New Releases by Brian Patten

A stunning prose retelling of Beowulf from an author-illustrator dream-team. One dark night, the music and singing wake a monster from a swamp ... Warrior after warrior comes to slay the monster, but no one can outwit Grendel. Only the great hero Beowulf stands a chance - but even he is not prepared for the horror that lies in wait.

A very small mouse decided it wanted to have a very big adventure. "I'll go and find the biggest creature in the world, " it thought. Along the way it meets many different animals and when at last they find the biggest creature, the little mouse feels a great sense of achievement. "Sheer delight". (Amanda Craig, The Times). "A truly lovely book!" (The Independent on Sunday).

A baby blown out of an upstairs window by a WWII bomb lives to hear others tell the tale… A woman embarks on a long-term obsession with a city landmark, abandoning her lover for the Liver… A bricklayer working on the foundations of a never-built cathedral becomes its evangelist, its full splendour soaring only in his mind… Bringing together fiction from some of the city’s most celebrated writers, The Book of Liverpool traces the unique contours that decades of social and economic change can impress on a city. Set against key historical moments from the Second World War to the Capital of Culture year, these stories question what ‘belonging’ and ‘home’ mean in the Liverpudlian context, from the regenerated city centre to satellite suburbs, from the sparring cathedrals to the no-go concrete housing estates. Liverpool emerges in these short stories as a city in constant flux: haunted by ghosts, buoyed up by myths, and shifting with an ebb and flow like the Mersey itself. "A literary gem that will share a niche in my library with M.R. James and E. F. Benson..." - Metapsychology online Read review. "Words thrive here, carried on the saline breeze of the Mersey and twisted round agile tongues into sentences as resilient as the sandstone blocks in the Town Hall walls..." - The Liverpool Daily Post, 11 Jul 08 Read review.

Of all the poets writing today, Brian Patten is perhaps the most accessible and popular. Now his love poems, old and new, are collected together in his single volume.

A selection of Brian Patten's best work over the last forty-five years, chosen by the poet himself. The earliest of these poems, 'Sleep Now', was written when Patten was fifteen, the latest when he was sixty. Presented in rough chronological order, the selection includes a dozen new poems.

Ben Norm and his sister, Mary, take care over their appearance. But their parents are impossible. Why can't they be respectable like other kids' parents? And how can they be stopped from totally mortifying Ben and Mary at Parents' Day?

Roger McGough and Brian Patten have selected the very best of their animal poems in order to help two loveable monsters from outer space who visit Earth in search of a pet and need a bit of guidance...Split into sections, the monsters are introduced to animals that fly, swim, crawl and purr by two of our greatest childrens poets. Illustrated in Guy Parker-Rees' lively and intimitable style.

A nine-year-old boy lives on the ninth floor of a high-rise tower block in a large, grim city. He hates it, but one day he discovers a small silver telescope that enables him to see the beauty in the world around him - from market stalls to the surface of the moon.

The ancient Story Giant, collector and keeper of all the world's stories, enlists the help of four children to find the one missing tale that will keep his collection from fading away.

Unfeasibly funny sequel to the popular Impossible Parents - part of the Sprinters series relaunch Poor Ben and Mary Norm. Their parents have decided to become ecologists and are getting it impossibly wrong. First they ditch their clothes, then the TV and now they're eating yak cheese Worst of all, the kids at school have found out, and Ben and Mary are a laughing stock... again If only their parents could go back to being normally impossible, rather than ecologically impossible. But then Mary has an idea that might just work...

A great new collection of poetry, wide-ranging in both form and subject matter. Full of Brian Patten's wonderful wit and moments of beauty as in GERANIUMS IN THE SNOW: Like children snuggling down under a white duvet Slowly the red geraniums Vanish under the snow. Brilliantly complemented by Chris Riddell's illustrations.

Uncle Elliot and Mrs. Battyhats are the craziest new neighbours Jimmy can imagine. Not only do they look daft and say the oddest things, but they have real secret adventures on which Jimmy is always invited.

When Danny Harris knocks over a witch, she puts a spell on his bike, and he's off on a non-stop journey around the world. Adapted from T̀he saga of the doomed cyclist'. Rhyming text suitable for reading aloud. 4-8 yrs.

A collection of stories, some very brief and some longer, including the tales of Grizzelda Frizzle, and a mysterious stranger who is pulled from the ocean during a storm. Suggested level: primary.

Based on poems from the author's book, Gargling With Jelly. Sadly, everything in Jimmy's world is grey and boring, because of the evil Doctor Sensible and her terrible medicine which inoculates people against fun. The doctor is poised to sell her medicine worldwide, with only one condition: she must get Jimmy, the last child in Britian to resist her, to take it within four days. He refuses, and as the deadline approaches Dr Sensible becomes more and more cunning...

Emma worries about her doll which she had broken.