News and Features
Dylan’s Park, The Angry Book, Stay! and I am an Illustrator nominated for 2027 Carnegie Medal
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Graffeg are proud to announce that four of our children’s titles, Dylan’s Park, The Angry Book, Stay! and I am an Illustrator, have been nominated for the 2027 Carnegie Medal for Illustration.
Awarded by children’s librarians, the Carnegies are the UK’s longest running and best-loved children’s book awards, recognising outstanding reading experiences created through writing and illustration in books written in English for children and young people.
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Dylan's Park
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Written entirely using Dylan Thomas’s words, Dylan’s Park by Helen Docherty and Thomas Docherty tells of a childhood adventure through a local park. The text is largely taken from Dylan’s Reminiscences of Childhood radio broadcast, with other excerpts taken from another radio broadcast, Return Journey and his poem ‘Should Lanterns Shine’.
Helen has skilfully edited Thomas’s words to create a playful story of his own memories of Cwmdonkin Park as well as an inspiring story of a child’s imagination and the adventures they can have. -
The Angry Book
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The Angry Book is an interactive picture book by Howard Pearlstein and James Munro which features the book itself as the main character. At first, the book is too angry to tell its story, so it tries different techniques to try to calm down, discussing why some techniques are not as helpful as others.
The Angry Book provides a unique way of showing young children ways that they can calm down that don’t involve lashing out physically, including moving your body, deep breathing and counting. The Angry Book also helps aid discussions at home or in the classroom about different things that can make you angry and the challenges of dealing with big emotions.
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Stay!
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The debut book by Fran Harlow and Ellie McKenna, Stay!, sees Deefer, an obedient dog, being told to ‘stay’ by his owner, which he dutifully does. He waits patiently while life goes on around him, but as the day goes on, there is no sign of his owner’s return. Then, something wonderful happens – Niko and his mum spot Deefer alone and decide to take him home and look after him.
A perfect book for anyone who is adopting their own family pet, Stay! displays the joy rehoming pets can bring to both children and their pets.
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I am an Illustrator
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Inspired by her own experiences as an illustrator, Kertu Sillaste has written and illustrated I am an Illustrator to give children an insight into what everyday life as an illustrator looks like. Combining the challenges of struggling to find creativity and finding the best way to represent an author’s story in pictures with the joys of seeing books come to life with your illustrations and receiving praise, this book perfectly balances the difficulties and delights of the life of an illustrator and presents this rarely discussed profession as an exciting and diverse career option for children.
Graffeg Publishing Director Matthew Howard says, ‘Graffeg are delighted to have four books nominated for next year’s Carnegie Medal for Illustration. Given the depth of talent available in book publishing right now, for an independent publisher like Graffeg to receive multiple nominations is something we’re rather blown away by, to be honest!’
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