Out now from Enchanted Lion!
ON THE MOVE: THINGS IN MOTION ON EARTH & BEYOND
On the Move: Things in Motion on Earth and Beyond is a brilliant nonfiction picture book originally published in Ukraine about movement, migration, maps, travel, trade, transportation, and more!
Eye-catching, informative, and offering hours of fun, On the Move is the perfect nonfiction book about motion in all its forms, from a pair of Ukraine’s leading contemporary artists. Not only for children and parents, teachers and librarians, and anyone curious to learn about how things go, this is also a book for artists and designers interested in composition and the spatial arrangement of information.
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★ “In a wide-angle, graphically inspired picture book originally published in Ukraine, Romanyshyn and Lesiv combine history with meditative insights on the theme of movement. Propulsive, minimalist scenes combine simplified images of many-wheeled, winged, and floating objects with horizontal lines, arrows, and other iconography indicating progressions in various directions at increasing speeds... For all its brevity, this title provides a profound exploration of the fundamental notion that everything moves.” —Booklist, STARRED REVIEW!
Out now:
THE GRAMMAR OF FANTASY,
An Introduction to the Art of Inventing Stories
Essential reading for all teachers & creatives, this is one of the great works about the imagination & how stories are made!
A groundbreaking pedagogical work that is also a handbook for artists of all ages and kinds, The Grammar of Fantasy offers a playful, practical path to finding your own voice through the power of storytelling. From the father of modern Italian children’s literature, this is a guide to storytelling and its potential for teaching creative play to children—with radiant illustrations from Matthew Forsythe and a refreshed translation from Jack Zipes.
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“Holds great value for the adults who teach kids and the adults who write for them.” —Mac Barnett, U.S. National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, for the New York Times
“It’s great for teachers and the classroom, but also for any artist or people who are looking to be more creative. Honestly, it would even be great in the self-help category on how to unleash your own voice.” —Betsy Bird, A Fuse #8 Production, A School Library Journal blog
“The ultimate synthesis of Rodari’s exuberant knowledge, a book of both pedagogy and poetics, poetry for teachers and pedagogy for poets.” —Italo Calvino
New from Enchanted Lion: SATO THE RABBIT, MORNING LIGHT
The fourth picture book in a wonderful series from Japan about imagination, play, and immersion in nature!
Perfect for fans of Chirri & Chirra, this whimsical picture book from Japan follows the imaginative adventures of one Sato the Rabbit as he plays with light, from sunrise to sunset!
Every morning, Sato the Rabbit opens his eyes to the soft light of day, ready to embrace all that the universe has in store for him... Follow along on Sato the Rabbit’s wondrous adventures with light, in this fourth installment of the popular series from Japan!
This is a charming picture book for all those who imagine and play and dream, who find magic in the everyday, and who open themselves up to wonder. We can't wait for you to discover it for yourselves. Happy reading!
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“Have you encountered Sato the Rabbit before? If not, you’re in for a treat.” —Betsy Bird, A Fuse #8 Production (A School Library Journal blog)
“The Sato the Rabbit books are pure dreamy, playful magic. Through gorgeous, vivid spreads, this book makes me want to wake up early, live in a lighthouse, drink sparkles, and let my imagination dance.” —Julie Jarema, Hub City Bookshop (Spartanburg, SC)
Out now from Unruly: TALES FROM DREAMLAND
In this world where we live, something magical happens every day...
From Los Angeles-based author and photographer Ed Valfre, this collection of snapshots and flash fiction invites teen and adult readers to pay attention to the wondrous world all around us, reframing the ordinary as extraordinary.
In a world inundated with visual information, and especially as we leave the wonder-eye of childhood behind, we often overlook the surprising strangeness and sheer miracle of what lies right in front of us. Tales from Dreamland unfolds across a sequence of photographs from Valfre, each paired with a story that he excavates from the image itself. In this format, Valfre blends memory with legend, sci-fi with biography, the witty aperçu with the deep currents of his own heart, offering a fresh and compelling view of the real, as framed and frozen from the flow of time.
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“Through the lens of Ed Valfre’s mind, the everyday becomes the ethereal. His images spark the imagination and take us to a place just beyond reach. Or perhaps the dream already exists and Valfre shows us the proof.” —TV producer Michael Feldman
A new die-cut picture book perfect for spring: I’M LIKE A TREE AND A TREE’S LIKE ME
A beautiful die-cut picture book from France about birth, growth, and our connection to the great, green world around us!
“I am a seed.
I grow bigger and bigger each day.
I begin to become who I will be.”
So begins this story, which is about how a child’s life begins… as well as a tree’s. From our humble beginnings as seeds, to growing tall and strong, to learning to care for others, this wonderful picture book shares how all living things go through their own version of the same journey.
With a lovely text, a palette of soft colors, and charming art with peek-through die-cuts on almost every page, this educational and melodic picture book is an absolute joy to read, inviting us to enter into a new sense of appreciation for and community with the beautiful natural world that surrounds us.
Out now: LAMBERTO, LAMBERTO, LAMBERTO
Written by Gianni Rodari, the father of modern Italian children’s literature, this brilliant edition of Lamberto, Lamberto, Lamberto is translated with great panache by Batchelder Award winner Antony Shugaar and illustrated with mischievous, lively humor by Roman Muradov!
Baron Lamberto lives in a villa on a private island in the middle of Lake Orta, tended to by his trusty butler, who keeps track of the baron’s 24 maladies, 24 banks, and endless eccentricities. Add in six new employees charged with a mysterious task, a scheming nephew set on the baron’s fortune, and a crew of ransoming bandits who take over the villa, and you’ll begin to grasp the genius and intrigue of this story…
In a feature on Rodari for the New York Times, Mac Barnett deemed Lamberto, Lamberto, Lamberto “a modern fairytale,” praising “Muradov's elegant, witty illustrations [that] reinforce the playful tone.” And librarian Betsy Bird described the novel as “both fanciful and grounded in reality... No doubt it’ll be enjoyed by kids and adults alike.” We can’t wait for you to read Lamberto, Lamberto, Lamberto—and discover this fantastic, one-of-a-kind novel for yourself!
Gianni Rodari featured in the New York Times and reviewed by Mac Barnett!
“A Literary Genius Who Championed Nonsense: Gianni Rodari used puns, topsy-turvyism & zany names to invent stories for children & help children invent their own.”
Our sixth Unruly title: OLD AS STONE, HARD AS ROCK
Artist Alessandro Sanna presents a sweeping, wordless series of paintings about humanity & violence, destruction & creation.
From one of Italy's leading contemporary illustrators, Old as Stone, Hard as Rock is a wordless exploration of our human capacity for both creation and destruction—how we shape beauty with our hands while also raising up our arms with murderous rage to make war and destroy—through powerful illustrations that are as beautiful as they are heartbreaking.
With page after page of masterful visual storytelling, Sanna powerfully communicates emotion and narrative, drawing us into a world of elemental, seemingly eternal contradiction, with Kirkus praising this title as “a haunting, poetic visual interpretation of one of humanity’s existential dilemmas” in a STARRED review.
NEW from Enchanted Lion & NYT Best Illustrated recipient Gaëtan Dorémus: ON ALL FOURS
A delightful, charming picture book about childhood exploration & parental love 🐾🐾
As any bear cub—or child—knows, the best way to explore the world is... on all fours!
Do you remember how exciting it was to experience the world when you were a child? Back when everything was bright and vibrant and new, and adventure and magic were always just around the corner. It is this kind of experience of wonder, curiosity, and discovery that is shared in On All Fours, Enchanted Lion's first book of 2025!
In this charming picture book, an intrepid bear cub sets out to discover the world. On its four little paws, the playful cub dances across pebbles, feels the tickling grass, splishes and splashes in puddles, and more. So delightful are these sensorial adventures that even prickly weeds or a little tumble along the way is just part of the fun, as a little one takes its first steps towards independence. And no sooner does the bear cub start to feel overwhelmed than it is lifted up by two loving arms into a big hug from Papa Bear!
This gorgeous title comes to us from French author-illustrator Gaëtan Dorémus, with whom we've previously published the New York Times Best Illustrated Book Bear Despair and My Baby Crocodile. In a STARRED review of On All Fours, Kirkus writes, "Dorémus’s luscious, emotive illustrations will inspire frequent readings. The spare, repetitive narration lends itself well to memorization; be prepared for little ones to shout out their favorite lines. Youngsters will relish the ride from exploration to reunion."
We can't wait for all of you—especially those with toddlers—to experience the charming, playful delight that is On All Fours. Happy reading!
NEW YEAR, NEW BOOKS
10 superb winter & spring titles from Enchanted Lion & Unruly
Dear ELB community,
We wish you the caves and coziness, the hibernation and sleep of wintertime, along with all that's as fresh and bright and lively as the cyclical newness of green tendrils, as we go into spring. Here at Enchanted Lion, we are burrowing into the stories that are in gestation for 2026 and 2027, while readying to spring into the late winter months, and into the spring and fall seasons of the year ahead! We have swept the floors, cleaned the office, catalogued the damaged books, and stocked our shelves with coffee bags and chocolate bars, thrilled for the gift of this new year, this beautiful moment of chance and circumstance to dive deep into an exciting list of new, wonderful books with all of you!
The books Enchanted Lion and Unruly are publishing between January and July come from Australia, France, Italy, Japan, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Some creators—like Gianni Rodari (the father of modern Italian literature) and Laura Carlin (two-time New York Times Best Illustrated recipient)—are established figures in the world of children's literature, while others are new talents, making their US or English-language debuts. Whether these books come from near or far, or from creators familiar or new, we can't wait for you to discover them!
From all of us here at Enchanted Lion, we're wishing you a happy and healthy 2025—filled with as many deep, well-told, good stories as possible.
💛,
—Team ELB
