We love to keep in touch with all the latest bookish news and trends and so we were excited to hear about the latest children's book imprint - Neon Squid.
With a mission to publish the best and most beautiful non-fiction books, Neon Squid are launching their first titles in the UK this year. We asked the team to tell us more about the imprint for our guest blog and they explained why we should be reading their books.
Neon Squid is a brand new non-fiction publisher for kids with the belief that the best stories in the world are the real ones. We’re even named after a real animal! Neon flying squid can glow in the dark and soar above the waves. Pretty cool, huh? Here are a few more reasons why we think you might enjoy our books.
We want every book to be full of surprises, so we focus on unusual subjects kids might not know about. One of our first books is called Tales of Ancient Worlds and it’s all about archaeology – a field of study that is always throwing up new and amazing discoveries. For instance, just a few years ago an underwater archaeologist was diving several miles off the North African coast when he discovered an ENTIRE TOWN at the bottom of the ocean. And it wasn’t just any town, but Thonis-Heracleion - the lost port city of ancient Egypt! In our book we dive in to reveal all.
We work with some amazing authors - experts from an array of really interesting backgrounds. There are bug scientists and history professors, archaeology YouTubers and animal podcasters. Dr Christle Nwora wrote her book about a hospital in between shifts on the ward - during a pandemic! That’s what you call dedication. All of our talented writers have one thing in common: an ability to take complicated subjects and explain them in a fun and accessible way.
Our books are illustrated by some of the finest artists from across the globe. Croatian illustrator Dragan Kordićbrings to life the most amazing examples of symbiosis in nature in Animal Sidekicks, while Indian artist Chaaya Prabhat perfectly captures bugs and big cats as they go on adventures in our A Day in the Life series. For The Book of Sisters, we worked with 35 different illustrators - handpicked to suit each area of history being covered, from the courts of imperial China to the French Revolution.
If there’s one thing we know for certain will help kids remember a fact - it’s if it makes them laugh. Our books are chock full of humour, and NOTHING is beyond limits. That’s why in Tales of Ancient Worlds we have two pages dedicated to the discovery of a fossilised Viking poo. You read that right. And while it is undoubtedly funny that archaeologists dug up an absolutely monstrous chocolate log from the medieval period, you would not believe the secrets it would go on to reveal about Viking life.
Just like we love to shine a light on subjects kids might not be familiar with, we also love to introduce them to amazing hidden figures from history. For instance, did you know that two of the first superstar ballerinas were the Native American sisters Maria and Marjorie Tallchief?
Bats vomiting food into other bats? Tick. Roman toilets where you would sit alongside your friends and have a chat while you did your business? Tick. Birds that pretend to clean other birds while they’re secretly SUCKING THEIR BLOOD? Tick. If it’s disgusting, there’s a good chance it features in one of our books.
Our books are real labours of love, and with so many beautiful illustrations it’s important they look and feel amazing. That’s why they are expertly produced using the finest materials available, including paper sourced from sustainable forests.
To capture a child’s attention, our books have to be entertaining – we want them to be unputdownable. And while they’re hooked by the stories, humour, and amazing illustrations, they’ll be learning at the same time. That’s why we highlight stories like the sisters who literally went to war with each other (looking at you - Cleopatra) to explain what life was like in ancient Egypt. Or the tiny frog that shares its home with a fearsome tarantula to describe how different species have evolved to coexist alongside each other.
Our ultimate goal is for our books to spark an interest that could last a lifetime. Hopefully in a few years there will be archaeologists or biologists who started their journey by reading a Neon Squid book…
