Excited to hear that Into the Wild is also heading to the USA - Woohoo!

​I'm loving the look of this dust jacket. ​

Can't wait to see it. :-)
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This was a pleasant surprise to wake up to.

Thrilled to bits to see the Italian translation of Under the Same Sky – woohoo!!

Thank you to Italian publisher Valentina Edizioni. Looks and sounds beautiful.

Happy dancing the tarantella! Gelato, anyone? 😊 

​The Inspiration behind The Battle
 
This story was inspired by my son who was going through a difficult time at school. Every morning I’d watch him put on his uniform and his eyes would be filled with fear. I knew that in his mind, he really believed that he was going into battle.
 
Most of the issues he was having revolved around a group of children that he believed were bullying him. I knew the children involved and I wasn’t convinced that they were the sole source of the problem. I wondered if the situation was really as bad as he thought, or whether his perceptions of the world were slightly skewed.
 
The reason I questioned this was because my son is a sensitive soul and his heart is easily wounded. He treats everyone with kindness and offers his friends and family unconditional love. But what he didn’t understand is that not everyone is like him. People don’t always play nicely or talk to you in a polite manner, but that doesn’t mean they are bad or that they don’t like you.
 
I spoke to his school principal and did all of the things a concerned mum would. But I knew that unless I changed my son’s expectations of how the world should be and helped him build his resilience, he would always struggle in life.
 
We had a lot of discussions about the power of the mind how things aren’t always what they seem. I also emphasised the fact that we can’t control the outside world, we can only control how we perceive and deal with the outside world. Eventually my son was able to reframe his thoughts and view the world in a slightly different way.
 
The idea for The Battle came as a direct result of this situation. It’s the story of a little boy named Edward who is anxious about starting knight school.
He’s sure that it will be full of ogres and dragons so he puts on his armour and prepares for battle. As the day progresses, Edward soon realises that the dragons and ogres he imagined don’t actually exist – they’re children, just like him.
 
 
The Battle
Starting School Can be Scary Sometimes!
 
By: Ashling Kwok (Author), Cara King (Illustrator)
Publication date: June 1, 2020
Publisher: Exisle Publishing 
Imprint: Ek Books
Price: $24.95
ISBN: 9781925820409
Format Hardback: 32 pages
Dimensions: 245 x 255mm
 

Cuddle up with your loved ones and watch Tom Hardy read Under the Same Sky on CBeebies in the UK. Woohoo!

Tom Hardy has a deep, masterful voice and makes for an entertaining dive into bedtime stories. The CBeebies production team did an amazing and professional job. Couldn't have asked for more, Watch to your heart's content.

This is the icing on the cake.

Thank you again, CBeebies and Tom Hardy. New Frontier Publishing UK Nicky Johnston New Frontier Publishing Australia

Ckick on the link below to watch the episode in full.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-XixeSxqms