When You Open A book by Caroline Derlatka, Ill. by Sara Ugolotti

From the dust cover to the end pages, this book will captivate and enchant you.  Step into the first page and be transported to faraway lands and worlds where anything can (and does!) happen. This story will take you on a magical journey where you’ll meet bears, dragons, pirates and unicorns. You’ll sleep on top of the tallest palm tree, dine with merfolk and be serenaded by clams, glide across rainbows and be granted the very special gift of a giant’s friendship. You’ll be trapped in a tower, saved by a bee and challenge the cosmos. You might also have the chance to meet the moon mouse and help polish the stars. For when you hold a book, you hold the key to so many wonderful adventures. Then, when you are ready, you only have to close the cover of the book to return home. Can you go back to experience more adventures? Why yes you can! Wonders await when you open a book.
 
This book has quickly become one of my favourites. The story is beguiling, charming and expertly rhymed. Caroline Derlatka has a true gift for storytelling. Readers will find themselves drawn into a story that encapsulates all the wonder of childhood fairy tales with the imagination of stories yet to be told. The gorgeous illustrations are a visual treat. Sara Ugolotti uses a palette that is at once soft, but also bold when it needs to be. The gentle lines of the creatures and the joyous expressions of the two children upon each magical encounter are an absolute delight. See if you can find the golden hummingbird that appears on each page!

This book is everything you want a young child to feel and experience as they embark upon, or continue, their reading journey.  What will you find there? What will there be? When you’re in a book, just read, and you’ll see. 

This book proudly supports The White Feather Foundation, a charity that support projects across the globe that foster education and good health for young girls in developing nations; protect and preserve indigenous cultures; conserve and sustain the environment; and give access to clean water.

Supporting teaching themes could include fairy tales, magical creatures, dragons, pirates, sea creatures, giants, bears, space, the moon, imagination, storytelling, diversity, rhyming books, poetry. 

Find out more about Caroline Derlatka. 
Find out more about Sara Ugolotti.

Published by Bushel & Peck Books. 
Distributed in Australia by New South Books.
Release date October 2022.
ISBN: 9781638190943 (HB)
Highly recommended ages 3 to 6. 

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