Winner of the 2014 Marsh Award for Children's Literature Shola is a little dog with attitude. Frustratingly for her, she loves both comfort (mainly in the form of food) and adventure (in theory, at least), and spends much of her time trying to decide between the two. Whether she is faced with the possibility that she may really be a lion or the prospect of a boar-hunt, with eccentric American visitors or insufferable country bumpkins, Shola is not afraid to pursue her dreams ...up to a point. Lovingly and revealingly illustrated by Mikel Valverde, these four stories in one volume are a treasure-trove of amusement which cannot fail to cheer the reader. 'Mikel Valverde's illustrations are most expressive and the English translation comes courtesy of the great Margaret Jull Costa...Shola is one of the most impressive heroines of the modern world' Eileen Battersby, Irish Times 'A charming, witty, spirited collection of stories about the exploits of an irresistibly characterful little dog' Daniel Hahn, PEN Atlas Books of the Year 'Totally charming' Independent Children's books of the Year> 'Fabulous' Guardian Children's Books 'A short, sweet, and entertaining story...truly lovely illustrations and some wonderful wordplay-derived humour' The Book Wars 'First Spot, then Snowy and now Shola - children's literature has an illustrious history of plucky S-name canines.
..Mikel Valverde's illustrations are, like the best of cartoon strips, wittily and expressively detailed' Junior 'Funny and heart-warming stories, beautifully packaged and affectionately and cleverly illustrated' Lancashire Evening Post
Author Biography
Bernardo Atxaga (Joseba Irazu Garmendia, b. 1951) is an award-winning Basque writer, whose work spans adult and children's prose, poetry, radio, cinema and theatre, as well as short stories. He first achieved national and international fame with Obabakoak (1988), which won the National Literature Prize 1989 and has been translated into more than twenty languages. His novels have won critical acclaim in Spain and abroad; most recently, Margaret Jull Costa's translation of Seven Houses in France was shortlisted for the 2012 Oxford Weidenfeld Translation Prize.
