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Rummage4words

Anne M Stephenson author illustrator official website

Woolly sheep

Welcome to my website and online Bookshop


How do you make your child into a book lover?

By reading to them, start as young as possible, and share a love of reading.


Picture books paint pictures in the imagination.

Picture books get read over and over, becoming part of the fabric of childhood. 

Picture books get pulled this way and that, by inquisitive hands discovering the world.

Picture books get ripped and dog-eared just like a favourite teddy.

Put picture books in the hands of little ones and plant the seeds for a lifetime of reading. 



My aim is to get books out of boxes and into the hands of readers, and as a self publisher it’s down to me to make that happen. So as well as adding content to my website and blog, I'll be working on the next book, splashing around in paint, hoping that some of it will stick to the characters. Characters can be an unruly bunch, with their own ideas and attitudes...


If you’re here to learn more about self publishing, stick around, because I’ve cleared (jumped, clambered over, gone round, under and over) many hurdles to get this far, battling technology, arranging and doing book signings, and sharing the journey in my Blog.


So the journey continues… the route may change along the way, but the destination is book sales.


Latest Books by Anne M Stephenson

The Puppy in the Cat Carrier

Getting knocked over is a scenario that doesn’t instantly feel inspirational, but...

The Puppy in the Cat Carrier book cover image

Turning minor disasters into picture books

Minor disasters happen all the time, but life’s little mishaps make great scenes in picture books, the messier the better.


A rolling dog is very annoying and smelly. Even if you don’t at first notice the smell, the flies soon will… and as you continue your walk, wondering where that awful smell is coming from, and why it seems to be following you home, your first thought may not be to sit down and do a quick sketch. But this is the sort of minor disaster that makes a wonderful scene in a picture book, even if it does bring back unpleasant memories as you draw the picture.


Getting knocked over is another scenario that doesn’t instantly feel inspirational. While sitting on the ground, assessing if limbs are still all pointing the right way, and giving an excited puppy the sort of look that conveys, even to him, that he should probably stop running around with the hat that fell off with the impact of the landing. And just maybe shaking the hat until it was dead, may not be the best idea, although the flying strands of wool would suggest that it was already too late for the pompom.

But it wasn’t all disasters, there was the joy of watching a tiny puppy grow and grow, until he grew into himself…


And all this from a puppy who came into the family masquerading as a cat, you’ll just have to read the book to see how that went.



The Blurb:

“Orphaned puppies” they said. “Won’t get very big” they said…

But has he really been mistaken for a cat? 

And if he’s not a cat, then what breed of dog can he be?

He just keeps getting bigger and bigger until…


Book Dedication: (and a little insight into the story behind the book)

For Kim, who persuaded me to “come and see the puppies”, though in truth I only actually ‘met’ one. The others were being carried around in the peripheries, working their own magic.

For Finley, I’m not sure who chose who, but when the moment came to hand you back, no one was letting go, though no one quite knew why. So we took you home and loved you, not really knowing what you would turn into, or when you’d stop growing.

For Phil, for putting up fencing, and then more fencing…

For Jessica, Mitchell, Fraiser, Rosie and Willow; Finley hopes you’ll all carry on dropping food and playing, but mostly the food bit! (Except for greens… you’re on your own with them.)

For the cats, for learning to live with a dog. 


32 page full colour picture book.

IBSN 978-0-9560232-9-2


Belle ex Racehorse ...just horsing around

Children's picture book, adventures of an ex racehorse, trying new things and just horsing around.

Belle ex Racehorse just horsing around book cover image

Belle is an ex racehorse  and has become part of the family – true she doesn’t live in the house with us, but I’m sure that given the chance she would live in the garden and come and demand carrots at the kitchen door.

In this book I’ve tried to capture, and do justice to, some of the day to day stories my daughter came home with about her ex racehorse. Horses can spook at the strangest things – a tractor and trailer rattling by, might be absolutely fine, but sheep in a field can be the scariest thing ever… and as for a fly-tipped corner bath! What sort of monster could that be?


"Write a story about Belle," said my daughter.

"But I don’t know about horses," was my reply, I think you need to know a subject to be able to write a story about it. 

And so time passed, and I learnt more about horses, I sat on horses – even Belle – apparently my daughter had been wondering what would happen if she put a complete novice on Belle’s back…   well I lived to tell the tale – literally. 


The Blurb:

Belle is an ex racehorse, but she doesn’t know what that means. She was born to race, so what now…?

Maybe she’s a jumper, a dressage horse or an explorer… she still has the instinct to race whenever she gets the chance; but maybe just horsing around could be fun too.


32 page full colour picture book.

ISBN 978-0-9560232-8-5


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