Books
I've divided the books on this page into:
- Adult Novels
- Winnie the Witch
- Novels
- Board Books
- Picture books
- Tadpoles
- Chameleons
- Walker Stories
- Banana books
- Barrington Stoke books
- Flying Foxes
- Oxford Reading books
Adult Novels
Spectacles
isbn 9781905637867
My first book for adults, written in the voice of Iris. To quote from the cover blurb: ‘When Iris acquires a pair of spectacles, she gains a renewed focus on life. She gives us her vision of the world around her, a clear, sometimes almost painfully comic view of people, places and the meaning of life. This complicated old woman shares some episodes from her life that move effortlessly from gentle humour and pure farce to moments of tragedy and deep despair. Iris is always full of surprises, and she leaves the biggest surprise till the end of the novel, when she shocks the reader with the most poignant, eye-opening revelation of all.’
Winnie the Witch
Under the author name ‘Laura Owen’, but written by me, these are books with four short stories in each about Winnie the Witch and her cat Wilbur, famous from the picture books. Wonderfully, madly, energetically, funnily illustrated in black and white by the inimitable Korky Paul. As you can imagine, they’ve been great fun to write, and there are more books on the way.
Winnie’s Big Cackling Book
Illustrated by Korky Paul
isbn 9780192729552
lovely chunky hardback bind-up of ten of the Winnie and Wilbur stories already published, but with an extra joke section at the back and –da daa! – a wonderfully real cackle broadcast every time you open the front cover!
Winnie’s Big Catch
Illustrated by Korky Paul
isbn 9780192728425
Winnie goes into production with a new line in knickers, she tries to tidy her life, she takes to the football field during a vital match, and she gives Wilbur the birthday treat of his dreams when she takes him out in Stinky Stan’s fishing boat.
Whizz-Bang Winnie
Illustrated by Korky Paul
isbn 9780192727527
In which Winnie loses Wilbur one hot day, Winnie hatches some eggs with interesting results, Winnie tries to help out on the school’s Book Day, and Winnie joins in a race and gives the men a run for their money!
Giddy-Up, Winnie!
Illustrated by Korky Paul
isbn
9780192728418
In which Winnie decides to go horse racing, invites her awkward relatives to tea, makes the garden rather special for a visit by the children from school, and takes a different kind of holiday. All helped, of course, by good old Wilbur.
Winnie Says Cheese
Illustrated by Korky Paul
isbn
9780192727510
In which Winnie meets her match with a grumpy tooth fairy, where she creates a one-witch band, where she tries, not very successfully, to make herself more beautiful, and where Wilbur’s chances at the cat show are put in jeopardy by fleas!
Winnie The Twit
Illustrated by Korky Paul
9780192725769
Mini Winnie
Illustrated by Korky Paul
isbn 9780192725776
In which Winnie and Wilbur have to cope with a visit from an awful Auntie, Winnie tries her hand as a cleaner at the school, Winnie uses a ghost writer to help her enter a poetry competition ((note the ghost writer’s initials!), and when Winnie gets shrunk to the size of a teaspoon.
Novels
Raven Boy
isbn 978-1846470257
Set in 1666, during plague and the Great Fire in London, this is an exciting adventure story about a boy who wants revenge on the King. The boy character is taken from Pepys’ Diary where he describes a boy blagging his way into the household of the Lord Lieutenant of the Tower of London. I gave that boy a friend and mentor in the shape of a cunning raven, and the story ‘explains’ the myth about ravens at the Tower. The book was shortlisted for the Stockport Children’s Book of the Year.
Rescued
By A Dog Called Flow
Illustrated by Anthony Lewis
isbn 1903015472
A re-issue of the book originally entitled simply 'Flow', this story has proved particularly popular as a class reader in Junior schools. Oliver struggles at school and longs for a dog to be a friend. He secretly gets a puppy, Flow, who also has problems, but, in an exciting adventure on the fells, both boy and dog prove themselves. Click Activities to find more information and teaching materials for this book.
Board Books
Row Your Boat
Illustrated by Stephen Lambert
isbn 140522553X
Row row row your boat … to an island where you get chased by a lion before coming safe back home again! With a button to press for the music.
Picture Books
What’s In Store?
Illustrated by Joelle Dreidemy
hb isbn: 9781405227605 pb isbn: 9781405227612
Jo-Jo, her Dad and her baby brother are off to the department store to buy what’s needed for her birthday party … but there are many more stories than Jo-Jo’s one going on in this book. With pictures bursting full of detail and fun, there are lots of characters to follow. What are the alien, the witch, Cinderella, the clown, the pirates, the old lady, the two boys, the cat and mouse all doing in the shop? And who is that author walking across the front cover?! No reading skills needed to access story fun for a wide age range.
Buy
hardback from Amazon Buy
paperback from Amazon
Three Little Ghosties
Illustrated by AnnaLaura Cantone
isbn 0747579555
Three little ghosties
sat on their posties
eating buttered toasties
and telling big boasties!
Those ghosties might have scared some witches and ghoulses and an ogre, but who’s going to be scared when they come haunting to my house?! A fun rhyming story with a message about bullying, with wonderfully funny collage illustrations.
You
Choose
Illustrated by Nick Sharratt
isbn 9780552560351
A big catalogue full of pictures to browse through and choose the things we'd all like to be able to choose in real life, if only we could - where to live, who to live with, what pets to have, what to wear, what to eat, where to sleep, and more. Hundreds of different choices, some sensible, some daft. This book was chosen as the picture book to be given to all three year olds by Bookstart charity, but the book works well with a wide age range (including adults), as something to be looked at alone or as a focus for discussion or even as a starting point for story ideas.
NB The latest edition of the book has the added extra of card pages with part stories and letters to be completed by choosing stickers and sticking them in to make your own story.
Arthur's
Tractor
Illustrated by Colin Paine
isbn 0747564787
While the text tells about Arthur working on his tractor and getting out tools to mend it when he hears strange noises, the pictures show that Arthur is missing the real source of the noises - a clash between princess and dragon and knight. Other stories are hidden in the pictures too in this tale in which a sword is literally turned into a plough share. Some lovely language to relish.
Tadpoles
Short, early reading books with colour illustrations..
Happy Butterfly
Illustrated by Lauren Tobia
hb: 9780749685133 pb: 9780749685195
Happy can hear the band, but she can’t see it because the crowd are too tall around her wheelchair. But Grandma Gloria has a clever idea …. Absolutely beautifully illustrated.
Buy
hardback from Amazon Buy
paperback from Amazon
Ashok’s Dog
Illustrated by Mike Phillips
isbn 978-0749679736
Ashok and his father have gone to choose a dog, but what kind of dog should Ashok choose? Fast or slow, big or small? In the end, Ashok lets the dog choose him.
Chameleons
Early reading books with lots of colour illustrations.
Ronnie’s Treasure Hunt
Illustrated by Deborah Allwright
isbn 0713675977
Ronnie wants to cheer his mum up by getting her something special for her birthday, so he goes looking for a present, and finds pirates! But these are space pirates, and they’re in need of a cabin boy for their trip into space to find ‘twinklers’ from the night sky. What they bring back is something rather different.
Walker Stories
Beautifully illustrated early reading books, with three related stories in each.
Toffee And Pie
Illustrated by Paul Howard
isbn 9781406311365
John doesn’t want to have to start as the new boy at yet another new school. He’d rather spend time with his pony, Pie. But at the new school John meets another boy who likes ponies.
A story about a boy from a gypsy family, endorsed by the Dept of Children, Schools and Families.
With very beautiful pencil illustrations.
Glog
Illustrated by Nick Marland
isbn 978-1406304053
Stone age boy Glog’s family tribe are on the move, but Glog gets left behind. He has to find shelter and food and fight off a wolf all by himself, but he finds friends of a kind to help him. Thoe friends are Echo, Shadow and Water Boy. And Glog’s real tribe will all be back together again by the end of the book.
Banana Books
With lots of colour illustration, these are reading books, starting at the easiest Green level with three little stories in each book, on to Blue single stories, and to Red and to Yellow where the stories are long enough to be split into chapters. The Go Bananas are stories based on a national curriculum topics and they include activity pages at the back.
Dragon Magic
Illustrated by Lesley Danson
9781405246118
A story about how getting to know people can be the best form of ‘defence’. The King is in a flap about strangers coming, so he orders Big John the Blacksmith to make a strong gate to keep them out. But Big John’s dragon, Huff, is too old to breath much fire, so Jess finds a new dragon, Puff, who enables her father to make a gate that is strong, but not in the way that the King had expected.
Hoppy
Birthday, Jo-Jo
Illustrated by Georgie Birkett
isbn 1405208740
Jo-Jo the small kangaroo is rather jealous of the new little sister in her Mum's pocket - until a special hide-and-seek party puts things right. Why not try a hide-and-seek party yourself?!
Happy
Sad
Illustrated by Stephen Lambert
isbn 0749733365
Toby finds a mermaid in a rock pool and he takes her home and does his best to make her happy, but the mermaid misses the sea and her family. She'd like Toby to come home with her. Will he?
Dragon
Boy
Illustrated by Martin Ursell
isbn 1405205938
Grandpa tells Lily a strange tale of a boy who was brought up by dragons. 'And was that boy you, Grandpa?' asks Lily.
Fire
Cat
Illustrated by Philip Hurst
isbn 1405201304
Commissioned to write a story for Year Two about the Great Fire of London and Samuel Pepys, I didn't see how I was going to make this a story about a child - until I read Pepys' diary and learned that on the first morning of the fire, wanting to see its extent, Pepys climbed up high in the Tower of London, accompanied by the small son of the man who ran the Tower. So this is that child's diary, mixing truth about the fire with a fictional story about his cat.
Olaf's
Saga
Illustrated by Robin Lawrie
isbn 1405205881
A story on the topic of 'invasion and settlement', this tells how Hal has to leave his Viking Norwegian home for a strange new land called England, and the adventures he and his family have in getting there.
Catnapped
Illustrated by Joanna Harrison
isbn 0749731117
Ralph and Bethan and Mrs Marsden all own lovely, but quite different cats, they think. But they've forgotten that cats tend to own people, rather than the other way around!
Barrington Stoke Books
Lively stories written for children who find reading hard, particularly those with dyslexia. Edited by a team of child readers as well as by professionals.
Pocket Hero
Illustrated by Zoografic
isbn 978-1842994672
The true story of a remarkable child from Oakham. Jeffrey Hudson was only 45 cm high. Aged seven, he was put into a pie as a surprise for the young Queen. Queen Henrietta liked him so much, she took him to live with her, and he was by her side through all kinds of adventures. Jeffrey was captured by pirates twice. Although so tiny, he fought in battles in the Civil War. He killed a man in a duel. He lived as a slave in North Africa for twenty five years, before returning to a London dramatically changed by plague, fire, and years of parliamentary rule. An amazing story that’s little known.
The Runaway Chair
Illustrated by Polly Dunbar
isbn 1842994336
When Aman’s parents move house, they really do move the house! So Aman comes home to find nothing but a big hole in the ground where his home used to be. All that is left of home is Aman’s grandfather’s old chair, but Shoddy the chair can run on his legs and punch and hug with his arms, and he has strong opinions too! Together, he and Aman sort out where the family should really live.
Connor's
Eco Den
Illustrated by Martin Remphry
isbn 1842992902
Part of the For Your Information series, this story looks at the problem of global warming and possible solutions through the eyes of Connor as he and his brothers are set a den-building challenge by their father. The story of the Three Little Pigs turned on its head as the straw house proves to be a winner! This book was shortlisted for the Blue Peter Award for the best book with facts in it.
The
House With No Name
Illustrated by Peter Kavanagh
isbn 1842990160
A ghost story. Jamie finds himself alone in a tumbledown old house in the middle of a wood. He's joined by a boy called Colin who says that there are rumours of a ghost in the house, but who, or what, is the ghost? Also available in a 4U2read edition.
Rat
Boy
Illustrated by Polly Dunbar
isbn 1842991833
Written in the first person by a rat who happily lives alone on the rubbish heap. But the rat gets attacked and is suddenly vulnerable. Shown a little love by a lady, the rat turns into a cat, later into a dog, and then into a boy with a proper name. The emotional stages gone through when a wild child is tamed into family life, seen in this story in animal form. Royalties go to a charity giving a home to street boys in Calcutta.
Flying Foxes
Stories and activities to tie-in with national curriculum topics.
Pam's
Maps
Illustrated by Katherine Lodge
isbn 0431184011
A boat full of rat pirates under the command of silly old Captain Scarnose are trying to find the buried treasure. But Captain Scarnose gets it all wrong. It's cabin girl Pam and her friend Crow who work out and make what they really need, and that's a map.
Slow
Magic
Illustrated by John Kelly
isbn 0099417278
What sort of magic could turn a grass seed into a nice warm jumper? The magic of growing things does it, but Polly has to be patient because this magic takes a whole year to do.
Oxford Reading Books
The Reading Web books are the very simplest of little reading books, but Oxford Reading Tree's Treetops readers provide proper short novels with chapters and lots of illustrations for extending reading at different levels.
The Jungle Book
Illustrated by Mike Spoor
isbn 9780199117574
t was fascinating to read the entire original Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling, and then select and rework them to produce a single episodic story following Mowgli’s life from being adopted by wolves when he was a baby, through adventures with friends Baloo, Bagheera and Kaa, fighting the tiger Shere Khan, and finally having to decide whether to live as an animal or a man.
The
House That Jack Built
Illustrated by Andy Parker
isbn 0198455461
'Here is the plan that first began the house that Jack built'. An easy to read, rhythmical rhyming text charts the process of building a house - and has a surprise in store at the end. Part of the Snapdragon series.
Tom
Thumb And The Football Team
Illustrated by Philippe Dupasquier
isbn 0199195986
A retelling of the traditional story of Tom Thumb, but in this version Tom Thumb is the inventor of table football - and King Arthur becomes a fan!
Dick
Whittington
Illustrated by Nick Schon
isbn 0199196133
The traditional pantomime and English national story about pig boy Dick Whittington going to London to find his fortune. It's only when he has the help of a cat that he achieves his ambitions.
Sister
Ella
Illustrated by Jane Bottomley
isbn 0199192731
What if Cinderella didn't tell the truth and actually it was the step sisters she labelled as 'ugly' who were actually nicer and Ella who was the spoilt one? This is the journal written by one of those sisters. Pages at the back tell about what life was like in the eighteenth century.
Snooty
Prune
Illustrated by Peter Kavanagh
isbn 0199185743
Prunella doesn't like her name or the way she looks, so when she tries to get a friend by writing to a pen pal club she makes herself sound more interesting than she really is. But she mightn't be the only one playing that game!
Hamper's
Great Escape
Illustrated by Caroline Holden
isbn 0199169063
Clare and Sam's hamster escapes. They need to find it quickly because Gran (or is it Grandad?) is scared stiff of mice.
Nelly Paints A Monster
Illustrated by Louise Gardner
isbn 0199156352
Nelly paints a monster that comes alive. But can you see another story happening in the pictures as well?
Buy pack including Nelly from Amazon
Bath Time (isbn
0199156301)
Lunch Time (isbn
019915631X)
Hiding (isbn 0199156328)
Illustrated by Charlie Anne Turner
Poor old Fred has tricks played on him by the animals at the zoo.
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