A heartening rhyming picture book that celebrates the beauty of the natural world and sharing the spoken word with a vocabulary-rich story from award-winning, bestselling author Lucy Rowland and illustrations sparkling with joy from Craig Shuttlewood.
In a mystical wood stood a magical tree - the home of brilliant Magpie. From her nest, Magpie listens to the wonderful words of her fellow woodland animals.
Words with a sparkle, a shimmer, a shine, entwined in her nest in the tree.
She gathered them up and giggled, "They're mine - these sparkling words just for me!"
But eventually, the other animals stay silent to avoid their words being whisked away. Only then does Magpie realise that the quiet wood doesn't glitter in the same way as before. In fact, it's quite dark...
After a storm destroys Magpie's nest, and sends her hoard of sparkling words zooming back out into the forest to their rightful owners, she finally learns that it is unity, kindness and sharing language that makes the words sparkle.
This lyrical story effortlessly weaves perennial themes of sharing, kindness and teamwork alongside an engaging and fun focus on vocabulary and descriptive words, encouraging readers to share words with each other. This powerful picture book is perfect for story time and children's language development. The ideal bookshelf companion to The Lost Words, The Word Collector and The Pencil.
Bestselling, award-winning picture book staple, Lucy Rowland (Wanda's Words Got Stuck, Little Red Reading Hood), returns to the Templar picture book list with this lyrical rhyming story. Her writing is informed by her knowledge as a children's speech and language therapist, which is deeply woven into the read-aloud qualities of her work.After a long hiatus, Craig Shuttlewood returns to the Templar list with his emotive, accessible characters and detailed natural scenes.A focus on the joy of sharing language and the beauty of the spoken word, making this the ideal classroom companion for topics like adjectives, creative writing and storytelling. There are a range of adjectives describing the setting embedded in the artwork throughout and two spreads of definitions of the sparkling words included in the text for children to refer back to.A heartwarming tale that reminds children of the importance of sharing, teamwork and community.Cover treatment: matt lam, SPUV and foil. 
