Planet Picture Book

Spotlight on

Colombia

Colombia

Last September, just a few months after starting this picture book journey, I discovered it was World Kid Lit month, an online celebration of children’s and YA books in translation. Imagine, a whole month of posts, lists and recommendations! I...

Pakistan

Suraj the Tiger Cub

This colourful picture book starring a tiger cub in the jungle contains three short stories that cover topics faced by many children: fears, lack of friends, and bullying. Suraj is a cute looking tiger cub, who I think will young readers (in...

Pakistan

Pakistan

Information on children’s book publishing in Pakistan is hard to come by. And it’s a trend across the industry according to this 2017 article from Publishing Perspectives. The same article, however, provides valuable information about educational...

Still in the limelight

Vietnam

My First Book of Vietnamese Words

This illustrated ABC rhyming book provides readers with an introduction to Vietnamese language and culture. I was particularly intrigued by My First Book of Vietnamese Words when I was researching picture books for Vietnam. It’s no mean feat...

Q&AVietnam

Q&A with Phung Nguyen Quang and Huynh Kim Lien

Phung Nguyen Quang and Huynh Kim Lien are book creators, who live and work together in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. In 2015, their unpublished children’s book ‘The First Journey’ won the Scholastic Picture Book Award. They had written and illustrated...

Vietnam

The First Journey

It is the floating season on the Mekong Delta and a young boy, An, sets out alone in his sampan to travel to school for the first time. This story tells of the dangers and fears he faces along the way, and his courage and determination to reach his...

Previous destinations

Portugal

Don’t Cross the Line

A colourful crowd of people build up on the left-hand page of this picture book as a guard under orders forbids them to cross the line (the gutter of the book). Then, a red ball bounces into the right-hand page and soon everyone follows . . . but...

PortugalQ&A

Q&A with Translator Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Lyn Miller-Lachmann is the translator of the picture book ‘Three Balls of Wool (Can Change the World)’ by Henriqueta Cristina, illustrated by Yara Kono and published in 2017 by Enchanted Lion Books in partnership with Amnesty...

Portugal

Three Balls of Wool (Can Change the World)

In this historical picture book set in the 1960s, a family flee Portugal’s dictatorship and end up in Communist Czechoslovakia. They find it difficult to settle into their new home until three balls of wool provide an unexpected colourful solution...

Portugal

Follow the Firefly/Run, Rabbit, Run!

This wordless picture book can be read in both directions – from front to back, and from back to front! The first story follows a firefly’s quest to find a flashing light; in the second narrative, a rabbit dashes away from the city and through the...

Portugal

Portugal

When I first started researching picture books from Portugal, one name leapt out at me: publishing house and graphic design studio, Planeta Tangerina. Founded in 1999 by four friends, Isabel Minhós Martins, Bernardo P. Carvalho, Madalena Matoso and...