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

Find the perfect gifts this Christmas

Despite the unseasonably warm weather, Christmas is only six weeks away and to celebrate we are running a giveaway competition! We have picked out a selection of our favourite new Christmas books, perfect for huddling up with and reading together in the run up to the festive season. We also have three fun filled goody bags to give away, each including copies of the books below, plus a selection of stickers, posters and activity sheets.

Here are our top picks:

Santa's Beard by Matilda Tristram and Tom Duxbury

Can you help Santa’s beard along its journey before it misses Christmas? From a kitchen to a Castle and across the high seas, join the adventure as Santa’s beard searches far and wide for its rightful home. This fun and interactive adventure allows any young readers to help move Santa’s beard from face to face to find that person who really needs him, in this hilarious Christmas adventure. Bright and vibrant colours define Nick Sharratt's illustration and help make Santa's Beard perfect for young readers.

Jingle Bells by James Lord Pierpoint and Niroot Puttapipat

Jingle Bells is the world famous song by James Lord Pierpoint which is now an irreplaceable part of Christmas celebrations all over the world. It was even the first song broadcast from Space! This Christmas classic is brought to life by illustrator Niroot Puttapipat who combines his sporadic use of colour with his beautiful depiction of sleigh riding across a snowy landscape at Christmas, brought together within this exquisite paper-cut, pop-up edition. The perfect book to share at Christmas and to treasure forever.

The Really Abominable Snowman by Valentina Mendicino

This is the tale of an Abominable Snowman, or Milo as his mum calls him. All Milo wants in the world is somebody to share his love of cupcakes with. But however hard he tries Milo always seems to be misunderstood as smelly, gruesome and monstrous. Can Milo find a friend? Or is he destined to be abominable forever? The Really Abominable Snowman is a touching and humorous tale of an outcast with a big heart, give it to somebody you love this Christmas.

WIN
 

We have three fun filled goody bags to give away, each including copies of the above books, plus a selection of stickers, posters and activity sheets. For your chance to win, just answer the following question:

What is the Abominable Snowman’s real name?
a)    Abominable
b)    Mort
c)    Milo

Email your answer along with your name and address to marketing@walker.co.uk with PBP Winter in the subject line for your chance to win. Competition closes 12^th of December 2014. Terms and conditions apply.

We are absolutely over the moon today to hear that the following 14 Walker books have been nominated for the 2015  Kate Greenaway medal!

Becker, Aaron. Quest

Burningham, John. The Way To The Zoo

Carlin, Laura (illustrator) Davies, Nicola (author) The Promise

Deacon, Alexis (illustrator) Hoban, Russell (author). Jim's Lion

Ering, Timothy Basil. The Almost Fearless Hamilton Squidlegger

Graham, Bob. Vanilla Ice Cream

Haughton, Chris. Shh! We Have A Plan

Higgins, John & Olivent, Marc (illustrator) Sedgwick, Marcus & Sedgwick, Julian (author) Dark Satanic Mills

Horacek, Petr. The Mouse Who Ate The Moon

Kay, Jim (illustrator) Various (author) The Great War: An Anthology of Stories 
Inspired by Objects from the First World War

Lamb, Rosy. Paul Meets Bernadette

Moore, Inga. Captain Cat

Sif, Birgitta. Frances Dean who loved to dance and dance

Sutton, Emily (illustrator) Davies, Nicola (author) Tiny: The Invisible World of Microbes
 

Congratulations to our wonderful illustrators! Take a look at the nominations here.