The Burpee Bears: From bestselling author Joe Wicks, comes this glorious picture book, packed with fitness tips, exercises and healthy recipes for kids 3+

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This is my fourth decade of illustrating children's books. It all started in the 1990s with Martin Waddell books using watercolour, which of course you couldn't rub out," he explains. I became successful because my workouts were 20 minutes long and my recipes 15 minutes. I wanted to show people that they can lead a healthy life with minimal effort. For this bear family, every day is a new day: a day for adventure and discovery. True to Joe’s ethos, each book will feature a fun and positive story. With added exercises –including burpees – and recipes, this book is perfect for families to share and enjoy together! It’s an uplifting story about a bear family who go on a wonderful day out in the woods. It’s about getting active and having fun (and getting caught in the rain)…

Joe's message is about having children being active and taking care of their mental health and I wanted to reflect the bears vitality, energy and liveliness using bright colours," he explains. Howard has also enjoyed working with the youngest children "who have no inhibitions" and with the primary four and five age group, empowering them to become illustrators and design a new book cover for The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark. French is the author of more than 300 books and has beenawarded an MBE for her services to literature, literacy, illustration and the arts. She has also received the Scottish Book Trust’s outstanding achievement award and isthe co-founder of the critically acclaimed Picture Hooks scheme to help emerging art graduates find their feet in the world of book illustration. I leave them my drawing and then they have a little display with all their owls. There are little parliaments of owls all around classrooms in Northern Ireland now," he proudly beams. This weekend he joins creative writing charity Fighting Words NI in hosting a series of events in Belfast's Crescent's Arts Centre as part of the Belfast Book Festival.I reverse the process, with the illustrations and characters first and then let the children choose if they want to end the story with a written sentence, an illustration or both. The message with children always has to be: “Do your best. If you can’t do it perfectly, have a try.” Don’t judge yourself. Don’t compare yourself. Nothing brings you more into the moment than freezing water

This is just one of the many "random and creative" scenarios that award-winning author and illustrator Paul Howard has received from 10 and 11-year-olds during workshops when he challenged them to think about what Plop, the little barn owl, in the beloved children's book The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark would be doing now. As I was growing up I remember feeling short-changed when I moved onto the more difficult books with no illustrations. While he has seen many technological changes in his craft, the essence of his job remains the same.

Howard, who has lived in Belfast for the past 22 years, is delighted to see how his approach is already breaking down barriers and impacting upon those children with learning difficulties, including dyslexia. Created by Joe, with the story co-written with acclaimed author Vivian French, and gloriously illustrated by stellar artist Paul Howard. In these uncertain times that we are living, books have the power to help support and empower children and assist them in building empathy and understanding of this crazy world. I’ve never been overweight. I was a skinny child who loved PE and sport. I used exercise as a coping mechanism…