Monty's special day
Written by Ellen DeLange
Illustrated by Malgosia Zajac
Story behind the story
I often pass a farmhouse that’s located near a small river. In the meadow lives a friendly donkey. He always walks the same loop, but sometimes I see him standing still, looking up. Once, I wondered what he was looking at. Could it be the geese flying overhead?I imagined that one day his curiosity would prompt him to follow the birds, to find out where they are going. His typical donkey day then turns out to be a special day, and he can’t wait to share his adventure with his friends. That’s how the story of Monty’s Special Day came to be.
Trailer
Check out the book trailer video. The sound is muted. If you want to hear the trailer with sound, please click the speaker icon in the left bottom corner of the player.
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International publications
'Monty's Special Day' is (will be) available in
Dutch (02/2020)
English (11/2020)
Arabic (Jordan 2020)
Danish (2020)
Slovenian (2020)
About the illustrator
Malgosia Zajac is a polish illustrator. She live with her family in a very old polish city called Krakow. This city is well known for it’s famous dragon (unfortunately not in good shape anymore) and for “Wawel” royal castle (still in very good shape).
She strongly believes that imagination is the most important thing in her artistic live. Her head is always full of all kind of creatures, imaginary friends, magical worlds and incredible storys. She uses her skills and different techniques to create nonexistent worlds on paper in her illustrations.
The shelves in her workshop are full of beautiful books, illustrated by her favorite artists from all over the world. She admires them and still learns something new from them. Malgosia dreams that one day, her illustrated books will be on someones favorite shelve too. https://www.instagram.com/bigdotillustrations
Download colouring pages
See at the right a colouring page for you
to download.
Reviews
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"Sweetly encouraging of curiosity" - Kirkus Reviews
Monty is a blue, wide-eyed donkey who''s content with his life on the farm, among other loving animals. But someone left the gate open today, and Monty is tempted to wander. Curious by nature, he follows the examples set by a moose and some geese before realizing that he''s not at home among beavers and squirrels. Monty is more than happy when his adventures lead him home.The book''s active, bright illustrations celebrate both exploration and being happy where you are." - Foreword Reviews "
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I thought that this book was lovely! I read it with my daughter in bed tonight and she really enjoyed it. She was telling me about monty and pointing out the different farm animals too. It was an easy story to read and it was fun to follow Monty on his special Donkey day too. Well written and easy for my three year old to understand so a hit in our house.
Very highly recommended - it is 5 stars from me for this one - a lovely read! - Donna Maguire (Goodreads)
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This book was completely adorable! Monty the donkey teaches us an important lesson. That it's ok to try something new and to get out and explore things that are different. All the animal characters are so cute! The illustrator did a fantastic job! I highly recommend this book to anyone with small children. - Heather (Goodreads)
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