One Hundred Bones - COMPETITION TIME!

Win the opportunity for you and your children to meet our wonderful author/illustrator Yuval Zommer!

We are giving away 2 signed sets of books by Yuval along with a chance to meet him at the launch of his brand new picture book, One Hundred Bones.

His follow up to The Big Blue Thing on the Hill, One Hundred Bones is a quirky and heart-warming story about underdog, Scruff, who makes a very exciting dinosaur discovery and comes out on top!

The launch will be held this Saturday 15^th August from 3-5pm at the gorgeous Idler Bookshop in Notting Hill, West London.  Our winners will have the chance to join us at the launch, meet Yuval and get their very own copies of both his books - signed in person!

To enter this competition and to be in with a chance of winning all you need to do is retweet this post. 

 Full terms and conditions can be found here 

Best of luck! 

The Best Bits - Summer Blog Tour

WOW! What a week! Our Summer blog tour is over and what a whirl it has been... 

We'd like to say a HUGE thank you to our four wonderful authors and illustrators, who took the time out of their busy schedules to write beautiful, amusing and inspiring posts for this tour. Thank you Helen Hancocks, Sam Lloyd, Yuval Zommer and Emma Yarlett - you're all wonderful and we love you.

Now, of course, we'd like to say a MASSIVE thank you to our four amazing bloggers. Thank you to your support and for joining in on this tour - we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! Thank you to the Booksniffer, PictureBooksBlogger, Library Mice and Read it Daddy! 

So, if you missed anything from this week, don't panic! Here are some highlights just for you...

Helen Hancocks on the BookSniffer

Helen told us how William ended up in Hollywood, inspired by a photo of lots of black cats queuing to audition for a film. Obviously William loved the idea of Hollywood, and couldn't wait to take his bow tie there, thus the idea was born...






Sam Lloyd on PictureBooksBlogger
Sam revealed how Boris and his monstery mates were born - from a scraggy little patch of orange fur and a bit of cutting and stitching! Boris, now ten years old, evolved from a makeshift monster to a famous book character - winning the Richard and Judy Children's book award no less!

Yuval Zommer on Library Mice
Having been asked about the inspiration for his story numerous times, Yuval tells us where the idea for each of the dogs in One Hundred Bones originated - and it involved a lot of window gazing. Although Scruff himself isn't real, Yuval has a dog-sized space under his desk and is seriously considering looking for his own little canine companion..



Emma Yarlett on Read it Daddy
Emma introduced us to Little Emma and revealed how she became the talented author-illustrator she is today! With a lot of reading, a bit of parental encouragement and some creative spark, Emma showed us what is possible when you dare to chase your dreams.





Inspired? Why not pick up a pen, and see what characters you can come up with...

'Welcome to Summer'

The long-awaited holidays are finally here and come rain or shine we have something to keep young minds entertained this summer!

Over the course of this week, you'll get a chance to learn more about the inspirations behind our latest books and the people who created them. We're THRILLED to be co-ordinating a blog tour this week with four of our talented authors and illustrators who will each be visiting one of four amazing blogs...

On Tuesday 4th, we'll be heading over to The Book Sniffer with Helen Hancocks, author and illustrator of Penguin in Peril, William and the Missing Masterpiece and William Heads to Hollywood. Helen (and William) will be writing about the inspirations for her latest title, where William heads to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood to solve the mystery of the disappearing cuckoo awards. William was such a fan of the famous hills, we hear he almost didn't come back! 

On Wednesday 5th, the fantastic Sam Lloyd, creator and author behind Calm Down Boris! and many more crazy characters, will reveal on PictureBooksBlogger how the little orange monster was born and how he's changed her life ten years on! (Can you believe Boris is ten years old?!)  

On Thursday 6th, we'll take a trip to Library Mice with the creative Yuval Zommer, author and illustrator behind Big Blue Thing on the Hill and One Hundred Bones. Yuval will reveal how Scruff and all his canine friends were born. Is he a real dog? You'll have to read the blog to find out!

On Friday 7th, our last author and illustrator will make her appearance! Lovely Emma Yarlett, of Sidney, Stella and the Moon, Orion and the Dark and more recently Poppy Pickle,  will reveal a totally new short story on Read it Daddy - with the adorably cute 'little Emma'. Intrigued? You know what to do!

Finally on Saturday 8th we'll wrap the week up on , showcasing the highlights of the tour in a round-up style post - just in case you missed anything...

Happy Reading! 

Events Roundup - with cake and books galore!

 Grumbug - Templar

Last week was a very busy one for us at Templar HQ! On Tuesday 7th July we celebrated the official launch of Adam Stower’s Grumbug, his hilarious and gloriously illustrated follow up to The Troll and the Oliver.
Organised in conjunction with Arena Illustration, the launch was held at The Illustration Cupboard, Bury Street and guests included Axel Scheffler, Jonny Duddle, Caroline Horn from the Reading Zone and John Mclay from Bath Festival.
The walls were adorned with original artwork from both the Troll and the Oliver and Grumbug, all of which was on sale on the night. We had also organised a raffle in which three lucky winners had the chance to win signed copies of both books, and pieces of original artwork!
It wouldn’t have quite been a true Grumbug launch without Troll and Grumbug cupcakes direct from Trolliver’s Café and the most fabulous – and enormous! – carrot cake to satisfy even the hungriest of trolls!

 William Heads to Hollywood

 On Thursday 9th July, the Templar team braved the tube strike and ventured across London to Notting Hill to celebrate the launch of Helen Hancock’s latest book, William Heads to Hollywood, at the fabulous Book and Kitchen.
Sadly, William couldn’t tear himself away from the lure of Hollywood so we had to make-do with a cardboard cut-out and  black and white framed photograph!  He missed out though, as Helen Hancocks arrived armed with sugar mice and baked treats, courtesy of her cousin Kate. Among them were William themed orange spice biscuits and an incredible multi-coloured tiered cake – worthy of the most glamorous Hollywood party!  We then arrived with strange flavoured popcorn and pick ‘n’ mix style goody bags.
Book and Kitchen was transformed for the night to celebrate the release of the new book and everywhere you looked there were William posters, artwork or stickers. Three lucky fans also won tickets to the launch – a chance to meet Helen and get a signed copy of her new book. We also had author and illustrator Yuval Zommer in attendance as well as Helen’s agent, Louise Lamont.  Despite the travel complications, it was a wonderful event with books and cakes aplenty – a wonderful time was had by all!

COMPETITION OVER - Win a chance to come to the William Heads to Hollywood launch!

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED.

Why not enter our Pictura colouring competition instead?

We've three pairs of tickets for you and your child to attend the exclusive launch of Helen Hancocks' new book, William Heads to Hollywood, to give away! One lucky winner will also win a signed copy of William Heads to Hollywood.

As a sequel to the hit picture book William and the Missing Masterpiece, the latest adventure of the cat detective sees him travel to Hollywood to track down the thief of the Golden Cuckoo statuettes before the awards ceremony in two days!

The launch for the book is next week on Thursday 9th July at Book and Kitchen in west London and there will be cake, sugar mice, popcorn, a red carpet and plenty of ‘Golden Cuckoo awards’. Our winners will have the chance to come to the launch, meet Helen and have a photo with William (well his model at least!)

We've two ways you can enter this competition. You can like and share this Facebook post: Facebook Link (entrants must like our Facebook page to be eligible)

Alternatively, you can enter by retweeting this tweet (make sure you're following us too to be eligible): Twitter Link

Full terms and conditions can be found here: Terms

Good luck!