Tuesday 2 April 2013

Keeping an eye on Big Picture Press (an imprint of Templar Publishing)

Big Picture Press - Officially launching in September 2013
We're excited, no correct that, we're ridiculously excited to have been given the chance to look at some early mock ups of upcoming Templar imprint Big Picture Press's first batch of books and as you'd expect from a publisher that regularly tops the children's best sellers lists, and consistently hits our 'book of the week' slot because of the sheer quality of their books, they're a mite special.

Attracting some of the children's publishing industry's best talent, you'd be right to be expecting very good quality children's picture books - but more than just being lookers, these books are stimulating and thought provoking titles that should keep your little ones very busy indeed when they start hitting shelves.

Goodie Goodie Yum Yum!
We took a look at Mamoko, The Goods, Accessorize and A Walk Around The World, four books from the range that give you a taste of things to come.

Mamoko is utterly brilliant. A wordless picture book that introduces a fantastic cast of animal characters (your children will undoubtedly find a favourite amongst them) and lets you trace their pictorial journey through the book's beautifully detailed and utterly busy double spreads. It reminded us of the brilliant Richard Scarry books, as animals go about their business in a thronging world full of things to discover.

The Goods sounds pretty ambitious to us. A gathering together of some serious writing and illustration talent in a magazine-style format that is as hectic and frenetic as your children themselves. Featuring the likes of Oliver Jeffers, Jon Klassen and a host of other favourites, expect great things of "The Goods" when it launches.

Accessorize is a sticker fanatic's dream, tons and tons of stickers to apply to interesting layouts and pictures with a serious style and fashion slant. If your kids are obsessed with clothes and accessories, they're going to love this to bits.

Last but by no means least there's a truly stunning lift the flap book called "A Walk Around The World" which is so beautifully illustrated and again, like Mamoko, super-detailed, it's great for younger and older children with some superb panels and a ton of flaps to lift (our copy demanded some seriously sharp fingernails though, hoping that the final version has easier to lift flaps as we really didn't want to damage it and it was very tricky to lift all the various bits).

Of the range, we are going to comfortably predict that Mamoko will be the big hitter. Wordless story books work on children in a way that other children's picture books can't match, stimulating their imaginations and letting them run with their own little stories. We'll review this one nearer the time but take our word for it, you're going to love it a lot.

Keep a beady eye out for that eye-logo for Big Picture Press. It's going to become a symbol of quality without a doubt.