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AN EXCITING NEW SERIES OF MULTICULTURAL BOOKS FOR CHILDREN

BRIDGING CULTURES, BUILDING READING SUCCESS I WON’T GO TO CHINA Poor Chang-ming! He has been picked for the school team but his family will be in China then, visiting his grandma. It’s not fair.

‘I won’t go to China,’ he decides. But what about Grandma?

And isn’t a visit to China the most exciting thing ever?

Especially when it’s Chinese New Year? Chang-ming doesn’t think so ...

But China is full of surprises!

ISBN 978-1-84717-159-7 PRICE €7.99/£6.99 FORMAT 260x197mm Hardback/32 pages ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Enda Wyley is a poet and teacher and has had several poetry books published, including Socrates in the Garden, Poems for Breakfast,To Wake To This. Her book for young readers, Boo and Bear, is in the O’Brien Panda Cubs series and she has also written the highly praised The Silver Notebook for readers aged 10+.

THE DREAMING TREE Back home in Brazil, Roberto loved playing the world’s best football! Now he lives in Ireland, and he’d really like to have a game with the boys in the park, but he’s too shy.When his granny reminds him of the Brazilian story of the dreaming tree, he doesn’t see how a story can help him … But maybe it can!

ISBN 978-1-84717-158-0 PRICE €7.99/£6.99 FORMAT 260x197mm Hardback/32 pages ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Eithne Massey is the author of the children’s novel The Secret of Kells and is also a short-story writer. She is a graduate of UCD and NUI Maynooth. She has worked with the Arts Council and as a librarian, and lives between Dublin and Brittany. She is also the author of Best-loved Irish Legends, a new collection of favourite Irish legends, published in 2009.

BRIDGING CULTURES, BUILDING READING SUCCESS OLANNA’S BIG DAY There’s great excitement when the school band is chosen to march in the Saint Patrick’s Day parade. Olanna practises really hard on her tin whistle.At last the big day arrives and they line up with the stilt-walkers, the bagpipers, the dancing leprechauns.Then disaster strikes. But Olanna – with a little help from her granny back in Nigeria – saves the day!

ISBN 978-1-84717-171-9 PRICE €7.99/£6.99 FORMAT 260x197mm Hardback/32 pages ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Natasha Mac a’Bháird combines freelance writing and editing with looking after her twin girls. She is the author of The Irish Bride’s Survival Guide.This is her first book for children.

THE ROMANIAN BUILDER Joe has so many questions for the new builder:Which tool is the most important? What if you are afraid of heights? How do you put scaffolding together? He is really disappointed when he finds out that Radu doesn’t speak any English. Now he will never find out about building – or will he?

ISBN 978-1-84717-105-4 PRICE €7.99/£6.99 FORMAT 260x197mm Hardback/32 pages ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Peter Prendergast is the author of one previous novel. He works in Dublin as a schoolteacher. The Romanian Builder is his first children’s book.

BRIDGING CULTURES, BUILDING READING SUCCESS OLANNA’S BIG DAY There’s great excitement when the school band is chosen to march in the Saint Patrick’s Day parade. Olanna practises really hard on her tin whistle.At last the big day arrives and they line up with the stilt-walkers, the bagpipers, the dancing leprechauns.Then disaster strikes. But Olanna – with a little help from her granny back in Nigeria – saves the day!

ISBN 978-1-84717-171-9 PRICE €7.99/£6.99 FORMAT 260x197mm Hardback/32 pages ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Natasha Mac a’Bháird combines freelance writing and editing with looking after her twin girls. She is the author of The Irish Bride’s Survival Guide.This is her first book for children.

THE ROMANIAN BUILDER Joe has so many questions for the new builder:Which tool is the most important? What if you are afraid of heights? How do you put scaffolding together? He is really disappointed when he finds out that Radu doesn’t speak any English. Now he will never find out about building – or will he?

ISBN 978-1-84717-105-4 PRICE €7.99/£6.99 FORMAT 260x197mm Hardback/32 pages ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Peter Prendergast is ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATORS the author of one The unique illustrative approach featured in Bridges comes from previous novel. He The Cartoon Saloon, an award-winning animation and illustration works in Dublin as a design studio in Kilkenny, founded by Paul Young and Tomm schoolteacher. The Moore in 1999. The Secret of Kells, Cartoon Saloon’s flagship Romanian Builder is feature film directed by Tomm Moore, was released in 2009.

The book and the DVD are now available from www.obrien.ie. his first children’s The Cartoon Saloon also illustrated the award-winning bestseller book.

The Story of Ireland, which is due to be released in a special new handy-sized edition in October 2009.

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BRIDGING CULTURES, BUILDING READING SUCCESS

A Note for Teachers

Bridging Sameness and Difference Idea l Bridging Cultures class for room use Building Reading Success

Bridges is an exciting new series of beautifully illustrated full-colour hardback books for children, which celebrates Ireland's ethnic and cultural diversity. At The O’Brien Press, we believe in the importance of story as a way of shedding light on children’s common and contrasting experiences, and we feel that the knowledge and understanding gained from stories can help bridge the gap between sameness and difference in the classroom.

With Bridges, children can learn about how people from a broad range of cultural backgrounds living in Ireland communicate with each other and find commonalities in their experiences. Bridges presents pupils with lively and engaging stories about many different experiences of life in Ireland today to help deepen their understanding of their own and other cultures.

With story levels that are accessible to a very wide age range, and a unique illustrative approach, the Bridges series meets the reality of mixed-language proficiency and different reading abilities in the classroom and also meets the teacher’s need to address learning differences among pupils.

A book from the series can be given to a child with very little English, and another book from the same series may be given to a competent reader.

Bridges may also be used as the basis for projects or class learning about different cultures. With high-quality, entertaining storylines and engaging illustrations, the Bridges series is an invaluable resource for the Resource Teacher, the Learning Support Teacher and the EAL Teacher, and is equally useful to the classroom teacher engaging with the mainstream curriculum.

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IRELAND’S INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHER The O’Brien Press Ltd., 12 Terenure Road East, Rathgar, Dublin 6, Ireland P: +353 1 492 3333 / F: +353 1 492 3333 / E: books@obrien.ie Rights enquiries to: michael@obrien.ie/kunak@obrien.ie www.obrien.ie