There Was An Old Sailor

This playful, rhyming picture book offers a fresh and fun new take on the song “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.” In Claire Saxby’s telling, a white-bearded, big-bellied sailor sets things in motion by swallowing a krill. He then goes on to swallow progressively larger sea creatures, each meant to catch the preceding one.

Romance De El Conde Olinos

This story is about two individuals that cared for each other. It starts with “El Conde Olinos” singing to his horse while he gives him water, on the shores of the sea. The queen hears him and encourages her daughter to listen to the song. The girl innocently reveals the name of the singer, uncovering some loves that are not to the taste of the mother who announces, “ I will send him to kill”. Their threats are fulfilled, and the two lovers die. But the lovers become two birds that will fly together.

Billy The Goat’s Big Breakfast

Nat the Cat is making a delicious breakfast for her friends to share, but a bit of her homemade bread dough is missing! Billy the Goat was too hungry to wait and now his tummy has started to swell …Jez Alborough’s signature rhyme and humor make this gentle cautionary tale a tasty treat!

Peck, Peck, Peck

Pecking his way through the door of a house, an intrepid little woodpecker busily raps on a rhyming sequence of indoor objects, from a hat and a mat and a racket and jacket to a teddy bear and a book called Jane Eyre.

Maria Had a Little Llama

In this bilingual version of the classic rhyme, Maria takes her llama to school one day. Gouache and ink.

A Straight Line To My Heart

School is out forever, and Tiff is hoping her job at the local paper will lead to something more… But ‘The Shark’ soon puts her straight on what it takes to become a hard-nosed reporter like him. At home, Reggie – the only grandad she’s ever known – has quit the smokes and diagnosed himself as cactus. Then her best friend, Kayla, hits her with some big news. And into all this stumbles Davey, the first boy who really wants to know her. Tiff is smart with words and rarely does tears, but in one short week she discovers that words don’t always get you there and don’t let you say all the stuff from deep in your heart. A funny, poignant, heartwarming story of first love, first job, friends, family and the inevitability of change in the first summer out of school.

Featured in Volume VI, Issue 2 of WOW Review.

Tūtū Nēnē The Hawaiian Mother Goose

“Tutu Nene: The Hawaiian Mother Goose Rhymes” features classic nursery tales with a local twist. Little Miss Muffet who sat on a tuffet becomes Little Miss Aku who sat on a pohaku (rock), Mary and her little lamb become Malia and her little mo’o (gecko), the itsy bitsy spider becomes the itsy bitsy bufo (frog) and much more.