Fallen Star Stories

Last year, when The House With Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson was released, I was astounded! Based on Eastern European folk tales, this book filled my imagination with  Baba Yaga and her granddaughter Marinka, who dreamed of a simple, normal life with friendship,schools, ordinary village life and discovering who you really are. Part of my fascination was to do with fairy tales; I love fairy and folk tales and their modern reformulations. I knew little of the old Russian and East European stories, just a bit of the fearsome Yaga. But the chance to hear more! I couldn't resist. Not only did I find inspiration to explore this old world further, but I also discovered a wonderful, magical story that simply made my heart sing. So with the announcement, earlier this year, of Sophies' second book coming, I could hardly contain myself. (Ask anyone; I don't think I contained myself at all...asking everyone in the book world I knew where I could get my hands on a proof copy..

Happy Book Birthday! (Happy Publication Day) It's a real pleasure to see our wonderful, entertaining friend, Gaspard the Fox returns to the limelight today in his new picture book, Gaspard Best In Show. Based on the adventures of a real-life fox, Gaspard, Zeb Soanes has penned another story, illustrated by the marvelous James Mayhew. Zeb befriended Gaspard, an urban fox who frequented his garden in London. His antics and adventures made Zeb think...wouldn't it be wonderful if, instead of seeing them simply as pests, we learned to appreciate the cleverness and wonder of foxes who, having their natural habitat taken from them on an increasing basis, have adapted to urban life; to value how much they add to our own lives and to envision a world where we protect them, enjoy them and understand them. The first book, entitled simply Gaspard the Fox came to our attention last year and brought so much joy. And now, we have another exciting adventure... GASPARD BEST IN SHO

Ballyloughane Beach, Galway: my local beach "You are probably wondering why we need superheroes. It's simple. We need superheroes to FIGHT PLASTIC and SAVE THE OCEAN. Our oceans are dying because we are using them as a dump, allowing them to fill with plastic, Our plastic rubbish is hurting the creatures that live in or around the ocean. If we don't watch out, rubbish will hurt us, too." It's that simple. We have been making and using plastic since 1907. That's over 110 years of plastic. And as we got good at making plastic, we just made more and more of it. Then, when we've used it, we throw it away. We throw A LOT of it away and it doesn't break down and it doesn't just disappear and most of it ends up in our oceans. It's a real problem...one we need to do something about NOW. We see it on the news everyday. Whole beaches full of plastic; whales and sea turtles and sea birds dying because of the plastic they've eaten..it se