Books published by publisher Otter-Barry Books

Borks live on a planet quite like our own Earth. They have shaggy yellow fur and long thin necks. But once they had short blue fur and almost no necks at all. How could this happen? Well, it didn't come about all at once ...Jonathan Emmett tells a delightful story in verse about the Borks and all the things that happened to make them gradually look quite different, while still remaining Borks. And by the end of the story, the reader will have a very good notion of how Evolution by natural selection works.

A new story about the lovable, independent-minded and resourceful Mrs Noah will be widely welcomed. "Mrs Noah touched the earth. It was warm on her fingertips. She looked all round the Ark. On the south side the slope was less steep. A few shrubs and bushes had clung on, despite the flood. Two yew trees stood, ancient and tall. Yes, thought Mrs Noah. Here." Mrs Noah, ever-resourceful, ever-surprising, won a host of admirers with Mrs Noah's Pockets (2016). Now, with the Ark safely grounded, she gives herself a new task, to make a garden in the bare earth. The famously deep pockets hold flower and plant seeds, and with her children's help she prepares the ground, plants and waters, until on a magical midsummer's morning, the garden is there in full bloom. For Mr Noah, who has watched her sewing in the evenings and thought, 'Ah, curtains at last', there is a special surprise. Mrs Noah's Pockets was one of the Guardian's Best Picture Books of 2017.

When Benjie and Bel find a strange creature on a tropical beach they know it’s a dugong. But the dugong insists she is a beautiful mermaid and to prove it, she shows them her mermaid’s tail and sings them a mermaid song. The children aren't convinced but they play with their new friend all the same. When it's time for her to go back to sea, there is one surprise left - could she be a mermaid after all?

A beautiful and lyrical Nativity story, told in Mary’s words, and focusing on the thoughts, hopes and fears of a young mother-to-be, about to give birth in a strange land. As the familiar story of the birth of Jesus unfolds, so the mother’s love for her child grows and blossoms. The angels rejoice, the shepherds pay homage, the three kings bestow their gifts. But for Mary there is the overwhelming peace, love and joy of motherhood.This reissue of a favorite Christmas picture book, previously entitled Little One We Knew You’d Come, is published with a beautiful new text by Jackie Morris.

"At last all were gathered inside the ark. It heaved with animals, large and small. Mrs Noah wore a brand-new coat, with a hood and a cape – and very deep pockets. Lots of pockets." When Mr Noah builds the ark, he makes two lists - one for all the animals who will come on board and one for those troublesome creatures he will leave behind. Meanwhile, Mrs Noah gets out her sewing machine and makes a coat with very deep pockets. Lots of pockets.

This first collaboration between a prize-winning poet and the former UK Children’s Laureate takes a whole classful of children, plus the class hamster, and draws deft portraits of them all: the pushy, the shy, the dreamy, the daring, the ordinary, the one who wants to be best friends, the one who runs in his wheelchair, the cool kid, the tough kid - and lots more, including the teacher and the classroom assistant. This is a stimulating, perceptive and highly entertaining set of poems from one of the UK’s top children’s poets.With a poem on each spread, there is lots of room for Chris Riddell’s wonderful illustrations, showing portraits of each child plus an illustration of every poem – and the hamster runs through the book, to be found on every page!

We all know about the five senses: sight, sound, smell and taste. But there are sounds no human ear can hear, scents no-one can smell, colours our eyes cannot detect, waves of radiation that pass right through us without our noticing … but known and used by many different animal species. They have their dangers as well as their uses, but are vital to all life on Earth. This fascinating unseen and secret world is revealed in Catherine Barr's latest book. Fourteen colourful spreads display the impact on human and animal life of: Microwaves Ultra-violet and infra-red light Electromagnetic waves Ultrasound and infrasound Scents and smells beyond human detection Understanding these hidden forces enables us to use them in many ways, from photographing babies not yet born, to doors that automatically open, or tracking migratory animals. But many animals also use them. They help cats to catch mice, elephants to find mates, vampire bats to find victims. Ants 'talk' by exchanging smells. Indeed, without 'Invisible Nature', life on Earth would not exist at all.

A Child's Garden of Verses is one of the best-loved classic poetry books for children ever written. The world-famous illustrator Michael Foreman complements these classic and beloved verses with illustrations as luminous and clear as Stevenson's own word pictures.This edition was first published to mark the collection's centenary year of 1985, and is now reissued in a finely-produced gift edition in hardcover with cloth binding and a ribbon marker. Includes a new foreword by best-selling author Alexander McCall Smith.

When a fisherman falls in love with a selkie – half-woman, half-seal – she gives him her sealskin as a sign of her love, and bears him two children, Ffion and Morlo, before returning to her own people.When a stranger comes to the village, telling of a land far away, the children remember their mother’s stories of the cities of gold and pearls beneath the waves .Presented in a beautiful, new, gift edition, this is a haunting story of love and freedom, for all ages.

Out in the ocean, deep down in the kelp forest, Dolphin dances with sea lions. But suddenly he meets a Great White Shark… and then a Killer Whale… Dance, Dolphin, dance for your life! A dramatic underwater chase, set in the Pacific Ocean, with 35 sea creatures and birds to spot, from the Red Octopus and Blue Cannonball Jellyfish to the Crowned Squirrelfish and the Green Sea Turtle. See if you can find them all!Dance, Dolphin, Dance is the second book in Patricia McCarthy's Wilderness series, following Run, Elephant, Run (Otter-Barry Books, 2017).