Showcasing a fantastic stack of diverse books from an innovative publisher. Get into Ginger Books!

The fab folk at Ginger Books contacted us recently to tell us all about their brilliant range of diverse and original children's picture books and non-fiction titles.

Ginger Books have been around for a few years now, but they've very kindly sent us a crop of their titles to take a closer look at.

We love diverse books, and we love world stories so we were particularly interested to see that Ginger Books ticks two of the boxes we most like to see ticked when it comes to children's books.

1) Fabulous art. Like it or not, kids are very demanding when it comes to the pictures in their picture books and the illustrations in their non-fiction titles. Ginger Books works with some extremely talented artists to ensure that their books look as good as they sound

2) Original stories. We love new versions of classic tales, but equally we love to read classic tales from other countries and cultures - thoughtfully translated and retold paying due homage to the originals. Once again Ginger Books uses talented translators such as Grace Bowman and Alice Hemming to ensure that the stories are as exciting and vibrant as they were when told in their original languages.

We looked at a few titles but were most taken with Korean Cinderella, a brilliant retelling of the classic Cinderella story with a fabulous eastern charm all of its own. Retold by Kyu Hee Lee and illustrated by So Young Kim (with translation by Grace Bowman), "Korean Cinderella" is a truly gorgeous book!


"While Mummy Hen Was Away" by Young So You and Byeong Ho Han (with translation by Grace Bowman) is a thoroughly original and exciting tale of a clucky mother hen and a rather nasty old wolf, a classic good vs evil tale that feels fresh and original, and gorgeously illustrated.

We do love a nasty old wolf in stories, and this innovative counting book with hilarious rhymes is a fantastic way to get your tiny little ones counting (and giggling a lot at the same time).







We also really enjoyed "Show Me a Shadow" by Hee Jeong Yun and Hye Won Yeom (again with translation from Grace Bowman). A fab tale of a little girl and her pet cat, playing with light and shade and various objects to make the most incredible shadows.

Of the three, this was our favourite by a long chalk and it was great fun to try and replicate the shapes and shadows the little girl came up with for ourselves.

The books are brilliant for home, and would also work really well in school too - particularly non-fiction titles such as "Show me the Air" and "Let's Play some Music" which are fun ways of teaching children without feeling too 'schooly'.

Overall, Ginger Books have impressed our socks off with these so they're definitely worth taking a closer look at.

You can find out about the whole range of Ginger Books over at their website: http://gingerbooks.co.uk