New Books

How the Shammies Swapped/ How the Shammies Bathed animation short film DVD

The Shammies are four little curious beings called – Sockie, Mitten, Pillow and Hankie – who live in a colourful textile house. While the Shammies are very good at playing, they still have to learn lots of other things, like behaving themselves at the table, sharing and swapping toys, as well as bathing. All of these things might seem very simply to a grownup but not to the young Shammies.
They try to deal with it on their own, using their childish experience, games and imagination; when all of that is not enough, the wise and grown-up Cat comes to their assistance. The Shammies stories reflect many everyday events and relationships well-known to every child; told from the viewpoint of a young child, they are easy to understand and leisurely paced.
The creative team behind the Shammies series is putting in a lot of effort to make the stories available in different contemporary formats, from films and books to e-books, online series, as iPhone and iPad games. The first online episode, “How the Shammies Went Swinging” was recently launched; this and the upcoming short online episodes are following new events in the everyday life of the Shammies. The first mobile application – The Shammies in the Bathroom – is also scheduled for a launch in near future.
The different formats will work together to create a united Shammies world: an entertaining and educating cultural project that offers quality, consideration for the child’s needs and an atmosphere of benevolence so that parents may feel safe letting their preschoolers play and grow with the Shammies.
In How the Shammies Swapped, the first book of the series to be published, as the little protagonists are exchanging toys, they see Yarnball the dog, Button the baby and a huge tiger appear in their room. In the How the Shammies Bathed animated short, they take a bath, get scared of the bathroom Monster, make the acquaintance of Water and make up a song about bathing for the Cat.

"Threadletters" by Inese Zandere

The new cheerful book published by the liels un mazs publishing house – Threadletters by the poet Inese Zandere and artist Ūna Laukmane – is coming to aid to young children who are only just beginning to learn the letters.
The book is very much like a letter nursery in which the whole alphabet is divided into small ‘playgroups’ made up by the poet: they play together in rhymes and illustrations, exercise and enjoy games. Each ‘letter man’ has been assigned a rhyme of his own in which his letter can be easily spotted and the corresponding sound heard repeatedly.
Each playgroup also has a rhyme of its own; the poet has given them names derived from their appearance: the Tummies, Humpies, Tufties, Cappies, Rakies, Fencies, Scutties, Peggies and Twisties. Each of the letter playgroups teaches children an exercise which allows them to enjoy some physical activities and have some fun. The reader can decide to which playgroup his or her first name and last name belong. ‘My letters are the thin and straight I and the twisted and bended Z, which makes me a Peggy-Twisty in this nursery school,’ the author explains.
The poet was inspired to write a new ABC book in verse a few years ago by the textile picture alphabet which artist Ūna Laukmane had created for the first form pupils of the Riga Dome Choir School. In the book, a number of new illustrations have been added to the pictures of Laukmane’s letter men. The book concludes with a description of an exercise-style game that could help children master the alphabet.

"My Friend Percy, Buffalo Bill and I" by Ulf Stark

The liels un mazs publishing house has published My Friend Percy, Buffalo Bill and I by the Swedish writer Ulf Stark, a book for children of young and middle school-age.
The Latvian translation is a joint effort by three translators, Anika Frīdenberga, Inga Grezmane and Inese Dragūne. The book features original illustrations by Reinis Pētersons, an artist who has previously earned acclaim for his book art: the Jānis Baltvilks and Zelta Ābele awards for his illustrations to A Bite Taken out of the Moon, The Crock of Gold and The Hunt for Bruno the Bear.
Ulf Stark (1944), one of the most significant contemporary Swedish children’s authors, has penned some 30 titles, from picture books to teen novels; he has also written some film scripts. Stark’s works have been translated into 25 languages; only one of his novels – Nutcases and Norms – had been published in Latvian (under the Latvian title of Aušas un nirlas) by the Daugava Publishing House in 2002.
My Friend Percy, Buffalo Bill and I belongs to the Stureby series of stories inspired by Ulf Stark’s childhood events. In these stories, the world is depicted from a boy’s point of view. While the book, relating a story of summer holidays spent in the Swedish skerries, features lots of funny and amusing situations, it also speaks of yearning for love and the astonishing power of love. In Stark’s book, the power of love is both cosmic and comical at the same time; the writer tells the story of profound feelings in the language of an emotionally touching farce. The Svenska Dagbladet newspaper reviewer Kristina Hallberg has compared the style chosen by Ulf Stark to Charlie Chaplin’s films: the author uses laughter to tell about suffering, giving us some moments of genuine joy.
A person in love is prepared to do anything for their feelings to be reciprocated. Ulf is in love with Pia yet the girl does not even seem to notice the boy. In the same way, Ulf’s Grandfather has been in love with Grandmother since they were both young, and yet he has never been loved back in the way he has been longing for all of his life. In love, there is always one who loves more than the other – and the same goes for friendship as well. However, Ulf’s friend Percy whose presence Ulf initially finds so irritating is so selfless and intuitively wise that he quite unexpectedly comes up with clever solutions to help Ulf, Grandmother and Grandfather, as well as Blackie, the wild horse. In Sweden, My Friend Percy, Buffalo Bill and I was nominated for the 2004 August Prize.