Walker's Christmas Eve pick

The countdown for Christmas is on! Here's our top picture book pick for curling up with this Christmas Eve.

Petr Horáček’s Suzy Goose and the Christmas Star brings back the lovable Suzy Goose in a story of her efforts to find the brightest star to top her friends’ Christmas tree. Climbing up fences, whooshing down hills and leaping from log piles, Suzy tries everything she can think of to reach the stars in the sky. Unfortunately, she can’t quite get high enough and soon Suzy finds herself lost in the snow on Christmas Eve. Luckily for her, she is guided home by the calls of her worried friends and when she arrives back safely, she’s in for a magical surprise!

Narrated with simple but exciting language, the dynamic lettering wonderfully compliments Petr’s unique, beautiful illustrations. Guaranteed to capture the spirit of Christmas for young children, Suzy Goose and the Christmas Star shows that the most important part of the festive season is being with loved ones.

Like the Suzy Goose stories? Have a look at this video of author Petr Horáček explaining how you can draw your own perfect Suzy Goose at home!

Why not give Suzy a Santa hat or make your own Christmas cards?

Tweet us your Suzy pictures: @WalkerBooksUK

A festive tale from Eilidh Mackay

This year we had over 600 entries to our children’s story writing competition in collaboration with Mumsnet and Gransnet. 

We published the ten winning stories in The Mumsnet Book of Animal Stories, a beautifully illustrated gift book by parents, for parents, chosen by a panel of judges, including Anthony Browne, Miriam González Durántez, Lucy Mangan and Justine Roberts, CEO of Mumsnet. 

Eilidh Mackay from the Isle of Lewis was chosen as one of our ten winners, for her beautiful story The Tale of the Winged Lion (illustrated by Kate Alizadeh). 

In time for Christmas, Eilidh has written a brand new short story exclusively for her local newspaper Island News and Advertiser, which is featured in this month's issue.

Eilidh's tale, Our Caravan, is illustrated by Hebrides artist Holly Strathmore. The story is set in the Hebrides and sees a family together on Hogmanay, looking back over their year - particularly the adventures they had in their caravan over the summer. We hope you enjoy this special story.

You can read more about Eilidh and The Tale of the Winged Lion in this previous Picture Book Party blog post.

The Mumsnet Book of Animal Stories is available from all good booksellers. 

Win a Q Pootle 5 Christmas goody bag!

If your little ones are fans of CBeebies’ Q Pootle 5, check out our top stocking filler picks, perfect for the smallest space travellers...

  
Q Pootle 5 picture books 
These brand new tales of interplanetary racing and defunct spacewashes by Nick Butterworth are the perfect Christmas present for fans of the CBeebies show. In The Great Space Race Oopsy is determined to win the race! But is her spaceship up to the challenge? In Groobie’s Spacewash, Groobie has fixed up an old spacewash, and he’s open for business. But is cleaning spaceships what this machine does best? 

Q Pootle 5 DVDs
Join Q Pootle 5 and his friends in Q Pootle 5: The Great Space Race And Other Adventures  for thirteen fantastic adventures, plus discover how the series was created with interviews with the cast and crew of the show. In the Q Pootle 5 Christmas Special: Pootle All The Way, it's Christmas time on Okidoki and Q Pootle 5 are preparing for Groobie's pantomime. But, when a mayday call interrupts the rehearsal, the friends suddenly find themselves in an epic adventure in which the very future of Christmas is at stake! Both DVDs are courtesy of Proper Distribution.

Q Pootle 5 giant playing cards 
The Q Pootle 5 giant playing cards from Jumbo Games are perfect for young children (and fans of the show) to enjoy playing a variety of fun & exciting games with friends and family. 

Q Pootle 5 puzzles 
Play all day with these Q Pootle 5 puzzles from Jumbo Games. The 4-in-1 shaped jigsaw puzzle includes four brightly coloured jigsaw puzzles of your favourite Q Pootle 5 characters and are great for young children. The 35 piece jigsaw puzzle assortment of four jigsaw puzzles, you will be able to piece together Q Pootle 5 himself, Oopsy, Eddi, Stella, Ray, Groobie, Bud-D and Planet Dave.

Q Pootle 5 Magazine
For hours of fun and activities with Q Pootle 5 and his friends, pick up the Q Pootle 5 magazine, from the Play & Learn title from Egmont Publishing.

WIN
This Christmas we have a fun packed Q Pootle 5 goody bag to give away, including picture books  Q Pootle 5: The Great Space Race and Q Pootle 5: Groobie's Spacewash; a copy of the DVDs - Q Pootle 5: The Great Space Race And Other Adventures! and Q Pootle 5 Christmas Special: Pootle All The Way; a pack of Q Pootle 5 giant playing cards, 4in1 shaped puzzle, and a 35 piece puzzle; and a copy of the Q Pootle 5 Magazine. Three runners up will win a Q Pootle 5 poster.

For your chance to win, just email your name and address to marketing@walker.co.uk with 'QP5' in the subject line before 31 December. Terms and conditions apply.

DVDs are courtesy of Proper Distribution
Puzzles and playing cards are courtesy of Jumbo Games
Q Pootle 5 magazine is courtesy of Egmont publishing