Puldan Taştan Lahanadan

Novel, 85 pages, 2011, ISBN: 978-975-07-1383-5, 8+

In From Stamp, From Stone, From Cabbage, we meet the eco-conscious boy called Köstebek (Mole) who thinks that ordinary trash is really a treasure. He has been called by this nickname Köstebek ever since he was 5, when people realized his interest in digging out to find the rubbish and his enthusiasm to discover a mystery in whatever he looks at.

The story becomes more captivating and whimsical when Köstebek comes across Mr Simri who is obsessed with symmetry.

Toto and His Class (Toto'nun Sınıfı)

Short Stories, 104 pages, 2008, ISBN: 978-975-07-1294-4

Get ready! Beacuse the adventures of our incredible protagonist Toto, whom we know from the book Toto and His Umbrella, go on. You will find a number of reasons to have fun in Mr Togo's class. In the newcoming advrentures of Mimi, Selo and Lolo, the silence of their new friend Lolo, flower bouquet that cannot reach the right address, Toto's scientific dream, the game which children suddenly find themselves in... All of them will both make you curious and put a smile on your faces.

The Rooster Man and the Pirate (Horoz Adam ve Korsan)

Novel, 96 pages, 2008, ISBN: 978-975-07-0282-4, 10+

We learn the story of a deaf and mute child named Yağmur (rain) who finds out that he has a special sensitivity for the vibrations while he was living in a basement apartment spared for the gatekeeper and he later becomes a sound technician, from the notes of a musician whose nickname is Rooster Man.

Yağmur was born in a village where rain prayers was causing floods. After discovering that he is different than the other children he spends his days with games like “finding someone like you” and “thinking that you are a fairy.” His childhood memories are about his older sister who was trying to teach him the objects and sounds one by one while she was doing the house chores, about the reliable and silent support of his grandfather, the loving atmosphere his mother and father had created.

I Buy Second Hands (Eskiler Alırım)

Preschool Picture Story Book, 30 pages, 2007 ISBN: 978-975-07-0870-1, 3 to 5 years, Illustrated by Mustafa Delioğlu

Pınar asks her mother for an organ of her dreams. Can one buy an organ by selling the old things, which have been lying under beds and in cupboards for years?

The musical instrument of grandmother’s childhood, mother’s broken bicycle, the old French dictionary, father’s long-forgotten fishhook, dusty toys... How do all those things suddenly become so precious that they cannot be sold? Pınar is not the only child who cannot fulfill her dreams. The second-hand-buyer knows a way to make those children meet with each other...

The Broken Umbrella (Kırık Şemsiye)

Preschool picture story book, 24 pages, 2006, ISBN: 978-975-07-0672-1, 3 to 5 years, Illustrated by Huban Korman

A little girl tries to find the owner of a broken umbrella she has found in the shop. The Peach Tree, the Tailor and the Seagull think that this umbrella belongs to an old man and begin to tell stories of old men with green umbrellas they have met in their old days. While telling their stories they touch the umbrella the shopkeeper is mending with their own tongues and ornament it. Towards the evening a little boy wearing the costume of an old man for the school’s New Year’s play comes to the shop to find his umbrella he has forgotten there. But there is no old umbrella left; he only finds an ornamented, charming new one.

Note: "The Broken Umbrella" was chosen the Illustrated Book of the Year in 2006 by the Association of Children’s Publishing.

My Sailor Grandfather (Gemici Dedem)

Novel, 112 pages, 2007, ISBN: 978-975-07-0865-7, 7+, Illustrated by Behiç Ak

On a snowy day a man with curly hair, big nose, and red and green checkered scarf knocks at the door of a house. He and the father of the house have a harsh talk. After this man who makes traces on the snow by dragging one of his feet has left, and the father of the house starts to smoke cigaret after cigaret, the child thinks that it is up to him to make a detective story out of this episode. For some reason his father never treats him like he is his own dear son. Whenever he talks with the boy he starts to breath like a train. The boy’s brushy hair doesn’t look like his father’s scarce hair. An insisting voice inside him keeps saying “This man is not your father.” When the boy finds himself in impossible situations, it usually helps to talk with the cherry tree Pakize. He adds to his imaginary story the questions about his father and his worries. The chance events also help him to fill up the gaps in his story.

Sing Your Song to the Seas (Şarkını Denizlere Söyle)

Youth Novel, 190 pages, 2006, ISBN: 978-975-07-0678-3

Tan, a Tourism Vocational School student, works at a holiday village on the Black Sea Coast during his summer vacation and from his conversation with the cook’s assistant we learn his life story which has begun in a Central Anatolian town.

The theater director Sezer has been put in prison because he was accused of child abuse. The only witness who could save him was Tan. But he chooses not to talk because he doesn’t want anybody to know that he was wetting his bed at nights. After that he starts a long voyage back to his childhood through his dialogues with his psychiatrist.

A Little Bit of Teo (Az Buçuk Teo)

Novel, 182 pages, 2005, ISBN: 978-975-07-0561-8, 9+, Illustrated by Behiç Ak

Since the day he moved to the neighbourhood, Teo became part of the everyday life of the neighbourhood with his unexpected approaches, his interest in mathematics, his interesting ideas and his disinterest in being a consumer. He is living alone. He doesn’t have any child. Even his unwillingness to have a child has its roots in his mathematical mind:

"Do we know what is written in the genes of the mother? If there is no mathematical intellect there, then all this effort is for nothing. To whom am I going to transfer all my knowledge? Shall I keep them in of me? I want to transfer not my surname but my mathematical talents from generation to generation."

The Girl With Tomato-Coloured Hair (Domates Saçlı Kız)

Novel, 168 pages, 2005 ISBN: 978-975-07-0536-X, 7+, Illustrated by Behiç Ak

The most talkative residents of Rotten Egg City are two crows named Tiktak and Tıktık who spend all their days by talking non stop on the top of the gumming tree. Nobody can understand what they are talking and everybody is fed up with their noise. One day, a tourist who is visiting the city decides to observe the crows. He starts to follow Tiktak. Tiktak is sneaking into the houses and offices and he is stealing books, magazines, letters, documents, advertisement brochures and all kind of written things he can find. He keeps his founds in a cavity of the tree and when he meets Tıktık they are reading all those documents and talking about them. At that time they are reading from the hidden files of a small girl. The story of the girl with tomato coloured hair has been cut from a weekly magazine and has been put in a file. The name of the tomato coloured girl is Güneş and she has been living in an orphanage for ten years. People had found her at the door of the orphanage and she has never seen her mother and father.

Children of the Sun (Güneşin Çocukları)

Young adult book, 294 pages, 2004, ISBN:978-975-07-0427-0, , Illustrated by Behiç Ak

The Adventures of the Little Girl Sakız (Sakız Kızın Günleri)

Stories, 120 pages, 2004, ISBN:978-975-07-0330-8, 7+, Illustrated by Behiç Ak

Sakız, is an eight year old girl. She lives in a flat with her mother, father, sister and her pet salamander. Sakız is shy and blushes easily. She likes to imagine herself as different characters in imaginary adventures. She believes that she is surrounded by mysteries waiting to be discovered. She dreams of becoming a geologist, a champion puzzle-solver and also a movie star.

There are three long stories in the book. In “Sakız and the Moon Stone”, she falls into a fantastic adventure when her aunt brings a moon stone back with her from her latest trip abroad. With the help of the magical dust from the moon stone, her friends, her mother and her sister Nazlı are transformed into new beings that can solve problems that they could not overcome in their normal lives.

The Local Cinema of the Neighbourhood (Mahalle Sineması)

Short stories, 96 pages, 2004, ISBN: 978-975-07-0358-8, 7+, Illustrated by Behiç Ak

There are ten stories in this book each one is narrated by a nine-year old little girl who tells about the experiences of the adults in her neighbourhood. The stories include over ten protagonists: children who try to ease the loneliness of an ex-movie star named Kenan by building a cinema in a woodshed, Hasan the shoe-maker, tries to overcome the longing for his grandson whom he has only seen in photographs, by making boots and toys for him, Nikola the King of Birds, who introduces the other birds to a boy who wishes to fly, the woman who talks with cats and flowers, and whom the children are afraid to go near because they don’t understand her language or manners, the girl who doesn’t know her Aunt Pembe very well because she lives in another town. The girl is afraid of her aunt, who reads horror books, and who can read the girl’s mind with her crystal ball, until one stormy day when they become close friends. Gezgin is another protagonist in the book who recently moved to the neighbourhood, and is greatly admired by all the girls for his dreams of travelling the world with just maps, hiking boots and a knapsack. The book centers around the daily stories of people living in the same neighbourhood.

My Kite Is A Cloud Now (Uçurtmam Bulut Şimdi)

Short stories, 84 pages, 2003, ISBN:978-975-07-0282-4, 7+, Illustrated by Behiç Ak

Stories from the daily life of children in the same neighbourhood. The teller and the protagonist of the stories is a girl about six years old, who tries to learn the world by asking questions. Children who try to get to know the clouds after the string of their kite is broken; children who try to cope with unexpected problems while selling their old books; a little child who cannot tell his problems to the adults and who identifies his tears with rain; the picture made by a small girl who also watched her mother cooking, while she was drawing; the little girl trying to find the most appropriate and affordable gift for Mothers Day; the story of how the fruitless mulberry tree was scared; the disappointment and longing of the child who had to wear the dress made by her mother instead of the one she liked to have...

Penguins Cannot Play the Flute (Penguenler Flüt Çalamaz)

Short stories, 80 pages, 2003, ISBN: 978-975-07-0324-9, 7+, Illustrated by Behiç Ak

In this book there are eight stories: the first is about a penguin who got tired of working at the circus and wanted to start a new life playing the flute, another relates the search for immortality of a song imprisoned in a music box, then there’s an account of the tricks played with puppets by an old tailor and his crow, next a sad tale of a seagull who was a homebody and his mate who loves to travel, and finally the story of an arguement at the lost and found between the objects that had accepted their fate and a geranium plant who yearned for its old life but who kept flowering even in the dark.

Southwind Travelers (Lodos Yolcuları)

Novel, 144 pages, 2003, ISBN: 978-975-07-0281-5, 7+, Illustrated by Behiç Ak

Southwind Travelers is a fantastical novel about four protagonists that relate well to our modern world. The first is a retired music teacher, Miss Güzin who is self-centered, pretensious and materialistic, then there is chubby and cute Aykut who symbolizes consumer culture and whose sole focus is food and specifically hamburger toppings. Satılmış is a child who earns a living working on the street selling cotton candy and the homeless philosopher Behçet who survives on what he finds in garbage dumps.

There lives go by undisturbed until one day a strong south wind blows in and changes the situation of all four characters.

The Window Across (Karşı Pencere)

Short stories, 100 pages, 2003, ISBN:978-975-07-0283-9, 9+, Illustrated by Behiç Ak

In My Kite is a Cloud Now Sevim Ak introduced us to the sweet girl named Meltem. In The Window Across, Meltem’s adventures continue. In these most beautiful stories, we follow interesting events Meltem experiences at the school and in the neighbourhood where she lives. Sevim Ak is not a writer who pretends to be a teacher. She never tries to give children dry information. She approaches children sympathetically, understands their language, and knows how to sneak into their imaginary world. These stories are the products of a warm communication of Sevim Ak with children. With her children readers she shares the beauties created by her own imagination.

Toto and His Umbrella (Toto ve Şemsiyesi)

Short stories, 88 pages, 2003, ISBN: 978-975-07-0307-2, 7+, Illustrated by Behiç Ak

Toto is an interesting little boy with an endless imagination. His ideas are original and he is good at making decisions on his own. Toto knows that he is unique and different from other children in the world. This book includes eleven stories about Toto and the importance of music, friendship, and love. In the stories, Toto solves problems, longs for discovery and excitement, learns about being sensitive to his environment and searches for the will to change the world.

Waves Like to Gossip (Dalgalar Dedikoduyu Sever)

Short stories, 96 pages, 2003, ISBN: 978-975-07-0285-3, 7+, Illustrated by Behiç Ak

There are nine stories in this book written about the atmosphere of the sea and its creatures. Creatures like the weaverbird Fiyonk who decorates her nest with colourful stones and shells, makes wonderful hats with things which she collects from garbage dumps and goes on an imaginery trip, the two seahorses named Çia and Si and their romance, salmons who overcome death in order to keep a promise to each other, a stork who gets a new life and philosophy after missing his time to migrate while trying to save a wild goose from hunters, the exuberant heart of an old lighthouse, the lonely yet dance-crazy Albatros who choses freedom over life in a colony, and finally boastful Medusa who came to understand during her imprisonment in a pond, that a pond can appear larger than the ocean.

What Happened to the Pink Bird? (Pembe Kuşa Ne Oldu?)

Short stories, 96 pages, 2003, ISBN:978-975-07-0297-6, 7+, Illustrated by Behiç Ak

There are ten imaginative tales in this book: the first is about a child who hears music coming from the sky but who can’t convince people around him about what he hears. He sends a pink bird up into the sky to collect the music from the clouds. He waits several days for the bird’s return, but the bird doesn’t come back. In the meantime, he finds a friend who can also hear the music. Another story is about a man called Musto who played the same song again and again until one day he finally got invited to play his song at a wedding party, then a story about Titi who wants to meet the boy who gives a paper boat with his name on it to everyone he meets, next the tale of an old Chinese puppet that disappeared one day from the window of an antique shop and returned with a book years later, one about how the sun got bored of living in the sky and hid under a child’s bed before being shot back into the sky by the child’s catapult, and finally a story about the chaos created by musical notes that fled during a concert and went to an island.

Dad’s Eyes Are Cat Eyes (Babamın Gözleri Kedi Gözleri)

Novel, 104 pages, 2002, ISBN: 978-975-07-0166-5, 7+, Illustrated by Behiç Ak

The girl named Ayçiçek moves to a new house together with her mother. Her father doesn’t come to the house. Father has lots of ‘gadgets’. Gadgets mean pieces of radios, tape recorders, washing machines and clocks. Everywhere, under the carpets, on the tables and armchairs, in the socks you meet with those gadgets. When father comes home from work, he spends all his time with those gadgets, makes new apparatus he himself designed from them. The ‘gadgets’ wouldn’t come to the new house. Father tells he would select the useful ones among them and move after that.

Puf, Pufpuf, Cuf, Cufcuf and Cino

Novella, 88 pages, 2002, ISBN: 978-975-07-0169-0 7+, Illustrated by Behiç Ak

Goose Puf who used to have an ordinary, calm life on the Red Butterfly Farm, flees from the farm to give a famous TV showman called Funny Bo a very special egg as a birthday present. Puf also escapes the farm because she is in love with Funny Bo. When they meet, Bo is interested in Puf too, but he doesn’t invite her into his house. Instead Bo places her in the pond in his garden. Although Puf is happy to make friends with the seagull and the dog living in the garden she realizes that Bo cannot spare any time for her in his busy life. In order to get his attention and become an active part of his life, Puf starts to develop her talents. She learns to sing and dance.

The male goose Cuf, who was brought to the garden to be her husband, has very different areas of interest from Bo. Puf starts to get to know Cuf and they build a new life together but Puf continues to try to and be a part of Bo’s life. Puf applies her new found talents to a career in showbiz and becomes famous.

A novel about love, friendship, family ties, the meaning of life and the importance of creativity.

Vanilla Scented Letters (Vanilya Kokulu Mektuplar)

Novel, 128 pages, 2002 ISBN: 978-975-07-0168-9, 7+, Illustrated by Behiç Ak

Kıymık is a boy of 11 with a highly developed imagination. His parents are divorced and they temporarily leave the boy at his grandmother’s care. Although not very old, the grandmother is nevertheless a very boring lady who is slower than a turtle, who has become disgusted with life, who never goes out and who has very strict rules. Kıymık turns his room into a private detective office. He dedicates himself to solving the problems of the neighbourhood and his friends. While he is reading the newspaper one morning, one of the specialized ads attracts his attention: A paralyzed man would like to hire a young person to read him books. If he gets this job, his boring days would become colourful, he could buy chocolate which his grandmother forbids, he could take Baldudak, the most beautiful girl in his class to the movies.