The bog baby - Jeanne Willis

Do you believe in Bog Babies?
If you don’t, you will!

When two small sisters go fishing in a magic pond, they find something much better than a frog or a newt. They find a Bog Baby. Small and blue, with wings like a dragon, the girls decide to take him home with them and keep him a secret.

But the Bog Baby is a wild thing, and when he gets sick, the girls turn to their mother for help. She teaches them the greatest lesson of all: sometimes if you really love something, you have to let it go.

This magical book about the wonder children feel for the wild creatures around them will appeal to every child’s imagination and love of the outdoors.

2008 Booktrust Early Years Preschool Award Winner

Jeanne Willis has written more than 80 titles, including picture books, novels, and television scripts. She has also won numerous awards, including the Sheffield Children’s Book Award and the Silver Smarties Prize. Her teen novel, Naked Without a Hat , was shortlisted for the Whitbread Award in 2004. She often takes inspiration from dreams and interesting conversations with strangers. She lives in England.

Gwen Millward studied illustration in Edinburgh and now spends all of her time painting and writing stories for children about her favorite subject, beasts. Her first book, Guess What I Found in Dragon Wood, was published in April 2007. She lives in England.

Starred Review,Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2009:
"[This] happy-ending story asks readers to consider not only the importance of leaving wild things but the possibility of magic."

Review,School Library Journal, October 2009:
"Glorious illustrations."

Review,The New York Times Book Review, October 11, 2009:
"[A] charmingly conceived modern fable."

Review,Publishers Weekly, October 12, 2009:
"Willis...supplies numerous winsome details...ever-fresh in the narrator's mind, and Millward's...dreamy, doodly pen and ink spreads are similarly fragrant with nostalgia for childhood expeditions and the sheer magic of the outdoors."

Review,Grandparents.com, October 22, 2009:
"[Willis's]words are paired with some of the most beautiful illustrations in recent memory - there is a two-page spread of bluebells that will take your breath away."

Starred review,The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, December 2009:
"A sweet story with a wide-eyed belief in possibility; it's sure to get kids nosing around the woods for their own fantastical finds."

Review, Scholastic Parent & Child, December 2009:
"Gwen Millward's whimsical watercolors add to the charm."