The Wizards of Once: Book 1

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But he's not afraid of the spell at all. In fact, he wants them to come... and that is not a good sign! Xar's little companion Squeezjoos is in terrible danger and badly needs saving. Nestlé Children’s Book Prize, Gold Award, 0–5 years category: That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown by Cressida Cowell & Neal Layton (Orchard Books) [15]

Fans of How To Train Your Dragon who have been waiting for Cressida Cowell's new series will not be disappointed. Wizards, warriors, magic and two fab new mini heroes. * Weekly Scoop *On top of all that, there's real wisdom here about how adults need to take responsibility to sort out the world, which is timely in this era of children protesting against climate change. A great finale to a great series. Both Xar and Wish have recognizable and relatable human flaws, but are brave and curious and active. Wish is an active girl protagonist. Though both have parents who are disapproving, the kids follow their own lights and prove their mettle. Though they start out enemies, they are open to each other and become loyal friends.

Oh, it’s such a lovely thing. I’m really hoping that it will do for children what going to these places did for me, which is to spark their imagination and get them thinking about writing their own stories about these places. I hope that it will bring everything alive for children.You can be inspired by your own experiences. Ideas I had about Vikings and dragons during summer holidays when I was 9 years old became 12 books, and a film and TV series. I had a slightly unusual childhood (I spent my summers on an uninhabited Scottish Island), but the world we all live in is full of extraordinary, wonderful idea for stories. You only have to watch an episode of Blue Planet to see that’s true.

Take your child on a magical journey or let them explore their own with this magic list of magic books about magic. Illustration is beautiful, fun and accessible, and offers another way to read a story! If you're struggling to find illustrated books for older children, then try some of these: all brilliant stories that are brilliantly illustrated... When Cressida wasn’t on the island, she was going to school at Marlborough College in Wiltshire where she met and became close friends with Lauren Child, a fellow author/illustrator and the creator of TV’s Charlie and Lola. Cressida and Lauren remain close friends. Indeed Lauren is godmother to Cressida’s daughter Clemmie. Funny, thoughtful, lively and suprisingly wise, it is another coup for Cowell. * The Sunday Times Ireland * How to Train Your Dragon has now been published in over thirty languages. Film rights were sold to DreamWorks Animation in 2003 for a substantial sum and the filmed version was released into cinemas in March 2010. The 3D animated film from the studio that created Shrek, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda, was directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois (the directors of Lilo and Stich) and produced by Bonnie Arnold (who produced Toy Story).For Wizards of Once, I was wanting to have a personification of evil magic. And I just couldn’t think of a better word than ‘witch’ because it carries such weight. The word ‘witch’… suddenly you’re thinking of the witches in The Wizard of Oz, for example. Because we’ve got such a history of believing in terrifying witches in the past, I think it’s the associations that that word carries. I was very careful to make the witches both male and female because I don’t approve of how witches are often made out to be only female! I could have gone another way but that’s what I chose the witches to personify. I do a lot of research into real things to make you think that the imaginary things are true. That goes for the drawings as well as the plots and the stories. I’ll discover that Vikings discovered America way before Christopher Columbus. And so I’ll think ‘oh, that’s very interesting. Maybe I can make Hiccup (from How to Train Your Dragon) go to America?’