latest entry by Keith Gray - 'So when did writing stories suddenly become cool?! '
Recommended, with link to video writing masterclass
Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce
Before I Die by Jenny Downham
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd
worth bookmarking
Creature of the Knight by Kate Thompson (Bodley Head)
The Knife that Killed Me by Anthony McGowan (Definitions)
The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner (Orion)
Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz (Walker)
Apache by Tanya Landman (Walker)
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (Walker)
The winner, who will be announced on November 18, will receive a cheque for £2,500 and a trophy
on age-banding, given at this weekend's conference in Cambirdge.
Read every word.
The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington
"Girls just fell at Roald's feet," declares Antoinette Marsh Haskell, the daughter of Dahl's closest American friend. "I think he slept with everybody on the east and west coasts that [was worth] more than $50,000 a year." Drawing on a previously unpublished trove of Dahl letters and other documents, Jennet Conant, an American journalist, has written what may prove the most comprehensive account of Dahl's raucous wartime exploits as a charming RAF attaché.
Random House Children's Books have announced today their acquisition of a major new action-adventure series launching in July 2009. "Think Alex Rider meets Houdini and you have got the flavour of SHADOW ISLAND by Paul Adam," they tell us.
Clare Argar, editor at RHCB, brokered a pre-emptive three book deal with world rights for a significant sum from Simon Trewin at United Agents. SHADOW ISLAND is the first book in the series.
Paul Adam started his writing career as a journalist. He has written ten critically-acclaimed thrillers for an adult audience.
Paul Adam was born in Sheffield and studied law at Nottingham University. After travelling the world chasing news stories, Paul has settled in Sheffield where he lives with his family. He is starting work on the second Max Cassidy book this Autumn.
RHCB are planning to launch this series with a major marketing and publicity campaign focussing on digital strategies to reach children, parents, booksellers and librarians.
ahead of Wednesday night's screening of God On Trial, BBC2 9pm
Waterstone's Writer's Table - 40 books selected by Philip Pullman
A wonderfully eclectic list, as you might imagine. Good to see Buddenbrooks getting a mention. I can remember being just as amazed when I read this book at about the same age as Thomas Mann when he wrote it. As Pullman says: "How could a 25-year-old know so much, and write so perceptively? The first of Mann's great novels, and still astonishing today."
Follow this link to read about how Pullman made his selection:
Sunday Times Children's Book of the Week
The Famous Five's Survival Guide
a book in the spirit of Blyton that combines the nostalgia of The Dangerous Book for Boys with publishing gimmicks that are more sophisticated than Blyton ever knew. NICOLETTE JONES"this new book purports to be by Blyton, but isn't. Pastiching the style of the Famous Five stories, it intersperses a new adventure - in case the existing 21 are not enough"
Guardian Review - when illustrations give too much away
The Toymaker by Jeremy de Quidt reviewed by Philip Ardagh
The story is pacy, exciting and inventive with strong and interesting characters. It's violent in places too, with threats, torture (fingers snapped "like dry twigs"), and death. The hero, Mathias, seems to be constantly sustaining new and painful injuries. The plot is essentially a race to uncover a secret: a battle between good and evil and shades of grey in-between, but the revelation of the secret is really worth waiting for. This is no MacGuffin, here simply to justify the chase. It is a dark and dirty secret at the very heart of what the story is all about. It's a shame, therefore, that in a number of instances the positioning of an illustration gives so much away: pivotal moments can be seen at a glance, rather than when the writer chooses to reveal them in the text...
Three short reviews by Amanda Craig, The Times
Recent Comments