A new gift edition of a classic title—with illustrations that are reminiscent of Winnie-the-Pooh! A whale and a seagull dance silently on a moon-drenched beach. A grasshopper pays a fortune for a speck of dust. A squirrel and an ant discover a mysterious feast with an invisible host in the depths of a forest. These whimsical animal tales will captivate readers of all ages. “Toon’s stories are beautifully told, quirky and delightful . . . they’re a joy!” —Wendy Cooling, MBE, founder of Bookstart “You cannot read this book and understand how anyone but Ahlberg could have illustrated it. She is the E. H. Shepard of the 21st century.” —Elizabeth Bird, School Library Journal

Award-winning author Toon Tellegen has written an enchanting collection of short stories, all centered on a series of poetic letters written by his animal protagonists. These fantastic, dreamlike, and even philosophical tales conjure up a world where the creatures of the earth can send mail to the sun (and get an answer); where you can actually write a letter to a letter; and where just writing something down can make it come true. Jessica Ahlberg's alluring artwork captures the unique spirit of these whimsical, charming fables. AGES: 5 plus AUTHOR: Toon Tellegen is one of today's most celebrated writers. His stories are loved by children and parents the world over. He lives in Amsterdam, and loves reading, telling stories, and huge, sweet cakes. Jessica Ahlberg, daughter of the acclaimed author/illustrator team Janet and Allen Ahlberg, likes, among other things, writing letters, looking at maps, reading books, doing DIY, and making cakes. SELLING POINTS: . Reissue in a larger trim size and new cover design . Highly-acclaimed, multi-award winning Dutch author . Beautifully illustrated by Jessica Ahlberg . Features anthropomorphised animals that often find themselves in amusing and bizarre situations that also tend to lean to the philosophical

A thought-provoking illustrated storybook in which the forest animals discover that anger doesn't always have to be angry In ten thoughtful, philosophical, absurd tales by master storyteller Toon Tellegen, the forest animals-from squirrel to scarab beetle-spend their days as friends do, with birthday parties, writing letters, visiting, dancing, or sometimes all alone. Each day brings emotions that are always worth exploring, although not always easy, and each story reveals new layers through the expressive, touching and funny illustrations of Marc Boutavant. This wry and nuanced collection of stories gently shows that anger, in all its shapes and sizes, is a natural, necessary and often misunderstood emotion.

Shoestring Press published a new collection A Man and an Angel by the internationally acclaimed Dutch poet Toon Tellegen this year. The poems enact a battle between a man and an angel, a never-ending fight that is difficult to quantify and yet seems instantly familiar. We witness man under pressure, wrestling with something primal: a volatile, temperamental spirit that is both a plague and a challenge. In the see-sawing dynamics of each encounter, worthy of the best absurdist theatre, Tellegen stays close to the pulse of the emotion, evoking the turbulence of an intimate struggle, where man and angel become interdependent. In the Netherlands, critics have praised the collection as one of Tellegen's very finest, and the book was reprinted soon after its first publication.

With the economy of a proverb and the psychological insight of a novel, Toon Tellegen's acclaimed sequence Raptors depicts the dynamics of a family held hostage by the mood-swings and histrionics of a father, a figure both comic and terrifying, grotesque and pathetic. Tellegen's mercurial imagination evokes the dark archetypes of European folklore and reanimates them with a sophisticated sense of the endless fluidity of relationships, the instability of interpretation. An improvisation on a theme, circling back to 'my father' at the start of each poem, Raptors builds to a story without narrative, its extravagant imaginative leaps into absurdity held within a framework of tender observation. Toon Tellegen's translator Judith Wilkinson has worked closely with the poet to create English poems that capture the startling clarity and inventiveness of the original Dutch. Raptors has the rewarding intensity of a modern classic.