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Rosa book cover

Children’s Books

Posted on June 15, 2009August 27, 2023 by admin

Rosa’s Singing Grandfather

Rosa doesn’t have a dad but she has a grandfather and a grandfather who sings at that. When Grandad sings on the beach or at Rosa’s carol service or in hospital or at the zoo, Rosa feels a bit embarrassed but no one else seems to mind. Rosa ends up being very proud of her grandad.
 
Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal 1991 
 
“The sheer quality of the writing makes this an immensely satisfying read” – The judges of the Carnegie Award
“ROSA’S SINGING GRANDFATHER comes from a deeper well of the imagination. It has a subtle beauty, using songs to explore tender areas of feeling – loss, abandonment, memory and fear. It also manages to evoke a vanished world of tin baths and backyard lavatories while presenting a little girl very much alive now.” – Times Educational Supplement
“The clarity and optimism of this book should make it very welcome to new independent readers.” – Books for Keeps
“Young readers will enjoy meeting Rosa and her grandfather and will
remember their voices for a long time to come.” -School Library Journal USA
Published by Barn Owl Books
Illustration: Norman Young
Cover: Ros Asquith
Price £4.99 
 

Home is a place called nowhere book cover

Home Is A Place Called Nowhere 

(8-12 year olds)

Oxford University Press. £6.99.
ISBN 0-19-27 1914-9
Published January 2003
“…a cracking good read (nine and up), a book which hits the issues without remotely patronising and without being vacuously hip.
Its overriding virtue is that it is a story of hope and dignity amid the cruelty and ugliness of racism. Hatred abounds and yet Amina retains her soul.
It’s provocative stuff, offering a sobering picture of our nation’s treatment of refugees.” – West Sussex Gazette 24/07/2003
“So powerful, we couldn’t put it down once we’d started.”  (Mizz 12/03/2003)

Rosa’s Grandfather Sings Again

5-9 year olds
Viking 1991/Puffin 1992
 
Children’s Book of the Year choice.
 

More Children’s Books  

Bernie Works A Miracle (5-9 year olds) (A & C Black 1992/HarperCollins 1993)
Swim, Sam, Swim (3-7 year olds) (Puffin 1994)
Where’s My Mum? (2-5 year olds) (Picture Book. Walker Books 1994)
Save Our Playground (5-9 year olds) (HarperCollins 1994)
I Thought I Heard A Goldfish Singing (8-12 year olds) (Longman’s 1994)
Free The Sunbird (A Play For Children. Ginn 1995)
Emma’s Talking Rabbit (hardback 5-9 year olds) (HarperCollins September 1996)
Ben’s Magic Drum (5-8 year olds) (Puffin May 1998)
Carla’s Magic Dancing Boots (6-8 year olds) (Macdonald Young Books May 1998)
Football Crazy (8-12 year olds) (Hodder March 1998)
Pumpkin’s Downfall (5-9 Year Olds) (HarperCollins March 2000)

Stories in Anthologies

What’s Come Over Angela? (Stories For 7 Year Olds. HarperCollins)
The Giant Of Lilliput Lane (Stories For 5 Year Olds. HarperCollins)
Ella’s Bedtime Story (Bedtime Stories For The Very Young. Kingfisher Books)
Thomas The Rhymer & The Broken Smile (The Cloth Of Dreams. Little Brown & Co.)
Uproar In Yukland (Best Stories For 6 Year Olds. Hodder)
Silly Billy’s Walk To London (Journeys. Ginn)
The Greatest Drummer In The World (Another Time, Another Place. Ginn)

In the USA

Where’s My Mom? (Candlewick Press 1994)
Rosa & Her Singing Grandfather (Philomel 1996)

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This is my letter to the Guardian which it refused to publish though it had well over 100 signatories:

"Since Gaza is uninhabitable, because Israel has made it so, and since most of Gaza’s citizens are refugees or the children of refugees, because Israel has made them so, the only just and humane solution is for them to be allowed to return to their homes in what was Palestine until Israel usurped it. Another Great March of Return, only this time without the violence inflicted on the marchers by Israeli snipers."

Leon Rosselson is a singer, songwriter and children's book author.
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