertising Campaign

The Scorpia Rising Poster Campaign will commence soon
Dublin sites are as follows;

1.St Stephens Green Shopping Centre, 2.Frascati Shopping Centre,
3.Jervis Shopping Centre, 4.Bloomfields Shoping Centre, Dun Laoghaire
5.Tescos Shopping Cente, Greystones, 6. Omni Park Shopping Centre, Santry
7.Charlesland Shopping Centre, Finglas, 8.Swan Centre Rathmines
9.Artane Castle Shopping Centre, 10.Northside Shopping Centre, Coolock.
11.Malahide Shopping Centre. 12.Donaghmede Shopping Centre
13.Kilbarrack Shopping Centre 14.Orwell Shopping Centre Templeogue
15.Cromwellsfort Road, Crumlin 16.Mill Shopping Centre Clondalkin
17.Liffey Valley Shopping Centre 18. Dundrum Town Centre Carpark.
19.Beacon Sth Qtr, Shopping Centre carpark

Big Picturebook News!!!!

Spent the last three days with Walker Books for the Spring 2011 Sales Conference.
Where do I start? So many brilliant books coming later this year but some really big news is that Mo Willems' Knuffle Bunny Free will be published in the UK & Ireland in the Autumn.

This, the third tale of Trixie and Knuffle Bunny sees the family travel to Holland to visit Oma and Opa but Knuffle Bunny is left on the plane! Agggghhhhhh!
You'll have to wait and see if a certain pigeon makes a discreet appearance!

Michael Morpurgo

Michael Morpurgo gave this years Richard Dimbleby Lecture from Kings College, London.
He explored the issue of Childrens Rights and spoke specfically about the inspiration for his book The Kites are Flying (Walker Books)
Readers in the UK can view the programme on the BBC Iplayer. Click Here . I'll post the Youtube link for Irish and other international territories as soon as it is loaded.

Jim Kay

This is the wraparound cover art for A Monster Calls (pub May 2011) by Jim Kay.
Jim also illustrated Dragonborn for Walker Books and you can read up on his work HERE.

Quote from Jim regarding A Monster Calls,

"Now I’m obviously biased, but believe me, it is a remarkable story. I warn you it doesn’t hold back, if you’ve read any of Patrick’s books before you’ll know what you are in for. Get hold of a copy, hide yourself away, and throw yourself between the rollers of an emotional grinder."

A Place Called Home

Walker Books will publish A Place Called Home in May 2011.

Written by Alexis Deacon ( Beegu, Slow Loris, While You Were Sleeping) and illustrated by Vivian Schwarz (There Are Cats in This Book, There Are No Cats in This Book) this is the very funny story of a band of seven furry brothers.
They live in a nice, safe, warm home – a very small hole. Yet as they grow up they become too big for the tiny space and are forced out into the world. And so their adventure begins – a quest for a new place to call their own! This determined little unit tackle the elements: crossing the sea, climbing a mountain, trawling across the desert and surviving a labyrinth until, finally, they reach the edge of the world... What will they see here and will they ever find a place they can call home?

The Butterfly Heart

The Butterfly Heart by Irish Author Paula Leyden will be published by Walker Books in March '11.

Paula has published a website and Blog click here.

"I decided to write The Butterfly Heart for many reasons – but the initial idea came to me through a memory that has haunted me. While I was at primary school in Zambia a school friend of mine was taken out of school and married off to an old man. At the time this upset me deeply and I felt helpless to do anything about it.

So in some ways I wrote the story for her, and for young girls in many parts of the world that this has happened to and continues to happen to. These children, and they are children, are robbed of their childhoods, condemned to a world of pain, premature childbirth, HIV/AIDS and death. This is not something that should happen to anyone, anywhere, ever."