Books to cherish every day
Here’s a short extract:
Three Dragons for Christmas is a beautiful 32-page book that is perfect for young readers. It contains three original, heartwarming stories created by different authors and illustrators and featuring everyone’s favourite mystical creatures – dragons.
You can read the full review here.
We were delighted and honoured to hear that the distinguished and very popular author Hazel Edwards has posted a wonderful five-star review of Three Dragons for Christmas, on Goodreads. The review follows below but you can also read it here.
‘Three Dragons for Christmas’ is a suitable gift of the imagination for an entire family. It won’t be read only at Christmas.
Beautifully designed with traditional illustrations and even a mouse on each of the endpapers, plus a bookplate for the owner’s name, this is a book for keeping (even when downsizing). Check out the green dragon scales on the endpapers too.
The three tales are very different but all share the rhythm of well structured stories where the reader identifies emotionally and cares what happens to the character…in each case a small dragon.
Sophie Masson’s ‘The Christmas Dragon’ wants to be a sleigh-pulling reindeer. The job interview with Santa when you’re fiery, not cool, was fun. Lisa Stewart’s postcard provided a different perspective even if 5 cents seems cheap postage in dragontimes.
Fiona Mc Donald’s ‘Dragon Market’ was like many present day community markets and the eventual dragon merchandise sells well.
And the witty book titles within the Beattie Alvarez’s illustrations for ‘The Dragon’s Pet’ include Encyclopedia Draconica and First Flames.
Both the design and type of tale have a traditional feel, and the book is VERY green, with scales. All read well aloud (especially by grandparents to 5 year olds).
Older readers ( and adults) will also enjoy this trio of stories by three different authors, two of whom are illustrator-authors and the extra Dragon artwork by illustrator David Allan.
Highly recommended.
Our fabulous new Christmas title, Three Dragons for Christmas, is being released officially this week, and we thought you’d enjoy a sneak peek at it!
The book, which is a gorgeous hardcover with gold foil stamping on the front cover titles, coloured endpapers, and lavishly illustrated throughout, features three fabulous stories: Dragon Market, written and illustrated by Fiona McDonald; The Christmas Dragon, written by Sophie Masson and illustrated by Lisa Stewart; and The Dragon’s Pet, written and illustrated by Beattie Alvarez.
It’s a wonderful book to read aloud to children, or for children to read by themselves. The perfect Christmas gift! Available from all good bookshops, or direct from us.
Congratulations to wonderful illustrator Ingrid Kallick, whose gorgeous illustration for Charlotte McConaghy’s story, Wolfskin and the Huntress, in our Once Upon A Christmas anthology(edited and compiled by Beattie Alvarez, published 2014) has just won the Society of Illustrators (USA) Bronze Medal for Children’s Illustration! It has also been chosen to feature in the Society of Illustrators’ big show in Los Angeles.
We are absolutely delighted!
We are going to be at Book Expo in Sydney this weekend, showcasing our beautiful books, merchandise and exciting things to come. And our fabulous author Duncan Ball will be there on both days doing events. Come and see us there and say hi! By the way, we still have a few free tickets available… email us for details on contact@christmaspresspicturebooks.com
And check out our Facebook page for Book Expo updates.
Fabulous news: we have won a small business grant from Australia Post,as part of their Our Neighbourhood Grants for 2015!
A fantastic five star review of Two Fearsome Fairy Tales from France has appeared in the May issue of Good Reading. We are very proud!
If you live in the Armidale area, or you’re visiting, Christmas Press and Granny Fi’s Toy Cupboard invite you to a very special event: come and celebrate with us the launch of Two Fearsome Fairy Tales from France!
Date: Saturday May 2
Time: 3 pm
Venue: Granny Fi’s Toy Cupboard, 120 Dangar St Armidale(opposite Black Dot Music) 
Books will be for sale. Illustrator Fiona McDonald will be on hand to sign books.
Free event. No bookings required. Light refreshments provided.
Everyone welcome!
The first review of Two Fearsome Fairy Tales was published on the Buzz Words site today, with the reviewer being well-known author(and Buzz Words editor) Dianne Bates. Here’s a short extract:
The fly pages of this new book by Australian publisher Christmas Press are wonderful; in black and white they show a scene which feels almost as though it is going to suck you into the story to come.
Read the whole review here.
Interesting interview with Christmas Press co-director, Sophie Masson, on the Ink Ashlings blog. Here’s a small extract:
1. Tell us a bit about Christmas Press and its imprint Eagle books.
Christmas Press is a small children’s publisher, a partnership business between four creators: myself; illustrator and designer David Allan; author and illustrator Fiona McDonald; and writer and editor Beattie Alvarez. We started in 2013 and to date(March 2015) have published 4 books – three picture books featuring retellings of traditional tales – fairy tales, folk tales, myths and legends by well-known authors(to date, Ursula Dubosarsky, Kate Forsyth, and myself, with more to come this year) and lavishly illustrated by emerging illustrators – in this case, David and Fiona (though more illustrators will come on board next year). We have also published a Christmas anthology, Once Upon A Christmas, with poems, stories and illustrations by lots of different authors and illustrators.
Christmas Press itself will continue to concentrate on those sorts of books but we have just started a new fiction imprint for young people, Eagle Books, which will concentrate specifically on adventure fiction. And very excitingly our launch title is the first new English translation in over a hundred years of the great Jules Verne classic, Mikhail Strogoff, which will be translated by Stephanie Smee, whose previous translations of the great classics by the Countess de Segur have been bestsellers.
2. What made you interested in setting up a small press?
We felt there was a gap in the market–and that there WAS a market for retellings of traditional stories, the kinds of books we weren’t seeing around but that we’d all grown up on, loved, and been inspired by. And then as Christmas Press developed, we felt there was also an opening for the kinds of very adventure-focussed fiction that Eagle Books will focus on.
The full interview is here.
Christmas Press 