Category News

Some fantastic news!

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United Publishers of Armidale, a collaboration between children’s books publishers Christmas Press and Little Pink Dog Books, is delighted to announce that it is the recipient of a 2020 Resilience Fund Grant, an initiative by the Australia Council for the Arts. 

The 2020 Resilience Fund is designed to provide emergency relief to support the livelihoods, practice and operations of Australian artists, groups and organisations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Australia Council has directed more than $5M to the Resilience Fund to provide immediate relief to the Australian arts sector.

United Publishers of Armidale was granted funds under the Adapt stream of the Resilience Fund, to create a wide range of fun new free activities and resources centred around their books, to join those already featured on their website, www.unitedpublishersofarmidale.net These are aimed at children, families and schools. Funds will also be used by the publishers to create special ‘Journey of a Book’ video presentations for adults which will look at aspects of writing, illustrating and publishing children’s books, around a focus on books produced by each publisher. These presentations, to be hosted on the UPA You Tube channel, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCebJK9zqg1f1ROlrSrtAFuA,  and showcased on their website, will be aimed at aspiring creators as well as anyone interested in children’s books.

Christmas Press and Little Pink Dog Books, under our United Publishers of Armidale banner, wish to warmly thank the Australia Council for their generous support of our joint initiative. We look forward to creating some fantastic resources–watch this space!

(And as a Christmas Press imprint, Second Look is delighted to be part of it!)

The Boy who Could Fly a Featured Book on United Publishers of Armidale website

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We are very pleased to say that our most recent title, Ursula Dubosarsky’s wonderful collection, The Boy Who Could Fly and Other Magical Plays for Children, (illustrated by Amy Golbach) is one of the Featured Books for the newly-launched United Publishers of Armidale website.

As well as details of the book, including buying links(just click on the book cover on the page), you will find some fabulous fun activities created by Ursula and Amy, centred around the book. We invite you to check them out!

Announcing United Publishers of Armidale!

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NEWS!

Christmas Press(of which Second Look is an imprint)  and fellow children’s books publisher, Little Pink Dog Books, are delighted to announce a brand-new joint initiative, United Publishers of Armidale, with the launch of a new website, www.unitedpublishersofarmidale.net, and associated social media on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

The United Publishers of Armidale website features a number of books from each publisher, with free activities and resources to go with each, as well as information on each title. Activities and resources include audio and video presentations by creators, puzzles, quizzes, word searches, printable colouring pages, teachers’ notes, and more. The Featured Books page will be updated regularly with new, upcoming and backlist titles and their associated activities, while the About page gives information about the UPA partner publishers.

‘The idea behind United Publishers of Armidale is that in these difficult times, it makes sense for publishers, especially small, regionally-based publishers like us, to pool our efforts and resources in order to promote and showcase our books and help to support our creator communities, and we’re thrilled to be partnering with Little Pink Dog Books on this,’ said Sophie Masson, co-director of Christmas Press. ‘But it’s also very much about supporting the wider community, especially children, their families, teachers and carers, by offering free resources and activities through a dedicated website.’

‘We are delighted to be partnering with Christmas Press in this new enterprise and we hope that everyone will have lots of fun discovering our featured books and the activities around them,’ said Kathy Creamer, co-director of little Pink Dog Books. ‘And we warmly thank our authors and illustrators for getting so enthusiastically behind the project and creating such fabulous and diverse activities for our readers.’

Books featured for the website launch are, for Christmas Press, middle grade historical fantasy novel, The Phantasmic Detective Agency, by Julian Leatherdale (out May 2020 in Eagle Books imprint) and Australian Children Laureate Ursula Dubosarsky’s recent collection of plays, The Boy Who Could Fly and Other Magical Plays for Children(Second Look, 2019); and for Little Pink Dog Books, author-illustrator Trish Donald’s picture book Tissy Woo and the Worry Monsters(2018) and Parmesan, The Reluctant Racehorse, written by Jacqui Halpin and illustrated by John Phillips (2017).

Check it all out here.

New Second Look title coming in September!

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Author Ian Irvine

We are very pleased to announce that our next Second Look title will be an omnibus volume of bestselling fantasy author Ian Irvine’s fabulous Sorcerer’s Tower quartet for young readers, to be published in September. The book will be launched at the Sorcery to Spaceships speculative fiction festival in Armidale, NSW on Friday September 15.

Cover reveal coming soon, but here’s a bit about the book:

Illustrator DM Cornish

Join orphan Tamly and his best friend Kym as they embark on a dangerous mission to save their home from the evil forces that threaten it at every turn! Packed with magic, adventure, and unexpected twists and turns, bestselling author Ian Irvine’s exciting fantasy quartet for younger readers, fabulously illustrated by D.M Cornish, is a treat for readers aged 8-12.

This new omnibus edition, published in the Second Look imprint of Christmas Press, contains all four books in the series: Book 1, Thorn Castle; Book 2, Giant’s Lair; Book 3, Black Crypt; Book 4, Wizardry Craig.

This edition with a new cover illustration by David Allan.

‘It has all the things that turn reluctant readers into avaricious readers – fast moving plot, big grabby monsters and really cool illustrations.’ (Reading Time)

Cover reveal for A Pocketful of Rhymes!

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We are absolutely delighted to reveal the gorgeous cover of our forthcoming title, a brand new edition of Max Fatchen’s A Pocketful of Rhymes. The fabulous cover illustration is by wonderful illustrator Kathy Creamer, who’s also created many lively internal illustrations, and the great design is by Beattie Alvarez, while award-winning author Janeen Brian has written an excellent introduction to the poems. The book will be officially released on May 8. Booksellers and libraries can order now, through our distributors Dennis Jones and Associates(trade and libraries) and INT Books(schools).

 

 

Announcing our forthcoming title for 2017!

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We are delighted to announce that the next Second Look title, to be published in May this year, will be a brand new edition of the late Max Fatchen’s brilliant collection of poetry for children, A Pocketful of Rhymes, which has been out of print for far too long!

second-look-logo-final-mediumFrom thirsty dogs to old horses to pesky seagulls and fishy tales; from family squabbles to sports day races and flooded creeks; from letting loose on a skateboard to dancing amongst the trees: these wonderful poems are full of joy, humour and keen observation and will entertain and amuse a whole new generation of readers.

This new edition of Max Fatchen’s much-loved classic of children’s poetry features an introduction by award-winning children’s author and poet Janeen Brian , who knew Max, and lively new cover and internal illustrations by the fabulous illustrator Kathy Creamer.

Details:

Paperback,  ISBN: 9780994528018

Release date May 3, 2017

RRP $15.99

Cover reveal coming soon!

 

Interview with Libby Gleeson, about Eleanor Elizabeth

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Libby GleesonIt’s the official release week for our new edition of Libby Gleeson’s wonderful first novel, Eleanor Elizabeth!

To celebrate, we spoke to the author about the novel and what’s it like seeing it back in print.

First of all, Libby, congratulations on the release of the new edition of Eleanor Elizabeth! We are so thrilled to be bringing this wonderful novel back to a new generation of readers. In your new introduction to the book, you wrote about how the book came about. How does it feel like, revisiting your first novel?
It’s a strange experience. I feel so proud to see it back in print. It was my first attempt at writing a novel, I didn’t know if it would ever be published and so revisiting it brings back all the pleasures of creating it while at the same time fearing it would never see the light of day.
One of the striking things about this novel is the sense the reader gets of the natural environment, which has a real role to play in the story. How did you build up that vivid background?
I wrote the book while I was living in Europe so I was missing my homeland at the same time as wanting to place my characters there. I spent a lot of time focusing on my own memories of landscape and the difference between where the story starts and where the family moves and lives. The new environment helps shape the main character. It’s almost a character in the story.
Elizabeth’s diary is almost like a kind of time-travel device, plunging Eleanor back into the past. How did you recreate Elizabeth’s world?
I knew enough about rural life in the late nineteenth century – that’s the story of my mother’s family.  I had to spend time looking at the kind of language Elizabeth would use. Diaries were a great help – especially Ethel Turner’s, despite it being about twenty years later.Eleanor Elizabeth final cover
You have gone on to become one of Australia’s most acclaimed and popular authors. What role do you think Eleanor, Elizabeth played in that?
The success of Eleanor, Elizabeth gave me confidence to keep going. I had written it while I was a member of a writing group in London and that group was very demanding in terms of finding the right image and language and sentiment. It encouraged experimentation. I still have that in my head as I write. I think I have also been lucky.

 

The Second Look edition of Eleanor Elizabeth is available in all good bookshops.  ISBN: 9780994234070, RRp $18.99.

Excited to announce imminent release of our new title!

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Eleanor Elizabeth final coverOur upcoming Second Look title, a brand new edition of multi-award winning author Libby Gleeson’s fantastic first novel, Eleanor Elizabeth, will be released in mid-August and we are very excited!

With a new introduction by the author, and sensitive black and white internal illustrations by Beattie Alvarez (who also created the eye-catching cover), this will be a real publishing milestone. We are thrilled and honoured to be bringing back this gripping, vivid novel by one of Australia’s most loved and well-known authors, to a new generation of readers.

The book will be available through all good bookshops and online, worldwide.

Booksellers and libraries, please order through our distributor, Dennis Jones and Associates.