new website for Windy and Friends

What a beautiful new website for Windy and Friends!

It features Foggy, Windy, Snowy and Chinook and Sunny by Judith and Robin!

Simply Small app FREE on Friday Nov 30

Saffy Looks for Rain, which was recently shortlisted for the Appys 2012 award for Best Educational/Kids App, will be part of the November 30th ‘App Friday,’ a popular online promotion started by the organization Mom’s with Apps that works to highlight great products across the educational app community. Each week, select free and discounted apps are promoted via the App Friday Facebook page, the #appfriday hashtag on Twitter, as well as here. Check out Saffy Looks for Rain, if you haven't already! A recent review of the app from Kirkus Reviews reads, “the app beautifully illustrates how a simple story, well presented, can be simply refreshing.”

The Appys!

Great news--Saffy Looks for Rain has just been nominated for an APPY award! This cute app is based on one of the titles from our Simply Small series.

More about the Appys here!

PNBA - more pictures!

October 13, 14 and 15 Simply Read Books had a blast at the PNBA (Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association) fall tradeshow. Here Holman Wang is ready to sign his Cozy Classic titles:

This is of his and Kathy Beliveau's table:

And here is Cynthia Heinrichs signing her book, Under the Mound:

Little Big Books - Julie Morstad

This amazing book features the work of up-and-coming illustrators and creators of children's books--including talent Julie Morstad. She is the illustrator of many Simply read Books, including her two most recent When I Was Small and The Swing. Learn more about the book, Little Big Books, here.

World premiere of Return to Reichenbauch--Oct 18

What: World premiere of Return to Reichenbauch by Maureen Kelleheron When: October 18th at 3.30PM Where: St. John's International Women's Film Festival At last--the documentary that Lisa Birnie's "In Mania's Memory" was based on is coming out! This fantastic film follows the tales of two women from opposite sides of WW2. This is the

I Want to Go to the Moon at PNBA

This weekend has been the PNBA (Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association) fall tradeshow. We were so pleased to have a host of our authors signing books including: Kathy Beliveau with The Yoga Game Holman Wang with Cozy Classics Tom Saunders with I Want to Go to the Moon Cindy Heinrichs with Under the Mound and Paola Opal with the Simply Small Series! Here is a pic from Tom's signing. More to come ;)

World Premiere of “The Boy in the Oak”

Come see the World Premiere of “The Boy in the Oak” by Luke Losey – narrated by Jude Law, based on the book by Jessica Albarn At the 5th Annual Bel-Air Film Festival When: 6 pm Friday October 12th

Everyone Eats

Wowee! A wonderful review in the New York Times for Julia Kuo's beautiful board book, Everyone Eats. As NYT says, "Looking very contemporary in an old-time way, the visually striking “Everyone Eats!” feels like the kind of book you’d pick up at an organic children’s clothing store." Congrats, Julia!

Art Auction for Canadian Children's Book Centre

The Canadian Children's Book Centre is holding an art exhibit in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts called The Art of the Picture Book. Please go here to see the wonderful art that is being displayed in the Montreal. It is amazing. There will be also be an art auction held October 16, 2012 of these fabulous pieces of art. Even if you live far away, if you would like to bid on any of these works of art please be sure to contact Charlotte Teeple -- charlotte@bookcentre.ca

teacher guides available for Simply Read Books!

For all the teachers out there--or parents who like fun activities that further reading--we now have teacher guides for some of our Simply Read titles: Bella's Blessings by Brenda Stokes and illustrated by Trisha DesRosiers The Yoga Game by Kathy Beliveau and illustrated by Farida Zaman You can download them here!

simply small book apps!

Our very first children's book app is now available in the AppStore. This is a momentous occasion for us--take a look and let us know what you think!

little free libraries

How lovely is this? A program encouraging communities to build little libraries where people can borrow and replace books. More here!

beautiful book trailer

There is a new lovely book trailer out for our new board book title The Swing, by Robert Louis Stevenson and illustrated by Julie Morstad. Check it out here! Also much thanks to Betsy Bird of Fuse #8 for the amazing review of this title!

bathing suits that match books

Check out this amazingness! Swimsuits are matched with book covers! (I wish there were more children's classic titles though--like Alice in Wonderland.)

cozy classics book trailer

Check out this amazing trailer for the our new board book series--Cozy Classics!

adorable stop-motion

Check out this amazing, adorable stop-motion about a book-mark surfing the waves of a book. It's called Much Better Now and you can watch the whole thing here.

Yay! We are pleased to announce that we have quite a few books that have been chosen by Best Books for Kids and Teens, 2012. When I Was Small by Sara O'Leary and illustrated by Julie Morstad

Singing Away the Dark by Caroline Woodward and illustrated by Julie Morstad

Pussycat, Pussycat, Where Have You Been? by Dan Bar-el and illustrated by Rae Mate

Owls See Clearly at Night by Julie Flett

Congratulations to all our authors and illustrators!

Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Nominee!

Yipee! Pussycat, Pussycat, Where Have You Been? by Dan Bar-el and illustrated by Rae Mate, has just been nominated for the 2012 Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award. Congrats to our author and illustrator, and to all the others who were nominated. May the best book win! Find out more about the Canadian Children's Book Centre!

inspiration from CS Lewis

Thanks to Freepeople Blog for the link.

alice

One of the first books we published at Simply Read Books was Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, illustrated by Iassen Ghiuselev. We have since reprinted it numerous times as well as even done a new edition. We are always on the look out of other beautiful illustrated versions of Alice, and this one certainly caught our eye: from Penguin UK and Yayoi Kusama, Japan’s most celebrated contemporary artist, comes a striking version with colorful dots and twisted typography.

some scary French children's books

How interesting! Check out some of these French children's picture books--so much darker than what you can find in North America.

A character who cut off his own head? Or did he PEEL off his own head?

Did that woman just turn Angela into a wooden puppet for stealing one of her cherries? Yes. Yes she did.

The rabbit's revenge--these rabbits are mad! More here! Thanks to Jenny Colgan for the info.

beautiful upcoming titles from Simply Read

I am pretty exited about some of our upcoming titles. We just put them up on our website. Here is a sneak peek at some of them: The Swing, poem by Robert Louis Stevenson and illustrated by the fabulous Julie Morstad. (Soon to be an amazing book trailer too ;)

Everyone Eats by Julie Kuo--a fun and pretty board book.

Lily Loves by Kai Luftner and illustrated by Judith Drews--such a cute picture book!

And of course some super cuteness from Paola Opal, with new Simply Small titles including Zingy, a baby hummingbird.

chocolate lily nominations!

Congratulations to our nominees for the 2012-2013 Chocolate Lily Awards! They include: Pussycat Pussycat Where Have You Been? by Dan Bar-el and illustrated by Rae Mate

and I Want to Go to the Moon by Tom Saunders and illustrated by Cynthia Nugent

When I Was Small Book Trailer

We've just posted a beautiful trailer for Sara O'Leary and Julie Morstad's 2012 BC Book Prizes award-winning book, When I Was Small. Seriously, it's gorgeous! (Can you tell we're excited about it?) :) You can find it here!

yay- bc book prizes

We are very pleased to announce that "When I Was Small

" by Sara O'Leary and illustrated by Julie Morstad won the 2012 Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize. The BC Book Prizes Gala was held this weekend, and it was a fantastic event. Congratulations to all the other beautiful books nomination for the Christie Harris, especially our own "Pussycat Pussycat Where Have You Been" written by Dan Bar-el and illustrated by Rae Mate.

A cute image I spied on Betsy Bird's Fuse # 8 blog. It makes me think of how wonderful it would be to decorate a whole house as though it were a children's book.

beautiful thread covers

super cute free easter coloring cards

Easter is almost upon us, and here are some adorable coloring cards by Lisa Cinar, author and illustrator of The Day It All Blew Away and Paulina P. for Petersen. She recently launched her on-line store, Draw Me A Lion, full of lovely art activities for kids.
The coloring cards are available here to download.
Check out what they look like: