Just flicking through the blogs and spotted over on Achockablog:
STOP PRESS: Waterstones Winner
Michelle Harrison is the winner of 2009 Waterstones Children’s Book Prize.
There’s a big blurb about the awards over at waterstones.com including a video with Kate Philips, from Waterstones in Oxford (below). The Guardian covers the story too - click for more.
Help! I’ve been kidnapped. Two hefty looking blokes broke in and blindfolded me, dragged me into a large van crammed with other book types and we’re all being taken to an disclosed location. There are murmurs about seeing a movie, maybe this one. But I don’t know… Hopefully they’ll let me go in time for the Blookie Event tonight.
Good friends Richard & Judy* tell me they’re looking for your votes - namely for their Children’s Book of the Year Award. There are some great books on the list - including Artemis Fowl, The Great Paper Caper, Before I Die and Kaspar. (Not that I’m trying to influence your votes… no not at all)
That general trouble maker Eoin Colfer has his own plea for votes or you can go straight to voting here.
*My good friends Richard and Judy may not be the more telly famous R&J.
Update: I’m no longer being held hostage. AND I got to see the stunning Secret of Kells. Tom Moore should be very proud - he, and several hundred others, have created a 2D visual masterpiece. Brendan Gleeson and Mick Lally lend their powerful voices to the movie (and one of the downfalls I felt was in some of the younger cast in comparrison) as well as a strong soundtrack from Bruno Coulais and Kila.
Over the weekend, when I wasn’t at the Coraline screening or racing to buy the last strawberries in Dublin, I read some newspapers…
Alison Flood in the Guardian has a look at the stiff competition in the Arthur C Clarke SF Award.
While in the Irish Independent, Cathy Kelly (who doesn’t quite write science fiction), has some tips and bugbears for would-be writers. This is my favourite:
If you are stunningly attractive, a photo may help. They won’t publish your book because you’re cute, and people won’t buy it because you’re cute… …if and when you do publicity, there is a slightly greater chance that newspapers will want to publish an article if they get gorgeous pictures too. Sad but true.
Oxford University Press come out guns blazing in their own defence in the Times UK:
it gives children structured support and engagement. It has always been the intention of Oxford Reading Tree to get children reading as quickly as possible so that they can access the richly diverse world of children’s literature for themselves. - Kate Harri, Managing Director, Educational and Children’s Division, OUP.
Sticking with the Times UK, this time with Nicolette Jones, who reviews Emily Gravett’s Dogs.
Over in the Guardian Julia Eccleshare has not one but two reviews - Joe Berger’s Bridget Fidget and Helen Cooper’s Dog Biscuit.
In our own Irish Times, Peter Crawley reviews The Giant Blue Hand (Marina Carr’s new play for children playing in The Ark)
Some will be surprised by how dark Carr is willing to go here, but even as the Giant Blue Hand boasts about eating his victims with mustard, ketchup and mayonnaise, each hardship comes cushioned with a savoury gag.
“Time can do terrible things,” says Walker, “but it can also do the wonderful.” That desire to explore the dark folds of fantasy in a production brimming with imagination speaks directly and sincerely to kids. To grown-ups too, for that matter.
And finally - Slashfilm have some sneak peaks from Where the Wild Things Are. Go see! Go see!
Did anyone else know that Tomm Moore has a blog for the Secret of Kells movie? No, me neither… I’ve started reading posts from way back at the beginning of the project - all the way back in 2005.
We’ve been working on this in Cartoon Saloon for almost six years, just dpping into it everynow and then the development was long, meandering and ponderous. We’re finally in full-time preproduction with a crew in place. We started in October and we’ll be aiming to finish it up for Chrimbo 2007. So stay tuned. I just posted some pictures of the main character Brendan that I did last year at this time and a newer one.
And is it worth mentioning that I’m going to see that very movie, The Secret of Kells, at a secret time, in an undisclosed location, next week?
Vincent of Movies.ie fame raved about it (below) and ye can see the trailer on the movies.ie forum:
I loved THE SECRET OF KELLS, the movie has a magical other-worldy feel that reminded me of Hayao Miyazaki’s movies (such as Spirited away) It’s one of the most visually arresting animations I’ve seen, every frame is a work of art. That coupled with a perfect soundtrack and a back-drop of Irish folklore, it’s impossible not to love it.
In recovery today after a manic day on Tuesday (more on that tomorrow) but two pieces on bullying caught my eye -
22pc of Irish teens have experienced bullying online, with four out of 10 experiencing it frequently, according to Microsoft Ireland. - Marie Boran on Gadgetrepublic.com
Educational theatre group Team have put together a three-part DVD drama called Get Real , to highlight the dangers of the online social networking phenomenon amongst teenagers. - John Holden in the Irish Times
After a week of manic weather, and just when everyone in Dublin thought it was safe to go back out doors, we woke on Sunday to an incredible winter wonderland all over again. And this time I took full advantage - a snowball fight against the meanest, hardest 7 year olds I’ve ever met (I’m not a sore loser, nope) and then the birth of Mortimer Jones Frost II. Isn’t he pretty? (Sadly Mortimer Jones didn’t last the night… he was a mere puddle of his former self this morning.)
Of course with the weekend comes some free time to read the newspapers:
JK Rowling and Jacqueline Wilson are winning the library popularity contest - The Most Borrowed Books of 2008
And speaking of popularity - Rowling was given French Legion of Honour last week.
Lucy Mangan in the Guardian continues to build the most brilliant Children’s Lit Library - this time featuring Mr Roald Dahl and his fabulously scrumptious chocolate factory.
Sticking with the Guardian for a bit longer - Rachel Ward’s book Numbers goes under the microscope and Michael Rosen sets himself the challenge to get kids reading.
Numbers is a high-concept, it-could-go-anywhere idea taken down an unexpected and interesting route. Seemingly downbeat, it is both intelligent and life-affirming. First-time author Rachel Ward is certainly one to watch. But I’d avoid eye contact if I were you. - Philip Ardagh on Numbers
Comics and cartoons feature in the Independent for the New York Comic Con and Nicholas Tucker in the Independent UK reads Siobhan Dowd’s Solace of the Road
Creating the characters Holly meets in just a few words, quickly conjuring up the urban scenery, expertly flitting between past and present, Siobhan Dowd meets every challenge with the authority of a born writer taken from us too soon.
And in the Times UK
This powerful and humane book shows that hatred is never an answer, and proves the pointlessness of torture and the danger of thinking of anyone as ‘other’.
P-p-p-plenty happening in the UK papers over the weekend, not so much in the Irish press though. In other news… the blanket of snow this morning made it harder than usual to get up. We still managed to throw a few snowballs before being desk bound.
The Sunday Tribune covers Suzanne Collins’ new YA book The Hunger Games.
Peter Murphy gets more of a look-see in the Tribune and the Irish Independent.
And across the pond, the Times UK had a pretty busy weekend - Amanda Craig goes to the dogs with a review of Emily Gravett’s Dogs and Dogger by Shirley Hughes.
Nicolette Jones, in the Sunday Times, reads the excellent Siobhan Dowd’s new book Solace of the Road.
In the Guardian Mal Peet reads Ally Kennen’s Bedlam
One of the many things I like about Ally Kennen’s novels is that they are built around big, centralising metaphors but she doesn’t overcrank them, nor resolve them. At the heart of Bedlam is the image of asylum, sanctuary. However, like our government’s policy on asylum, it’s a shambles. Kennen powerfully suggests that the real place of safety is within the generous hearts of the young.
And if all that wasn’t enough reading for ye - Declan has worked out a new fitness regime for everyone. 39 steps to getting published. A sure fire way to the top.
Diana Ashcroft sent me a copy of her book at the end of December and I still haven’t managed to read it. (Sorry Diana). Having not read it I can’t comment on the title or it’s relevance to the book - but Hitler and Mars Bars is intriguing. Still… knowing never to judge a book by it’s cover Moira over at Vulpes Libris has beaten me to the punch.
Hitler and Mars Bars has - among other things - a tremendous sense of place. That’s a term I’m probably overly fond of, but for some reason I always find novels set in definite and vividly drawn locations immensely appealing - and Dianne Ascroft captures the essence of post-war rural Ireland quite beautifully.
Hitler and Mars Bars is a book for all ages but would be particularly good I think for older children telling - as it does - in a straightforward and unfussy but ultimately effective way, a story about a little piece of recent Irish history that deserves to be far better known.
Go have a read, ah go on.
In between sleeping and er… sleeping over the weekend, I managed to read a few papers and a book or two - including Sarah Webb’s first Amy Green Teen Agony Queen, Boy Trouble.
I’m no 13 year old girl and I can solemnly swear that Dermot O’Leary is not on my swoonsville wishlist - but I still enjoyed the read. Everyone should have a Clover in their life to look out for them and the books is all based in Dublin so I got that ridiculous twang of pride when I read about somewhere I recognised - and there’s a blogger named Dave. The book comes complete with a new website and updates from Amy and Clover - go and have a read… (Don’t blame me for the pink and girly content - guys probably shouldn’t open it in work or next to their mates.)
And back to the papers…
Peter Murphy gets the Irish Times treatment this weekend - an interview with Catherine Cleary and a review from Eileen Battersby.
Murphy has his own voice. There are moments of violence and throughout the book John Devine is subjected to shocking, quasi-Joycean dreams. This may be a story of relatively recent contemporary Irish life, but Murphy also conveys a sense of the Ireland that went into making John’s world, a place in which the Bible and folklore walked hand in hand.
Across the water, Leonie Flynn in the Times UK suggests some books for 8 - 12 year.
Joanna Carey interviews Oliver Jeffers in the Guardian:
Jeffers became passionate about making picture books when he began to understand the subtle relationship between words and pictures - “that was what excited me. Until I got really involved, I hadn’t realised how just a few words can totally change the meaning of a picture.”
And another interview, this time in the Times UK, Kate Muir talks to Lauren Child:
The question that I must get asked the most, which I’m most dumbfounded about, is: ‘How do you write for children when you don’t have any children?’” Child scowls down into her Moomintroll coffee mug. At 39, she has a boyfriend, but no children so far. “Would you ask most writers that? Do you ask a crimewriter if he’s committed any murders recently? Childhood: we’ve all been there.” She continues: “Writing is all about observation. That’s your job. I remember Alan Bennett saying writers are very cruel people because they are always looking for those little oddnesses. It’s a kind of curiosity, that’s what you have to have.”
Anyone else spot the new puffin list announcements over on Book Brunch yesterday? Francesca Dow, from Puffin, pinned down the uncertainity about what is to come - “To be honest, I don’t really know what 2009 will be about.”
All that said… Puffin are presenting a huge list of interesting books including Charlie Higson’s Fourteen (September) and two new Young Bond books By Royal Command (June), and The Young Bond Dossier (November).
Then there is, in order of release, Jason Bradbury’s Dot Robot (February), Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Rodney Rulez (February), Morris Gleitzman’s Then (February), Anna Perera’s Guantanamo Boy (February), Adam Stower’s and Jeanne Willis Bottoms Up! (March), Sarwat Chadda Devil’s Kiss (May), Suzanne M LaFleur’s Love, Aubrey (June), Kevin Brooks’ Killing God (July), Ross Kemp’s Gang Lands (August), Jay Asher’sThirteen Reasons Why (August), Meg Rosoff’s The Bride’s Farewell (September); Lauren Child’s Who Wants To Be a Poodle? I Don’t (September), Jill Murphy’s Dear Hound (October), Nick Butterworth’s Trixie (October), Eoin Colfer’s And Another Thing (October) and a 40th anniversary of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Giddy at the thought of it.
Polly Curtis reports on new research from ChildWise into children’s digital habits. The report surveys 1,800 children at 92 schools in England - and there is plenty of interesting statics coming from the annual figures released… …84% said they read for pleasure in 2006, 80% in 2007 and 74% this year.
Rosemary Duff, ChildWise’s research director:
It’s so clear that a lot of children are fluent communicators but not in a conventional way. They aren’t readers, they are reliant on spellchecks. They are a generation abandoning print and paper, and the whole integration of technology and the way they glide from one to the other is seamless. They will be surfing the net, talking to a friend and downloading a track simultaneously. 38% of nine- to 14-year-old girls take a games console to bed at night. That is the age group of girls who used to be the most avid readers. Now they have a media hub in their rooms.
There’s nothing new in the statistics but Duff’s response speaks volumes - I’m not convinced that a generation reliant on spellchecking aren’t going to want to read books. Brace yerselves for the sweeping, generalised statements about how publishing could adapt:
The next step for writers should be crossing media - building an online presence and developing projects for books and reading on screen alongside interactive elements - a twitter account for a character, a simple java game for mobiles, a DS sampler with video/sound - the ideas are endless. Next year it’d be great if Duff’s comments read: “surfing the net, talking to a friend, downloading a track and reading a character feed simultaneously”.
January has gotten into full swing and book events around the country are kicking off with bang - Poetry Ireland in association with Trócaire and Amnesty International have organised a non-partisan reading with some very interesting writers, all speaking in response to the situation in Gaza.
The reading has a huge line up including John F Deane, Anne Enright , Hugo Hamilton, Seamus Heaney, Ronit Lentin, Michael Longley, Lia Mills, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Peter Sirr, Colm Tóibín and more.
More info over at Poetry Ireland.
A few interesting pieces after a lazy Sunday scan through the papers…
John Lacey reviews the new Octavian Nothing book from MT Anderson in the Guardian
Andrew Johnson in the UK Independent looks at movies inspired by toys - including Transformers, He-Man, Hot Wheels GI-Joe, Monopoly. There has to be room for a violent, action packed, 5 hour long period drama based on Risk.
Sarah Webb is in the Sunday Tribune and tells Katrina Goldstone about the book that changed her life.
Lucy Mangan keeps up the Book Corner in the Guardian - this week it’s Noel Streatfeild’s Ballet Shoes.
Books for Schools is back in the Times UK and Michael Morpurgo, Amanda Craig and Caroline White are on the campaign trail with plenty of reading suggestions.
And finally, in the Times UK, David Baddiel says goodbye.
Hergé’s famous investigative journalist, Tintin is in the limelight again (previous revelations last year). This time he is being brought out of the closet - dragged kicking and screaming - by Matthew Parris in the Times UK. The vicious rumour is being denied by officianados of the Tintin realm but Parris presents a convincing argument:
The only unambiguously heterosexual male mammal in Tintin’s entire universe. We know that because of Snowy’s tendency to be distracted by lady dogs: a tendency in which he is consistently foiled by his master and by Hergé’s plot. Pity this dog, wretchedly straight and trapped in a ghastly web of gay human males. - Matthew Parris.
Tintin features elsewhere on the interweb today - this time on the Forbidden Planet Blog. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are to appear in the movie adaptation as Tintin’s mustached and bowler hatted friends Thompson and Thomson. Matthew Parris had this to say:
Tintin first meets the flamboyantly moustachioed couple on a cruise in 1932 (Cigars of the Pharaoh), learning to distinguish between them by their different moustaches. The Thomson and Thompson life is a fancy-dress party: the pair love dressing up in exotic costumes and are once mobbed in the street for their Chinese opera costumes (The Blue Lotus). On other occasions they are seen (often with their signature bowlers still on) in striped swimming costumes, and a variety of folkloric garbs, always absurdly over-the-top. There is no evidence that either has ever had an eye for women, let alone a girlfriend.
After less than a day of be-moaning the lack of regular children’s lit features in Irish media Robert Dunbar appears not once, but twice in the Irish Times.
Robert chooses his top 30 Children’s books of 2008 - one of the most comprehensive lists I’ve read this year.
And if that wasn’t enough - Robert appears again, this time reviewing Tales of Beedle the Bard:
A cynical response might see it as yet another marketing ploy, an act of opportunistic book-making, with an eye firmly on the need to provide a seasonal stocking filler. Such cynicism must, however, be tempered by the fact that all proceeds from the sale of the book will go to the Children’s High Level Group, CHLG. - Robert Dunbar.
The lovely (fabulously talented, etc. etc.) Lauren Child was named the Unesco Artist for Peace last weekend - and is embarking on a huge project as part of her role.
The result is My Life Is a Story, a project to document the lives of some of these children and to share their stories with others via a typically bright and cheerful website.
“What appeals to me on the level as a writer,” says Child of her travels, “is that you see the connections between children – the similarities as well as the differences. You realise that they have so much in common, and we’d really like to connect children with each other.”
Are the nominations for UK Children’s laureate still open?? More about the appointment at Michelle Pauli’s interview with Lauren over on the Guardian.
Plenty of links to catch up on after a festive and fun-filled weekend - thanks to the Bookish Brunette and friends.
From the papers last weekend:
Geraldine Brennan rounds up her teenage reads in the Guardian - featuring Malorie Blackman, Anna Godbersen and Jean-Claude Mourlevat.
John Mullan, sticking with the Guardian, reviews JK Rowling’s Tales of Beedle the Bard:
Throats are cut and hearts removed from bodies in Rowling’s tales, but they manage nothing as blithely cruel as the best fairy tales.
Frances Wilson gives Beedle a similar run down in the Sunday Times:
It is hard to imagine how readers who do not know the Harry Potter books would respond to the clubbish feel of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, but Potter fans will not be disappointed. The book is refreshingly original, given how derivative Rowling can be, and surprisingly satisfying
Donald Clarke in the Irish Times has a chat with Robert Pattinson - famous for his role as Cederic Diggory in Harry Potter and known to teenage girls everywhere as Edward Cullen, teenage vampire.
The Sunday Business Post has another round-up of what to read - with the critics choice at the bottom, including Diana Wynne Jones, Astrid Lindgren, LM Montgomery and more Astrid Lindgren.
Nicola Smyth in the Independent on Sunday (UK) has a run down of picture books - wishing you a hairy Christmas.
On the Guardian blogs: Julia Eccleshare lists her choice of gift books this year - including Kate Thompson’s Highway Robbery - and Henry Porter bemoans the changes made to the new Oxford Junior Dictionary.
And to finish up - Nicholas Barber reviews InkHeart in the Independent (UK)
The tangled story boils down to Fraser and co running around a crumbling Italian mountain village, being captured and escaping at regular intervals. But as an energetic family adventure, replete with monsters, magic and dotty grown-ups – chiefly Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent – Inkheart beats both The Golden Compass and Prince Narnia. Children peeved by the postponement of the next Harry Potter film could do a lot worse.
Two links of note this morning from the US - first from the School Library Journal - where Gail Giles gives her opinion on why boys read, or don’t read, as the case may be.
Giles’ premise runs that, above a certain age boys become more influenced by male role models. Follow the hypothesis through and Giles suggests that the number of men working in teaching and in libraries needs to increased in order to encourage young male readers. Not a bad idea and it could work… but…
Somewhere in the middle, Giles slips into a strange Utopian fantasy with this ditty:
Whenever a male enters your home, before you offer him a cup of coffee, make him read to your son. If there’s a live-in male at hand, make sure your son sees him reading books on a regular basis. If you can swing it, get some of the neighborhood men to start a book club. And if you really want to please the reading gods, persuade the local guys to launch a father-and-son book club. - Gail Giles, School Library Journal.
Elsewhere, namely USA Today, Sharon Jayson has an interesting feature on how US teenagers use their mobile phone. A report, commissioned by CosmoGirl.com and the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, has some interesting statistics - though much of it has already been established as a reality in Ireland and the UK (the heaviest mobile telecoms users in the world).
The statistic that 93% of 18-24 year old US teens use mobile phones there is an easily targeted market for books. With the advent of larger screens that are easier to read and more adaptable to personal preferences - publishers could easily develop campaigns to publish or promote books through the devices. An MMS animation or short YouTube video distributed through a mobile could generate some incredible hype.
Remember Nokia’s The Game campaign about 6 years ago? A brilliant interactive online/mobile phone puzzle game that led users to virtual clues and eventually to a prize. That could be adapted easy enough - for the right book that is.
Melvin Burgess’ new book Sara’s Face has gotten the interweb treatment. He has adapted it into a series of 2 minute vlogs (video blogs), just as Sara does in the book. I’ve harped on enough about the great ways writers can deliver their work to fans online - and Penguin seem to betrying anything and everything at the minute.
It’s been a fascinating project, though, and I’m very happy with the results. I see fictional vlogs as a fantastic way for people to create new characters, develop acts and tell stories. I’ll be interested to see how well they catch on the future. - Melvin Burgess
Burgess questions some of the marketing decisions that Penguin advised him on - specifically on the length of the clips - but if this campaign is a success I’d hope that both Burgess and Penguin will continue to learn what users enjoyed and develop it further. More over on Spinebreakers.co.uk.
Vlogging has a nice ring to it. I’m off to figure how to turn on my camera…
Horrid Henry is just like Marmite apparently?! You either love or hate him… The Times UK investigates why:
To put it simply, Horrid Henry splits parents between those who love the books, and those who hate them. Some think that Henry is a bad influence, and that he causes children to behave like him. Others hate the fact that the stories don’t have a moral: Henry doesn’t always get his comeuppance or realise the consequences of his behaviour. One recent thread on mumsnet included the comment, “We do NOT do Horrid Henry, nor will we,” while another parent bemoaned how her son’s behaviour “plummets” when he reads them.
If Henry, Horrid or otherwise, can get reluctant readers reading (it sounds like a line from the 12 days of Christmas) then he works - I’m sure there are thousands of parents/teachers and librarians that would agree. (And it is always a sign of success if you manage to rile someone enough to lobby against your book. Right?)
What Henry gets up to in the books is most of the appeal to kids - would anyone want to read about Perfect Peter instead? (Maybe, but only a fraction of those who read the current incumbent)
I have received letters that are tear-stained with gratitude because parents are so thrilled that their children are reading. That makes me flushed with pleasure….
…He does nothing that every child hasn’t done,” she claims, adding that when people say their child’s behaviour has been affected by the stories, she takes it with a pinch of salt. “Kids have always fought - it goes back to Cain and Abel. Yes, Henry calls his brother names and fights, but he also reflects something very truthful about children’s lives. That’s the humour of family life, which is full of disasters. - Francesca Simon.
For the record I hate Marmite.
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