Planet Picture Book

Spotlight on

Ethiopia

Q&A with Tsion Kiros of Midako Publishing

Tsion Kiros is the founder of Midako Publishing, a children’s book publisher based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Since 2014, Midako Publishing has released more than 200 titles written in Ethiopian languages, such as Amharic and Oromo, as well as...

Ethiopia

Ethiopia

As with so many ‘stopovers’ on this journey, I had little prior knowledge of Ethiopia, so it has been a joy to discover more. Ethiopia is a vast country with a strong tradition of oral storytelling, but very few books for children, especially in...

Still in the limelight

Colombia

Is It Big or Is It Little?

In this fun, highly visual little picture book, a mouse flees a cat and introduces the reader to a series of relative terms, such as big/small and deep/shallow along the way. Let’s end our Colombia sojourn with this gem of a book by Claudia Rueda. I...

Colombia

As Time Went By

This story follows the changing fortunes of a steamship and those aboard her. From luxury vessel to merchant ship, fishing boat and eventual abandonment, we witness her varying guises and subsequent rescue by a group of people who have also lost...

Colombia

Walk with Me

In ‘Walk with Me’, a young girl asks a lion to accompany her on the long walk home from school. On the way, as they collect her brother from daycare and food from the grocery store, we learn about the hardships facing her and her family and her...

Previous destinations

Pakistan

Four More to Explore

As some of you know, I seem to have amassed a stack of fabulous titles for the Pakistani leg of this picture book adventure. I’ve already shared a couple of lovely picture books published by Oxford University Press in Pakistan. Now, let’s take a...

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

Amai and the Banyan Tree

Amai and the Banyan Tree is a bilingual picture book in English and Urdu that focuses on the importance of trees in our environment. It is a fictional title, featuring talking trees, a bird that can transform into a shooting star and two young...

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...