Tag: Lisa Thompson

Cover Reveal & Book Giveaway! Owen and the Soldier: Lisa Thompson (Illustrated by Mike Lowery) – Out 15th June 2019!

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I’m absolutely delighted to be able to reveal the cover of Lisa Thompson‘s new novella, Owen and the Soldier (illustrated by Mike Lowery) which will be published on 15th June 2019 by Barrington Stoke.

I’m also super happy because the very lovely people at Barrington Stoke have given me three proof copies of Owen and the Soldier to give away! Find out more below!

Owen and the Soldier – Lisa Thompson
(Cover illustration: Mike Lowery)

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Owen and his mum are struggling. It’s just the two of them now and they’re finding it difficult to ask for the help they need.

When Owen discovers a crumbling stone soldier in a memorial garden in the local park, it feels like he finally has someone he can talk to. But the town council can’t see how important the soldier is and they want to remove him.

Owen’s so scared that he’ll be left on his own again, but can he find the courage he needs to save the soldier before it’s too late?

  • Written with sensitivity and honesty, this title deals with various important subjects including depression, loss, young carers and anxiety, within a package that is approachable for younger readers.

  • Lisa Thompson has quickly become a staple of bookshops and a high-pro le name in the industry with her critically acclaimed and bestselling novels The Goldfish Boy and The Light Jar.
  • Featuring cover artwork from illustration star Mike Lowery, Owen and the Soldier is designed with commercial appeal and to complement Lisa’s other novels.

  • Barrington Stoke’s biggest ever proof mailing to capitalise on the author’s massive popularity and reputation.

Publisher: Barrington Stoke Ltd
ISBN: 9781781128657
Number of pages: 96

From Lisa Thompson:

“It has been an absolute joy to work with Barrington Stoke on Owen and the Soldier. I’m incredibly proud of this novella and I can’t wait to share it with readers and hear their thoughts!”

From Ailsa Bathgate, Barrington Stoke Editorial Director:

“Lisa Thompson’s work is captivating and compelling. She writes wonderfully empathetic stories about ordinary children who are going through a tough time and makes you care deeply about what happens to them. She has brought all her compassion and insight to Owen and the Soldier, and I feel excited and proud to bring her voice to our readers.”

Lisa Thompson

Lisa Thompson is the bestselling author of The Goldfish Boy, The Light Jar and The Day I Was Erased. The Goldfish Boy was a Waterstones Children’s Book of the Month and was nominated for the Carnegie Medal, the Branford Boase Award and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. Before becoming a novelist, Lisa worked as a broadcast assistant for BBC Radio 2 and CPL Productions, where she says she made tea for lots of famous people. Lisa lives in Suffolk with her family and a very large rabbit called Teddy.

You can find out more about Lisa on her website or by following her on Twitter: @lthompsonwrites.

Mike Lowery

(Image 1 credit: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/kids/doodle-adventures-author-mike-lowery-on-using-comics-to-reach-reluctant-readers/)
(Image 2 credit: https://www.instagram.com/mikelowerystudio/?hl=en)

 

Mike Lowery is an author and artist living in Atlanta, Georgia with a beautiful German lady named Katrin and his incredibly genius daughter, Allister. Mike’s work has been seen on everything from greetings cards to dozens of children’s books to gallery walls all over the world. 

Mike has had the enormous pleasure to work on a TON of books, including the New York Time’s best selling series “Mac B, Kid Spy” written by Mac Barnett.  You can check out his other books here:  MIKE LOWERY’S BOOKS

His illustration clients include: Scholastic, Dial Books for Young Readers, workman publishing, hallmark, simon and schuster, random house, walker books for young readers, Nick Jr magazine, gallison/mudpuppy, GP Putnam and Sons, Viking, macmillan, georgia pacific, American Greetings, Disney, Kids Can Press, as well as many Graphic Design and Advertising Agencies.  He now travels nationally giving talks about art and books to schools, universities and bookstores.

He has been featured/interviewed in the Washington Post, Creative Loafing, the Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, the Washington City Paper and many others and a few years back he showed 16 of his tiny drawings in a show in Beijing.

 

You can find out more about Mike on his website or by following him on Instagram: @mikelowerystudio.

 

Pre-order: Owen and the Soldier is available to pre-order online at Waterstones or from any good independent bookshop.

Big thanks to Lisa, Kirstin and all at Barrington Stoke for giving me the wonderful opportunity to reveal this beautiful cover! I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy!

Mr E

Giveaway!

The very lovely people at Barrington Stoke have kindly given me three proof copies of Owen and the Soldier to give away!

Owen and the Soldier_RGB

If you’d like to be in with a chance of being one of the first people to read this superb-sounding story, simply retweet (RT) this tweet!

Proof copies will be sent to winners when available from Barrington Stoke, as soon as possible.

Review: The Light Jar – Lisa Thompson (Illustrated by Mike Lowery)

2 Comments

‘A deeply original mystery so tenderly told in the most profound, sensitive, intricate, authentic and moving of ways.’

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Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Title: The Light Jar
Author: Lisa Thompson (@lthompsonwrites)
Illustrator (Cover): Mike Lowery (@mikelowerystudio)
Publisher: Scholastic (@scholasticuk)
Page count: 240
Date of publication: 4th January 2018
Series status: N/A
ISBN: 978-1407171289

Perfect for Year 6 & Year 7.

#3Words3Emojis:
1.Enlightening 💡
2. Heart-rending 💓
3. Rousing ☺️

The first line

I love Mum’s tunnel-singing trick.

In the dead of night, Nate and his mum run away to a tumbledown cottage in the middle of a forest. When Mum heads off for food and doesn’t return, Nate is left alone and afraid, with shadows closing in all around him. 

But comfort comes from the most unexpected places – a mysterious girl on a cryptic treasure hunt, and the surprising reappearance of someone from his past. 

A story of finding friendship and the strength to light up the dark, from the bestselling author of The Goldfish Boy.

Review: Like a moth attracted to the light, I was instantly drawn to reading The Light Jar due to its intriguing plot however I hadn’t anticipated anything like just how captivating it would end up being. So much so, that I read a whopping 106 pages within the first hour of receiving it!

We first encounter Nate and his mum hurriedly speeding off in the car in the middle of the night towards their idea of salvation in the form of an abandoned and ramshackle cottage, belonging to a dearly loved family member’s deceased friend, only having been visited previously infrequently by Nate and his family.

So many questions follow from Nate during the trip.
So many questions, that unfortunately for him, just can’t seem to be answered by Mum.

From the opening page, we start to sense that something is not quite right and on arrival at the cottage, this is when we really begin to feel for Nate as he himself becomes increasingly aware of the fact that something is not quite right either. And when they start to explore their supposed place of solace, that too is not quite as homely as they had imagined it would be.

Desperately seeking provisions after one night’s stay, Mum heads off in search of a place to buy food however her return never materialises leaving Nate all alone to swallow in his new surroundings. Doubt, despair and darkness creep in.

Anxiously fending for himself whilst fighting his fears of the shadows, Nate slowly whiles away the time by reading his well-thumbed book, hoping his magic ball will give him all the answers he so desperately needs and trying his best to avoid the only thing that resembles any indication of life in the place: a scrawny chicken.    

But as time ticks away, and trepidation ensues and the hours turn in to days, Nate soon becomes distracted by the reappearance of an imaginary friend (Sam) and also entangled in an unsolved treasure hunt led by a girl (Kitty) and her cryptic riddles, who doesn’t really seem to belong in the real world either. Sam and Kitty soon develop in to Nate’s companions and confidants – acting as Nate’s closest humanly equivalents to the lights from his light jar – who try to guide, console and feed him through the remaining nights. Whether they’re just being nice, playing devil’s advocate with Nate’s conscience or they are just as lonely as Nate himself remains to be found out…

The story’s many layers continue to unravel themselves to allude to and reveal elements of the troubling home life and the manipulative, coercive and damaging behaviour of his mum’s emotionally-abusive new partner together with the lingering control he progressively possesses over Nate, his mother, his social life and even the fixtures and fittings of his own house.

Yet as you read on, there’s this innate sense of unburdening hope; optimism; faith; belief; warmth; courage; strength and character that shines through to the very end and that is what will stay with me from reading this story. That even after adversity, if you’ve got something to hold on to and can grasp even a glimpse of positivity then that can sometimes feel like the most powerful feeling in the world as Helen Keller once said “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart”.

Like the lights in the light jar offer Nate some comfort, attachment, reassurance and relief from the situations he finds himself in, The Light Jar could potentially highlight and raise awareness of personal, social and emotional (PSHE) issues in an appropriate classroom context leading to powerful discussions; promoting deep questioning and high levels of inference. However, whenever approaching emotive topics within the classroom, caution is to be evidently advised and sensitivity considered. So whilst I highly recommend this book for its thought-provoking and empathetic qualities, teachers contemplating using it should – as they should with all books they choose to use – ensure that they pre-read it to decide on its suitability for their class of children.

Lisa not only does it once again after the richly deserved success of The Goldfish Boy – leaving devoted fans of The Goldfish Boy feeling only ever so slightly disappointed if it means they will have to replace that as their favourite read with this (as I now have to do!). Once more, she achieves it so well in such an understated manner handling yet another intangible and complex issue in such a way that is both highly accessible and as relatable as it can be to readers, which to me is one of the highest forms of writing.

Thank you to Lisa Thompson and Lorraine Keating at Scholastic UK for sending me an early copy of this beautifully-written book.

The Light Jar is available to order now online or from any good bookshop.

‘A deeply original mystery so tenderly told in the most profound, sensitive, intricate, authentic and moving of ways.’

Mr E
📚

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