Two Animal Tales from Africa

Two-animal-tales-for-webTwo traditional tales about the wild animals of Africa, beautifully illustrated.

‘The Water Thief’ is about the mischievous antics of Hyena and how all the animals fail to stop him – except one. Who is clever enough to outwit him?

‘Lumbwi and the Gazelle’ tells of a moving friendship between a man and a beautiful gazelle. But when Lumbwi embarks on a new life he no longer has time for his old friend …

 

 

Illustrated by Daniele Fabbri

Some pages from the book

[published by HarperCollins: Collins Big Cat]

Frankenstein

FRANKENSTEIN-for-web-c

 

Frankenstein is known for creating a truly terrifying monster. But things are not always as they seem. Was Frankenstein’s creature always monstrous? Or did his life and loneliness change him?

 

A retelling of Mary Shelley’s classic tale of a scientist’s overwhelming ambition – and his dangerous blindness to the consequences of his actions.

 

 

Frankenstein-003-c

Illustrated by Rohan Eason

 

 

Here’s a short extract. Frankenstein begins to tell his story  …  

 ‘What I’ll tell you now will fill you with horror and fear. You’ll know of the terrible events that led me here, to this land of ice, searching for that demon you’ve seen.

You see, my friend, I was aflame with one idea, one purpose.

That to understand life, you must first understand death.

******

So began days and nights in dismal burial places, looking at the dead, studying how human bodies decay. I haunted these joyless places, until in the midst of darkness a blinding light broke into my mind.

I discovered how life itself begins. There came the day when I was able to make life, out of death, to make dead, lifeless matter alive again.

I went to graveyards, mortuaries, the dissecting rooms of hospitals. In secret, I gathered the dead matter I’d need.

Oh, the horrors of this awful, secret work!

******

I didn’t eat or sleep. My dream consumed me: to conjure life – out of death.

Oh, my friend! If only I’d known …

******

some pages from the book

 

[Frankenstein published by HarperCollins: Collins Big Cat]

Greedy Anansi and his Three Cunning Plans

076724-FCT-for-web-c

Crafty spider Anansi’s greed and cunning don’t always get him what he wants.

 

Inspired by three traditional tales told in several parts of Africa and the Caribbean.

 

Illustrated by Alexander Jansson

 

 

 

[published by HarperCollins: Collins Big Cat]

Shakespeare’s Stories

shakespeare-stories-for-webbc

Five of Shakespeare’s best-loved plays, retold  for young readers as stories.

ROMEO AND JULIET

MACBETH

TWELFTH NIGHT

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

JULIUS CAESAR

  Illustrated by James Mayhew

Some of James’s illustrations

an extract from Macbeth

Sunless mists turned about the place, and rocks crouched low beneath a rumbling thunder. Into the circle of the gloom they came, twisting figures woven in the air; and with them came dark whisperings:

‘When shall we three meet again, in thunder, lightning or in rain?’

Hoarse with a poisonous hate, the answer lingered.

‘When the hurlyburly’s done; when the battle’s lost … and won.’

The sodden earth began to tremble …

‘That will be before the set of sun.’

‘Where the place?’

‘Upon the heath.’ A curdling wail rose through the air, as though a thousand wretched creatures were imprisoned in that moaning place.

‘There to meet with Macbeth!’ The final venomous shriek swept from the writhing shadows low across the heather and then up, up into the eye of a blackly gathering storm …

 

‘True to the power and poetry of the original plays, these dramatic retellings will help attract the reluctant and the intimidated to the pleasures of Shakespeare.’

Booklist


‘Superbly retold’

 The Young Reader

 

‘Highly recommended’

The Book Report

 

‘all the wonder is retained and the difficulty lessened’

 Meadowcreek Learning Resources Centre


‘captures the power and humour of the original plays’

Educational Media & Technology


‘highly satisfactory means of introducing children to Shakespeare … tackles the central issues with great clarity and discretion’

Sunday Times


‘I’ve always been opposed to condensation and simplification of great works of literature. As a remedial reading teacher, I refused to have my students use versions of great books that were ‘written down’ … but here Birch has won me over completely.’

 Kliatt Paperback Guide

[published by Hodder Children’s Books]

Shakespeare’s Tales

SHAKESPEARES-TALES-for-webbc

HAMLET

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

OTHELLO

THE TEMPEST

Illustrations by Stephen Lambert

Some of Stephen’s illustrations

extract from The Tempest

… an old face, etched with the lines of time and scored with a lifetime’s wisdom. In his eyes there were glimmerings, flickerings, mysterious lights that echoed the silver of his hair and beard: gold, like the gold of a sunrise yet to come, red, like the fire that had consumed the ship, blue, like the sea seared by the lightning’s flash.

In his eyes there was a story yet untold. It stirred angrily within him as he watched the dying ship.

He wore a robe, dark, rich and heavy. The garment swayed, a strange, rhythmic movement of deep folds like secret caverns ripe with mysteries: fear, hope, knowledge, all were woven deep within its fabric, for there was magic in the web of it.

In his hand the old man held a staff, a gnarled wooden stick. Yet it was more, much more. It waited in his hand, as though it rested, as though no more than thought, no more than an eyelid’s wink would fire its length with secret power. At his side there lay a book, red-bound and heavy, its pages worn with use, thumbed, scored, and learned, for they were pages saturated with the secrets of the enchanter’s art.


‘True to the power and poetry of the original plays, these dramatic retellings will help attract the reluctant and the intimidated to the pleasures of Shakespeare.’

Booklist


‘Superbly retold’

 The Young Reader

 

‘Highly recommended’

The Book Report

 

‘all the wonder is retained and the difficulty lessened’

 Meadowcreek Learning Resources Centre

 

‘captures the power and humour of the original plays’

Educational Media & Technology

[published by Hodder Children’s Books]

Gulliver’s Travels

GULLIVERS-TRAVELS021Gulliver is shipwrecked and washed ashore on the exotic island of Lilliput – where the people are small enough to fit into the palm of a man’s hand. It’s just the start of Gulliver’s unbelievable adventure.

A retelling of one of the most exciting fantasy stories ever written – Jonathan’s Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.
This is only the first part of Gulliver’s marvellous travels. Later voyages take him to the land of the giants, to a flying island, and finally to a land of talking horses.

 

Illustrated by David Roberts

 

some pages from the book

[Gulliver’s Travels published by Hodder Wayland]