Nicola Walker Books

there are a lot of "good" children's books out there. this is one of the handful of "great" ones.

it's extremely humane writing with quiet humor far removed from the "snark" common in many contemporary children's books.

it's also mercifully free of any ham-fisted "lesson".

while it doesn't really remind me of "The Wind in the Willows", that's the only other children's book i can think of offhand that stayed with me like this one did.

Although it is a long book for a 2 year old, my 28 month old son will listen to the entire book and he loves the illustrations. It is a great bedtime book for him. He doesn't ask to read it like he does the other books, but he listens very intently to this one. The book is lovely - I highly recommend it.

A wonderful story with beautiful pictures. If it doesn't warm your heart, you're not human! It is so good, I've bought a stack of copies to send out as Christmas gifts.

This is an extraordinary book. Antonia Barber has produced a superb story, based on the legend of the Cornish village of Mousehole. Tom is an old fisherman who lives with Mowzer, his cat, who is also aging gracefully. Their lives--organized around fish, firesides, milk, and scratching of ears--fill the first few pages, and then the Great Storm-Cat arrives, howling around the harbor and bottling up the fishing fleet. Food in the village starts to run low. Finally, the day before Christmas, Tom and Mowzer go out to fish together in the teeth of the storm, so that the children of the village should not be hungry on Christmas Day.

The text is powerful--remarkably so for a children's book. But Nicola Bayley's paintings are, if possible, even more astonishing. There is a gorgeous picture of the Great Storm-Cat and Mowzer at sea; fine, characterful pictures of Tom, Mowzer and the village of Mousehole; and among other treasures, one picture that always moves me to tears. Another reviewer said the book made them weep: I know the page they were talking about. It's where Tom and Mowzer sail back to the village, to discover that the villagers have realized they are gone, and are waiting for them.

Enough. It's a beautiful picture. Buy the book, even if you don't have kids, though you'll get far more pleasure from reading this to a child. The language is a little complex for a child under five, but you can simplify as you read. And you'll read it again and again.

When my children were young, this was one of the bedtime stories they loved best. It's particularly good for cat lovers! The illustrations are gorgeous, and the story moves through suspense to a beautiful resolution -- a feast at the end of a storm-tossed fishing trip.

gave this book to my great nephew for christmas and he was surprised and very pleased

My four-year-old son loves this book, and I don't mind reading it twice a night for months on end. The story is vivid and lyrical, and the illustrations are beautiful.

The beautifully written story manages to combine a ton of information about bats with a cute little story, and the illustrations are the best! My little GIRLS love this story and make me read it over and over. It reads like a story but offers information like an encyclopedia.

i agree with the fact that it is a story that reads like an encyclopedia...my boys really like it and it's not so dry that i enjoy reading it again and again to them! beautiful pictures too! just right for my 6 & 4 year olds even when they were 4 & 2!

Nicola writes in such a spare and poetic style that she must capture the imagination of each child who reads it, or has it read to her. She offers facts about this bat breed as she weaves her story, and topped with delicate artwork, it's just perfect.

gave this book to my great nephew for christmas and he was surprised and very pleased

My four-year-old son loves this book, and I don't mind reading it twice a night for months on end. The story is vivid and lyrical, and the illustrations are beautiful.

The beautifully written story manages to combine a ton of information about bats with a cute little story, and the illustrations are the best! My little GIRLS love this story and make me read it over and over. It reads like a story but offers information like an encyclopedia.

i agree with the fact that it is a story that reads like an encyclopedia...my boys really like it and it's not so dry that i enjoy reading it again and again to them! beautiful pictures too! just right for my 6 & 4 year olds even when they were 4 & 2!

Nicola writes in such a spare and poetic style that she must capture the imagination of each child who reads it, or has it read to her. She offers facts about this bat breed as she weaves her story, and topped with delicate artwork, it's just perfect.

We received One Tiny Turtle as part of an "undersea pack" assortment of books from Scholastic, and I wasn't prepared for what an excellent book it turns out to be. Packed with information about the lifecycle of loggerhead turtles, One Tiny Turtle is also graced with lush, dreamy paintings of the loggerhead's undersea world. The text is lyrical and challenging to my young reader ("pinprick nostrils" is one phrase that stood out), but clear and easy for her to follow. It's somewhere between a standard "kids read and find out" book and the kind of thoughtful nature writing you expect from the likes of Rachel Carson -- on a level that works well for kindergarten and young-elementary students.

Highly recommended!

My Reading Olympics team really enjoyed this book.. The illustrations are great and it's a nice story.

There is so much information packed into this work that it is difficult to imagine how the author and illustrator pulled it off. This is the story of the life cycle of the loggerhead turtle. The illustrations are beautiful and actually quite accurate. The text is simple and very, very well done. It follows the illustrations perfectly and is just overflowing with good information. This book, while great for kids to read on their own (this is one of the more used books in our school library), it is also great to read to the class as a whole as it never fails to bring on good questions and good discussions (better know your turtles when faces with a bunch of third graders).

"Far, far out to sea, land is only a memory, and empty sky touches the water. Just beneath the surface is a tangle of weed and driftwood where tiny creatures cling. This is the nursery of a sea turtle" (p. 1-2).

Nicola Davies story of the life of the loggerhead sea turtle, combined with the outstanding illustrations of Jane Chapman, make this an entertaining book on sea turtles for children ages 3-7. The larger text focuses on the story of survival of one loggerhead, while smaller text provides more detailed information. The hardcover book is quite large, making it a great book for holding open and reading to a group of children.

This is one of the nicer books for very young people on sea turtles.

Minor issues:

"Sea turtles are great wanderers, traveling thousands of miles each year, often far from land." Many subadult and adult sea turtles go through periods where they just "hunker down" in their foraging and resting areas. The grand travels tend to be restricted to the times they visit their nesting areas (every 2-4 years) and when they are still growing in those first few "lost years" of pelagic foraging. Leatherbacks, of course, are a real exception, since they always seem to be traveling.

"Not much bigger than a bottle top..." (p. 8). Actually, a hatched loggerhead is never the size of a bottle top, and a growing loggerhead is much bigger. I think a better size reference could have been used here.

"Coming ashore is very risky for sea turtles - they can easily overheat and die. So they only nest at night or in cool weather" (p. 21). I agree coming ashore is risky. But the most important reason is probably avoidance of predation.

Hey, you can't cram everything into a book for young children! I'll use this one in the classroom.

I like this story because it tells me a lot about loggerhead turtles. My favorite part about the story is the interesting fact that turtles cry. I never knew that! Turtles lay one to ten eggs, but at least five live. I learned that. They lay their eggs at night. I like this book because it is a wonderful story about turtles and I think everyone should read it.

This book is a MUST if you are a cat lover. The poetry, writings, and art are great! You can read it over and over and be delighted each time. You can also just skim through the beautiful art when you need to be entertained.

Nicola Bayley's latest is a treat for cat lovers and anyone who enjoys brilliant illustrations. She has combined her love of cats, literature, fine art, and pure charm. If you like any or all of these, then this is for you.

Although she is listed as an illustrator of children's books (The Patchwork Cat is a classic) her skill should rank her along with other great artists.

I recently bought this book and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I too would recommend this book for cat lovers everywhere. My favorite thing in this book is: When In Doubt - Wash It's a wonderful bit contributed by Paul Gallico and speaks volumes about the attitudes of our feline friends. Thumbs up on the illistrations too. Great job!

A wonderfully succinct overview of the blue whale and it's habits.

The clear, sweet prose makes delivery of the content easy, and the very fine, soft illustrations demand repeated veiwing. My Preschool and Kindergarten ESL students found it highly engaging.

If there's a better science and read-aloud book around I'd really like to know about it. TEN stars.

Follow this book up with the superb "Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is?" by Robert E. Wells. Wells' book uses the whales' size as a starting point for exploring the size of the universe and other very big things (the second step involves putting a hundred blue whales in a really big jar). Read my review of Wells' book if you like.

I'm a whale researcher who has spent much of the last 12 years studying blue whales in the North Pacific. I'm also a mom who loves children's literature. Rarely do I see a book that is so accurate factually while it is captivating and magical! The illustrations are beautiful. I highly recommend it to anyone who has children who are facinated by whales.

I love this book. It is fun to browse through (cartoon-like illustrations make it fun). But it is definitely a book chock full of information. How do seals dive so deep and not get the bends? How do frogs survive winter after being frozen like popsicles? Can an organism really survive temperatures exceeding 230 degrees or as low as absolute zero, -459 F? Not only does this little book provide these answers and explanations, it will leave the reader hungry for more mind-blowing revelations about life on this planet, and perhaps on the next. Warning: It will be difficult not to read snippets to whomever is in the room with you.

Lots of people have written about penguins, polar bears, and bacteria--but not this way! Nicola Davies has written stories about the roughest, toughest, baddest animals there are, so funny I was laughing out loud and so good I couldn't put it down.

She brings life to the dullest subjects. Is a sponge an interesting creature? It never was to me, but her account is. She says, "To be honest, even live sponges don't do much. They just sort of sit there and grow. But put one in a blender and you'll see that they do something no other animal can: pour your sponge smoothie back into its seawater home, and it will put itself back together..."

Explanations that are accurate but make sense to a non-scientist (animals with "antifreeze" in their bodies, for example) and deceptively simple illustrations by Neal Layton make this one of my new favorite books.

This is a series of five individual stories about cats who wish to be another animal. The stories are simple to read and wonderfully creative. I originally bought the set for my four children and now read them to my grandchildren. They all love them and want them read over and over again. One four-year-old grandson has them memorized. The illustrations are beautifully done by the author. Her talent in capturing a cat and its antics is wonderful. I highly recommend this collection of little easy-reader books for all ages. They make you smile.

"The Jungle Books" by Rudyard Kipling are adventures of Mowgli and friends. Mowgli is a boy who is kidnapped as a baby by a tiger. He is raised by wolves and taught the laws of the jungle by Baloo the bear and Bagheera the black panther. Mowgli is then kicked out of the wolf pack because of Shere Khan the tiger who swore to kill Mowgli one day. Mowgli learns all the ways of the jungle. He eventually kills Shere Khan. Baloo is a lovable bear who teaches Mowgli the ways of the jungle and how to respect it. Bagheera is a feared and wise black panther who befriends Mowgli in all situations. In "Kaa's Hunting", Mowgli is kidnapped by the Bandar-log monkeys. Monkeys are not highly respected in the jungle community because they have no leader. Baloo and Bagheera seek the help of Kaa the Python to rescue Mowgli. The stories "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" and "The White Seal" have nothing to do with Mowgli and his adventures, but they offer valuable lessons. The lesson in "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" is to trust yourself and the loyalty in friends.
The story "The White Seal" is about Aleuts coming to Novastoshnah every year and skinning hundreds of seals. The only white seal ever born on the island, Kotick, wants to find a new island to stay on, so that the people will not know where to look for the seals. This way no more seals will be killed. Kotick wanders for many years in search of a new island to live on. Once he finds one, he goes back to tell the rest of his herd, but they don't believe him. He challenges one of the other males to a fight and if he wins, they will go with Kotick to the new island. In the end, all the other seals die because none of them would go with him, so he taught them all a lesson.
In "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi", a curious mongoose wanders into a garden. He meets a cobra named Nag. Because mongooses naturally eat snakes, Rikki-Tikki kills Nag. Nagina, Nag's wife gets mad at Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and threatens to bite his owners. Rikki-Tikki crushes all of his eggs in the nest. I liked this story, but didn't like how it didn't tie into the adventures of Mowgli.
In "Toomai of the Elephants", a young boy falls asleep on his elephant. The elephants then march off to a hill far away. Here the boy wakes up to find thousands of elephants all stomping in the same pattern, at the same time. The boy has seen the dance of the elephants. When he returns to his father, he tells him that, but he doesn't believe him. I disliked how that this story also had nothing to do with Mowgli and his adventures.

Rather than being raised by apes, it is wolves that fulfill for the family role for the young boy Mowgli after he escapes being tiger snacks.

Shere Khan will continue to be his antagonist, and he will gain advice and assistance from other jungle denizens as he grows to manhood.

This also has the pretty cool heroic mongoose tale Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.

Though Walt Disney and Enid Blyton are my fav picks for children, The Jungle Book is a nicer read. Mowgli is just a loving character and as an Indian version of the Jungle Book is a fav among kids in Hindi, this is a sure pick for all children. Rudyard Kipling takes kids for a ride to an adventure with thrills and fantasies - it all depends on the taste and choice of read. However, I recommend this book as this is fun read and kids in my library too, love to read and watch The Jungle Book. Enjoy!

- ilaxi

"The Jungle Books" by Rudyard Kipling are adventures of Mowgli and friends. Mowgli is a boy who is kidnapped as a baby by a tiger. He is raised by wolves and taught the laws of the jungle by Baloo the bear and Bagheera the black panther. Mowgli is then kicked out of the wolf pack because of Shere Khan the tiger who swore to kill Mowgli one day. Mowgli learns all the ways of the jungle. He eventually kills Shere Khan. Baloo is a lovable bear who teaches Mowgli the ways of the jungle and how to respect it. Bagheera is a feared and wise black panther who befriends Mowgli in all situations. In "Kaa's Hunting", Mowgli is kidnapped by the Bandar-log monkeys. Monkeys are not highly respected in the jungle community because they have no leader. Baloo and Bagheera seek the help of Kaa the Python to rescue Mowgli. The stories "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" and "The White Seal" have nothing to do with Mowgli and his adventures, but they offer valuable lessons. The lesson in "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" is to trust yourself and the loyalty in friends.
The story "The White Seal" is about Aleuts coming to Novastoshnah every year and skinning hundreds of seals. The only white seal ever born on the island, Kotick, wants to find a new island to stay on, so that the people will not know where to look for the seals. This way no more seals will be killed. Kotick wanders for many years in search of a new island to live on. Once he finds one, he goes back to tell the rest of his herd, but they don't believe him. He challenges one of the other males to a fight and if he wins, they will go with Kotick to the new island. In the end, all the other seals die because none of them would go with him, so he taught them all a lesson.
In "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi", a curious mongoose wanders into a garden. He meets a cobra named Nag. Because mongooses naturally eat snakes, Rikki-Tikki kills Nag. Nagina, Nag's wife gets mad at Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and threatens to bite his owners. Rikki-Tikki crushes all of his eggs in the nest. I liked this story, but didn't like how it didn't tie into the adventures of Mowgli.
In "Toomai of the Elephants", a young boy falls asleep on his elephant. The elephants then march off to a hill far away. Here the boy wakes up to find thousands of elephants all stomping in the same pattern, at the same time. The boy has seen the dance of the elephants. When he returns to his father, he tells him that, but he doesn't believe him. I disliked how that this story also had nothing to do with Mowgli and his adventures.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading these wonderful stories again, and it was a bonus having all of Rudyard Kipling's stories together in one volume. This book has all the Mowgli stories, plus other favourites like "Riki-Tiki-Tav", "Toomai of the Elephants", and many more. Reading these again affirmed my belief of Kipling's great skill as a storyteller. These stories had appeal for me when I was younger, but they have a different appeal for me now. Kipling's descriptions and characterizations are wonderful, and they put the reader right there in the jungle with Mowgli and Bagheera, and all Mowgli's other friends. We who love to read should not forget to read these wonderful stories once in awhile. Modern short story authors still have to go some to even begin to match these classics by a great author.

This is a decently written and constructed combination police procedural and thriller. The basic plot device is the discovery that a skilled solo assassin has infiltrated into Britain, probably with the intention of killing a prominent international leader at a major conference. The story follows the assassin in parallel with the efforts of security agencies to catch her. Older readers will recognize the story line from Frederick Forsythe's Day of the Jackal, published about 30 years ago. If you like Witch Hunt, you should read Forsythe's book, which is signicantly better. Even better, rent or buy a copy of the superior movie version starring Edward Fox and directed by the talented Fred Zinneman. A warning, the movie version should not be confused with a more recent and godawful Hollywood remake titled The Jackal, starring the inexcrable Bruce Willis.

I read a couple of reviews about the book before I got it, and bought it anyway. I found the book to be quite good. I enjoyed the characters very much, and enjoyed the dynamic between the witch and her primary pursuer. The motivation for the witch is questionable, but nonetheless, the writing made this book very readable.

The ending was extremely poignant.

I recommend it for a nice, just before bedtime read.

Others have compared it to "The Day of the Jackal" and I would have to agree. Not one of Rankin's "Edinburgh" series, this was originally written under a pseudonym (Jack Harvey) and is a Special Services thriller. It begins with a bang -- literally -- off the coast of England -- a mysterious woman is coming into the country, and she's not exactly arriving at Heathrow. Through the plodding work of people who read newspapers carefully, and keep records of odd things that happen, a couple of branches of counter-terrorism/counter-espionage units suspect that a well-known paid assassin -- known to be responsible for some political assassinations -- has entered the country. The assassin is known as the Witch -- and she's a beautiful woman who uses sexuality and an ability to change her appearance to her advantage. One of the people involved in the hunt is a recent retiree, who has a serious grudge against the Witch, and knows a lot about how she functions because he's been trying to catch her for so long. Several junior members of these agencies -- both British and French -- are part of the team that follow up on a number of clues that may or may not lead to the Witch. There's a big summit of world leaders in London in a few days, and everyone is anxious to catch the Witch before the conference.

The action moves quickly in this procedural thriller -- you realize how little the anti-terrorist forces have to work with, and how much is a matter of perceptiveness and making the most of the little you have. This is the first of a three part series, and I intend to go on and read the next two.

In Ian Rankin's "Witch Hunt," the chase is as compelling as the outcome. "Witch" is the code name for a female terrorist who has wreaked havoc during her bloody career. She is an expensive hired assassin, and the only person who has come close to catching her is former British Intelligence Agent Dominic Elder. Elder has a huge "W" shaped scar on his back as a souvenir of his close encounter with Witch. There is fresh evidence that Witch has resurfaced and may be planning to kill a high-profile target in the near future.

Joining Elder in the hunt are two men from Special Branch named Greenleaf and Doyle. In addition, two novices, John Barclay and Dominique Herault, of British and French Intelligence respectively, are also eagerly putting their heads together to help find Witch before she strikes again.

Rankin concentrates on the personalities of his characters as much as he does on plot. Elder is bitter that Witch has eluded him in the past and he is anxious to get revenge. He is allowed back into the case partly because his former boss, Joyce Parry, still has feelings for Elder, who used to be her lover. Greenleaf and Doyle are uneasy partners who don't particularly care for one another. Barclay and Herault are both young and eager, looking for adventure and finding it in their first major investigation.

The search for Witch is complicated and time-consuming. It stretches across England, Scotland, France, and Germany. Every lead is followed up, especially since a summit is about to take place in London, with many dignitaries expected to attend. Unfortunately, Witch is so quick and clever that she always manages to stay a step ahead of her pursuers. Will they be able to run her to ground before she attempts her next assassination?

Although it is a bit long and meanders occasionally, I enjoyed "Witch Hunt." Rankin explores the intricacies of both police and intelligence work, showing that patience, persistence, and luck are all factors in a successful outcome. Witch is a fascinating uber-assassin, beautiful, changeable, brilliant, and ruthless. Rankin takes pains to humanize her, however, and we learn how she came to be one of the world's most sought-after killers. The ending is a nail-biter, filled with non-stop action and a few surprises to keep the reader off-balance. All in all, its dry humor, varied and well-drawn characters, sharp dialogue, and engrossing depiction of investigative techniques make "Witch Hunt" a winner.

Oh, the blessings of being an author with too much time on his hands. I can just picture Ian Rankin sitting in the house (farm? cottage?) he and his wife bought in rural Dordogne, having whizzed through the manuscript for yet another increasingly well-written John Rebus novel and - having left behind all other employment across the British Channel and neither inclined to carpentry nor gardening - feeling his mind growing restless, in need of occupation. Now, wouldn't you have started looking for another outlet for your creative energy had you been in his spot?

The result of the aforementioned process, which Rankin describes in the foreword to a 2000 British compilation (alas, currently [???] unavailable in the U.S.) uniting all three volumes, were a series of thrillers he wrote under the pseudonym Jack Harvey: Jack for his newborn son, Harvey for his wife's maiden name.

"Witch Hunt" marked the beginning of Jack Harvey's unfortunately way too short-lived career. It is the story of a female assassin - the title character - who is pursued by various agents of the British and French governments, as well as retired secret service man Dominic Elder, who has both a private and a professional bone to pick with her. The plot moves at Rankin's trademark fast pace, from Witch's arrival on Britain's South Coast (leaving her calling card by blowing up both boats she'd used to cross the Channel from France ... with their crews inside) to her first order of "real" business in Scotland, then to London, where Witch implements her plan's second phase and where her hunters have meanwhile formed a reluctant coalition, to France and Germany, for two rookie agents' unlicensed investigation of the assassin's past, and ultimately back to London, for Witch's final coup, amidst a major international conference no less.

As in the Rebus novels, Rankin particularly excels in the creation of his male characters; they are three-dimensional and, all in their own ways, flawed and profoundly human(e). The book's few female protagonists strike me a bit too much as variations on the same theme (superwoman with varying degrees of femininity, or what passes for such in male eyes): while justifiable in the title character - especially if, as Rankin says, she was inspired by the "Elektra: Assassin" series - overall this made it a tad difficult for me to identify with either of them. For proof that Rankin, even then, could do much better, consider DC Clarke in the Rebus novels ... or Belinda, the (anti-)hero's companion in the second Jack Harvey novel, "Bleeding Hearts." Plot-wise, I don't necessarily think the final denouement of "Witch Hunt" is a let-down per se; although I would have wished it had been developed more fully, as had the private motivations of Dominic Elder and one of the rookies, French agent Dominique (!) Herault.

Still, Rankin's first Jack Harvey thriller is a major cut above average and a great introduction to the two following novels - and overall, while I'm happy enough for Rankin's success with Inspector Rebus and wouldn't want any story featuring Edinburgh's finest (and most hard-drinking) D.I. missing from my bookcases, in a way I regret that Rankin had to shelve Jack Harvey after only three books.