The Greenaway Medal is one of our most hotly-anticipated annual literary awards, simply because it’s the nicest looking; it recognizes the most beautiful illustration in children’s picture books, and this year’s list is simply spectacular! Hotly contending the medal are, in no particular order:

Again! by Emily Gravett

Black Dog by Levi Pinfold

Lunchtime by Rebecca Cobb

Oh No George by Chris Haughton

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen

Pirates ‘n’ Pistols by Chris Mould

Just Ducks by Salvatore Rubbino and Nicola Davies

King Jack and the Dragon by Peter Bentley and Helen Oxenbury

For a preview of the delightful drawings, click the image in this post – and to see them in all their glory, simply stop by the shop!

Judge for yourself: Shortlist in the shop

We’re hugely excited for the imminent judging of the 2013 Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize). This year’s shortlist is remarkably strong, featuring four previous nominees and winners, and each entry is genuinely excellent. We don’t envy the judges who have to pick one winner from this list, but if you feel like taking on their mammoth task, come into your local bookshop and check them out!

The list consists of:

Zadie Smith – N.W

Barbara Kingsolver – Flight Behaviour

Hilary Mantel – Bring Up the Bodies

A.M Holmes – May We Be Forgiven

Maria Semple – Where’d You Go, Bernadette

Kate Atkinson – Life After Life

Run, don’t walk, to your local bookshop on Free Comic Book Day!

This Saturday marks the annual return of free comic book day, an international celebration of sequential art, graphic storytelling, and the joy of comic books. Unfortunately we’re a bookshop, not a dedicated comic store, so we don’t have any freebies to hand out – but as a mark of respect for our  illustrated cousins, we’re offering a 10% off all graphic novels all weekend! Simply mention the offer to claim your discount.

Also on Saturday, author and illustrator Paul Collicutt will be running from Hackney to Queen’s Park to support independent bookshops, stopping along the way and signing copies of his gripping graphic thriller, Murder Mile. This beautifully illustrated story, “like Chariots of Fire as rewritten by Raymond Chandler“, combines the thrilling athletic pursuit of the four-minute mile with a much darker hunt for a mysterious killer. Don’t miss out on picking up a signed copy of this excellent book!

Lose you innocence with the author of The First Time

Queen’s Park Books are thrilled to announce an exclusive evening with the fabulous Kate Monro, author, blogger, and chronicler of the most personal moments of the British public. Her records of the first sexual encounters of people from all generations and walks of life are by turns illuminating, poignant, funny and familiar, and we’re delighted to host a reading and signing of her latest compilation, Losing It: How we popped our cherry over the last 80 years. Join us in the shop on Thursday 4th April at 7.00pm for a selection of truly unique and private stories. Entrance is free, and refreshments will be served. To reserve your place, email us, phone on 020 7625 1008, or pop into the shop.

Elizabeth Fremantle introduces her new novel Queen’s Gambit

The year is 1543. Katherine Parr, widowed for the second time aged thirty-one, is obliged to return to court, where she finds herself caught up in a passionate affair with Sir Thomas Seymour. However, she has attracted the attentions of the aging Henry Tudor, and nobody can refuse the hand of the king … Join us in Queen’s Park Books on Thursday 21st March at 7pm to meet local author Elizabeth Fremantle, discussing her enthralling and suspenseful debut novel, Queen’s Gambit. Entrance is free, but booking is essential – please reserve your place by emailing shop@queensparkbooks.co.uk or phoning us on 020 7625 1008.

Join us in a worldwide celebration of reading!

Thursday 7th March is World Book Day, and to mark this sixteenth annual festival of books and reading, we’re giving away hundreds of great free kid’s books! Simply bring in your WBD voucher – distributed through all local schools – and claim one of eight great short books for readers of all ages! Plus, since we’re so excited about reading, each voucher will also entitle you to one pound off any of our regular range of children’s books! Vouchers are valid until the 24th March.

Join us for an evening of poetry on 21st Feb

Queen’s Park Books are delighted to announce the return of the wonderful poets at Grey Hen Press, reading from their latest collection, The Price of Gold: Poems about the Honey Bee. It’s a compilation of verse about ‘Skeps and keepers, queens and workers, lore, science, craft and myth, all the way from Ljubljana to Aberdeen, down the centuries from the middle ages to our own, in a rich honeycomb of bee-poems.’ Join poets Marianne Burton, Maggie Butt, Katherine Gallagher, Joy Howard and Christine Webb on Thursday 21st February at 7.00pm. Entry is free, and refreshments will be served. For more information email us, phone on 020 7625 1008 or pop into the shop. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Higgs Force

Provided you didn’t sleep through 2012, you’ll have heard something about the groundbreaking discovery of the Higgs particle, the formerly-theoretical lynchpin of subatomic physics. What might have passed you by is the truly remarkable significance of this discovery. Never fear! Nicholas Mee’s newest book, Higgs Force, is the ideal explanation of the search for the particle, its enormous scientific significance, and the implications it holds for future physics. Meet Dr. Mee, and pick up your signed copy of this fascinating and enlightening book, in the shop on Saturday 2nd February, from 12.00pm.

Meet Local Author Lucy Hughes-Hallett

Gabrielle D’Annunzio was a remarkable man – famous and acclaimed as a poet, notorious for his wild affairs and romances, and lauded as a national hero for his daring military exploits. He was also a precurser of the fascist state, a rival of Mussolini, and a pugnacious conqueror.
Find out more about this outrageous historical character when local author Lucy Hughes-Hallett introduces her latest book, The Pike, on Wednesday 30th January at 7pm. Entrance is free and refreshments will be served; if you’d like to attend please let us know via email, phone, or popping into the shop. We look forward to seeing you soon!