Billy and the Beast

Product Information

Nadia Shireen enjoyed making homemade magazines and comics as a child. She studied law at university and then worked in magazine journalism; it was during this time that she started to draw again. After a lifetime of doodling in the sidelines, Nadia decided to pay some attention to drawing and in 2007 was accepted onto an MA course in children’s book illustration at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. Her debut book, Good Little Wolf, received a mention in the Bologna Ragazzi Opera Prima Award and won the UKLA Book Award. Nadia has been shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. She lives in London. Puffin is an imprint of Penguin Random House, the world’s number-one publisher representing a vibrant community of publishing houses marked by unparalleled success. Through our world of stories, Puffin aims to open up the world to every child. Our mission is to inspire children to feel they can be and do anything, and to create readers for life. LoveReading4Kids exists because books change lives, and buying books through LoveReading4Kids means you get to change the lives of future generations, with 25% of the cover price donated to schools in need. Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives. Armistice Day: A Collection of Remembrance - Spark Interest and Educate Children about Historical Moments

Billy and the Beast by Nadia Shireen | Waterstones Billy and the Beast by Nadia Shireen | Waterstones

A fantastic book that I can see working wonderfully with early years. As a trainee Primary Teacher, I find myself noticing how useful books might be in lessons, and this book has excellent examples for use in English lessons (particularly onomatopoeia, with 'crunched, stomped, etc'. Lovely book. Great for younger children, Lots of images, colours and adjectives. Lots of use of repetition. Happy ending, although could have given the beast a chance of redemption rather than the bunnies trapping him in the pot.

International

This was followed by a MA at the prestigious Anglia Ruskin University. Drawing and writing for a living is very much Nadia’s dream come true and we expect great things from this promising new author and illustrator. This book would be great for a KS1 class. Nice bold and bright colours, I really enjoyed the illustrations throughout this book, plenty opportunities to use reading theatre. I imagined my son going out into the world and asking people with hair of this type what they are hiding in it... I mean... I'm really not sure that's the kind of image I want to put into his head. I have been trying to look for opinions of this book from people of colour and haven't been able to find any at all, so maybe this says something in itself.

Billy and the Beast by Nadia Shireen | The British Library Billy and the Beast by Nadia Shireen | The British Library

Nadia was always destined for a career in illustration—as a child, she would doodle on her exercise books, while as a student she would doodle on her law degree notes. Then, when working as a journalist in London for pop music bible Smash Hits, she would doodle all the time on anything. The good people at Smash Hits didn’t fire her for doodling furry animals - instead they let her leave early to go to evening classes in illustration. With a perfect balance of fact and narrative, this heartwarming picture book will engage and delight young children, and inspire them to encourage bees into their own outdoor spaces. Thankfully, Billy is brilliantly inventive when it comes to persuading the Terrible Beast from doing a truly terrible thing, and her thought processes are great prompts to spark discussion when reading this aloud with little ones – what would you do? Indeed, this is a joy to read aloud, with lots of luscious onomatopoeia to revel in. What’s more, as always, Shireen’s illustrations conjure character with energy, and in gloriously stylish tones.Billy and fatcat were passing bushes when suddenly everything went dark. OH! they were caught somewhere and they weren't alone. Their friends hedgehog, fox, mice and adorable bunnies were also caught by monster to fill his yummy soup.