books – Page 2 – Chicken and Frog Bookshop

The Apprentice Witch

Posted on July 10, 2016July 10, 2016 by chickenandfrog

This week we were lucky enough to spend the whole day with newly published author, James Nicol. James’ book, The Apprentice Witch, is a perfect read for anyone who loves The Worst Witch:

Arianwyn is prepared to become a fully fledged witch, but the dull bronze disc of an apprentice attached to her lapel is a constant reminder that her assessment didn’t go quite to plan. So she’s sent to protect the remote, dreary town of Lull. Her new life is far from boring though. As Arianwyn struggles to control her spells, a mysterious darkness begins to haunt her…what’s really going on?

We can’t recommend this book highly enough. You need to read it!

Back to Wednesday! James visited Ingatestone and Fryerning in the morning, joined us for a bookshop picnic and then went on to Larchwood Primary for the afternoon. If you ever get the chance to meet James, please don’t pass it up. His energy and enthusiasm about books (not just his own, as James is also a librarian and former bookseller) is infectious. Beware though teachers, as you will not be passive audience members if James flies by your school!

Witchy goings on. — Witchy goings on – that teacher looks a little out of sorts.

Thank-you to James, Chicken House Books and the great children at Larchwood Primary and Ingatestone and Fryerning Juniors.

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The Box of Demons

Posted on June 20, 2016June 20, 2016 by chickenandfrog

This year is the 10th year of Independent Bookshop Week, fondly referred to as IBW. As I am sure I have quipped before, every week is IBW for us, but it is great to have a national campaign behind us, supporting the work that we do.

To celebrate this year, we have organised two author events. The first was with Daniel Whelan on Saturday 18th June. If you missed Daniel, you missed a joyous afternoon, but never fear, for Daniel kindly signed editions of The Box of Demons before leaving us. In fact, we have the last two copies of the limited edition hard back that could be tracked down!

Daniel talked to a very enthusiastic crowd about his creative process, before setting the children the 90 second challenge of drawing their own demons and then naming them. The children’s imaginations were fantastic, with lots of wonderful ideas appearing on the page.

We would like to publicly thank Daniel and his lovely wife, Sylwia, for taking the time to travel to Brentwood for the afternoon, especially as Daniel actually flew in from Sweden just for us. Somehow the box of chocolates we had rustled up didn’t quite seem to match Daniel’s generosity!

Here are a few pics of the afternoon,

Natasha, Daniel and Jim: Superhero Poses!

We will continue to celebrate this week with Elmer as our book of choice for Rhythm, Rhyme and Story Time on Thursday at 10:00am. Children who come along for English tuition this week with Natasha will be taking part in the Phoenix Comic Creation Workshops and the week will round off with local author, Josie Dom on Saturday 25th at 3:30pm.

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The Perks of Being a Bookseller: Part 2

Posted on May 20, 2016 by chickenandfrog

This will be quick and I have already shared the photographs on social media, but as I am still smiling about the event this morning, I thought I’d share just once more. So, last night I pootled off to Walker Books to listen to a presentation about their amazing new list. It is, quite simply, stunning. Readers are in for a treat and a half!

However, my main reason for going into London after a long day was the chance to meet the one and only Helen Oxenbury. And I did! Not only did I meet her, but Helen very kindly signed my copy of Alice in Wonderland, which she illustrated. That would have been enough for me, but then, Helen noticed my arms and began quite a thorough inspection of my Alice in Wonderland inspired ink.

I grinned (like the Cheshire Cat), all the way home.

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#IBW2016

Posted on April 30, 2016April 30, 2016 by chickenandfrog

I know, I know, another hashtag. Kids these days…but this hashtag is a very important one. It’s for Independent Bookshop Week, which is coming up in June. We love #IBW because it highlights the wonderful independent bookshops across the UK (including us of course) and the authors and illustrators who share their genius with us.

This year we are just a little bit excited to announce that we have not one, but two author events taking place here at Chicken and Frog.

Just yesterday afternoon we received confirmation that Daniel Whelan, of The Box of Demons fame will be kicking off the week with us, on Saturday 18th June! That’s all we know so far, but to say we’re thrilled is an understatement. As soon as we know more, we’ll pass it on.

And the end of the week will be celebrated with a local author, Josi Dom. Details of Josi’s event can be found here. We’re also taking Josi into a local primary school, so it’s all go!

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Shelf Talkers

Posted on April 27, 2016April 27, 2016 by chickenandfrog

We’ve finally got around to placing some shelf talkers around the shop. If you don’t know what a shelf talker is, they look like this:

They’re a great way of recommending a favourite title (although we find it very difficult to choose). Yesterday we put up three in our fiction section, using the amazing Dyslexi font. And then one of our lovely customers pointed out, that to make them more dyslexic-friendly, we should use yellow paper, so we have:

If you have a book recommendation that you’d like to share, pass it on and we’ll add it to one of the shelf talkers. Happy reading!

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A Spring Clean

Posted on April 21, 2016 by chickenandfrog

Welcome to another sunny day! If we don’t say too much about it, then maybe the spring weather will stay.

This is a quick post to highlight the changes that we have made to our website. We’ve taken away a few pages that didn’t really serve any purpose and had a bit of a tidy of the remaining pages. In particular, the Home Page now features regular recommendations, including picture books, Middle Grade, YA and non-fiction. We’d love to hear your views on our recommendations and if you have a firm favourite that you think is worth a mention, just let us know and we’ll see what we can do!

Enjoy!

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A Spring in Our Step

Posted on April 13, 2016 by chickenandfrog

Good morning dear reader. The sun is here and with it, a spring like feel has crept into the air. There is no doubt that sunshine can do wonders for your mood and whilst nothing much else has changed, the turn in weather has been enough to re-energise us for the coming months.

So, what do we have planned? Well, quite a lot actually! Within the next few weeks, we are welcoming two local authors to Chicken and Frog, for reading and book signing sessions. First up is Karen Chilvers, who is a well known local Councillor, but did you know that she is also a children’s author? Karen’s gorgeous dog, Bailey is the star of the show, in this sweet tale of friendship.

Following on from Karen, in May, is Emma McNally. The Cloudosaurus Rex is for children aged 3 to 6 years and perfect for those who love to join in with actions and rhyming verse – you can even bring along your pet dinosaurs, as long as they are house-trained.

As well as these planned author bookshop events, we have our regular Creative Writing, Book and Handwriting & Fine Motor Skills Clubs on offer.

And we have been busily working away, organising author events in schools, with Nikki Sheehan, James Nicol, Gary Nott and Sara Grant.

Not enough? Ok, well, we’ve also been putting the finishing touches to the Brentwood Children’s Literary Festival, which kicks off with an exclusive visit for students of Shenfield High School and Brentwood County High School, with the one and only Laura Dockrill.

Phew! Now I need to find a lovely sunny spot, curl up with a cuppa and a good book, or two.

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#HarryPotterBookNight

Posted on February 7, 2016 by chickenandfrog

What a magical afternoon we had yesterday! This week marked the second Harry Potter Book Night – technically it was Thursday, but as we tutor after school it made sense to shift our celebrations along to Saturday.

As last year was far busier than anticipated, we asked people to book in this time, so that we could be fully prepared. And oh boy, I’m pleased that we did, as we managed to squeeze in over 40 children plus parents. It was a little warm by the end of the afternoon!

This year the theme was potions and charms, so we decided to create our own potions books. Here’s some of the Hogwarts’ students crafting away,

There were all sorts of potions invented, from invisibility to knowledge. The young wizards and witches took to potions very well.

As well as the books, all of the children were sorted into their Houses, sung the Hogwarts Song and took part in the incredibly difficult quiz. Hats off to Ravenclaw, the winning house this year…it was close though, so let’s see what happens next year.

Mr Frog and I created something rather nifty, so that the children could pose for a crazed photograph. Here are a few suspicious looking characters:

Although Harry Potter Book Night celebrates the books, rather than the films, in honour of Alan Rickman, who will always be Snape, “Always.”

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Write away

Posted on January 18, 2016 by chickenandfrog

Welcome to the 4th annual writing Competition from Chicken and Frog. We’re keeping it simple this year:

We look forward to reading your entries!

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Farewell 2015, Hello 2016.

Posted on December 31, 2015December 31, 2015 by chickenandfrog

As page 365 of 2015 reaches its final paragraph, we would like to take this opportunity to wish one and all a very happy, healthy and peaceful New Year.

The year ahead promises to be a bookish affair, with the 150th anniversary of The Jungle Book, Harry Potter Book Night, World Book Day, the centenary of Roald Dahl and the launch of a certain Brentwood Children’s Literary Festival. As well as all of that, we will be welcoming authors into the shop and schools, plus helping schools with their book orders, running our tuition centre, Book Club, Creative Writing Club and of course, ringing in the New Year to the sound of Lego.

So, until next year dear readers…may your book collection grow ever more interesting.